could somebody explain ABA to me please

[bubblagirl]

i see this mentioned alot and hav eno idea at all what its about wandering if my ds would benefit more from this so if anyone has time to give me run down that would be great need to log off now but will check back in morning

so i thank you for your time in advance also any positive stories would be great

just trying to find out who's children have benefited from this so if ds is similar how much more he could get from this than he is already

i see people mention it alot and have no idea but wandering if this could be what may help ds more as his starting school sept and want to do whatever i can to help him come along more

well i just finally found it on google i was getting book clubs and amateur boxing but just found it lol

It is difficult to sum up quickly, but ABA (applied behavioural analysis) basically looks at rewarding good, desirable behaviours (eg speech) and discouraging (through aversive techniques like time-outs) bad/anti-social behaviours, like aggression. There's oads of emphasis on rewards and excited praise for good behaviour, and instant time-out for bad behaviours, or sometimes ignoring attention-seeking behaviours as that way the child learns that it won't get the attention, so stops the behaviour. It's based on the psychology that you do certain things because they get you a good result, and you stop doing others because you learn that they get you a bad result. If you look at it from say a husband/partner's point of view - he learns not to say "you look fat in that dress" as it gets him a bad result, eg wife gets in a mood and shouts at him. So next time, behaviourally, he retrains himself to say how thin she looks in every dress - bingo, he gets a good result and therefore will always repeat that behaviour. Oh dear, that is probably a crap explanation but there will be others along who can describe it better Bubbla and it's been a long day!

hi bubblagirl!

sorry taking so long to reply, i'm on about 3 other sites with regard to ABA at same time!

what has made me so interested in it is reading the book "LET ME HEAR YOUR VOICE" BY Catherine Maurice.

not only is it very inspiring, but it gives a good overview of ABA. i'd really recommend it.

That's pretty good Sick!

Pills, that is a great book indeed but it doesn't get nearly deeply enough into nitty gritty of ABA.

Bubblagirl, I can't explain in words what ABA is, but I have observed what the therapists do with DS1. They use toys that DS1 likes, get him to do something for 10-15 minutes at a time (it used to be only couple of minutes before as he was not interested in doing things much, at least not with them). They then let him do some free play and move onto another thing. They have a programme of 23, although DS1 does not need or can't go through all of them in one session. He gets the reward when he completes a task required by the therapist. They teach him what to say if requesting something, makes him say it properly. Although he is learning, because they make it fun with some jumping, bouncing etc, he seems to like it. Behaviour wise I think it teaches that if he is good, he gets to play with the toy he wants, otherwise not. It looks so simple when they do it, but when I tried, it did not work out that well. I don't know if it will have any effect on your DS's atypical speech development (may be moondog can advise you on that), but it has worked brilliantly with my DS1 as he was very difficult behaviour wise, and used to have huge meltdowns if things did not go his way. Now he seems to understand he has to wait, and not always he is going to get it his way. He is HFA and hasn't got any learning difficulties as far as we can tell, so it is more to do with speech delay and behaviour with him. He still can't have conversation though, but he has only started his therapy in last week of January this year.

Pipin, that book looks great.
I've orderdd it-should be helpful in helping me to help others understand it.
There's a lot to learn-it's only just really coming together for me after 3 years.

thanks everyone will look into this further

That's interesting, I thought that the ABA, from people's discussions, might be as in "A-B-A" - A being the 'carer', B being the child. In other words, encouraging a response to input by the carer, from the child, reinforced by a positive reaction from the carer.

It sounds like it is that, but obviously much more intricate. It sounds great.

Is it only useful for children with ASD? Could a child like DD with other neurological condition benefit?

Oh, and is it a 'full-time' thing, or could you use principles effectively, or do a small amount of ABA in a day/week?