Autism Archives - Page 9 of 14 - Autism: Chaos to Calm

Never force anything, words from my father

March 3, 2014April 19, 2016 Martha Gabler 2 Comments

In the garage

One day when I was a child, I was in the garage with my father. I was pushing hard with a screwdriver trying to pry open an old wooden box. My father came over and said, “Never force anything. If you force it, you might break it. Look for a better way.” We looked over the box and found a way to open it that didn’t involve brute force. My father was an engineer, so his life’s work was devoted to designing complex technologies. He knew how important it is to consider all aspects of a case and then take action slowly and carefully.

I always remembered that incident. His words stayed with me and resonated powerfully years later, when my husband and I found ourselves raising a child with severe autism.

The struggles of the early years

My son is now a teenager. When he was three years old he was diagnosed with severe autism, plus he was profoundly nonverbal. While he was a sweet child underneath, he displayed many difficult, disruptive and aggressive behaviors. How do you change difficult behaviors in a child who spins and shrieks constantly, and who can neither speak nor endure listening to your voice?

We struggled and suffered for many years, becoming increasingly isolated from normal everyday life. I was desperate to improve his behaviors so that we could out in the community, go to the grocery store, or take a walk in the park. I had often taken him out with the “brute force” method, clamping my hand over his wrist and holding on tightly so he would stay with me. Needless to say, this was unpleasant for both of us.

Behavior Basics 27 and 28: End of Week Wrap-up

February 28, 2014February 15, 2016 Martha Gabler

27. Children with autism have many behaviors going on at the same time.

Another way of saying this is that children with autism may have many physical movements going on at the same time. Children with autism can be extremely physically active. If you observe them, you may see that the hands, arms, legs, torso, neck, head, facial and vocal muscles are all active at once. Take the time to observe your child. Download the free “Child Observation Chart” from the website below and make a note of the specific types of physical movements your child is making. When you see how many movements your child is displaying, you realize how careful you have to be when reinforcing behavior. With so much going on it is easy for the instructor to reinforce something too early or too late, and for the child to be confused about what is being reinforced.

28. So how does a child know which behavior you want? Timing!

When a child is making multiple movements with her body, the question comes up, how does she know what you are reinforcing? She may be running, swinging her arms, swiveling her head and shouting. She may be performing a desired behavior, but that behavior appears for only a split second and is buried in an avalanche of dizzying movements. How do you pick out that micro-second of desired physical movement? The answer is: Timing. You reinforce her precisely during the split second she is performing the behavior you want. With the quick click of a tagger, TAGteach (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) allows you to reinforce a child for a micro-second of behavior at the exact moment she is performing that behavior. Even though she is performing many movements, the child will realize that something caused a positive consequence in her world. She will quickly figure out which movement resulted in that positive outcome (kids with autism are brilliant at this), and she will repeat the movement. TAGteach is extraordinarily effective for precise timing of reinforcement. There is nothing else like it. The human voice is much too slow and too late for this type of precision reinforcement. By the time you say, “Good job,” or “That’s it,” the child will have performed many more physical movements. She won’t know which movement you are talking about, and your efforts will be wasted. Timing is critical. Timing is all important. Time–for our kids with autism–is too valuable to waste.

REMINDER: This concludes the wrap-up of Behavior Basics for the week. Please remember the schedule: On the release date of each module, the Behavior Basics for that module will be compiled into a PDF ebook available from our blog and Facebook page. Click on this link to download the entire series of 42 Behavior Basics for free: http://statictab.com/m7bizwt.

What if you could push a button for better behaviors in your child with autism? Impossible? With TAGteach it can be done!

February 24, 2014November 6, 2017 Martha Gabler

Would you wish for this button?

Many of us autism parents wish we could sometimes just push a button that would change our kids’ behaviors. We joke, “I wish my kid had an off-switch.” Many of our kids have challenging behaviors that disrupt normal and necessary family activities like grocery shopping, going out in the car, or simply taking a walk.

We would like our children to have the skills that would allow them to participate in family and community life. Well, it’s possible, and you can do it by pressing a button.

A special button

However, the button I’m going to discuss is not an ordinary button. This button is placed on top of a small clicker device called a “tagger.” With a tagger and some basic information about using positive reinforcement any parent can build better behaviors in a child with significant behavior challenges. I know because I did this with my child. Here’s an example, and an explanation.

