The holidays are a happy and exciting time of year. As parents, we want to be able to give our children all the fun and magic that comes with the season. There is little more rewarding than a child’s holiday smile, however, with all the cold weather, schedule changes, and loud noises, every family is…
Life is better with goals. They give you a direction and a purpose. They can help motivate you to achieve things that take months or even years to attain…things with long-deferred reinforcers that would otherwise have no effect on your behavior. And goals can help give you that extra “boost” when times are tough and…
As a fresh cohort of newly minted Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) celebrate their passing of the certification exam, knowing where to even start on the journey to becoming a BCBA can be confusing. However, there are many exciting ABA careers available to those who become BCBAs, making the confusion well worth the reward. While…
It is no secret that Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) has been incredibly effective when working with children and adults diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). So much so, that members of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board recently published an article in the Journal of Organizational Behavior Management acknowledging that, though the Board Certified Behavior Analyst…
I’ve had the opportunity to meet many children of different ages since I began working with selective eaters. In 2016 I became the Director of the Healthy Beginnings program and since then, the most common request that I receive from parents as we plan to work on behavior at mealtime is; can we come for…
If you’re a parent with a very picky eater at home, meals can easily become a dreaded time of day for both you and your child. Over the years, many parents have reported to me that the dinner table transforms into a battle ground when green veggies are present or if the pasta is elbow…
Summer is here, the kids are out of school, and it’s time for that family road trip! But let’s not kid each other – road trips make for great memories, but can also come with stressors. Often times your family is packed into a vehicle for hours, if not days, at a time. Hotel rooms…
Summer is upon us again! And for parents that means one thing – school is out, and the kids are at home. On one hand, that means the morning rush of getting the kids out of the house is done for the foreseeable future. You may even get to sleep in a bit, and enjoy…
It’s May, and that means a fresh crop of college grads are looking to start new careers. If this is you, you may be considering your path forward in life. You may have student loans to pay, and yet, still be seeking your purpose as a professional. After putting in years of hard study and…
Parents- you know your kids best and you can be their best teachers! When parents and ABA professionals work together, the results for the children can exceed expectations. With any behavioral intervention, consistency is crucial. If parents follow through even when the ABA therapist isn’t around, the child will learn new skills quickly and so…
Verbal Behavior is all about language. It’s about communication. Within any early intervention or ABA program, a major (if not THE major) goal is to increase communication, in whatever form that takes for the learner. Verbal Behavior, then, is a huge and vital component of early intervention. What sets Verbal Behavior apart is that it…
As a parent, when you start an Early Intervention (EI) program using Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to develop your child’s skills, you may have many questions about what your child’s treatment will involve. The short answer is “it depends” – simply due to the fact that ABA recognizes the uniqueness of each individual, and caters…
Learning that your child has been diagnosed with Autism can be an overwhelming experience. You may be provided with many treatment options and little guidance on how these interventions will fit into your life and your child’s progress over time. Today, we will provide a bit more information about what you can expect from Early Intervention…
Learning that your child has Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at an early age provides families with an amazing opportunity to get support early. Children who begin early intervention services in the early pre-school years are likely to have improved long-term outcomes and catch up to the skills of typically developing peers while the gap is…
If you have a passion for helping others and want to make a real difference in someone’s life, you may want to consider a career in Applied Behavior Analysis as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). This designation will take time and effort but can provide some of the most rewarding career experiences ever. Below,…
Do you have a passion for helping people? Are you looking for a career that will allow you to turn this passion into a career? According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 1 in 68 children has been identified with autism spectrum disorder. These numbers show the increasing need for services and providers…
For parents of children with autism, Verbal Beginnings Center offers hope. Created in 2016 the program offers Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy in a center-based environment. ABA Therapy is a successful method of helping children diagnosed with autism to overcome many of their challenges and is particularly successful when you begin providing services to children…
The procedure of planned ignoring involves deliberate parental inattention to the occurrence of target child behaviors. In other words, parents identify behaviors that function as a means of getting their attention and selectively ignore them. One example of planned ignoring might be with the child who engages in tantrum behavior whenever his mother is on…
Navigating the complex world of special needs vocabulary can be challenging and sometimes frustrating, especially when words mean one thing in common usage, and a different thing in therapeutic situations. Your ABA professional may use words in a different way than you do. Two of the most frequently used words that might cause some confusion…
What does my therapist mean when they say, “Verbal Operants”? Many children diagnosed with Autism who are receiving ABA Therapy have programs that focus on the treatment of language delays. Programming developed as part of the treatment is commonly based on the analysis of Verbal Behavior. These programs focus on the development of “verbal” language…