It takes the principles and methods of operational constraints as the core, facilitates children's behavior, designs situations and selects enhancers that can affect the target behavior according to children's learning goals, and establishes new adaptive behaviors with their spontaneous response behaviors to eliminate or improve inappropriate behaviors caused by autism symptoms.
However, there have been some misunderstandings about ABA training for autism. Today, I will share with you the common misunderstandings and correct understanding of ABA therapy, as well as the analysis of common methods.
First, the common misunderstanding and correct understanding of ABA
Misunderstanding: ABA is only a single attempt teaching (DTT);
Positive solution: DTT is only a teaching model of ABA, and many effective teaching methods for autism are developed according to ABA.
Misunderstanding: ABA is just a method;
Positive solution: ABA is a behavioral science, including theoretical basis and learning principle, all of which come from basic experimental research.
Myth: ABA will teach children to be robots (ABA will make autistic children more rigid);
Positive solution: ABA has perfect professional ethics. According to the evaluation of the object, making a scientific intervention plan can not only improve the bad behavior of autistic children, but also enhance their self-care ability in study and life.
Myth: ABA is only effective in dealing with behavioral problems and cannot help autistic children learn;
Positive solution: ABA provides effective and systematic teaching strategies. One of its main functions is to help autistic children improve their learning ability and build relevant learning skills, such as paying attention to coordination and understanding. ABA provides real learning opportunities.
Myth: ABA is not suitable for general developing children and top students;
Positive solution: ABA is the principle of using the law of behavior, which is suitable for anyone, but it should be used according to personal needs and actual conditions. Different people have different methods.
Second, how to correctly understand ABA
1 ABA is not everything.
ABA can't answer why autism occurs and provide feasible therapeutic interventions to help autistic children, but it can't solve all the problems. ABA does not need to be divorced from the actual environment of life and study, and can provide a real learning opportunity for autistic children.
2.ABA is not a single "desktop teaching"
ABA does not restrict the education of teaching environment, teaching methods and teaching materials, and does not represent "intensive training" of a desk and a chair. Intensive training is effective, and ABA therapy with better effect is completed through intensive training and other methods (such as natural scene teaching) on the basis of systematic evaluation of personal situation and needs. Many Aba teaching is carried out in the living environment, and we can make use of all the resources and opportunities around us to teach.
3.ABA is not to punish and bribe children.
ABA not only solves problem behaviors, but also predicts and regulates behaviors and environment, prevents the occurrence and development of bad behaviors and improves behavioral skills, with the ultimate goal of "better life". Therefore, behavioral analysts are not "firefighters" but creators of a better life. ABA does not advocate various forms of punishment, but it has strict ethical operation norms, so the internal needs of autistic children should be fully considered. The principle of reinforcement in ABA therapy is to help the connection between behavior and motivation. There are different types and ways of reinforcement. Using it will make autistic children more willing to establish autonomous behavior and improve teaching quality.
Let's analyze the training methods of ABA together, so as to better help autistic children to intervene in the future teaching process.
The characteristics of applied behavior analysis are as follows:
1, the action is decomposed into small units;
2. According to different individuals, different periods and different actions, appropriate use of reinforcement procedures;
3. Intervene as early as possible, which is generally considered appropriate before the age of 3;
4. Long-term intervention.
When we teach autistic children a skill, we will take three steps:
1, instruction
2. Waiting for the child's behavior
3. Feedback
If the child does it right, there are three possible feedbacks:
1, the child did the right thing without assistance and won the strongest reward: smiling, verbal praise (great, well done, great) and material reward;
2. When the child did the right thing in the first assistance, he got the second strongest reward: smiling and verbally praising (great, well done);
3. The child did it right in the second assistance.
Situational design
When you start training, you need to find a relatively fixed environment with little visual and auditory stimulation. For example, in a one-to-one private classroom, there is a small table and two small chairs (the height of the chairs must be relative to each other), and the floor is covered with carpets; The layout of the room should be as simple as possible, mainly in dark tones, but with sufficient light. There should be no objects around that can attract children's attention, and even the walls should only be white walls. If conditions permit, you can install a one-way perspective mirror at an appropriate position on the wall for observation. Tutor-assisted teaching can be added as needed; According to the needs of curriculum design, necessary teaching materials and teaching AIDS can be installed indoors.
Guiding theme
According to the individual's education and treatment goals, autistic children are treated with behavioral therapy goals one at a time.
Boot mode
① One-to-one individual training: taking one-to-one teaching as the main form, it is suitable for the training of participation ability, imitation, language, cognition and fine movements, self-care, listening to one-step instructions and gross movements. When training, we must choose enhancers that can affect the development of children's behavioral ability; With the acquisition of children's behavior in one-on-one personal training and the development of children's ability, children are gradually brought into groups or groups for general guidance, so that the behaviors learned from individual guidance can be developed in groups or real life.
② Activity-based teaching: suitable for children's play, communication, language understanding and language expression with others.