Pressing a button to increase calm behaviors

My son is now a teenager; at age three he was diagnosed with severe autism, plus he was profoundly nonverbal. Like many children with autism, my son was often very agitated. It was sad to see him so agitated that he couldn’t enjoy life, so I started to think about how to help him feel calmer. First I spent some time observing him. I noticed that when he was agitated he displayed a lot of physical activity: darting about, bouncing on one foot or two feet, swiveling his arms, and of course, shrieking. Since I knew about TAGteach, I decided to “tag” and reinforce the following physical movements: Quiet Mouth, Hands Still, and Feet Still.

Behavior Basics 25 and 26: End of week wrap-up

February 22, 2014February 15, 2016 Martha Gabler

25. To build a desired behavior, reinforce it every time it occurs.

The scientific laws of behavior tell us that positive reinforcement increases a behavior. The next step to talk about is how often to reinforce a behavior. The general rule is, to build a behavior you must reinforce this new desired behavior every time it occurs! Naturally this takes vigilance, but it is important for the child. He has to experience that every time he does this particular desired action (touches a block, puts a puzzle piece in place, says “thank you”), he will receive a reward of his liking. This experience will cause him to repeat the behavior more often. When this happens, you are well on the way to building a new behavior. Reinforcing an action every time it occurs is called a “continuous reinforcement schedule.” Continuous reinforcement is the first part of a behavior building plan. TAGteach (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) is an excellent tool when building behavior with a continuous reinforcement schedule. TAGteach allows you to “tag” and reinforce behaviors precisely and much more frequently than with verbal praise or other methods. With TAGteach you can reinforce a behavior every few seconds, or almost continuously, if the child is displaying the behavior at a high rate. It’s an invaluable tool for this stage of the behavior building process.

26. Remember, movements are behaviors. Behaviors are movements.

Let’s review what a behavior is. A behavior is one or more physical movements of the body. A behavior may be simple and use only one physical movement (turning the head to look at the source of a sound) or it be complex and require several different physical movements in a particular sequence (washing hands). Many times we think of the desired end result of our teaching process as a “behavior,” without taking the time to break that behavior down into separate physical movements of the arms, legs, head or torso. It is much easier and faster to teach one small physical movement at a time than a constellation of different movements in a sequence. It is much easier and faster for a child to learn one small physical movement at a time than a complex sequence of movements. You want the child to have success, so break the behavior down into physical movements she can do. TAGteach (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) is an invaluable tool for breaking a behavior down into its component physical movements. You can only tag one small movement at a time, so simply holding the tagger in your hand makes you think about what specific movement you want the child to do.

Marco Polo, Wandering and TAGteach

February 17, 2014February 15, 2016 Martha Gabler 2 Comments

Legend tells us that Marco Polo wandered across the deserts of Asia to reach the fabled cities of China. Our children with autism can be wanderers too, a source of worry to parents and caregivers. To compound the problem of wandering, many times our kids’ verbal abilities are limited so they cannot respond to shouts or hails. After one frightening episode, I used TAGteach to teach my son a verbal response so that he would be able to answer us if we were looking for him.

Years ago, my son disappeared from sight one afternoon when we were momentarily distracted. Instantly we and several neighbors fanned out looking for him. Nobody could find him. I finally went inside the house and thought to look around carefully. Luckily, I found him out of sight, but curled up in a big chair. Even though I had called out to him, he had not answered. We realized he had to be able to answer us verbally if we were looking for him.

Where is Douglas?

Initially, I sat down with him and taught him to respond to the question, “Where is Douglas?” by waving his arm and shouting “Here.” That worked fairly well, but a question like “Where is Douglas?” or “Where is Tommy?” may be an emotionally laden question for the child. Is he in trouble? Oh no, maybe he should stay quiet! My husband came up with the great idea of teaching him to respond to “Marco” with “Polo.” Everyone knows this phrase; it’s a common game that kids play in the pool during the summer.

Behavior Basics 23 and 24: End of Week Wrap-Up

February 14, 2014February 15, 2016 Martha Gabler

Behavior Basic #23. To build a desired behavior, reinforce it!

This is the core principle of Applied Behavior Analysis — the golden rule, the way of truth! When teaching, think of what you want the child to achieve (reading a sentence, setting the table, hanging up a coat). When the child performs that great behavior, reinforce it! Give him a treat, token, praise, appreciation, recognition, money, or anything pleasing The child will do that behavior again. When he does it again, reinforce it again! Reinforcement will result in that behavior becoming a routine activity for him. Then go on to the next step and build another great behavior.

Behavior Basid #24. To build a desired behavior, reinforce it immediately after it occurs.

