Enrolling Yasmine in ABA: A Flexible Tool to Improve Autistic Children's Behaviors - Essay Sample

Introduction

Enrolling Yasmine to our Applied Behavior Analysis center (ABA) was a big move that will help her develop and improve general life skills. Yasmine exhibits normal conditions of children with autism, controlled and managed under the ABA program. ABA is a form of treatment that is very flexible and has been proven to improve the behaviors of children with autism and improve their general skills (Habarad, 2015). Yasmine parents may, at times, feel overwhelmed and frustrated, which is okay because the understanding might be little plus the lack of tools that helps in making the difference in the kid’s life. An assurance to the parents is that with time Yasmine will be able to identify her letters and numbers and label items because this ABA therapy's primary purpose is treating autism by improving the areas where the patient has most challenges. Patients are helped improve in various skills like; reading, communication, fine motor skills, and social skills, which they transfer and use in situations that are most challenging to them (Habarad,2015). As a therapist, I will spend only a small portion of Yasmine’s day-to-day life, so the parent's involvement plays a crucial role in supporting and reinforcing the skills that are learned (Habarad, 2015). It has been proven that autistic children that have their parents involved in the ABA processes have measurable improvements than those whose parents do not (Habarad, 2015).

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Manding is requesting or demanding, which is a form of training used in ABA processes in treating autism, which is a crucial verbal operative that is applied to children who have delayed and least verbal communication (Zane, 2010). ABA therapy is a very flexible form of treatment because it is provided in various locations like school, community, or home. It can be adapted to fit in every uncommon person's need (Zane, 2010). Requirements and presentations vary in different patients with autism hence presenting a difficulty in selecting the generalizing treatment of one to another. Through all domains of development, programming and intervention are required because some children can be overwhelming, presenting challenges that are significant like aggression and behaviors that can self-injure, which are some of the qualities that are noted in Yasmine (Zane, 2010). Though there are specific skills that Yasmine parents reported, it is tough to precisely state the target skills for a child that has just enrolled for the program (Zane, 2010). Either way, there are specific considerations that are common. Still, as a therapist, I have first to identify the deficits and abilities that Yasmine has towards social, language, and behavior sectors and identify the areas that are needy (Zane, 2010).

Teaching manding skills to autistic children is essential and has many benefits in their development (Lang, 2017). To Yasmine, teaching manding is very important to her because she has not yet started to talk. They are;

Yasmine will learn that talking is very precious; she will know that talking makes life easier and better, as she can ask for what she needs (Lang, 2017).

Manding offers games and activities that motivate a child hence increasing their liking to a wide range of other interests and toys (Lang, 2017).

Manding offers grounds for conversations as it becomes more complex as children continue to acquire more language. Children can mand for information, which creates room for discussions and more verbal skills (Lang, 2017).

Functional communication replaces problem behavior as children learn new methods to exactly state what they need (Lang, 2017).

Manding also helps the child to be skillful speakers and not only adept listeners. For children who have not started to talk like Yasmine, manding will be very important in teaching her communication skills (Lang, 2017).

Benefits of Teaching Manding

Manding is the first verbal behavior that children attain; children formulate behaviors like crying when tired or hungry in their early stages of development. Children learn that specific actions have inevitable consequences from parents and people around them hence teaching manding crucial in the early development stages (Alazetta, 2006).

To children who are not competent in their communication, problem behaviors replace mands. Through teaching minds, these behaviors are replaced, and they can take control of their environment (Alazetta, 2006).

Value is added to the child's social interactions, which is usually not established in children that suffer from autism s they have very little interest in social activities or other people (Alazetta, 2006).

At times, children with autism have specific repetitive behaviors and actions that are stereotyped, which are reduced by manding skills as they develop more skills and behaviors that are beneficial and fulfilling to them (Alazetta, 2006).

Relationship between Manding And Challenging Behaviors

Children with autism mostly portray challenging behaviors that are not popular with normal children and have a delayed process in developing common skills that happen with growth (Habarad, 2015). The biggest challenge is communication, which leads the child to develop problem behaviors that are helped by teaching mands, enabling the child to express itself in a better and understandable way through the development of communication skills(Habarad, 2015).

References

Carnett, A., Waddington, H., Hansen, S., Bravo, A., Sigafoos, J., & Lang, R. (2017). Teaching mands to children with autism spectrum disorder using behavior chain interruption strategies: A systematic review. Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, 1(4), 203-220. https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41252-017-0038-0

Cornelius Habarad, S. M. (2015). The power of the mand: Utilizing the mand repertoire to decrease problem behavior. Behavioral Development Bulletin, 20(2), 158. https://psycnet.apa.org/record/2015-48180-001

Tincani, M., Crozier, S., & Alazetta, L. (2006). The Picture Exchange Communication System: Effects on manding and speech development for school-aged children with autism. Education and Training in Developmental Disabilities, 177-184. https://www.jstor.org/stable/23880179

Weiss, M. J., & Zane, T. (2010). Three important things to consider when starting intervention for a child diagnosed with autism. Behavior analysis in practice, 3(2), 58. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3004695/