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We are all constantly learning and acquiring new skills. For example, yesterday they didn’t know how to bake an apple pie, but today they have. Turning this life principle into a technology, educators began to use it in their work with autistic children. However, the ABA method is universal, psychologist Natalia Manelis believes – parents of the most ordinary child can use it.
Applied behavior analysis, from the English applied behavior analysis (ABA), is a method that helps to change human behavior: acquire new skills, reduce or eliminate unwanted behaviors. The method is based on the learning theory developed by the psychologist Burres Skinner. According to this theory, the learning process can be described by one formula: the antecedent stimulus causes the behavior and the consequence.
For example, a child sees a candy in a store (stimulus), screams and throws himself on the floor (behavior), they buy him a candy (consequence). Another situation is possible, or rather, another consequence – they don’t buy candy. Or (another consequence) – the child is punished for bad behavior. What does Skinner’s theory of learning say about this? If you still bought the candy, it is likely that the next time the child will scream and cry again. In the other two, when he is either ignored or punished, his behavior will change – he will cry less or not at all. Motivation also affects behavior – if a child does not want a candy (he was fed sweets in advance), he will not scream in the store in order to get it. Conclusion: by changing incentives and consequences, one can change human behavior, strengthen what is required, or reduce what hinders.
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At the first acquaintance with the ABA method, it seems that teachers are engaged in training. The child performs an action and receives a treat. This is due to the fact that autistic children are often difficult to motivate with anything other than treats. But don’t parents buy ice cream for their child if he gets a good grade? Food is a great motivator for most adults, too. In general, the provision of pleasant consequences after the desired behavior is very common in our lives: praise from parents, good grades in school, a bonus or salary increase. By and large, all this can also be called training, but usually it does not occur to us. It turns out that there is nothing unusual in “training”. Also, this method works. It describes in detail the procedures by which we can change the behavior of a person, and anyone: a child, an adult, healthy or with disabilities. The ABA method works if a person wants to lose weight or quit smoking, it is used for training and work with staff, in addition, we use it (or elements of it) while raising children, and we do not even notice it.
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About expert
Natalia Manelis – psychologist, deputy head of the Center for Psychological, Medical and Social Support for Children and Adolescents, editor-in-chief of the journal Autism and Developmental Disorders.
“Give me an apple”
There are two tasks in working with autists. To develop and strengthen their adaptive behavior (everything is “good”), to reduce and remove maladaptive behavior (screams, aggression, self-stimulation when the child utters some monotonous sounds or makes monotonous movements and no one else is needed at the moment).
How it’s done? We return to the formula – incentive, behavior, consequence. For a behavior to stick, something pleasant must happen after it. For example, there is a task so that a child who does not use speech to express a request (although he can speak), but instead screams, pulls by the hand or takes what he needs by himself, began to express his requests in words. In such situations, the teacher, understanding what exactly the child wants at the moment, pronounces the necessary phrase (for example, “Give me an apple”), and after the child repeats it, he receives an apple. Gradually, the adult reduces the hint (pronounces only the beginning of the word, speaks in a whisper …). The reward (the consequence that reinforces the behavior) in this case is getting what you want (an apple). Lack of encouragement (apple not given) in cases where the child screams instead of saying the right phrase, leads to a decrease in this behavior.
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Just thank you
Question: why does an ordinary child comply with our requests? Because in response we praise him, hug him, kiss him – such our reaction is called social encouragement. It is significant for an ordinary child, but not always – for autistic children. When they have not yet begun to work with them, they usually exist autonomously and praise, someone’s joy or a kiss mean nothing to them … Therefore, in working with autists, a whole system of rewards has been developed – how to make an autistic child feel good. Not necessarily candy, although this method is often used. In addition, ABA has developed a whole system with which you can make social rewards meaningful for an autistic person. This allows psychologists to gradually move away from reward through a game or “candy” to social reward.
The ABA also has a system of punishments. The first law is to do everything to get by without them. If the method is used correctly, no punishment will be required. For example, you can always ignore unwanted reactions. If a child screams and an adult does not notice, this behavior will be reproduced less in the future, because it does not make sense. Another important rule is not so much to punish the undesirable as to encourage the desirable. For example, to buy sweets for a child only if he behaves within the framework of the rules and agreements.
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Where does bad behavior come from?
Unwanted child behavior always has a purpose or function. Three of them – getting what you want, avoiding something unpleasant (difficult, boring), getting attention – are also popular among ordinary children. For example, children play well, parents mind their own business; the children began to quarrel, the parents came running. That is: the children needed to attract attention, and they succeeded.
Another situation: children avoid unpleasant activities. What does ABA offer in this case? The first is to create a situation for the child to start studying. It is necessary to drastically reduce the complexity – give simple tasks and encourage. The “sandwich principle” works well. Choose three tasks: the first is very simple, the second is the most unpleasant and difficult for the child, the third is the most pleasant. First, it’s easy for him to get started. In addition, he knows that the third task is the most enjoyable, and he has a motive to quickly complete the second, difficult one. It is important before you start practicing, give him a work plan so that he knows what awaits him and when the torment is over. The plan can be written or given in the form of pictures if the child cannot read.
Unwanted behavior is often used as a means of communication, especially when the child has no oral speech – he cannot speak. The first goal in working with such children is to give them a means of communication. To do this, they often use training in alternative ways of communicating using gestures or pictures.
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Gestures are rarely used – it is difficult and not always clear to others. More often, cards are used on which objects or actions are drawn. So the child can express a request and even make sentences – “I want to ride a slide with my grandmother.” As soon as children learn alternative communication, their behavior immediately improves. Why? Imagine that no one understands you. You have only two options – yell if you need something, or take it yourself. This is what usually happens in a family with an autistic child: he screams all the time and climbs everywhere. What do parents do (and they have no options)? They organize the environment so that the child can get everything. And then the child does not need an adult at all, he has no reason to turn to another, which means that autism is growing. The sooner he receives a means of communication or learns to speak, the better he behaves, in addition, he has a motive to interact with other people.
