School- ABA

I've been asked a lot lately how school is going! It's great. I have A's in both classes and I love what I'm learning. So I thought I would share a little bit of what I am learning. ABA or Applied Behavior Analysis is not just good therapy for children with autism its also good therapy for all of us.When you understand the concepts behind ABA you become a better person who can change behaviors not only in yourself, but also those around you. Here are a few things I've learned and I'll include examples both from my classroom and everyday life. It really is quite interesting.

Reinforcer- any event that follows a behavior that increases the rate of that behavior.

Reinforcement- procedure of using a reinforcer to increase the rate of a behavior.

Example- Remember growing up and you had those awful vegetables your mom made you eat. If you ate the vegetable then you got dessert (or got to leave the table) If this increased the likely hood of you eating that vegetable the next time around then the dessert was a reinforcer. The act of giving you the dessert every time you ate your vegetables is considered reinforcement.

The trick is to find things that are reinforcing to the person you are trying to change. For example one student loves lemons. He'd do any thing just to lick a lemon. That does nothing for me. Reinforcers are different for everyone. I hate chocolate milk. It's like drinking mud to me. However to most people it is something that is very well liked and could be used as a reinforcer.