So, what does putting self-management principles into practice look like in ABA therapy?

Assessment and Data Collection

These terms may sound clinical, but they simply refer to figuring out what a child’s needs are and tracking their progress as they work toward their goals. Let’s apply the idea to self-management in ABA. Your child’s BCBA may see that they could benefit from learning to initiate asking a therapist for a favorite toy. Self-monitoring their progress toward this goal might be the self-management piece.

As their therapist helps your child toward this goal, they will gather information about your child’s progress. This helps ensure that the best approach is being used and that a child is benefiting from a particular approach. Sometimes, a therapy plan may need to be adjusted.

Role of Reinforcement Systems

Reinforcements simply help ensure that a positive, effective skill gets repeated in the future. To return to our previous example, as a child works on asking for a favorite toy, a therapist makes sure to reward them by allowing them to play with the toy. Moving forward, this type of practical reinforcement helps a child repeat this effective skill.

Another type of reinforcement is somewhat reversed. For example, a child may revert to a verbal outburst to ask for something rather than raising their hand to be called on. Prompting the child to raise their hand and waiting to fulfill their request until they do is a way of gently reinforcing a positive behavior and discouraging a less effective one.