Is ABA Therapy Effective? Everything You Need to Know

The proportion of children in the population who are mentally challenged is close to 3 percent globally. Being a parent or a guardian to a child who does not find it easy to apply cognitive skills to respond to their environment, could be difficult.

However, one should not give up. There are ways to help your child develop essential social skills to improve their behaviour.

Today, we’ll speak about a therapy that is often talked about for working with mentally challenged kids. It’s called Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) therapy. We’ve specially designed this guide to help you know what exactly ABA therapy is, its benefits, risks, costs, and how it works.

What is ABA Therapy?

Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) Therapy has been regarded as an effective treatment for children with autistic disorder. Even though it is not a permanent cure for autism, it could help your child to develop a set of skills to improve their social behaviour.

The ABA technique operates with an in-depth analysis of the behaviour of an individual. Behaviour analysts would often examine a child to know what is the underlying cause for a particular behaviour and what could be done to change it with the help of an effective and healthy behavioural intervention.

The ABA therapy technique also takes a flexible approach provided that each individual is distinct and needs a separate plan for behavioural therapy.

The ABA Therapy and the Reinforcement Theory

If you want to learn how the ABA therapy works, you may need to revisit the Reinforcement Theory of Behaviour. Do you remember how the reinforcement theory operates?

The reinforcement theory uses a system of rewards and punishments to enforce desired behaviour and control unwanted behaviour by awarding punishments to the subject. The Reinforcement theory seems effective as a behavioural intervention.

Similarly, ABA therapy applies to the positive aspect of the Reinforcement Theory. It works like this. Suppose, you promised your kid an ice-cream bar if they would read from a book every day.

The thought of the ice-cream may tempt the kid to read the book. Since ice-cream is the reward, in this case, you could choose to not reward your child, if they don’t read the book.

According to the ABA therapy technique, the negative aspect of Reinforcement Theory hardly works and has been rendered ineffective. So, rewards and privileges are the focus to enforce the desired behaviour.

Benefits

The benefit of ABA therapy has been cherished by a number of studies. A meta-analysis on the topic also documents the key benefits for challenged kids; These include;

ABA therapy may benefit an individual with the development of cognitive skills, language skills, and the ability to act and perform essential life skills, thus improving social behaviour.

While discussing the benefits, it is also essential to acknowledge that presently, there is limited literature backing the long-term benefits of ABA intervention. Hence, currently, ABA therapy could be considered highly effective for short-term improvements in behaviour.

Risks

Even though ABA therapy has been remarked as an effective intervention for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder, it is essential to know that certain risks exist with its application.

First, the ABA therapy may not prove to be useful in various other severe cases. The Autistic Spectrum Disorder functions on different levels. Accommodating the needs of children with severe cases is rather difficult.

Studies have shown that ABA therapy may be rendered ineffective in cases wherein a child communicates more nonverbally. In addition, children who require a high level of support in communication may find it hard to cooperate with ABA interventions.

In another study, respondents who were parents of children challenged with autistic disorder reported that they discontinued therapy with the ABA technique after observing negative psychological responses such as trauma.

Beginning with BCBA Assessment

It all begins with the BCBA (Board Certified Behaviour Analyst). This specialized individual will interact with the child and perform the initial assessment of their needs and set goals accordingly.

The BCBA’s part of assessment also entails focusing on building rapport with the child. The professional would interact with the child under the supervision of their guardian and take note of underlying conditions for why a certain behaviour is an outcome.

Teaching with Discrete Trial Training

The Discrete trial training is used by the BCBA with the following steps;

• First, the BCBA will define the cue or the antecedent to a particular behaviour that is desired
• Second, they will state the behaviour that must be performed
• Third, the behaviour must be applauded with an award of a gift or a privilege

In case the child does not respond appropriately, the BCBA would not reward them in a bid to ensure compliance.

Natural Practice

The natural practice follows the DTT in the order. The natural practice is included to ensure that the child can comfortably act in the desired way without being told or supervised. This requires great careful practice in the previous stage.

If the BCBA deems it suitable that the carer of the child is involved to ensure compliance, then they would communicate with them. In most cases, building rapport with the carer of the child is crucial for ensuring the efficacy of the therapy.

ABA Therapy for Treating Other Disorders

BA therapy is although used popularly for Autistic children, may be used for a number of other disorders. These include:

Post-traumatic stress disorder, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, Anger or Panic disorder, ADHD, and Eating disorders.

If the therapy is performed with good intensity, there is a strong likelihood that challenged individuals will improve in achieving their goals.

You can find out more about ABA at Child Autism UK: https://www.childautism.org.uk/for-families/applied-behaviour-analysis-aba-programmes/

Guest Post by Muhammad Jawad :

Muhammad Jawad is a digital marketing and SEO Expert working for multiple organizations to boost their business and online presence.

Email: Jawad.lilani@gmail.com