ABA Resource for Parents

"ABA will turn my child into a robot."

 

The professionals in the field of ABA that l've spoken with don't understand where this myth originated from. The only component of my son's ABA program that came close to resembling robotic speech, is when he was initially learning language. As an example, to teach him the concept of "why", the therapists in the program would ask him why based questions (approximately 40 in total); i.e. "why do birds have wings?". Initially his responses to these questions were the same each time, memorized, scripted, "so they can fly" for example. This is expected initially. The next step in the sequence for this portion of the ABA program was that he'd then generalize the concept of "why" and generate his own why questions. It's this generalization phase of a program that's the critical piece. Within a few weeks he began generating his first why questions in his own natural way, questions such as "why is the moon white?", "what's that for?" while pointing to an opening in the ceiling and questions of that nature. We had no idea that so much curiosity was going on inside his little head! Ok, we did suspect, but now he was showing us. 

 

One possible source of the robot myth could be rooted in the inability of inexperienced treatment providers to generalize the child's skills when they're away from the structured teaching environment. In other words, the child can present scripted speech responses at the table where they're being taught, but the treatment provider doesn't work on generalization of these skills, so the child does not present these same language skills anywhere else in daily life.

 

"ABA is an outdated treatment."

 

ABA based treatments are the only treatments with a large amount of credible scientific data available displaying the results of their effectiveness. In fact, even prior to the Affordable Care Act, many states in the US had recognized the effectiveness of ABA and begun enacting legislation that required insurance providers in their state to cover a large portion of the costs of an ABA program.   

 

"I don't want my kid eating all that candy."

 

It's a myth that ABA requires that children are given tons of sweets for rewarding behaviors. One of the core premises of ABA is that a child performs a task in a desirable way, and is then rewarded for it. The reward can be anything that the child deems as rewarding. This can be anything from a Goldfish cracker, to Apple Juice, to being thrown up into the air, tickles, time with a favorite toy or playing a game on an iPad for example. My own son for example was given a reward of watching a few minutes of the movie "Spiderman" on a portable DVD player in the early stages of his ABA Treatment. The reward given comes down to the individual child and what can motivate them to learn.

 

"ABA will take his childhood away."

 

To the contrary, ABA has given my son a childhood. Before ABA, my son had very limited language and socially would not respond to the simplest social initiations of other children such as responding to "hi". In year three of treatment he was enjoying fun play dates with other children, interacting well with them, being invited to birthday parties and didn't look out of sorts when amongst his peers in his typical education classroom and on the playground. Is he cured of Autism? No child ever is, but he went from a frustrated child unable to communicate before treatment, to a pleasant mannered child enjoying his childhood within the course of a few years. I think it's important to note, that a credible ABA program incorporates quite a lot of play into the sessions. When implemented properly, ABA is fun and enjoyable for the child.

 

"ABA is all sitting at a table."

 

Initially much of ABA is carried out at a table, but as soon as the child can be taught effectively away from the table, it's carried out in all sorts of different locations; various rooms of the house, in the back yard, in the community in some cases, at the park for example. Reputable ABA providers typically want to move away from the table for portions of the sessions as this helps to contribute to the generalization of the child's skills.

 

"ABA skills are only present at the table."

 

If an ABA provider is inexperienced and their program fails to move the child to different locations when teaching, in order to generalize the child's skills, this pitfall can be present. My son's current treatment provider sees many children come to them that exhibit these types of table only skills, in situations where their previous ABA provider hadn't properly worked on generalizing the child's skills.

 

"ABA uses aversive techniques to teach a child."

 

ABA works off the premise of positive reinforcement or the absence of it. No ABA type treatments have leveraged aversive techniques since the 1970s.

 

"ABA can only help children under the age of 5."

 

The most optimal gains are achieved when a child begins treatment as a toddler. However, ABA can help people of all ages.

 

 

"The goal of ABA is to reduce problem behaviors."

 

ABA has multiple goals, including the teaching of or improving upon the quality of language, socialization, and in the later stages academics. If problem behaviors are present in a child, this would be one aspect of the child's overall program that would be worked on.