“One way to reduce the symptoms of autism in children is to do ABA therapy. Applied behavioral analysis therapy or ABA is a program that aims to develop children's social skills and reduce unwanted behavior.”
Autism is a behavioral disorder that can occur in a person due to abnormalities in the neurodevelopment of his brain. The majority of cases of autism can show symptoms since childhood. Because autistic behaviors appear to vary in intensity from person to person, there are various ways to reduce these symptoms. One of them is by doing ABA therapy.
Applied behavior analysis or applied behavior analysis is a teaching program for children with autism to develop social, communication, and learning skills. The goal is to increase behavior that can aid learning and reduce unwanted behavior.
How ABA Therapy Works
Applied behavioral analysis therapy consists of a variety of techniques to understand and improve a child's behavior. This method has been helping autistic children since the 1960s. The way it works is to use certain strategies, and these strategies must be applied by the therapist to the child in a flexible way. Not all children with autism will respond in the same way or understand at the same speed.
One of the main strategies is positive reinforcement. This refers to 'rewarding' good behavior with a reward to increase the likelihood of that behavior being repeated in the future. This positive reinforcement strategy is based on the psychological hypothesis which states that rewarding good behavior will be more effective in maintaining a child's behavior than punishing bad behavior.
In addition to positive reinforcement, ABA therapy also seeks to understand children with autism with A-B-C strategies. Antecedents or causes are the first stage when the therapist finds out about what happened before a behavior or behavior appears. After that, the consequences or consequences are things that happen to the child after he/she performs the behavior. With this strategy, it is hoped that children can understand what kind of behavior they should do.
Benefits of ABA Therapy for Children with Autism
Applied behavior analysis therapy has been shown to provide significant benefits for children with autism. Here are some of the benefits of ABA therapy for autistic children:
1. Develop social skills
Autistic children generally have difficulty capturing social signals. This causes them to sometimes find it difficult to mingle with their peers. With this therapy, they can develop the social skills needed in everyday interactions. Children can learn to recognize facial expressions, maintain eye contact, share interests with others, follow social cues, and understand the rules of behavior that apply.
2. Learning ability increases
Not only socializing, sometimes children with autism also learn slower than normal children. Therefore, ABA therapy uses a systematic and structured approach to teaching autistic children from a young age. With this approach, it is hoped that children can learn more easily in conventional ways, such as remembering information, following the teacher's instructions, and paying attention to explanations.
3. Communication is easier
People with autism, whether in childhood or as adults, tend to be difficult to communicate like people in general. Whether it's from the way they speak, eye contact, until they deliver the message. ABA therapy is useful for improving verbal and nonverbal communication skills so that they can interact and communicate effectively.
4. Reducing negative behavior
Certain bad habits such as tantrums, aggressive behavior, or repetitive movements are quite common in autistic children. Parents generally have a desire to reduce behavior like this because it will be difficult for them to interact with people around them. Through strategies such as positive reinforcement, children can gradually adapt to coping with their emotions.
That's what parents need to know about ABA therapy for children with autism.