ABCs of Behavior: ABA and Verbal Behavior Techniques

Summary

The topic of today’s reading was the ABCs of Behavior. For one of the assigned readings, Starting with ABA, Dr. Lovaas studied a group of 59 children with autism and examined the best ways for them to learn. He discovered that 19 of the children who received 40 hours a week of ABA therapy had the best outcomes, and within that group, a 47% became indistinguishable from their typical peers by first grade. Therefore, if ABA teaching techniques were used intensively during the formative years, fewer children required services after the first grade, through adulthood. Also this reading mentioned another form of ABA, the Verbal Behavior (VB) approach, this builds on all the ABA research but also enhances a child’s ability to learn functional language. VB adds an Applied Behavior Analysis approach to teach all skills, it is a fairly new and popular approach that has actually emerged from the basic teachings of ABA. But, it was not until 1998 that parents of children with autism got interested in the VB approach, and the Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills (ABLLS). The ABLLS is a great tool for a consultant trained in the VB approach, but for a parent without any background in ABA, it can be very overwhelming. Nonetheless, the popularity of this book among parents led to a significant shift to the discrete-trial teaching (DTT) or Lovaas approach towards VB. In DTT, the therapist presents a demand, gets a response, and then gives a consequence (a reward or punishment). The VB works on the same principles of demands, responses and consequences, but the approach is different. As appeared on the second reading, The ABCs of ABA, every behavior contains three parts: the antecedent (A), which is what happens just...

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... mean, a child with autism still having feelings as any other person and therefore can perceive the parent pressure. What if this same pressure blocks them and do not allow them to show any progress? I recognize that is good that a parent is involve in the child’s treatment, but I also believe that it is extremely important that the parent or care giver be under the supervision of a certified behavior analyst at all time instead of leaving this option as a choice as I could notice throughout the reading.

Discussion Questions

1. How to know where to draw the line between changing the child’s problem behavior vs invading the child personal space?

2. How to discern if the parent is helping the child to complete a task, or is simply completing the tasks by itself? Making that the child gets used to the help and later do not know how to complete the task by itself.