top of page

ABA basic principles – with our modifications

Skill acquisition is important to the overall function of the child in some settings.  It also provides the parents with something to measure as far as visible gains.  Unlike Neurodevelopment where the changes are happening but are not necessarily as obvious.

  • Reinforcement

  • Extinction

  • Habit reversal

  • Token Economy

  • Stimulus Control: Discrimination and Generalization

  • Shaping

  • Task Analysis

  • Respondent Conditioning

  • Shaping

  • Video Modeling

  • Prompt hierarchy and transfer of stimulus control

  • Promoting generalization

  • Antecedent control procedures

  • Prompt hierarchy and transfer of stimulus control

  • Chaining

  • Behavior skills training

  • Behavioral Contracts

  • Fear reduction procedures

  • Cognitive Behavior Modification

  • Self-management

Language development

Communication

One of the most important things in our world is the ability to communicate with others.  There are many aspects of communication we don't tend to think about and many of them need to be taught. 

cute

Important pieces to function well in society.

  

  • Initiating and offering appropriate greetings

  • Increasing eye contact with others when speaking

  • Increasing eye contact when others are talking

  • Perspective taking

  • Responding to on-topic conversational exchanges chosen by others

  • Transitioning to different topics of conversation

  • Initiating conversations and entering into a conversation

  • Maintaining conversations for increasing periods of time

  • Maintaining conversations with the opposite sex

  • Terminating conversations with friends

  • Powerful strategies for addressing bullying/rumors 

  • Discriminating between comical vs. serious language

  • Discriminating between formal vs. informal language

  • Discriminating between figurative vs. literal language

  • Sharing jokes and the role of humor across daily activities

  • Initiating and offering socially appropriate goodbyes

  • Socialization

  • How to choose friends

  • How not to be a conversation hog

  • What to do during a get-together

  • Applying serious vs. comical language and situations in context

  • Discriminating and identifying the emotions of others

  • Responding to the emotions of others 

  • Dispute resolution and how to deal with hurt feelings

  • Accepting the perspectives of others 

  • Sharing feelings and expressing empathy 

  • Identifying social cues

  • Responding to social cues

  • Permitting others to speak in the absence of interrupting

  • Initiating individual social cues

  • Presenting active listening skills

  • Tolerating the opinions of friends and agreeing to disagree with the opinions of friends

  • Sharing an opinion across contextually relevant situations

  • Initiating social questions with friends and peers

  • Discriminating people we know as acquaintances from people we do not know

  • Discriminating and responding to appropriate and/or inappropriate behaviors of strangers, acquaintances, peers, friends and family

  • Maintaining a social calendar, and how to initiate a get together

  • Extending and responding to social invitations

  • Calling friends, peers, elders, and family by name

  • Initiating and responding to phone calls

  • Increase eye contact when responding to directives

  • Sharing opinions with Functional Communication Training

  • Socialization and Maintaining Friendships


Interpreting the body language of others

  • Identifying social cues during ongoing conversations

  • Responding to social cues during ongoing conversations

  • Initiating individual social cues to others during ongoing conversations

  • Permitting others to speak without interrupting

  • Using and presenting active listening skills

  • Tolerating the opinions of friends

  • Sharing an opinion across contextually relevant situations

  • Presenting enthusiasm when agreeing or disagreeing with the opinion of a friend

  • Terminating conversations and walking away from friends

  • Initiating social questions with friends and others

  • Discriminating people we know from people acquaintances from people we do not know

  • Discriminating and responding to appropriate and/or inappropriate behaviors of strangers, acquaintances, peers, friends and family

  • Maintaining a social calendar

  • Extending and responding to social invitations

  • Calling friends, peers, elders and family by name

  • Initiating and responding to phone calls in contextually relevant situations across friends, peers, parents and other persons of authority

  • Initiating and responding to text messages in contextually relevant situations across friends, peers, parents and other persons of authority

Haley

Play Skills

Play Skills don't often come naturally.  Here are some of the pieces we think are important in being successful in a play setting.

