training coming outta my ears!

Today was bittersweet. Our first 8 hour training class was today for Troy and I. I was and am soo excited about it. This not only gets services for Damian but teaches us how to apply the therapy at home. It will actually benefit Max as well, even Brandon and Mila if we wanted.

But before that long spiel, the kids earned their Baskin Robbins reward for chores for the week. Plus having coupons made it even better for me! They were so proud. Brandon said he is getting his because he got an award at school and I told him that does not mean 2 scoops.










Today was about Applied Behavioral Analysis, ABA for short. I thought it was for only younger children but it can be applied to adults as well.

Typically developing children learn without our intervention--the world around them provides the right conditions to learn language, play, and social skills. Children with autism learn much, much less easily from the environment. They have the potential to learn, but it takes a very structured environment, one where conditions are optimized for acquiring the same skills that typical children learn "naturally." ABA is all about how to set up the environment to enable our kids to learn.

We are to pick out some skills Damian needs to be taught. We chose washing his face, he has serious tactile issues, and using the restroom the right way, before and after. We set up a task analysis which is basically the steps to learn each of these new skills.

Rewards and reinforcers are a must when it comes to this therapy.

Appropriateness- rewards need to be what he likes. We chose for now some edible treats. When we attack behavior issues then it will be for something bigger, like video game time. He will earn tokens for that.

Immediacy- delivering the reinforcer/reward within 3 seconds of the behavior we wanted

Consistency- reinforce the desired behavior or skill every time it occurs, no getting sloppy on our part!

Contingency- only give praise AFTER the behavior you asked for occurs.

We will have a home visit next week to see how we did and she can help us troubleshoot. Our homework is also data collecting on behaviors we need working on and what caused it, etc. Yes!!!!

This is why I wanted this behavior therapy for him..and Max but don't tell them.

10 year olds should NOT be throwing tantrums. Damian is actually almost completely free of those. He will scream or yell if he does not want to do something or transition from say the computer to homework. That is not acceptable anymore and I am so happy we can finally deal with this and turn it around!!!

It will make our life so much more smoother without these escalating behaviors. Limiting computer and video game time is a must for us and getting help for that will be so much easier for us.

Troy was so happy to be there and take part in it. I know he sometimes feels left out of the loop because I usually go to the meetings, do the research, make the phone calls, etc and now we have a plan in place and we're both on the same page!

So I am beat.

Made a dish with some new products, sipped on iced tea from Starbucks (my new obsession) and watched Troy wrestle with Damian, his new thing. Then everyone else piled on him.



Love my life.
..............
xo