Can ABA Therapy help my child?

If you’re concerned that your child has difficulty communicating with others, learning new skills, or has frequent and disruptive temper tantrums or displays aggressive behavior, ABA (Applied Behavioral Analysis), may be helpful. ABA-based therapies are evidence-based and are considered best practices as they have been shown in controlled studies to be effective in improving language and communication skills, attention, social interactions, and academic performance.

ABA is widely used in schools and clinics for children with autism spectrum disorder, and may include a number of different techniques. Examples of ABA include Discrete Trial Training (DTT), Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI), Pivotal Response Training (PRT), and Verbal Behavior Intervention (VBI). Most ABA treatments are highly structured with the goal to bring about and reinforce meaningful behavior change. The child’s progress is tracked and measured in each intervention.

Determining the most effective ABA therapy depends on the age of the child and his/her unique needs. A trained ABA therapist provides positive strategies for changing the child’s responses and behaviors, rewarding and reinforcing desirable behaviors and decreasing undesirable ones. For example, in Discrete Trial Training (DTT), a skill such as identifying different colors is broken down into several steps. The child receives positive reinforcement (such as praise or a token reward) for each correct answer, and gradually builds up to the next level of learning. 

ABA therapy is continually evaluated for its effectiveness. If the child shows a lack of progress, other strategies are used. For children with autism, research supports intensive one-on-one ABA interventions, with 25 – 40 hours recommended per week with a trained therapist. Ideally a parent or caregiver can be taught ABA principles to reinforce the child’s positive behaviors at home. This level of intensive treatment, which may be recommended for two or more years, is sometimes provided in schools with ABA-based classes. ABA is often covered at some level by schools, private insurance, or Medicaid.