Verbal Beginnings wants to be your choice for early intervention comprehensive autism services! That means a collaborative approach to therapy that covers a wide range of services to help children on the autism spectrum. We know that the topic of comprehensive services and ABA therapy can raise some questions so here are some quick Q/A’s…
What’s The Difference Between School and Medical Autism Diagnoses? Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a complex condition that affects children and adults in various ways. When it comes to Early Intervention and getting therapy for a young child, an official diagnosis plays a big part in getting the right treatment… and fast. One important aspect…
Many families have a veggie-loathing, chicken nuggets-only, no-foods-touching, picky eater in their midst. But families of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) are even more likely than most to experience mealtime struggles. It’s estimated that 44% to 89% of children with ASD have feeding challenges such as food selectivity, disruptive feeding behaviors, gagging, or overeating.…
In this edition of ABA Behind the Scenes, Jami Hardy, MS, BCBA, LGPC, talks about listener responding in early language development. Listener responding is following directions given by others—for example, stand up, walk to the table, find mom, touch the chair, and pick up book. This is an important skill to discriminate between multiple items,…
Extinction occurs when behavior with a history of being reinforced no longer results in access to reinforcement. Extinction is generally put into place for behaviors we want to see less of, and should only be used in combination with reinforcement for appropriate replacement behaviors. Extinction may be illustrated in a variety of ways depending on…
In this edition of ABA Behind the Scenes, Jami Hardy, MS, RBT, LGPC, will be examining positive and negative reinforcement regarding your child’s behavior. When we discuss reinforcement in ABA we are talking about increasing behavior as a result of an event that followed the behavior. In other words, we’re more likely to do something…
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 battleground when green veggies are present or if the pasta is elbow shaped…
Marta didn’t eat very many foods, which is how I came to know her. She liked goldfish, but they had to be plain yellow goldfish otherwise she wouldn’t touch them. Marta would eat some fruits, but no vegetables. She used to eat pasta and French fries, but now she wouldn’t touch them. Marta’s refusal also…
In this edition of ABA Behind the Scenes, Jami Hardy, MS, BCBA, LGPC, talks on how the function of certain behaviors can tell us why those behaviors are occurring. Within the field of ABA, before we begin to help someone effectively change his or her behavior, it’s important that we first understand the function of…
When I first met Kyler, he had been entirely dependent on his feeding tube for nearly four years. As an infant, he didn’t eat very well and often times, he wouldn’t stay awake long enough to consume enough to grow. The feeding tube was supposed to be a temporary solution after an episode of dehydration,…
In this edition of ABA Behind the Scenes, Jami Hardy, MS, BCBA, LGPC, will be walking us through what happens before and after a particular behavior occurs and how it affects future behavior. To understand why behavior occurs, we need to know what happens before, during, and after the behavior. In ABA, when we discuss…
In this edition of ABA Behind the Scenes, Jami Hardy, MS, RBT, LGPC, will be unpacking the concept of “Behavior” as part of the term “Applied Behavior Analysis.” In ABA, when we talk about behavior, we really mean anything a person says or does. Behavior includes observable actions—all the things other people can see—as well…
By: Todd A. Ward, PhD, BCBA-D, bSci21Media LLC If you are providing in-home therapy as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), your ability to form a positive relationship with the family you are working with is critical and is one of the most important components of your job when starting a new case. Failure to do…
If you’ve begun your journey to receive an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis, or other pediatric behavioral diagnosis, you may have come across other parents, teachers, and caregivers who have warned you of the dreaded waitlist process. Autism waitlists are currently a universal barrier to medical diagnoses and effect families living in both rural and urban…
For most children, summer is a time for playing in the sun and learning through play. The fun times had in the sun with other children are key to children’s development of social, emotional, physical, and intellectual growth. As typically developing children play they tend to spontaneously learn skills from one another and from the…
At Verbal Beginnings, intervention focuses on increasing a variety of areas within each learner’s repertoire, including verbal behavior, social skills, functional life skills, and group instruction skills. Within this blog, we will focus on the development of speech and language, or verbal behavior as we, as behavior analysts, refer to it. Both children and adults…
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder that characterizes individuals who have difficulties with communication and social interactions, and who have repetitive behaviors or interests. With ASD being represented in TV shows such as “The Good Doctor,” “Atypical,” “Parenthood,” and other media, it can be easy to come away with a misconception of ASD.…
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…