Four Benefits of ABA Therapy

Are you trying to understand the benefits of Applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy for your child?  You may have read that ABA is an ‘evidence-based treatment’.  So what does this mean, and how can it help?  According to the US Surgeon General and the American Psychological Association, ABA has passed tests demonstrating its usefulness, quality, and effectiveness.  When working with individuals with ASD, programming changes and decisions are based on data and allows for behavior analysts to measure client’s improvements.   

So now that we know ABA has been rigorously tested, what positive impact can it have on my child?  ABA has been shown to improve social and communication skills, promote independence, reduce challenging behaviors, and improve broader family function.  Each client requires an individualized approach to ABA and outcomes vary accordingly. 

1. Develop Social Communication Skills

The diagnostic criteria for Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) includes delays in the areas of social communication.  Social communication skills form the basis of our interactions with others and unlock our ability to make meaningful connections with people.  Social communication refers not just to one’s ability to talk, but how one interacts with others. 

Play is a large component of social interaction.  As children grow, development and expectations for social skills evolve.  Play as a space for interaction decreases while reciprocity of conversation and understanding unwritten rules increases.  These ever-changing expectations can make generalization and maintenance of social skills challenging for individuals with ASD as they continue to develop.  The principles of ABA have been found effective in teaching social skills, which can provide individuals with autism the opportunity to successfully interact with peers.  

ABA has displayed a long history of effectiveness in increasing communication skills, as a common goal is to increase one’s ability to express themselves, both verbally and non-verbally.  Improved communication can decrease stress and reduce challenging behaviors as well as increase engagement, learning, and satisfaction.  Social and communication skill improvement can lead to deep friendships with others, which has been shown to increase one’s happiness and mental health.

2. Independence

Executive functions can be thought of as the CEO of our brains.  Our executive functions are in charge of our working memory, self-monitoring, ability to plan and prioritize, task initiation, organization, impulse control, emotional control, and flexibility in thinking.  There are many components of daily living that can be challenging for individuals with autism.  These may include, but are not limited to, eating independently, toileting, brushing teeth, picking out appropriate clothes, or getting ready in the morning.  

ABA has proven to be effective for teaching individuals these types of skills that are foundational to living independently.  One of the goals of ABA is to generalize skills so they are mastered and able to be relied upon in everyday life rather than only during treatment.  These skills help foster the skills necessary for self-reliance and autonomy into adulthood.

3. Reduce Challenging Behaviors

An individual engaging in challenging behaviors can be difficult for anyone to handle.  Whether the behavior is physical (both to oneself and others) or verbal, it can have a detrimental impact on both the child and his family.  ABA uses evidence-based principles to reduce challenging behaviors and introduce new behaviors to replace them.  

ABA examines what happens right before a challenging behavior occurs to understand why a behavior is happening.  By understanding the triggers to certain behaviors, ABA is able to anticipate a certain behavior before it occurs.  It then introduces consequence-based interventions to help produce positive behaviors.  Concurrently, new strategies are used to teach replacement behaviors.  ABA aims to empirically reduce the frequency and intensity of challenging behaviors. 

4. Family Support

ABA helps support both the child undergoing therapy as well as parents develop the skills to more appropriately respond and reinforce their child’s growth and development.  As an individual with ASD is able to increase their independence and communication,  the family is able to spend more time enjoying being together.  

The child’s therapist will conduct frequent (weekly or bi-weekly) sessions to train parents on the components of their child’s treatment plan and parent derived goals for themselves.  This provides parents a deeper understanding of their child and support in providing more effective responses to his or her behavior.  Parents are therefore able to feel more comfortable in responding to their child when the therapist is not there.  

Resources

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA).  Autism Speaks

Four Benefits of Applied Behavior Analysis Therapy When Treating Children With Autism. University of Cincinnati Online

About Behavior Analysis.  Behavior Analyst Certification Board

Application of ABA Principles to General Communication Instruction.  Ogletree, B.T., Oren, T.