Autism / Autism Spectrum Support Group

Hey KDad,

I can't say much about the anger management training...but my understanding of the ABA therapy is this. They Analyze the behavior that needs modification. Then they Apply it through training them.

Each childs needs are going to be different from one another. And hence the reason why they have changing their techniques on ABA training all together.

I would think that any good ABA trainer will assess his needs, and then devise a behavioral program to suit his individual needs.

So it would be how to cope with getting angry vs bursting out and being so angry.

Behavior is a process. The person has a way of getting satisfaction and the action can be reinforced or not, depending on how you react and what you choose to do. The best thing is to get yourself informed, and there are many schools of thought. My experience has shown that if you do not apply some form of behavior intervention the biochemical treatments will only do so much. The habit of response needs to be broken and retrained. ABA is not the only way, and indeed the use of ABA is no promise of perfection. HE is apparently getting a rise out of screaming he hates you. You need to change YOUR response. He will not react if you are ignoring his bad behavior.

The most effective thing for our situation is to ignore the bad actions and respond to the appropriate behavior with praise and tokens for being appropriate. It works for us, but it has been a challenge, and indeed, I look at my behavior more than theirs(including the whole family)

ABA is a way of implementing and tracking any behavior management techinique you want to apply it to. ABA, or applied behavior analysis, is basically taking baseline data (such as the freqnency, duration, and intensity of a specific behavior), then applyhing an intervention and tracking it. After applying the intervention you would take more data on the frequency, duration, and intensity of the behavior. Let's say that the behavior was reduced in intensity, frequency, or duration, during the period after implementing the intervention. It could be due to coincidence or to the intervention. Take the intevention away. What happens? Did the behavior increase again. Apply the intervention again, increase the intervention. Basically ABA is a way of documenting through data taking that the intervention is working. The term ABA is often used interchangeably with discrete trial training. However that is only one way of applying ABA methods. I understand that some states now have legislation that requires insurance companies to cover ABA.