Social skills lessons are designed to strengthen social interaction and communication skills, which can be a challenge for our learners. Here, we discuss how to approach teaching social skills to effectively target social communication goals. Social skills vary depending on personality preferences, and we cover how to determine which ones to focus on with our learners.

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach, so it’s important to understand your learners’ values. We discuss how to balance caregiver input with a child’s own preferences, how to determine when it’s beneficial for a learner to develop specific social skills, and how to make teaching social skills fun and positive. 

What’s Inside:

• How to approach teaching social skills
• The importance of a learner’s values when teaching social skills
• How to make teaching social skills fun

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ACT Values Matrix

Trauma informed care is a trending topic in our field and here, we discuss how to best incorporate it into our practice. When we talk about trauma, we’re not just referring to the big things, but really anything that happens in our learners’ lives that can make them a bit more sensitive. We want our students’ experience with us to be positive, so we should always go in with a compassionate, holistic approach.

We define the different types of trauma and stress and discuss why relationship building should be your first priority. Trauma is often a function of behavior or a setting event, and we discuss that as well. We also talk about working with parents through a trauma informed lens, putting yourself in your learner’s shoes, and using empathy and validation.

What’s Inside:

• How to incorporate a trauma informed approach in ABA
• Using a trauma informed approach with parents
• How to utilize empathy and validation

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Applying the Universal Protocol

As BCBAs, we know the intake process with our learners sometimes takes up a ton of time. Fortunately, there are ways to streamline the process so you don’t have to spend hours on assessments. What things seem like on paper isn’t always what they are in person, and we should look at things from a place of clinical judgment and relationship building. Establishing trust when teaching someone is super important, so it’s important to build this into your intake process.

Here, we discuss our streamlined intake process, starting with our first interactions with a new learner. We also discuss how to assess a learner’s skill level and profile, how to go through assessments during play, and how to troubleshoot when things don’t go by the book.

Starting in June, we’re hosting a series of CEUs on streamlining the intake process. For more information and to sign up, head to our website!

What’s Inside:

• Why it’s important to look at the intake process from a place of clinical judgment
• A walkthrough of our streamlined intake process
• Information on our upcoming intake process CEU series

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Join our Intake Process CEU Event

We typically use direct instruction programs with some of our advanced learners, especially when working towards academic goals. Direct instruction programs are based on ABA principles and designed around reviewing previously mastered skills and moving in small increments to help our learners feel successful. Here, we cover some of our favorite direct instruction programs and provide tips on how to use them most effectively.

We walk through the history of direct instruction programs in American school districts and how the focus shifted towards adoption within the special needs area. We share all our go-to direct instruction programs to help learners with reading, language and comprehension, spelling, math, and writing. We also talk about targeting concepts individually and data collection. 

What’s Inside:

• The history of direct instruction programs
• Our favorite direct instruction programs by learning topic
• How to use direct instruction programs most effectively

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National Institute for Direct Instruction: NIFDI

Toilet training is one of the most important skills we can teach our learners. When it comes to our learners with special needs or autism, it means we can promote their dignity. We feel strongly that toilet training should be introduced as soon as a child is ready. Here, we talk about prerequisite skills, intrinsic motivation, and how to build momentum before starting the training.

Priming is essential as well and we discuss how to make the toilet a familiar, positive place. We talk about using a time interval approach to toilet training, choosing a powerful reinforcer and getting parent buy-in, and how to use visuals. We also discuss how to handle when a child has an accident and some common toilet training mistakes.

What’s Inside:

• How to know when a child is ready for toilet training
• How to use a time interval approach 
• Common toilet training mistakes

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Toilet Training Tip Sheet

Our approach to Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) today might look a lot different to what we did in the past, or how we were taught in school. In the past, DTT was heavy on memorization, and it often lacked a natural environment component. Here, we discuss the evolution of DTT, what’s changed, and how we can apply it in our current work. 

We talk about the three-term contingency model of DTT and discuss some of the common misconceptions of the technique. We also discuss what a true child-led approach looks like and how to individualize DTT for both client and therapist.

What’s Inside:

• The evolution of DTT and how we use it today
• Common misconceptions about DTT
• How to individualize DTT for clients and therapists

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Three Term Contingency Download

Through our ABA education, we learned a lot about rules and procedures around behavior management. However, sometimes rigid traditional methods fail to work, and we need to turn to an empathetic, person-centered approach instead. Acknowledging how our learners are feeling in the moment can sometimes be far more effective than trying to push ahead. Here, we discuss how the person-centered approach works.

The beauty of a person-centered approach is that it holds space for our learners while still allowing us to hold firm boundaries. The goal is to come across as a cheerleader, not a controller. We discuss Hanley’s Universal Protocol and related concepts, tips for creating a more positive environment, and how to identify precursors to problem behaviors.

On Thursday, May 17th, we’re hosting a live CEU event on a child-centered approach to behavior management. Click the link below to sign up!

What’s Inside:

• How to use a person-centered approach to behavior management
• Details on Hanley’s Universal Protocol
• How to identify precursors to problem behaviors

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Join our upcoming CEU event!

Here at How to ABA, we get a lot of questions regarding Hanley’s approach to tolerance and delay. We’ve created our own user-friendly data sheet based on Hanley’s course that you can download and reuse. Here, we walk through our data sheet and show you how to use it in your practice. We also provide tips to help you and your learners have a successful treatment experience.

Our membership space contains this form as well as many others. Head to the website below to check it out!

What’s Inside:

• A walkthrough of our SBT data sheet
• Tips on how to best complete the data sheet
• How to get your own copy to download and reuse

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David Celiberti, Ph.D., BCBA, is the part time Executive Director of the Association for Science in Autism Treatment (ASAT) and Past-President of its Board of Directors, a role he served from 2006 to 2012. He is the Co-Editor of ASAT’s newsletter, Science in Autism Treatment. Dr. Celiberti has served on a number of advisory boards and special interest groups in the fields of autism, applied behavior analysis, and early childhood education. Dr. Celiberti has also taught courses related to applied behavior analysis (ABA) at both the undergraduate and graduate levels, supervised individuals pursuing BCBA certifications, and conducted research in the areas of ABA, family intervention, and autism.

Dr. Celiberti joins us to talk about ASAT, their mission, and the positive impact they have on the autism community. He shares his insights into what’s changed on the science front over the years and how ASAT combats misinformation. We discuss some of the challenges Dr. Celiberti is facing as well as what we can do as a community to bring things back to evidence-based practices and science. We also talk about how ASAT is spreading their message and how behavior analysts can tap into ASAT’s resources.

What’s Inside:

• ASAT’s mission and their impact on the autism community
• How we can bring attention back towards science-based practices
• How to access ASAT’s resources for behavior analysts

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ASAT Quick Links Sheet

Extinction is a buzzword we hear frequently in the world of ABA; however, what does it truly mean? Many people may think extinction is the same thing as ignoring, which is a misuse and misunderstanding. Extinction really means to stop providing reinforcement where it once was. It does not mean ignoring or following through on demands in spite of what else may be going on with our learners.

Here, we discuss different ways to extinguish behaviors and use examples like sleep and potty training. We also talk about how the concept of extinction has changed over the years, how to use extinction more appropriately in behavior management, using a trauma-informed approach when working with learners, and more.

What’s Inside:

• What extinction is and isn’t
• How to use extinction appropriately in behavior management
• The importance of a trauma-informed approach

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