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Autism Without Fear: An Autism School Seeks Behavioral Health…Through Humanism
Disclaimer: This past year I consulted for the League School of Greater Boston, the school that is the subject of this piece. I worked with their students on a self-advocacy curriculum, and I’ve also presented for the school on separate occasions. Seeing what they are attempting up close demanded...
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Supporting Families in ABA Programs with Compassion and Sensitivity
Imagine the feeling of expecting a child. You dream for your child, wonder what they will be like, wonder if they will be funny or smart, outgoing, or quiet. You wonder about a lot of things, but you don’t wonder whether they will ever learn to talk. You don’t wonder if they will ever have a...
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The Role of Compassion in Professional ABA Services Relationships
“Phenomenology or phenomenological psychology, a sub-discipline of psychology, is the scientific study of subjective experiences. It is an approach to psychological subject matter that attempts to explain experiences from the point of view of the subject via the analysis of their written or...
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The Future of Autism and ABA: Predicting Outcomes
For children with autism, there are several competing forces at play that could potentially impact their futures. Legislation mandating coverage1 of applied behavior analysis (ABA) is making this valuable treatment accessible to all. But the rapid explosion in demand for ABA and infusion of private...
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Educational Entitlement for ABA Services: A Right for All
The old saying goes that if you meet one person with autism, you have met one person with autism. This alludes to the fact that people with autism have such a varying set of preferences, interests, strengths, and needs that no two are alike. As a result, the supports people need varies greatly with...
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The Importance of Thinking Developmentally in Educational Approaches
Educational approaches for autistic students are often categorized as either developmental or behavioral. (Prizant & Wetherby, 2005). Behavioral approaches utilize practices based on applied behavior analysis (ABA), and are used to change behavior: that is, to increase desirable behavior and...
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Parent Training Using Technology: Access to ABA Services for Families Across the Globe
Technology has played a tremendous role in the growth of teletherapy as a method for delivering high-quality, medically-necessary services to individuals and their families when accessibility presents as a barrier. There are a variety of behavioral health services that can be delivered via...
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Telehealth Services Improve Accessibility for Individuals with Autism
Approximately 1 out of 54 children in the United States live with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).1 My son is one of those individuals, so I know firsthand some of the many struggles that can come with safely accessing health care. Diagnosing ASD early in a child’s development can have a...
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The Benefits of Training Parents to Use Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence Charts
Individuals with autism spectrum disorder can exhibit many behaviors their families, teachers, and other supporters in their communities find challenging. Likewise, individuals on the spectrum see the world at large as a challenge, and the people in their lives find the challenging behaviors their...
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Strategies to Support Communication and Address Challenging Behaviors
Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities who face the greatest challenges most often have failed to acquire a means of effective communication. Most adults and children alike without verbal behavior are likely to develop a strong repertoire of challenging behavior. The young...
