I have to admit, I thought ABA was dog-training at first, and was repulsed.
Reading about it really seemed disgusting to me. BUT, on the other hand, watching it actually being done as it was done by my son's therapists, it didn't seem at all like dog-training. There was NO punishment, only positive training. My son enjoyed it because the therapists were doing things with him that he enjoyed, and giving him rewards (hugs, more video game time) that he actually valued. We tried candy, but he wasn't interested in candy, and frankly, that did seem too much like dog-training. It didn't work, anyway, so we ended up doing "motivators" that were much more natural -- like hugs and enthusiasm for him when he did something such as cooperative play.
The interesting thing is to hear my son talk about that time in his life. Lately, with absolutely no prompting from us (as parents), he has been talking about this time and referring to it as "back when I didn't like people" or "when I didn't get along with people," or "when I didn't do things the way everyone else did them." He now talks about how he likes people, has friends, enjoys school, etc. The interesting thing is, we only did ABA for ONE YEAR at the age of five. After that, we just didn't feel like there was time to have school and ABA. But I do think think that the small amount of ABA was an important time in our son's development, and I think that now, as an 11-year-old, he looks back on those 15 hours per week of therapy as a fun time, and a line of demarcation between when he was not part of the"world" and when he became part of the "world."
Kris
07 Dec 2007, 7:46 am
