One of the challenges many families in the Chicago, IL, area have is finding ways to engage their autism spectrum disorder children in training and therapy. Often ASD children do not find an appeal to traditional types of learning methods, which may create a sense of frustration for struggling parents.
Learning Environment
An effective way to solve this problem is to use a service offering in-home ABA therapy. ABA or Applied Behavior Analysis uses a data-based method to target the training of specific positive behaviors to replace unwanted or challenging behaviors. As children can experience difficulties in transferring this learning from a therapy session to the home, having the service provided in the home is a benefit.
With in-home ABA therapy, the therapist or service provider comes into the home and works with the child one-on-one. The advantage of this training option is the child is now learning the behavior in the specific environment where he or she needs to use the behavior.
At the same time, the parents are there to observe the in-home ABA therapy session. Coupling this observation with parenting training helps parents to not only understand their child but also to identify areas where individual children may need additional support now as well as in the future.
Make Learning Fun and Interesting
Throughout Chicago, IL, families are taking advantage of technology in working with ASD children. The use of Augmented Reality therapy and assistive technology helps children to interact with virtual media to impact their physical space.
For example, augmented alternative communication is available on tablets or even on smartphones, making it easier for those with communication challenges to be able to speak to others. These programs or apps can be very basic, or they can be designed to prompt the individual for more complete communication in a wide range of situations.
AR or Augmented Reality therapy uses videos, overlays, and even headset and specialized glasses to help children to attend to social cues, to increase vocabulary based on real-time conversations, and to allow children to learn to recognize facial expressions based on a specific story or interaction.
The future of technology for ASD children is positive. This is a highly interactive and interesting option to capture children’s imagination and sustain their attention. The Autism Therapy Group provides in-home ABA therapy throughout Chicago, IL.
