Is ABA Therapy Repetitive?
Applied behavioral analysis, or ABA therapy, is one of the leading treatments today for children who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The science- and evidence-based approach to learning and behavior has been proven to help children with autism build the social, communication and daily life skills they often struggle with.
ABA therapy is a treatment plan that is personalized to each individual patient. In this way, the plan caters specifically to each child’s strengths and challenges, which makes it considerably more effective than other types of treatment.
Trained and experienced BCBAs are the ones who often administer this therapy, which is done on a one-to-one basis in both clinical and home-based settings. It also integrates the participation of family members and other caregivers, which helps to emphasize the skills taught during sessions long after.
If you’re not familiar with ABA therapy, you might be wondering what it entails, how long it lasts and whether it’s repetitive. Below, we’ll answer many of those questions that you might have.
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What are the Principles of ABA Therapy?
ABA therapy is based in science and evidence around what helps to support children with autism best. There are a few basic principles of ABA therapy that guide how the treatment is done.
First, ABA therapy uses positive reinforcement to teach children certain skills. When they are able to accomplish something that is being taught by the ABA therapist — such as looking at a picture of a toothbrush and knowing it’s time to brush their teeth — they receive a reward1.
The reward can be something as simple as extra praise or extra time with a toy or book they love. This positive reinforcement shows the children that they exhibited the desired behavior, and as a result, they’re more likely to continue exhibiting those behaviors in the future.
Next, ABA therapy breaks down tasks into simple steps. In the example of brushing your teeth, the ABA therapist will teach the child how to pick up the toothbrush, wet the toothbrush, apply the toothpaste, brush their teeth, rinse their mouth and their brush.
By approaching tasks this way, children with autism are more likely to grasp concepts that neurotypical individuals might find fairly simple.
Finally, ABA therapy requires repetition. It can often take a while to teach some of these skills, based on the challenges of the individual child and the severity of their ASD2, so it’s necessary for them to be taught over and over again.
What Does Repetition Mean, Exactly?
As mentioned before, each child with autism is very unique. How they are affected by the neurodevelopmental disorder depends on a number of factors, and it can span a very wide spectrum.
What this means is that how much ABA therapy a child will need depends completely on their individual strengths and challenges, and how well they respond to and progress with the therapy.
In general, ABA therapy is usually prescribed for multiple hours each week, lasting a few years3. This might sound like a lot, but it’s what’s needed for ABA therapy to be successful.
The therapy requires repetition and reinforcement over time to be successful. After they receive the positive reinforcement during ABA therapy sessions for displaying a desired behavior, for expressing themselves and/or reacting to a stimulus in a certain way, the children will in time translate the skills they learn during sessions to real-life situations.
As you can see, ABA therapy is very intensive, specifically because it requires constant and consistent repetition to work.
That being said, ABA therapy isn’t something that children will need forever. Eventually, there will come a point where ABA therapy will stop4, based on how the child progresses.
Is This Repetition a Good Thing?
Some critics have posited that all this repetition is actually a bad thing. They have theorized that ABA therapy only results in children responding in a certain way to certain situations, based on whatever they are taught in sessions.
This would be true if the skills that children learned in ABA therapy were limited to only exact responses to specific stimuli, but that isn’t the case. ABA therapy teaches children how to build communication and social interaction skills, and once they learn them, they can progress to applying those principles to other situations.
In this sense, the repetition of ABA therapy is definitely a good thing, because it leads to children learning diverse skills that they can use to succeed in many aspects of their lift.
Read more: Is ABA Therapy Harmful?
Blue Gems ABA Helps Children Gain the Skills They Need
ABA therapy relies heavily on repetition to teach skills. It’s through positive reinforcement over longer periods of time that children with ASD are able to build these social, communication and daily life skills that they might struggle with.
At Blue Gems ABA, we have a team of experienced BCBAs who are dedicated to helping children on the autism spectrum live happy and fulfilling lives.
To learn more, please contact us today.
617-297-7998
617-340-3371
info@bluegemsaba.com
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