Using ABA: Teach Your Child to Listen & Follow Instructions

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) uses principles of learning and motivation to teach skills in the areas of functional communication/language, social skills, play skills and academic skills. It is also used to reduce undesirable behaviors, teach replacement skills and shape positive behaviors. It is a scientific, data-driven approach that focuses on fostering independence and the ability of a child to generalize and utilize their learning across different situations and settings.

Typically developing children observe and learn about things in a very natural and smooth manner from their environment. For some of our children, however, we need to modify our ways of teaching various skills, including following instructions.

Now Launching Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) Dynamics Therapy Centre has just launched our new department for ABA. We provide ABA with a strong emphasis on relationships and ensuring your child has a positive experience. This can help him/her grow their communication and social skills while building positive behavior patterns quickly.

Here are some ways in which you can build that skill:

• Pair with your child
  Start by neutrally engaging with them in things they like and delivering preferred items freely, such that they develop a positive association with you as a fun person, rather than someone who will just give them instructions or take away things they like.
• Start simple, start small, reward!
  Start with very simple directives, which the child will be able to successfully follow. Reward those, and then gradually increase the difficulty level of the instructions.
• Keep your directives short, simple and concrete
  Some of our children have selective attending skills, so very lengthy instructions with too many unnecessary words may confuse the child. Eg. Instead of saying ‘Let us sit down’, simply say ‘sit down’.
• Use positive statements
  Statements like ‘Don’t__’ only tell children what they are not supposed to do, but miss out on conveying the expected behaviors. Eg. Instead of saying ‘don’t scream’, say ‘quiet voice/mouth’.
• Use visual cues
  Some of our kids are visual learners. Pairing your instructions with visuals can help them understand and follow better. Some examples are, ‘first-then’ boards for activities, visual schedule boards for routines, ‘wait’ cards in situations that require them to wait.

• Reward differentially
  You can shape the child’s response by varying the quality of rewards. For example, for independent and quicker responses, reward with the child’s favorite toy or activity. For instructions that the child required more assistance with or took more time to follow, reward with a moderately preferred item.
• Provide choices, be flexible
  Embedding some choice in our instructions makes children feel empowered and gives them a degree of control, and they will then be more likely to follow instructions. Eg. Ask the child ‘do you want to do Math first or English?’, ‘Should we colour this picture or that one?’.
• Be consistent and follow through
  Show your child that you can be trusted. Always say what you mean and mean what you say. If you have promised them a reward for doing something, make sure you keep your word. If you have denied them something, make sure you do not give them access to it no matter what.
• Address problem behaviors
  If you avoid the problem behavior, you will never be able to correct it or unintentionally shape negative patterns of behaviors. When problem behavior occurs, you have an opportunity to teach them replacement functional skills/behaviors.
• Encourage functional communication
  Provide and create opportunities for your child to use their communication skills. If everything is readily given to them, they have no need to initiate communication. We want our children to be ready for the real world, pro-actively engage with their surroundings and initiate interactions.

Harshita Bhatt ABA Program Specialist Harshita is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), who has over 6 years of intensive experience of working with individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities in Singapore and India. She has completed her BCBA coursework from the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT). She also holds a degree in Masters in Psychology from University of Delhi, India.

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