  • Asking others to play and/or join an activity

  • Permitting others go first

  • Taking turns

  • Engaging in functional play sequences with others

  • Engaging in imaginary or symbolic pretend play sequences with others

  • Entering into pretend play

  • Maintaining reciprocal play for up to 20 minutes

  • Following the rules of a game

  • Playing a game someone else has chosen

  • Joining play in progress

  • Introducing oneself to peers

  • Try a novel game or activity

  • Tolerating losing a game

  • Developing peer relationships

  • Sustaining peer relationships

  • Joining and sustaining group activities

  • Learning unspoken, contextually relevant social rules

  • Contributing and helping others while increasing community involvement

  • Addressing a social audience and maintaining affect to match the age, status, and culturally relevant situations for the audience members

  • Addressing individualized social fears

  • Presenting appropriate behavior (e.g. birthdays, groups, clubs, celebrations)

  • Presenting and following skills with friends and leading skills with friends

  • Parent Training

  • Providing social opportunities in the home and community

  • Learning modified ABA methodology and principles of reinforcement

  • Participating in role-plays as a priming technique

  • Fostering social inclusion 

  • Facilitating play 

  • Participating in role plays as a priming technique, and side coaching during homework activities

  • Fostering social inclusion and lasting healthy friendships

  • Finding appropriate sources of friends and facilitating get togethers.

fun

PLAY, PLAY, PLAY AND MORE PLAY!!

AND......Sometimes

you might even play dress up with a real

pet cat!!

meow

Learning Challenges and Their Roots in Neurological Organization

It’s noted that nearly 40% of school-age children face learning-related difficulties, many of whom are labeled with learning disorders or disabilities. The underlying cause of these difficulties is often attributed to a disorganized nervous system. This disorganization in the nervous system reflects a lack of neurological efficiency, which can manifest as a lack of function in learning.

  • Neurological disorganization: When the brain and nervous system are not functioning efficiently, it can lead to learning difficulties. These inefficiencies are not necessarily permanent but can be corrected with the right interventions.

  • Symptoms of disorganization: The learning difficulties children experience are symptoms of the disorganized neurological state rather than a fundamental flaw in the child’s abilities. When the nervous system is reorganized and functioning more efficiently, the symptoms tend to fade as the child’s development progresses.

The Role of Stimulation in Development

Developmental changes in children, especially those with learning challenges, can be accomplished through appropriate stimulation. However, this stimulation must meet certain criteria to be effective:

  • High intensity: The stimulation needs to be engaging and focused to have an impact. Intense stimulation helps the nervous system reorganize more quickly.

  • High frequency: The stimulation should be provided often enough to reinforce neural connections and encourage sustained progress.

  • Short duration: Stimulation should be brief but frequent, allowing the child to absorb the new information without becoming overwhelmed. Prolonged periods of teaching can lead to mental fatigue, hindering the learning process rather than helping.

Avoiding Redundancy in Teaching

We advise against spending too much time re-teaching previously learned material. Repetition is important, but it should be focused on retention rather than relearning the same concepts over and over again.

  • Learning builds on learning: New information should be introduced in a way that builds upon what the child already knows. This cumulative approach to learning helps solidify previous concepts while making room for new ones.

  • The emphasis is on progression, not repetition for the sake of repetition. The goal is to help the child advance to new, more complex concepts without getting bogged down by old ones that have already been mastered.

The Parent/Child Relationship

The parent-child relationship is highlighted as the most important element in a child’s development. The way a parent interacts with their child—especially during times of learning challenges—can significantly influence the child’s emotional well-being and developmental progress.

  • Supportive, nurturing relationships: A strong, positive connection between the parent and child provides the emotional support necessary for the child to take risks, make mistakes, and ultimately learn and grow.

  • Parental involvement: Parents play a critical role not only in providing emotional support but also in ensuring the child receives the right kinds of stimulation and interventions. A child’s development is influenced heavily by the parent’s understanding of the child’s needs and the strategies they use to support their learning.

Key Takeaways:

  1. Neurological disorganization is often the root cause of learning challenges, not the child’s inherent inability to learn.

  2. Appropriate stimulation (high intensity, frequency, and short duration) can help improve neurological organization and facilitate development.

  3. Learning should be progressive, building on previously acquired knowledge rather than simply repeating the same information.

  4. The parent-child relationship is foundational to a child’s growth and development, influencing not just emotional support but also learning outcomes.

Applying This Framework:

  • Practical Learning Approach: Teachers and parents should focus on targeted, brief interventions that emphasize new learning rather than endless repetition of mastered content. This encourages brain growth and keeps the child engaged.

  • Empowering Parents: Helping parents understand the importance of their role in their child’s development can lead to a more holistic approach to education, where emotional and neurological needs are both addressed.

  • Neurodevelopmental Interventions: The focus on reorganizing the nervous system through effective stimulation suggests that therapies or interventions targeting neurological development—such as neurofeedback, sensory integration therapies, or developmental exercises—could be extremely beneficial for children with learning challenges.

Parent Participation and Social Coaching

Providing social opportunities in the home and community 
Learning our modified ABA methodology, Neurodevelopmental strategies/exercise and principles of appropriate reinforcement.

Back to Top
bottom of page