Mikal Britt, Behaviorist for 10+ years OBSERVING: The Good Behaviorist will have an antennae sticking up at all times – monitoring and processing what is happening around. This means going deeper than the surface, seeing the subtext, paying attention to both the background and the foreground simultaneously. This ability makes the Good Behaviorist a better problem-solver, able to see solutions or triggers that other people would miss. LOOSENESS: What I really mean is adaptability. The Good Behaviorist will be able…
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By Linda Andron Ostrow For this month’s wisdom, we turn to nine-year-old Gwen. In our social skills group, in individual therapy, and in her in-home behavioral program, Gwen works very hard for self-understanding, including the role that autism plays in her life. Equally as dedicated, her mother works very hard along with therapists, to build this very critical skill of the Upstairs Brain (a term from The Whole Brain Child, Dr. Dan Siegel). The proof is in the pudding as…
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Erica Kastan, MA, LMFT, BCBA There are numbers all around us. From gas prices to knowing what channel number NBC is on. Each one of these numbers has a symbolic and important meaning to its own context. Last month I wrote about understanding the functions of behavior and briefly stated that data collection is needed to understand if you are hypothesizing the right function, baseline, and progress of behavior. There are many ways to take data in ABA: Frequency, duration, latency, andInter…
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By Linda Andron Ostrow As a parent, navigating the world of autism can be very overwhelming. For some, receiving a diagnosis was validating and brought a sense of relief because at least they now know and understand. With a diagnosis, they can then know what services to obtain for their children. But for others, this may not be the case. Some parents still questioned themselves and wondered if they had done anything wrong, internalizing the social stigma surrounding autism into…
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Mikal Britt, Behaviorist for 10+ years Sometimes you have to let kids do things that might make you nervous. You have to take chances and experiment if you want to see growth. Another way to say this is “helping by not helping”, which sounds counterintuitive, or maybe even like an excuse. But in many cases, it is the only way to help someone get over the next hurdle. Whether a therapist, caregiver, or parent, we are often too concerned with controlling…
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Eric Kastan, MA, LMFT, BCBA As a clinician, many people ask me why people behave in the manner they do, even when it makes no logical sense to engage in the behavior seen. A person’s behavior is not in a vacuum. There are many factors into why a person engages in a certain behavior or does not. In ABA, there are four main functions of a behavior: Social Reinforcement + (SR+), Social Reinforcement – (SR-), Automatic Reinforcement + (AR+), and…
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By Linda Andron-Ostrow As I sit down to write this, I don’t know how to express my gratitude for the opportunity to share this journey with so many families and young people. I am also grateful for all the knowledge I have gained from so many other dedicated professional. My heartfelt thanks to all the parents who have stayed the course and now celebrating success as they send their graduates into the world. Graduation time reminds me of the full…
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By Mikal Britt I’ve been a behavior therapist for almost ten years now. This was never my intention. But one summer when I worked at the now-defunct FACT Summer Sleepaway Camp at UCLA, my entire life changed. It was a “sink or swim” full-immersion situation: spend one week living with and taking care of 115 kids with autism, all age ranges and functioning abilities. I had absolutely no experience, except for the fact that I happen to be a calm,…
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By Linda Andron-Ostrow The recent Centers for Disease Control (CDC) report on autism raises the usual questions: is autism a disease or as those from the neuro-diversity movement tell us, a natural variant in the human condition? Temple Grandin has repeatedly reminded us about how the world would be without those on the spectrum. She speculates that the wheel might never have been invented because typical people might have always be in the back of the cave socializing. If we look…
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By Eric Kastan, M.A.,LMFT, BCBA Difference is the key We have looked at many different aspects of ABA and creating change in behavior. When we come across a behavior that is correct in one context and not correct in another, basic reinforcement and punishment procedures may not really capture the idea of change needed. When we have a targeted behavior we want to change in one context (across place, person, or time) and keep in another, we turn to Differential…
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