Before December of last year, I did not really know much about Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy. I had not considered whether this type of therapy would benefit my children. I was becoming increasingly concerned about the progress my boys had made over the past year. One of my son’s was almost non-verbal, only using about five words total. Those five words were an achievement in and of itself, but we seemed to be at a standstill. When one of my children’s therapists suggested I try to get my family into a two-week long, 80 hour ABA workshop, I jumped at the chance. I have always been willing to explore as many types of therapy or testing that were available to me. I figured it would not hurt to try. This turned out to be one of the best decisions I ever made.

ABA is a type of behavioral therapy that utilizes basic behavioral principles such as, positive reinforcement; prompting; shaping and generalization, that directly impacts the child’s development of language, socialization, and reduction of maladaptive behaviors. This methodology uses techniques such as discrete trial training and systematic data collection to guide treatment planning. ABA is a safe and well-researched evidence based approach to working with children. Many young children who receive early intensive behavior intervention are able to develop skills that allow them to independently participate in a mainstream school setting. Providing one therapy intensively, rather than multiple therapies less intensively ensures consistency across home and community settings. Families benefit from learning strategies for facilitating their child’s use of newly acquired skills as well as for reducing challenging behaviors. (Behavior Therapy Solutions of MN)

The program that we attended also provided parent workshops to help us learn more about our children’s behavior and help us understand. These workshops also taught us how to modify our own behaviors, such as how we would react to or discipline our children. In the beginning, the therapists observed how we normally interacted together and documented certain behaviors like the number of times my son would get out of the chair during a 20 minute session. We then observed the therapists working with our children to see the strategies implemented. It was an eye opening experience to see that our children were not just “out of control”, but were reacting the way they did because of how we communicated with them. I think that addressing how we interacted as a family was the key difference in this program. Most of the therapy that the boys received over the years had been focused on hitting certain benchmarks. I don’t think there was enough attention on family dynamics and environment and the role that they play in the behaviors our children exhibit.

As we progressed through the program, we saw rapid improvement. By the third day, my almost non-verbal son began trying to sound out more words. By the end of the first week, he had doubled the number of words he could use. I was amazed at how effective the ABA program was. We were also lucky that we were able to get our children into this program at two and a half years old. The other children ranged in age from 7-10. Research indicates that children that start at an earlier age have better results. We were told by the other parents and the therapists that getting an earlier start will more likely set them up to be more successful  in their development.

The organization Autism Speaks supports the use of ABA therapy as a treatment for Autism. “Today, ABA is widely recognized as a safe and effective treatment for autism. It has been endorsed by a number of state and federal agencies, including the U.S. Surgeon General and the New York State Department of Health. Over the last decade, the nation has seen a particularly dramatic increase in the use of ABA to help persons with autism live happy and productive lives. In particular, ABA principles and techniques can foster basic skills such as looking, listening and imitating, as well as complex skills such as reading, conversing and understanding another person’s perspective. “ (http://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/treatment/applied-behavior-analysis-aba)

Since the completion of the workshop in December, both of my children have dramatically improved behaviorally, verbally, and socially. Therapists and teachers that have worked with the boys for months or years are amazed at their progress. Of course, there is not one magic treatment that will work for everybody, but I can officially sing the praises of ABA therapy.