We discussed how important it is to reinforce a behavior so that the child performs it again. But, there is an important detail to think about! When you reinforce the child, you have to do it right away! Reinforce as soon as she performs the behavior. When you reinforce right away, the child will know exactly what she has done that is right. Don’t dawdle or delay! Get in there right away and start handing out praise, thanks, treats, tokens, recognition, or whatever is pleasing to the learner. If you are late with the reinforcer, the child will be confused. What did she do to earn the treat? She won’t repeat the desired behavior and may repeat some other random behavior. The faster you are with immediate reinforcement, the faster the child will gain that great new skill.

Behavior Basics 21 and 22: End of the week wrap-up

February 7, 2014February 15, 2016 Martha Gabler

21: A reinforcer increases the likelihood that a behavior will happen again.

When a child with autism receives a reinforcer after performing a desired action, the child will be more likely to do it again. The child has experienced a pleasant consequence and, as a rational being, would like to experience another pleasant consequence. This sets in motion a positive cycle, where the child makes more efforts to earn reinforcers, and thus performs the desired behavior again.

22: A reinforcer is anything that the learner likes and will work for (candy, stickers, money, praise, etc.).

A reinforcer can be anything, provided that the learner likes it. It can be candy, treats, tokens (for earning privileges), activities, puzzles, games, money, praise, recognition or the opportunity for social interaction. The important feature of the reinforcer is that the learner (not the instructor) values it and will work for it. Monitor the reinforcements you offer a learner to make sure that the learner continues to like them. If the learner gets tired of a particular reinforcer, try something else until you have some new items that he/she enjoys. Coming up with varied, enticing reinforcers is a wonderful skill to have.

What do TAGteach and on-line shopping have in common?

February 7, 2014November 9, 2017 Martha Gabler

Did you know that not only is TAgteach (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) a great way to work with kids with autism, but it’s also a lot like on-line shopping? This may surprise you, so let me explain.

When you use TAGteach to teach any child (autism or not), you observe the child and decide which behaviors of the child you would like to increase.

For example, you might like the child to say “thank you” more often, or to spend more time with puzzles or books. When the child performs the desired behavior, you “tag” the behavior with a tagger (“clicker”), then give the child a treat (candy, token, special privilege) as a reinforcer.

These two actions, tag and treat, will result in the child performing that specific behavior more often and eventually, for longer times.

When you do on-line shopping, the process is almost identical. Let’s say your hobby is scuba-diving, and you’re interested in getting a new diving mask. You go to your favorite scuba gear online catalog. You browse through the items to see what you like. Ah ha! You spot the nifty Ocean Quest Arctic Clear High Definition Panoramic Purge Mask priced at $59, and you decide, “That’s for me!” You click on the item, add it to your cart, then go to the online checkout to pay for it. You click, you pay, and soon this great new mask arrives on your doorstep.

More about having an autism friendly vacation in Tampa, Florida!

February 6, 2014February 15, 2016 Martha Gabler

This week I spoke with Ms. Becca Zarcone of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in Tampa. This hotel is the location of the “Autism Practice Vacation” mentioned in an earlier post. Ms. Zarcone would like to extend a personal invitation and welcome to all autism families who are interested in taking advantage of the “Practice Vacation” opportunity.

The hotel staff has received autism sensitivity training from the University of South Florida Center for Autism and Related Disorders (CARD). Upon arrival, a child with autism receives a child-friendly bag containing a binder, dry-erase board, markers and a coloring book. The binder contains information about autism-friendly attractions in the Tampa area. Hotel amenities include an outdoor heated pool with a secure access gate; there are cabanas where a family can take a break from the sun or to get some quiet time.

Ms. Zarcone, Group Sales Manager at the hotel, has experience with autism among family and acquaintances, and has a personal passion to expand opportunities for this community. She invites anyone interested in this opportunity to call her directly at 813-405-1185 and she will personally make arrangements for your booking. Talk about creative thinking! This program is a result of a partnership between the Tampa “Autism Fits” Business Partnership and the University of South Florida CARD to expand awareness and create opportunity for the autism community.

How to have an autism-friendly vacation

February 4, 2014February 15, 2016 Connie Hammer 1 Comment

By Connie Hammer

Wouldn’t you like a vacation? Have you thought about it but decided it would be:

1) almost impossible to do with an ASD child who doesn’t like change
2) too much work overall
3) too expensive.

Why not begin 2014 with a different mindset? Erase all of those excuses from your mind and start thinking positive because it IS all very possible.

Thanks to my friend and colleague, Alan Day, of ASD Vacations and his special promotion, parents of children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder can have a practice vacation that is affordable. That’s right – I said a ‘PRACTICE Vacation’.