Types of Behavioral Therapy For Autism Spectrum Disorders

A Quick Guide

Autism is a neurodevelopment disorder that mostly impairs social behavior and communication skills. A child with autism spectrum disorder needs early assistance from a team of specialists. A psychologist, a speech and language therapist, and an occupational or physical therapist may be on this team. These professionals can assist that child in acquiring age-appropriate verbal, social, and behavioral skills through extensive therapy. The majority of children with autism spectrum disorders benefit from specialized behavioral and language therapy. This may involve play and peer socializing as well as educational therapy, speech, and language therapy, and the development of motor skills.

Learn more about Effective Teaching Strategies For Students With ASD.

Children can learn how to talk and communicate, play together, and take care of themselves with the aid of early, intensive, and systematic education. Behavioral therapy is a common form of treatment used by therapists for children with Autism Spectrum Disorders.

Types of Behavioral Therapy For Autism Spectrum Disorders

Each person’s ideal autism behavioral therapy may incorporate one or more of the following methods.

Applied Behavior Analysis

Applied behavior analysis ABA is one kind of behavioral therapy for Autism Spectrum Disorders. ABA is used to teach kids how to recognize negative behaviors and assist them in achieving positive goals. When using ABA therapy, a professional therapist typically spends 40 or more hours per week working with a child one-on-one. Furthermore, goals would be set after the child had been observed. 

An autistic behavioral therapist would reinforce desired behaviors in the child while disregarding undesired ones to carry out the program. To reduce the amount of time a therapist must spend with the child and to enable the child to engage in authentic social situations, it is beneficial for a parent or caregiver to learn more about ABA. The therapies and techniques used in ABA come in a variety of forms. Some of which we will discuss ahead: 

Discrete Trial Training

Discrete Trial Training DTT is an ABA method that divides skills into manageable chunks. One step at a time, a therapist instructs, rewarding the person for appropriate responses. There are four steps in a discrete trial, which include the following:

Instruction: The instructor gives the student a job to accomplish, such as touching their ear.

A prompt: The teacher could indicate the student’s ear.

A response: The person responds by touching their ear.

A consequence: the teacher compliments the student for touching their ear.

Before starting the next trial, the instructor takes a little pause.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders can learn more difficult behaviors like dressing themselves or preparing a basic meal with DTT.

Pivotal Response Training

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders learn language through this therapy. Emphasizing crucial, or pivotal, behaviors that have an impact on a wide range of other behaviors, can also result in fewer disruptive behaviors and improve social, communication, and academic skills.

Motivation and initiating conversation with others are pivotal behaviors for children with an autism spectrum disorder. The purpose of this therapy is to bring about beneficial modifications in pivotal behaviors, which will enhance social, play, and communication abilities.

Both the clinic and the patient’s home are generally used for pivotal response training. Furthermore, parents can continue this work at home by learning the fundamentals of crucial response treatment. Most of the people involved in the child’s life are encouraged to use these models every day.

Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention EIBI

Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention EIBI is an ABA therapy used with preschool-aged autistic children. It uses a reward system to divide work into manageable steps. Children might pick up new abilities and desirable behaviors to replace more difficult or inappropriate ones. EIBI enables kids to:

• Concentrate harder.
• Develop your imitation skills.
• Improve their comprehension and usage of language.
• Develop their capacity for daily life.

EIBI requires a significant time investment to execute properly. Children can receive therapy in a variety of places, such as a clinic or their place of education. EIBI is mostly implemented at home with the child by the parent. To reap the greatest benefits, most therapists advise investing 20 hours a week or more over a number of years.

The Early State Denver Model

An early intervention strategy for children ages one to four is called the Early Start Denver Model. It seeks to lessen autistic symptoms while also speeding up the child’s development in terms of their social, emotional, cognitive, and language skills.

This kind of therapy is carried out in clinics and at homes by trained therapists, parents, and family members during playtime and daily activities. The Early Start Denver Model is an empirically supported therapy that has been shown to be effective in numerous studies.

Incidental Training

Similar to DTT, incidental training takes place outside of a therapy office. A child with autism is taught skills through natural opportunities by their parents and teachers. Both the playground and the dinner table can be used for training. In naturally occurring events, parents can use this reward and prompt strategy to encourage motivation.

Relationship Development Intervention

Relationship development intervention therapy RDI is yet another treatment option for autistic children. The focus of this recently developed behavior treatment is on the child with autism’s social interactions. When using RDI, the parents are more involved than the therapist. Goals are established for the child after a professional completes initial examinations. To learn how to implement the therapy, the parents watch a five-hour video or attend a lengthy workshop. Additionally, parents upload videos of themselves with their kids so that professionals can comment and offer guidance for further treatment. Although RDI seems to work best with young children, there is still potential for older children as well.

Sensory Integration Therapy

Sensory integration therapy is another type of behavioral therapy that is frequently utilized for Autism Spectrum Disorders. This kind of therapy aims to increase a child’s sensitivity to sensory stimulation that the child may find overwhelming. It can become possible for them to handle loud noises, bright lights, and touch after a while. The child will be exposed to progressively stronger doses of the stimuli being worked on by the therapist utilizing this sort of therapy. There is no use of force, even yet the therapist must push the child beyond his or her comfort zone. If sensory integration therapy is going to work, it doesn’t take much time every session, and effects are usually seen rather fast.

Communication Interventions

The category of communication interventions is another behavioral therapy for autism spectrum disorders. Different theories are employed, but they all center on the fundamental communication deficiency that many people with autism share. Without efficient communication, you will frequently observe undesirable behaviors brought on by annoyance and misperceptions of the circumstances. An individual can convey his needs and desires more effectively by learning communication skills, whether they are verbal or involve the use of aids like iPads. The child will find this to have greater significance if you allow it to occur in public settings. Social learning can occur through games, peer tutoring, and modeling also.

Alternative and Augmentative Communication AAC

Some children with Autism Spectrum Disorders use nonverbal means of communication. Depending on a person’s needs, AAC can be utilized for long or short periods of time. This kind of speech treatment offers both high-tech and low-tech AAC solutions.

High-tech alternatives could include using a tablet or iPad for communication or utilizing a gadget with a “voice”. Whereas, low-tech alternatives can include writing, drawing, and pointing to images or text.

Each person has different communication needs, and a speech therapist can help in determining the optimal AAC (or a mix of AACs) to use in order to improve communication.

Based on the demands of the person, behavioral therapy for autism spectrum disorders generally vary greatly. Finding the proper procedure is essential for success because different therapeutic modalities are more effective for different patients.

We hope you found this article useful in learning more about the different types of behavioral therapy for Autism Spectrum Disorders. Learn more about Common Comorbid Psychiatric Disorders In Autism.