Autism is not caused by a lack of love, and it is not cured by punishment. Parents need support to manage difficult behaviours with structure and consistency.
ABA Little Tots Program
The ABA Little Tots Admissions for the Fall is now complete. The ABA Little Tots have been enjoying the nice weather and have recently been playing outside while waiting to come into the center to play. They have been continuing on with their individualized programs after completing their bi-annual assessments.
One important skill that we focus on in the Little Tots program is imitation skills. This can be in the form of:
- Gross motor imitation- for example imitating peers to go sit at the table for snack time
- Gross motor imitation with objects- for example imitating someone driving a car down a car ramp
- Fine motor imitation- for example imitating a thumbs up to a peer
- Drawing imitation- for example imitating a behavior therapist’s example of a printed letter
Imitation skills are useful in a classroom setting because once these skills are generalized they can be used to learn new skills that are modelled by the teacher or the child’s peers. An example of this could be when a teacher gives the instruction for everyone in the class to line up and the child did not hear the instruction because their friend was talking to them. In this scenario the child may see that all children are lining up at the door and will follow their peers and line up too. Another example would be if there is a new toy in the room, a child can watch their peers play with it to find out how to turn it on.
– Desirae, Director of the ABA Little Tots Program