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Have you ever heard the following statements: “ABA involves sitting at the table for hours,” “My child will only memorize skills being taught,” “ABA will be unpleasant for my child”? These are just a few common myths about ABA therapy. An explanation of the facts can clarify these inaccuracies.
1. ABA therapy only occurs at the table.
ABA treatment may include table work, however, ABA therapy is NOT “table work” alone. In fact, there may be situations in which table work may not be done at all, such as in the case of teaching self-care skills including dressing and bathing. ABA teaching occurs anywhere that the individual needs to be able to learn and apply skills. This may mean some time is spent playing and working at the table, playing outside, throughout the house/school, on the floor with friends, or anywhere in the community such as the grocery store! Much time is spent doing fun and exciting activities to make sure the ABA therapy is enjoyable and meaningful to the individual.
2. ABA will turn my child into a robot.
This statement is not true when a high quality ABA program has been developed. A variety of researched-based teaching procedures are used within ABA such as Discrete Trial Teaching, incidental teaching, mand training, and Natural Environment Training (NET). In fact, social interactions are often a focus of ABA programming.
3. ABA is only for children with autism.
The possibilities are endless and no age limits exist! And it does not lose its effectiveness after a certain age. ABA has been used to change behaviors for individuals with a variety of needs such as hearing impairments, learning disabilities, ADHD, and addictions to name a few! In conclusion, ABA is actually very versatile with interventions adapted for specific individual needs. ABA treatment has proven to help individuals learn new skills and decrease the occurrence of negative behaviors that impede learning.
To read more about common ABA misconceptions go to: http://www.behaviorbabe.com/commonmisconceptions.htm