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Thanksgiving: Mealtime Tips, Crafts, and Ways To Donate

Verbal Beginnings wishes you a very Happy Thanksgiving filled with abundance and bright moments. We hope you have a wonderful day celebrating all there is to be thankful for! To help make the day extra special, we have some food tips, crafts, and ways to donate in your community!    The most memorable Thanksgiving traditions…

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Food Fight: End Mealtime Battles With Evidence-Based Feeding Interventions

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.…

ABA Behind the Scenes: What is Listener Responding?

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,…

ABA Behind the Scenes: Understanding and Tracking the “ABCs” of Behavior

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…

ABA Behind the Scenes: What Does Behavior Really Mean?

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…

Traveling with Children with Autism? Check these Travel Tips and Hacks

Travel can be physically and emotionally challenging for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and sensory processing disorders. They may have difficulty with routine changes, over-stimulating environments, and feeling a loss of control. However, there are things you can do before and during your travel that can make things easier on the whole family. Planes,…

Waitlists for Autism Diagnosis: Avoid the Wait and Get Services Sooner

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…

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Natural Environment Teaching (NET) To Support Summer Skills Learning

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…

Babbling: A Key Milestone for Speech and Language Development

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…

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The Difference Between In-Home Early Intervention Services And Extended School Year Services

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), school districts are required to provide services outside of the regular school year to qualifying individuals. In order to qualify for ESY, a child must already have an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) in place, and demonstrate either a regression in skills, or show evidence of emerging pivotal skills…

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What is ASD? 10 things you should know about ASD

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.…