ABA Therapy: Cracking the Code to Brighter Futures for Kids with Autism

Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) therapy is a scientific approach that helps children with autism learn and develop skills to improve their behaviours. ABA therapy helps kids acquire skills that they will use for the rest of their lives. It is the best solution for children to become more self-sufficient and prepare themselves for the outer environment.

According to Dr. Himani Narula Khanna, a developmental behavioural paediatrician, adolescent mental health expert, and co-founder of Continua Kids, ABA therapy is a study of the connection between a child’s behaviour and their environment.

“Therapists watch how environmental factors affect behaviour, and they design ways to promote positive actions while gently removing those that may be difficult. This thoughtful approach helps create a nurturing path towards progress when each intervention is tailored to the child’s strengths and areas for growth,” she says.

Dr. Khanna says that some of the basic components of ABA therapy are interdependent and work to enhance the child's development.

Discrete Trial Training (DTT): It is a technique in which skills are broken down into steps that can be learnt systematically. With repetition and positive reinforcement, children learn to complete complex tasks, bolstering confidence and competence.

Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT): PRT focuses on crucial areas of a child's development, such as motivation and responsiveness to multiple cues. PRT addresses these critical elements to promote vast affirmative changes in communication, social interactions, and behaviour.

Natural Environment Training (NET): This is learning in the child's everyday surroundings. Generalisation of skills is better achieved when teaching moments are incorporated into routine activities, increasing the likelihood that what children have learnt can be applied in real-world contexts.

Functional Behaviour Assessment (FBA): FBA explores the causes of particular behaviours. When we know the purpose that behavior serves, therapists can work to alleviate and change that action compassionately.

ABC Model: The ABC model allows you to know why something behaves the way it does through the three following important steps.

Antecedent: What usually takes place at the start of each incident? This process marks the initial point where an outside element stimulates particular conduct.

Behaviour: The B element represents the activity. The person reacts by performing specific actions such as talking, sobbing, and repeating their actions.

Consequence: The result of behavior forms the third step in this model. After witnessing the behaviour, someone reacts in a particular way, including interaction response or non-intervention. The results of these reactions either strengthen or weaken that behaviour as time passes.

The most significant benefit of ABA therapy is its highly individualized framework. “Therapists know that every child with autism is not the same in the sense that each has their strengths and defects in particular and creates a program uniquely for each child,” Dr. Khanna says.

Nevertheless, she adds, it is necessary because it enables the development of crucial skills and behaviours that will be functional and probably related to the child’s daily routine. So that children have the potential to reach their fullest capabilities, ABA therapy helps focus on which areas need the most help.

“ABA therapy is based on the gentle use of positive reinforcement. By granting recognition to good behaviors, children are doing and learning to do the right things and acquire good habits and skills,” she says. This supporter can foster an atmosphere that values the children and provides them with the motivation to grow.

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