Therapies

The Autism Center of Nebraska utilizes Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy as one of its form of treatment for autism. The ABA approach teaches:

• Social skills
• Motor skills
• Verbal behaviors
• Reasoning skills

This treatment is especially useful in teaching behaviors to children with autism who may otherwise not learn these behaviors on their own as other children would.

ABA uses careful behavioral observation and positive reinforcement or prompting to teach each step of a behavior. Undesirable behaviors, or those that interfere with learning and social skills, are watched closely. The goal is to determine what happens to trigger a behavior, and what happens after that behavior to reinforce it. The idea is to remove these triggers and reinforces from the child’s environment. New reinforcers are then used to teach the child a different behavior in response to the same trigger.

The ABA approach provides teaching tools that focus on simplified instructional steps and consistent reinforcement and can help children with autism lead more independent and socially active lives.