You’ll talk with your BCBA about your child’s strengths, favorite things, and routines that go well. We also talk about your concerns and routines that don’t go well.
Autistic children, children with anxiety, ADHD, etc, can feel more passionately about their wants and needs than neurotypical children. As a result, they struggle with flexibility and cooperation. In order for them to begin learning those skills, we need to set up teaching opportunities that balances their preferred activities with adult led activities.
The foundation of the Balance Program is learning how to play with your child in the way that he wants to play. We do this because soon we are asking your child to build those skills that are often times hard from him.
Often times, when children are playing and the adult calls their names, they are reluctant to stop. They may not acknowledge that you called for them. If you interrupt their play, they may have temper tantrums.
The first step in the Balance Program is for your child to stop what their doing and say “yes” when you say her name. If your child is non-vocal, we teach the child to stop her play and look in your direction.
This is the first step because children are much more likely to cooperate with your directions if they are able to respond to their name.
After your child responds to her name, we teach her how to say that she wants to continue playing. Often times, a child will use a tantrum to say they don’t want to stop their preferred activity.
By teaching her to say “my way” instead of using problem behavior, we are replacing the tantrum or aggression with communication.
But because even though we ask nicely to always have our way, we can’t do only what we want to do all the time.
The next step is to teach your child how to say “ok” when she is told “no” when she asks for “my way”.
After your child is able to say “ok” when told no and not have problem behavior, we will teach him how to cooperate with 1-3 non-preferred activities. Common tasks include putting on shoes, combing hair, brushing teeth, handing you the iPad, etc.
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