A Typical ABA Session

To give you an idea of how ABA works, I'll describe a typical session. This is by no means the definitive way to teach ABA, just methods that have worked for us.

The first step is to gather all necessary materials. It's important to do this first, because if you have to stop half way through to look around for items then your child's attention will wander. Children on the spectrum often find transitions difficult, so getting them back on task after a break can be hard.

There are three things to gather:

1) A record sheet and a pen. This sheet should be pre-printed with the instructions you are to give, and any other information, so all you have to do during a session is tick the boxes.

2) Reinforcers, if any. If you intend to give sweets for each correct answer, they should be small and easy to consume quickly. Anything chewy can seriously hold up the flow of a lesson. Special toys could also be used. If your child responds well to praise, hugs or tickles you may be able to skip this part.

3) Props. Many ABA lessons require household objects, toys, or flashcards. Figure out what you will need and make sure you have it handy.

Once your materials are ready, make sure the TV and radio are off and try to ensure that you will be free from interruptions. Announcing that it is "lesson time" makes it clearer to your child what is expected. Sit him down facing you, and make sure you have his attention. Constant eye contact is not necessary (and may even be distressing and detract from his ability to concentrate), but there should be strong signs that he is listening. Reward for sitting still and paying attention is sometimes needed, although the more he progresses the less this will be so.

Next, give an instruction or ask a question:

Wait for an answer. Some ABA instructors suggest that about 5 seconds is about the right amount of time to wait. This depends on your child, the lesson in question, and how long he has been learning it. If he is wily, like Jamie, he will sometimes wait for you to prompt him with the right answer even though he knows it, so you must judge carefully when to provide it. For a new lesson the right response should be modelled almost immediately after the question. Then a time delay is introduced, followed by giving only a small part of the answer, such as the first letter. This is known as a prompt. Gradually this time delay is increased and the hint becomes more subtle, until your child will (hopefully) be able to respond correctly without any input from you. This is known as prompt fading.

If your child answers or reacts correctly, it's time for a reward, or reinforcer. Early on, immediate satisfaction in the form of a reward is the best way to communicate your pleasure and to encourage the right behaviour. As your child becomes more advanced you can move him to a token system, giving the main reinforcement at the end of a session and simply telling him what he has done well. This makes it easier to get on with teaching without stopping every minute to give a reward.

The next stage is to record the result, good or bad, and move on to the next question. This continues for however many questions there are in that topic, usually around 10. Then we move on to the next topic. If there is a pause between one topic and another, it should not be for longer than a couple of minutes. Otherwise it would be hard to start teaching again.

Concentration wanes as the session progresses, so I have found it useful to structure teaching with the least exciting part first. Pretending to be animals and learning to jump, skip and hide is a good way to end a period of learning, and this may make it easier to initiate the next one. Finally, some words of praise and possibly even a reward for taking part, before it's time to finish.

ABA itself is not a difficult method of teaching to carry out. What causes problems is the resistance your child may put up, the difficulty of knowing which lessons are the most appropriate at any given time, and boredom. Of those three obstacles, the latter is the hardest to combat, for both parent and child. ABA requires long-term dedication for it to succeed. Lessons should be kept under regular review to ensure that they are interesting your child and that he continues to learn from them.