Resources.

People with autism often have problems with social communication and interaction, and restricted or repetitive behaviors or interests. People with autism may also have different ways of learning, moving, or paying attention. These characteristics can make life very challenging.

Signs to look out for by age:

By 9 months of age

• Does not respond to name

• Does not show facial expressions like happy, sad, angry, and surprise

By 12 months of age

• Does not play simple interactive games like pat-a-cake

• Uses few or no gestures (for example, does not wave goodbye)

By 15 months of age

• Does not share interests with others (for example, shows you an object that they like)

• By 18 months of age

• Does not point to show you something interesting

By 24 months of age

• Does not notice when others are hurt or upset

By 36 months of age

• Does not notice other children and join them in play

By 48 months of age

• Does not pretend to be something else, like a teacher or superhero, during play

By 60 months of age

• Does not sing, dance, or act for you

Other Signs may include:

• Lines up toys or other objects and gets upset when order is changed.

• Repeats words or phrases over and over (called echolalia)

• Play with toys the same way every time.

• Is focused on parts of objects (for example, wheels)

• Gets upset by minor changes.

• Has obsessive interests.

• Avoids or does not keep eye contact

• Delayed language skills

• Delayed movement skills

• Delayed cognitive or learning skills

• Hyperactive, impulsive, and/or inattentive behavior

• Unusual eating and sleeping habits

• Unusual mood or emotional reactions

• Anxiety, stress, or excessive worry

• Lack of fear or more fear than expected

For a more detailed milestone tracker please go to: https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/actearly/milestones/digital-online-checklist.html

MYTH

ABA is a cult and does not have any research behind it. Other forms of behavioral therapy work much better and are longer lasting.

FACT

ABA has been studied since the 1960’s. Majority of studies show that those who have had ABA therapy have significant, long-term behavioral changes throughout their life more so than those who used other forms of therapy.

MYTH

ABA was started by a family who loves animals and thought they could use the method of training animals to train their child.

FACT

ABA was started by B.F. Skinner – the most popular researcher and behaviorist in the field of ABA is B.F. Skinner, who was known as the “father” of Behavior Analysis. ABA therapy was coined by Psychologist Ivar Lovaas (1927-2010)

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapy was first developed in the 1970s by Psychologist Ivar Lovaas and Robert Koegel at UCLA. The original approached developed was a technique or sub-set of ABA Therapy called Discrete Trial Training (DTT), which is still used today. Lovaas devoted nearly half a century to ground-breaking research and practice aimed at improving the lives of children with autism and their families. In the 1960s, he pioneered applied behavior analytic (ABA) interventions to decrease severe challenging behaviors and establish communicative language.

MYTH

ABA is an experimental treatment and is not scientifically demonstrated to be effective.

FACT

ABA is an evidence-based practice that has a substantial amount of peer-reviewed research demonstrating its effectiveness for increasing appropriate behaviors and decreasing problem behavior. In fact, there are several peer-reviewed journals devoted to publishing on scientific practices within the field of ABA.

MYTH

ABA just uses food and toys to bribe kids into doing things, allowing kids to get hooked on edible rewards.

FACT

Practice within the field of ABA is driven by the concept of reinforcement. Reinforcement is when a reward is paired with a desired behavior. Practitioners use reinforcement to change a person’s behavior through contingency planning.

For example, a child is who is working on remembering to say thanks you after he is given something, saying thank you might receive verbal praise for doing so after receiving something. The therapist has already established that the child likes and is motivated by verbal praise, therefore the pairing of the praise with the desired behavior (saying thank you) will work to make the behavior more likely to occur in the future. 

Sometimes children need more concrete or physical reinforcement than verbal praise. In these instances, tangible reinforcement might be used.

MYTH

ABA is focused on punishment.

FACT

Often times, the term punishment is misunderstood – in the ABA world, punishment refers to adding or removing a something with the goal of decreasing the future frequency of a specific behavior. For example, a child may lose access to a preferred item for a limited and specific length of time after doing something wrong (for example: hitting, spotting, butting) if that behavior has been targeted as the behavior we want to decreased.

Punishment is one potential treatment component that may be used in an ABA program, but only when the behavior of concern warrants use and other less intrusive measures have failed.

MYTH

ABA is a specialized therapy just for people with autism and is not useful for people with other diagnoses.

FACT

ABA therapies have been shown to improve behavior for children with autism however, they have also been used to help decrease problem behavior for others with a variety of backgrounds. This includes classroom management, people with intellectual disabilities, and people with emotional and/or behavioral disabilities. 


MYTH

ABA is only for high functioning children.

FACT

ABA has been very effective in the treatment of lower functioning children with autism

MYTH

ABA is only for low functioning children.

FACT

ABA has been effectively used to address academic delays as well as behavior problems across all functioning levels.  ABA is used to teach higher functioning children skills such as reciprocal conversation, commenting to peers, perspective taking, and play skills.  ABA is also effective in modifying the academic curriculum by teaching small steps through discrete trials.

MYTH

ABA is robotic and teaches only one way to respond.

FACT

ABA is a structured teaching method, however, children learn multiple ways to respond to situations and work on flexibility and imagination. Generalization of skills learned through ABA is a critical focus of the teaching sessions. Generalization across stimuli, people, and settings is systematically taught.  Generalization across stimuli means that the child will be able to label the cow on the flashcard, the cow in the farm video, a stuffed animal cow, and a cow at the zoo.  Generalization across people means that the child will respond to the same question regardless of who asks. Children will be able to state their address when the behaviorist asks in the session, when mom asks, when the babysitter asks, and when grandmother comes over and asks.  Generalization across settings means a child will be able to answer questions in the regular treatment room, in the kitchen, at the park, and at grandmother’s house.