ABA Therapy Techniques to Practice at Home

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy uses a variety of evidence-based techniques to encourage positive behaviors. It's an established approach that can significantly help children with autism improve daily life skills and other developmental challenges. While ABA therapy is provided by trained professionals or board-certified behavior analysts (BCBAs), it's important for parents to actively support ABA techniques to supplement their child's learning. 

Can I Practice ABA Therapy at Home?

Yes, you can practice ABA therapy techniques at home with your child. Be sure to see a professional BCBA therapist to receive a uniquely designed therapy program that fits your child's needs. A professional BCBA can discuss and collaborate on the best ways to help your child's progress and how you can supplement your child's ABA therapy at home. 

As a parent, using ABA therapy methods can strengthen your bond with your child while reinforcing their learning and social skills. Working closely with your BCBA also helps maintain consistency between your child's in-center and home ABA therapy environment. 

ABA Therapy Techniques to Use at Home

ABA therapy involves a practitioner, such as a trained professional or parent, working one-on-one with a child. Learn more about different ABA therapy techniques that parents can use at home:

1. Practice Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is one of the cornerstones of effective ABA therapy, making it important to practice at home. This approach emphasizes rewarding positive behavior instead of focusing on criticism. When a child with autism correctly completes a task or demonstrates good behavior, such as returning a toy to the right place or following instructions, a reward should follow. This helps strengthen the behavior, encouraging it to be repeated independently in the future. 

When practicing positive reinforcement, the reward should be personally meaningful to your child. This could be a verbal affirmation or something they enjoy, such as extra time to play. At home, you can incorporate positive reinforcement throughout your child's daily routine to help enhance learning and build their confidence. 

Using at-home ABA therapy techniques that encourage positive behavior creates a supportive environment that fosters growth. This can help your child understand that their efforts lead to favorable outcomes, motivating them to engage and learn new skills.

2. Apply Discrete Trial Training

Discrete trial training (DTT) is an ABA therapy technique that can help teach children with autism new skills. This method involves breaking tasks into smaller chunks, making them more manageable and easily understood. When using this approach, you should give clear instructions to your child, followed by a prompt to help them understand what the instructions mean. When your child shows the correct response, it should also be followed by positive reinforcement.

You can practice ABA therapy at home using DTT to introduce simple or complex skills. For example, suppose you instruct your child to point to the color red. Provide a prompt after the verbal instruction — in this case, you can point to a red object. When your child correctly points to a red item, you can reward them with a positive verbal response. 

You can also use DTT to teach your child more complex actions, like how to dress up or tie their shoes. By breaking down how to do these things in smaller steps, you can help your child build more complex skills.

3. Use Modeling to Show Skills and Behavior

In ABA therapy, parents can demonstrate skills or behaviors that children with autism can imitate. This visual approach helps them learn new skills and grasp more complicated concepts, like communication and social interactions, that they may struggle to understand. Through consistent modeling, your child can develop essential life skills and help prepare them for more social environments, such as attending kindergarten with other children and interacting with neighbors. 

Through modeling, you can help your child better express their needs and connect with others, strengthening their ability to interact with other children and family members. When supplementing ABA therapy at home, you can model behaviors for your child, like using the appropriate language when asking for help or responding to family members. You can also use modeling to teach your child common skills like arranging their things, washing their face and brushing their teeth.

4. Incorporate Natural Environment Teaching

Unlike structured lessons in a school or a clinic, natural environment teaching (NET) promotes learning using a child's natural surroundings. This approach takes advantage of real-life interactions and activities to help your child learn and develop skills. It's a suitable technique that can be used at home to supplement your child's ABA therapy. 

NTS encourages using immediate situations that are useful in your child's daily life. It's also a technique that encourages child-led learning, using their interests and motivations to guide the teaching process. This factor also makes NET an engaging experience for children with autism. 

If you're preparing ABA therapy activities at home, you can incorporate your child's preferred toy, favorite clothes, favorite song and other enjoyable things that they look forward to. During mealtime, you can teach your child to request food items using proper language. When they make the appropriate request, you can reward your child with their favorite toy or play their favorite song.

The Importance of Center-Based ABA Therapy

While you can practice ABA therapy at home, in-center therapy offers unique benefits that can significantly help your child's progress. 

A key advantage of center-based learning is structure for your child. A familiar home environment makes your child less likely to get distracted. Center-based learning also provides you with the expertise of multiple therapists. As therapists discuss strategies and share insights, this collaboration gives your child well-rounded support that can lead to more tailored and effective treatment.

Learning in a center encourages valuable social interactions, allowing your child to engage with peers in a nurturing environment. These interactions are important in developing communication, cooperation and other essential life skills as your child grows.

Choose Comprehensive Center-Based ABA Therapy for Your Child

When searching for a center-based ABA program, we understand the importance of partnering with dedicated and well-trained therapists for your child's progress. Consider Atlas Autism Health's comprehensive ABA therapy program for young children with autism. We provide a play-based learning approach to help your child develop cognitive and social skills while helping boost their confidence. We've also been recognized with the highest level of accreditation by the Behavioral Health Center of Excellence® — a testament to our commitment to quality care. 

Contact us today to learn more about our ABA therapy program. We customize our curriculum to meet your child's unique learning needs.