What is ABA Therapy and how can it help children with autism?

 It is an evidence-based intervention that is always constantly evolving based on the individual’s needs, wants and skills (such as social-emotional skills) as they grow. Therefore, it is very flexible, and therapists always work very closely with not just the little ones, but with their carers too. 

Pros:

1. Positive reinforcement in ABA Therapy is very effective in encouraging positive behaviors. For example, when encouraging speech in our little ones who may be struggling with speech, whenever they do try to imitate the sounds that we are making, we give lots of praises or a piece of their favorite snack as a reward. This will then help them to corelate that attempting speech is a great thing and once it starts coming out without any encouragement needed, we can start reducing and eventually fade out the need for tangible rewards. It also helps to manage challenging behaviors. 
2. There is no one size fits all programme. Each child will have their own uniquely customized programme based on their current development, needs and goals. It will grow together with your little one and help to prepare them for school or real-world challenges.
3. Therapists work very closely with their carers too in order to help them interact with their little ones more effectively.

Of course, there are many other pros to it too. Do have a chat with us so we can help with any questions you may have. 

Tips for having a first successful session and what to prepare:

1. Have a space where the therapist and your little one can work together without any interruptions. It can be in a room or even a space in the living room. One great tool carers can prepare is having a camera at where sessions will be held in. This is to allow them to observe what is happening during sessions and most importantly, the little one’s safety is assured too.
2. Favorite toys and snacks can be prepared beforehand too to be used as an icebreaker. 
3. Time and patience with us are needed to build a rapport with your little one. It may seem like a lot of play with nothing concrete done in the first session, but this is needed in order for us to assess their skill level and what needs to go into their programme. It allows us to better observe them in their natural surroundings too and how they usually behave.

Benefits of home-based therapy:

There are many benefits to home-based therapy. The biggest one being that as most of the time is spent at home, and together with their carers, a lot of behaviors come out at home that may not usually appear when they are in a new environment or in school. Having sessions at home not only gives us the chance to address these behaviors, but it also allows and gives us the opportunity and space to work on the skills needed before helping them to generalize it to real world situations.

If you are looking for behavioral therapy autism in singapore?

If carers are at home, we can also help address any questions they may have for us and we can help guide them if they are having trouble in interacting with their littles one or on how to incorporate what is being worked on with the little ones during sessions into their everyday routine.