IPAD for behaviour therapy

A magician never reveals her secret, but lucky for you I am not a magician, I am a therapist...so here goes. For my birthday (mid Feb) I got an IPAD. I know all the ABA Therapists out there are gasping in excitement,, like I was upon discovery of the gift, so for this post I will sing my praises to Apple...here goes. 
It may be old news that Apple is producing IPAD APPS that support language and focus in our kids, but until I had used it first hand, I could not have fathomed the results. I work with mostly early-learners; that means that whether old or young most of my clients are developing the foundational learning skills, which need to be targeted to ensure successful overall skill development. To say these skills are critically important would be an understatement. Again, this may be old news to some of you but bear with me as I get the ball rolling....
So my clients are always seeking early-learner profile goals, like for-example joint-attention (the ability to focus on the same thing, or subject, as somebody else), eye-contact (self-explanatory), following simple directions (come, sit, wait, say hi),  prolonged focus and increased attention-span, and willingness to accept feedback. Many early-learners on the spectrum struggle to reach these skills in a natural way, so we need to design systematic ways to teach them. Enter IPAD.

ABA has a bad reputation for being the jellybean science for exactly this reason. In the past, therapists were forced to motivate behaviour with reinforcement like edibles (jellybeans, m and ms, skittles, popcorn, chips, gummies) in order to create a motivating learning environment; of course, the principle of reinforcement is bang on, but the delivery is a bit flawed because it is hard to fade systematically, short of simply increasing the mean length of an interval, and it is not natural and not likely to occur as a natural consequence in the real world. My client is not likely going to have a teacher or a boss in the future that is going to say Nice work Jimmy, here is a bag of jellybeans for your hard work. (Unless you work for me, that is.)
*Disclaimer* There is a time and place for edibles, I am not knocking them and I use them occasionally on an a case by case basis, but...not as the universal way to motivate learning and never without a plan to fade it and pair with social reinforcement. Also, I use edibles freely as reinforcement with my staff and I do not think there is anything wrong with that :)
Bottom line is, in order to get away from the unnatural schedules of reinforcement, or modes of delivery (i.e. popping a jellybean into the child's mouth) we have to write programs that are intrinsically motivating for our clients. Enter IPAD.
The IPAD is just one way I have discovered that a teacher or therapist can capture a room, even when the room is full of early-learners AND competing stimuli. I use my IPAD to run manding sessions, receptive language targets, tacting sessions, vocal imitation programs, direct-instruction, verbal behaviour, speech, phonics, numeracy and so much more; I use it in a group, in one to one, with my pinky, with my thumb..in a house..with a mouse...you get it. 
The number of educational programs available is vast, and many are available for limited use without purchase. The number of sensory apps has impressed me, and the prolonged interest in the IPAD as a result, and as a reinforcer, is far beyond anything else available to me in-centre. It is rare that a single-reinforcer will serve as the motivating for an entire sessions, switching reinforcement helps keep things fresh, but with one IPAD I can not only switch the stimuli and reinforcement, and save time, energy and resources creating materials. Did I mention that voice-output systems are obsolete with the number of free assistance communication programs available in the App Store. I mean, they really thought of everything here.


To be continued...............

Allowing for Mood

As an ABA Therapist and proponent of a very systematic curriculum, it is important to me that my therapists and myself engage in daily analysis of the variables involved in teaching our students. If we get too rigid about how things are supposed to go, we miss the signs that help us indicate how to best meet our kids needs. Though we rely heavily on predetermined programming, we make plenty of choices day to day, accounting for anything that may impact the acquisition of skills in that moment (from interests to mood). The choices we make provide momentum to our sessions and quite often mean the difference between a good therapist, and a great therapist. All children, including those with Autism, display various emotions from elated to upset, from anxious to overtired; as therapists and arguably as parents, we should become skilled at recognizing each state in our kids.

The ability to tap into the child, and "pull him out" as it was once described to me, is something I require of my therapists daily, especially in working with children on the spectrum. Of course, a successful rapport between student and therapist propels learning, but equally as important is the ability to assess your client's most preferred domain, in any given moment. Being able to pull upon the right task at the right time, and in the right order to ensure focused completion, is something which provides behavioural momentum to learning. In a moment where the therapist really nails it, the completion of the task itself serves as the reinforcer. By structuring sessions this way or that, a therapist can ensure that sensory and sensory motor needs are met, among other variables impacting skill acquisition.

It's like how math, when you get it right, is really satisfying in itself; or that feeling that comes after completing the last piece of a 10,000 piece jigsaw puzzle. That is called intrinsic reinforcement; reinforcement built-in to the actual activity.

A successful therapist or teacher is able to appreciate each of the child's moods, and understands how it impacts skill acquisition; this takes practice, and getting to know each client individually. Flexibility is something many ABA programs lack; flexibility is something many children on the Autism spectrum desperately need in order to thrive.