(3) Teaching in accidents: in life (family, society, etc. ), especially in social communication, social adaptation and other activities, seize the opportunity to urge children to use the knowledge and skills they have learned and show the behaviors and habits they have developed; Seize the opportunity to teach children knowledge and skills naturally and cultivate children's good behaviors and habits.
Time requirement
Training at home for 30-40 hours a week, with an average of 5-6 hours a day; The time of each training should be determined according to the child's age and overall level (attention, physical condition, mood, rigid behavior, etc.). ).
Children before the age of two and a half are mainly engaged in activities, and each time it takes 10- 15 minutes;
Children aged three to four years each time 15-20 minutes;
For children aged four to five, it takes 20-25 minutes at a time;
Children over the age of five usually spend about 30 minutes at a time;
Preschool children usually spend 35 minutes at a time.
School-age children need about 40 minutes at a time.
In terms of arrangement, the most effective is the one-on-one operation practice class of 20-40 hours per week, which is gradually lacking. Start to join the group or collective operation practice class as soon as possible.
Characteristics of applied behavior analysis method
1) goal decomposition: that is, dividing tasks (knowledge, skills, behaviors, habits, etc. ) is divided into several small steps.
For example, learn to wash your hands: turn on the tap-wet your hands-take soap-wipe it clean-put the soap back-rub your hands (rub your hands-cross your hands)-wash your hands with water-wash your palms and the back of your hands.
For another example, children should be taught to match objects or pictures: first, they should be taught to match exactly the same objects. Put an object (such as a cup) on the table in front of you, and then give the same cup to the children and say "put it next to the same thing". In this process, we must use "tips" and "reinforcement" to urge children to respond correctly and complete the requirements. After learning this first step, the second step is to put two items (such as a cup and a ball) on the table. Children must distinguish and distinguish them before placing them. The second step will be easier, because the child has already practiced the previous content.
ABA divides every skill into small steps to practice, in order to make it easier for children to succeed in learning and minimize the frustration in the learning process. In training, children must learn the first step of each skill before they can start learning the second step.
[If! SupportLists]2)[endif] Use hint help: In order to encourage children to respond (correctly) to instructions, hint help (including hand-held exercises, language hints, gestures and operation demonstrations) must be used.
The traditional educational process often does not include the prompt form of ABA. When teaching a non-autistic child, he may learn through observation, such as asking him "What day is it today?" When he can't answer, or the answer is incorrect, he can ask another child. If other children answer correctly, then normal children can answer next time. But autistic children are different. We must give them hints, give them many opportunities to respond by themselves, and be strengthened again and again.
ABA emphasizes that children need to respond immediately after giving them instructions, so the technique of prompting is more meaningful. For example, when teaching children to complete two-step instructions ("clap your hands on the table" or "stand up and put the book on the table"), children are likely to only listen to the first action instruction or the next action instruction, so after giving the instruction, immediately demonstrate or give gesture hints-let him complete the first action instruction before completing the second action instruction. With such hints, children can respond correctly to instructions. As long as he can complete the instructions (even after the prompt), he should strengthen his correct response. If the answer is incorrect or can't be completed accurately, give demonstration and help tips, promote the child's success through repeated practice, and then gradually reduce the tips for the child until the child can answer correctly without tips.
[If! SupportLists]3)[endif] reinforcement: ABA emphasizes that any change in behavior is related to its own results. If the child is called "mom", the mother will smile at him happily and hug him at once, so that the child may call her more. The mother's attitude towards the child strengthens the child's behavior, and the purpose of strengthening is to make the child more willing to cooperate and prefer training.
At the initial stage of training for autistic children, only primary reinforcement, including food and drinks, can be used. When using primary reinforcement methods (giving food and drinks), praise should also be used, and children can be gradually guided to accept secondary reinforcement methods, such as praise, appreciation and hug.
When teaching children difficult skills, we should use the best reinforcement (what children want most). Reinforcements can be placed where children can see them, so that they can listen to the instructions clearly. But don't say, "If you are obedient and point out that it is a park, I will give you candy", as if you are bargaining. It is best to let children accept your mode of operation by strengthening the experience that children should respond.
When using compliments, in addition to saying "very good" and "great", you should also clearly point out what behavior you are reinforcing and praising. For example, when training children to understand nouns, the instruction is "give me the train", and the child really gave you the train. The result (reinforcement) can be said as follows: "Just give the train to the teacher", which specifies what kind of action response is "really good".
[If! Support lists] 4) [Endif] Repeated practice: Because of the use of reinforcement and tips, children are willing to practice repeatedly. Because of repeated practice, children can master new skills faster and better, and repeated practice is especially important for children to master skills.
In the United States, ABA teachers usually give children 10 times (with or without hints) when training new skills. In this way, we can know what percentage of the answers are correct and what percentage are wrong every day.
In repeated practice, we should look for different materials and examples, so that the skills learned by children can be summarized. In addition, we can increase children's interest, such as "fruit classification", so that different fruits or their pictures can be arranged together to guide children to find apples, watermelons and so on.