ABA Therapy Techniques at Home

Written Originally for the publisher Wiley’s client: https://www.appliedbehavioranalysisedu.org/

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy is specifically designed to treat behavioral health problems and reduce negative symptoms associated with autism. 

ABA techniques include positive reinforcement and teaching clients to understand the causes and consequences of their behaviors. 

This therapy helps clients form a constructive sense of self-consciousness that ideally leads to self-acceptance. 

In addition to attending therapy regularly, therapy must occur outside the therapist's office. ABA therapy at home can happen if parents use specific aba techniques to assist with the therapeutic process. 

Here are the top applied behavior analysis techniques parents can use at home: 

Positive Reinforcement 

It’s common knowledge that an activity followed by a reward will likely become a habit –an activity one repeats over and over again. In other words, “positive reinforcement” is already deeply rooted in human behavior. 

Positive reinforcement is one of the most fundamental techniques used in aba therapy. Because it is so natural to understand, parents can use it to assist in ABA therapy at home. 

The idea with positive reinforcement is to identify positive behaviors –behaviors that contribute to the child's well-being and psychological development–and issue a reward whenever that behavior is enacted. 

For example, a disagreeable child that does their homework should get a small reward for this feat. 

The more this happens, the more likely it will be that the positive behavior becomes a habit. 

Being Together 

Behavioral health problems sometimes stem from improper socialization –in other words, a lack of exposure to healthy social situations. 

This inexposure results from an inability to abide by context-dependent behavioral norms. For instance, a client might find jumping up and down violently in elevators enjoyable. Still, such behavior is hazardous and certainly outside the range of everyday behavioral norms. 

Parents at home aren’t just the authorities responsible for their children. Likewise, they aren’t simply there to provide them with material subsistence, like food, water, and shelter. 

Instead, parents are there to be with their children –to engage with them socially as a quasi-guide, quasi-friend, and quasi-protector. 

Some behavioral problems stem from the fact that some parents don't accept any of these roles concerning their children, leaving their children no basis for socializing. 

The importance of having a moderately intense social relationship with your child –being involved in their lives while keeping enough of a distance from them to inculcate their independence– cannot be overstated.

A therapist has a similar relationship with their client as this. 

While parents should not replicate the role of a therapist in their child’s life, they can have a “therapeutic relationship” with their child, as humanistic psychologist Carl Rogers called it, where through loving and honest social engagement, positive behaviors and memories are formed more often than negative ones. 

Leaving Alone

While being together is vital in some cases, in others, it can be counterproductive. 

Often, autistic individuals are highly introverted. This means they are highly protective of their time alone and desire to spend most of their waking hours in solitude.

The reason for this is because that is where such individuals feel most creative, safe, and whole. However, when this is disrupted –especially unexpectedly– it can be highly dysphoric, triggering sensory discomfort and feelings of emotional overwhelmingness. 

ABA techniques are only sometimes active. In the case of leaving your child alone, if that's what they need, it is highly passive. 

Yet, because we are social creatures, in order to get to a place as a parent where leaving your child alone is passive, it will require actively understanding your child's needs –e.g., asking questions like "when do you like to be alone?" "how much alone time do you need each day?" 

The answers to these questions can be challenging, so making assumptions about them should lead you to assume you’ll be mistaken. 

That is why parents need to actively talk to their children so their alone-time needs can be clarified –both for themselves and for others. This is part of how introverted children become socialized; when this is neglected behavior, health problems only worsen.

When this alone time isn't respected, it tends to fracture the child's perception of their parents irrevocably. This can seriously hinder their ability to form healthy social relationships in adulthood. 

Hence, part of what it means to "be there" for your child is to leave them alone but not to leave them isolated. 

View and Treat Your Child as a Highly Unique Individual 

We are all highly unique individuals and have unique needs in all facets of life. ABA techniques must take this into account, and doing aba therapy at home cannot take this for granted. 

That is why this article, on the one hand, advocates for engaging socially with children as a form of aba therapy at home, and on the other hand, advocates for leaving children alone. But, of course, some children need more of the former than the latter, and vice-versa –-and everything in between! 

One of the ways behavioral health problems exacerbate is when unique individuals aren't treated as such. When cookie-cutter prescriptive rules are applied to such individuals, they inevitably resist. 

When this sort of resistance is punished –which in most cases, like schooling, employment, and even parenting, it is– it encourages the behavior being punished and makes it a habit. 

This is when “negative reinforcement” –applying a negative stimulus to a person to get them to act in a desired fashion– goes wrong. Punishment is intended to halt the “improper” behavior, but it more often than not does the opposite.

In any case, aba therapy at home must be centered on this core principle of individuality and the uniqueness of human needs.

ABA Therapy At Home Activities 

The underlying philosophy of ABA therapy is that each client has unique needs requiring unique solutions and treatment plans.

Young children can benefit therapeutically from playing games designed around ABA techniques. The following activities are designed to use positive reinforcement to aid ABA therapy at home. 

The rewards you can give your children needn’t be large –snacks, positive affirmation, love, and affection will do! The important thing is that you’re actively engaging in activities with your child that can positively contribute to their therapeutic outcome. 

Here are the best at-home activities parents can use to help assist their child’s ABA treatment.

Sit in the Chair

This activity is very straightforward and valuable for incorporating positive reinforcement at home. 

Sit down across from your child and encourage them to act in specific ways. For example, you can tell them, “bring me the milk from the fridge.” If they oblige, parents will give them an immediate reward. 

The longer your child can sit in the chair, the more positive reinforcement they will receive, making the transition into using positive reinforcement in other contexts smoother. 

Look at Me

Like sitting in the char, "Look at Me" requires parents to show their child an enticing object in front of their face. For example, parents can hold a bubble container in front of their faces and blow bubbles for as long as they like. 

The parent will then say, "look at me!" If the child can make eye contact, praise them and reward them! 

Learning eye contact is an essential developmental task in socialization. However, some children with autism can find eye contact highly challenging. Look at Me is a good technique for autistic children to learn eye contact through positive reinforcement.

What’s the Emotion?

A wide range of neurodivergence and behavioral health problems involve difficulty recognizing emotions in others. Likewise, it can be difficult for behavioral health patients to understand their feelings. 

Emojis are the faces used in text messaging to emote. "What's the Emotion?" is a game where parents lay all emojis face down on paper and have their child pick them up to view randomly. 

Then, the parent asks the child what emotion the emoji represents, and if they get the answer right, the parents will reward them. 

Becoming an ABA Therapist as a Career Path 

Applied behavior analysis serves an essential function in society because it helps rehabilitate those with behavioral health problems. 

ABA therapy doesn't help clients lead a "normal" life; instead, it helps them self-actualize through understanding that "normal" life is not achievable and, therefore, not desirable. 

Everyone is radically different from one another, and self-acceptance from ABA therapy realizes this and, as a result, leads to a life dedicated to improving one's well-being. 

Applied behavior analysis is a viable career path because it is significant –especially if you are inclined toward helping others. 

Likewise, it is a highly lucrative career path, as there are many jobs related to applied behavior analysis that those trained in ABA techniques are eligible for. 

If you are interested in a career that saves lives, is meaningful, and can open up many other career doors, click here to learn about applied behavior analysis.