What is Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)?
This is a really oversimplified description of a few of the basics from Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). I am trying to be user-friendly to families who might not be familiar with the field. For more detail and greater technical accuracy, please refer to the "links" page.
In the most fundamental sense, a practitioner of ABA looks at a skill and breaks it down into the smallest manageable steps. Each step is taught directly to the child, linked together, and generalized to different settings.
When looking at behaviors such as chronic biting, the behaviorist is very interested in the events that led up to the biting (antecedent) and what happened after the child bit someone (consequence). The principle states that if the child continues to bite, the behavior is working for him (he is being reinforced).
"If a child cannot learn in the way we teach…we must teach in the way he can learn.”
- Ivar Lovaas
What is the best method for teaching children with autism and/or other related learning differences?
For years I have been investigating different approaches to teaching children with atypical learning profiles. What has always bothered me, however, is how people who advocate for one approach will often do so to the exclusion of other approaches. An extraordinary amount of effort by researchers, clinicians, and families has been put forth to try to solve this puzzle. If there is one thing that we have learned so far, it is that different people have different needs in different areas. If we are going to continue to make progress, we need to argue less and collaborate more.
Any intervention should be able to demonstrate its effectiveness so valuable time and resources are not wasted. Dr. James Ball put it very well when he suggests in his book Early Intervention and Autism, that families should look for treatments that are "evidence-based" versus strictly "research-based". What that means is that there should be an objective way to measure your child's progress in your program. If something has been demonstrated by objective means to be working for your child, why should you care whether or not it worked for other kids in a research group?
You have a degree in Child Development, but you use methods from ABA?
Yes, I do. I use techniques from many different disciplines and philosophies. My goal is to figure out exactly what your child needs and try to deliver instruction by whatever method is most effective.
Do you work with a particular age group?
My area of expertise is in "Early Childhood" which I define as children in Kindergarten or younger. That being said, I can't seem to let go of my "alumni", so as they get older my experience base has grown with them. Currently, my oldest client is eight years old.
Do you process insurance payments?
At this time my operations are pretty small scale and I am not a "provider" for any insurance company. You may, however, be able to apply for reimbursement for my services if your employer provides a flexible spending account.