Moving Away From By-The-Book ABA

Last week I was in Toronto doing oversight and training with staff at an ABA agency I consult to. A staff was very nervous for my supervision so I made some time to chat through this.

He mentioned that he was surprised I didn’t come in with a clipboard and score card. The previous 4 centres he’d been at had all had it. What came out of further conversation was that each time he was scored as being slow on his prompting and his IRT was too long so he was already anticipating this feedback. I told him I don’t score staff like that.

Which - swings me back to an earlier blog post regarding compassion.

I don’t believe in by-the-book ABA in the majority of instances (not all) - in my practice I don’t practice it. What I mean by ‘by-the-book’ is an emphasis on timing every interaction with a child down to the seconds to try to ensure that the practice of ABA is so textbook-run that the only other option is that the child is not learning with these methods.

I don’t subscribe to that way of thinking.

ABA can be more flexible than that - it can be more about accommodating to how the child is feeling, what the child is in the mood for, how hard the learning is, whether they’ve slept, had a snack, or or or… the list goes on. All that to say - ABA can be used and not be applied so strictly that there is no room for flexibility.

Swinging back to the staff end of things. I couldn’t imagine (and have never been in that environment myself) being scored for the gap between questions, or the amount of time until the child responds, or the time it takes to get a trial together. That would have stressed me out and I may not have continued in the field. I am not the quickest, I make mistakes, I am not always fully set up, I will wait for a child to respond. These are also common in parenting, and school, and daycare and with others - so why can we not embrace these as parts of the human experience that our kids have to adjust themselves to.

What I believe in with my service is that sessions may look different day to day, but if the flow is there, if the child shows that the session moves predictably, if the therapist looks like they’ve got it together and the child isn’t waiting impatiently, and also if the child overall appears engaged - I’m happy with service. This warms my heart. Clearly the therapist and child have a bond, and the therapist (the adult) has shown the child compassion, such that the child wants to be around the therapist.

Now, I am not saying that the targets that data being taken on are utterly un-important. I am definitely data-driven and the goals I set are intended to move the metre in a child’s development. I prescribe the programs to move things further. But. But. If the child does not enjoy service, and the therapist is fried - I can bet parents aren’t happy about service, which means I’m also not having a good time. So. I allow for flexibility. Compassion. Out-of-the-box thinking. Empathy. Sympathy. Warmth. Nurturing. Fun.