Every parent wants the best for their children, especially when they have to cater to unexpected challenges such as developmental disabilities. According to several studies, 1 in 36 children has Autism. It is an alarming number to take the needful knowledge for granted.
Living a life with an autistic life, many parents come across the Applied Behavioral Analysis approach through their child’s care or a trusted loved one. This approach has seven dimensions backed by science for children with autism.
These seven dimensions come together and form the practice of ABA that you must know if a loved one has autism. Keep on reading to find out more.
- Applied
According to the ABA approach, a practical application of strategies can help autistic children improve social behaviors significantly. The applied dimension of ABA focuses on addressing meaningful behaviors in an autistic person’s daily life.
These Behaviors include communication, self-love, academics, and so on. In addition, the applied dimension also improves functional play skills, leading to an application of these skills with other children in social spaces such as the playground or schools.
The applied dimension also focuses on improving the lives of learners. By targeting adaptive, academic, social, and recreational areas, the improvement in an individual’s life becomes evident through appropriate behaviors and reactions.
- Behavioral
Behavior says a lot about someone’s personal social abilities. The ABA approach focuses on making behaviors observable and measurable. It is seen as units that can be translated into conclusive data to show the position of a participant on the ABA journey.
Keep in mind that measurable behaviors are the actions that are expected of a participant and not what they may feel like doing at the moment. Some measurable behaviors include talking, crying, hitting, responding to social cues, and the list goes on.
Since all actions are translated into data, the results of the behavioral approach can help track the learner’s progress. It can also help determine the next steps that must be taken on the journey to improve the participant’s life.
- Analytic
All ABA dimensions are backed by science and research. They all come with analyzable skills to make an effective and timely impact on the subject’s life. This measurable data can help researchers use data and information to determine further goals for a participant.
The analytic approach of ABA also ensures that all changes and choices made in the subject’s life are educated and research-based. It can also help set better goals and see effective improvement for subjects of the Applied Behavioral Analysis approach.
This approach also analyzes connections between environmental and behavioral changes in ABA patients, as none of the conclusions are based on subjectivity. The experts can monitor the correlation and decrease future challenging behaviors.
- Technological
The most important thing to keep in mind while enrolling a loved one in the ABA approach is that nothing is based on subjectivity. It all revolves around research, scientific data, and reliable information to draw conclusions to determine the subject’s future journey.
These processes are described technologically to be understood by all experts involved, especially the interventionist. Since these results are objective in nature, they can be comprehended by several practitioners simultaneously without the risk of confusion.
Any procedure that may look To be written in a confusing or misleading manner cannot be considered technological. The effectiveness of data is ensured across the board for every practitioner to come up with the same intervention plan. This way, the learner neither gets confused or frustrated.
- Conceptually Systematic
This dimension of ABA focuses on the use of research-backed techniques by all interventionists. They have set the basis for a teaching method to ensure consistency and measurable results. These bases are set through the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) as the primary source. Here are some common methods used in ABA.
- Positive Reinforcement to strengthen a certain behavior
- Punishment to reduce the repetition of a behavior
- Prompting to encourage a child for the right response.
- Modeling in real life or through media for encouragement
- Extinction to teach the learner to manage without the reward
A conceptually systematic approach ensures that practitioners always implement evidence-based teaching methods and strategies to find the needed results. They can always refer to the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) to ensure that every step is conceptually systematic.
- Effective
The effective intervention is yet another dimension of the ABA frequently adapted by practitioners. It can show evident results in improving the behavioral aspect of the patient’s personality. By reducing the challenging behavior for the patient, the learner is never blamed for ineffective outcomes.
The failure of an intervention simply means that the approach taken has not been effective and must be reevaluated to get the desired outcomes. If all interventions fail to yield fruitful results, the treatment plan is continued to start over.
After all, the intervention techniques must be effective and show evidence of improving the moods and behavior of the subject. The measurable data makes it possible for interventionists to determine if a method is effective or ineffective for a patient.
- Generality
Any sustainable behavior over time is considered to be adept to generality. This means that the learned behavior can be implemented in several settings to allow subjects to behave appropriately. The goal of generality is to ensure that these behaviors last long-term, even after the ABA intervention is over.
It is agreed that a patient must be able to reduce challenging behaviors and circumstances in other social places, such as their home, work, or school, outside the clinical setting. These methods may also include some interventions that may have needed to be a direct consequence of the intervention.
Remember that generalization can be different for everyone involved in the program. Stimuli and skills are often used to teach the patients in different settings. The goal of the ABA approach is to make the result long-lasting to ensure that it can benefit the patients even outside the clinical settings.