Aba Mini Manual

The exercises in the ABA Mini-Manuals cover a broad array of language domains and illuminate the relatedness between them. This collection of exercises is intended to serve as a starting point for teaching language to autistic children who struggle to do so. The approach is systematic, integrative and constructional. There is sufficient procedural detail and explanation of purpose so it is clear to anyone engaged in this particular teaching approach how to proceed. This should be of value to anyone and may be of particular value to BCBAs needing to provide detailed procedures and purpose when supervising and writing goals to satisfy the stringencies of insurance companies. Users of this series may appreciate how targeted abilities are extended and integrated in fine grained, detailed steps leading to generalization and more complex abilities. The collection provides a valuable resource for BCBAs, family members or other professionals looking for ideas when writing goals, seeking help when thinking about how to build programs or if searching for guidance when confronting the intricacies, and complexities of building language based programming in the early stages of learning and intervention.

The exercises in this ABA Mini-Manual eBook stress extensions (generalization) for use of terms and conditions for requesting; multiple modalities are employed. Exercises in this manual include, "naming and tracking", "naming using multiple presentation forms", "sequential naming", "naming to requesting", "requesting to naming", "self-paced naming" and many more. The novel approaches employed will inform your teaching practice and provide insights that can be applied across other domains.

Beyond the basics covered in Level One (matching, imitation, requesting early expressive and receptive language, joint attention), the concepts and linguistic abilities addressed in Level Two are decidedly more challenging for many autistic children. Concepts under consideration in Level Two include, ‘same and different’, ‘parts and whole’, ‘prepositions’, ‘pronouns’, ‘negation’, ‘who, what, where distinctions', 'singular-plural', 'actions and tenses' as well as others. Early acquisition of these concepts requires highly specific teaching arrangements. This manual lays out, in meticulous detail, ways we have found helpful for children to acquire these concepts and begin to generalize them. These exercises establish the foundations necessary for eventual integration of these concepts and abilities into everyday linguistic practice. These exercises illuminate, as in in Level One, the interdependence of abilities and the inherent complexity of teaching language and the considerations for what it takes to acquire these concepts at rudimentary levels.

Conventional matching is a familiar program to anyone engaged in early intensive behavioral intervention and is often one of the first programs introduced. The purpose of matching is to foster identification of similarity or connectedness. However, it is not only for these reasons it should to be taught. Matching can be employed as a vehicle to enhance interpersonal awareness and executive function. The exercises in this ABA mini-manual introduce ways in which this is achieved. Such platforms are unique and of considerable value when building ABA-EIBI programs.. Detailed procedures are provided as well as recommendations for troubleshooting and generalization of this essential domain.

Imitating what others do is a fundamental way children learn. For many autistic children, this mode of learning does not come easily. Thus, learning to imitate may take considerable time, practice and precise behavioral shaping. This mini-manual includes many standard exercises. Also included are more complex imitation exercises which involve time delay, observational learning and extended sequences of imitative responding and serve to generalize imitation abilities.

Get off to a good start with these early programs. They set the stage for later programming and include; following one and two-step instructions, one and two step object identification, person identification, responding to name, following the instruction "come here", and more. Also included is a critically important program, 'Say vs. Do'. This program teaches children to respond to the conditional discrimination "say". This ability allows for teaching children, for example, to use pronouns, to give instructions, to ask questions by eliminating echoic interference. As in all the books in this series, exquisitely detailed procedures for instruction are provided as are abundant suggestions for generalization.

These early learning exercises in imitation, matching, receptive language and joint attention illustrate the kind of analysis and synthesis required when considering the complicated undertaking of teaching children with autism using discrete trial methods. These exercises establish strong rudimentary abilities in these areas and are not intended to be comprehensive in scope. The manual is free of jargon and theory and provides step-by-step direction, broad extensions (generalization), suggestions for troubleshooting and other considerations when ''running' these exercises. These early exercises are often intricate and are designed for practitioners and parents comfortable employing discrete trial methods.

Beyond the basics covered in Level One (matching, imitation, requesting early expressive and receptive language, joint attention), the concepts and linguistic abilities addressed in Level Two are decidedly more challenging for many autistic children. Concepts under consideration in Level Two include 'same and different', 'parts and whole', 'prepositions', 'pronouns', 'negation', 'who, what, where distinctions', 'singular-plural', 'actions and tenses' as well as others. Early acquisition of these concepts requires highly specific teaching arrangements. This manual lays out, step by step, the set up and procedures, in meticulous detail, the ways we have found helpful for children to acquire these concepts and begin to generalize them. These exercises establish the foundations necessary for eventual integration of these concepts and abilities into everyday linguistic practice. These exercises exemplify, as in in Level One, the interdependence of abilities and the inherent complexity of teaching language.