For many outsiders looking at ABA Therapy for the first time, there are many questions. One of the most common questions parents ask is how teaching a child to repeat an answer given to a question can teach them something beyond memorization. While it is true that the initial goals of ABA Therapy include a lot of teaching children to imitate the answers to questions, the therapy is part of a rewiring process that teaches their brains to produce nerve synapses that many brains perform naturally. As this development occurs, children develop the ability to think critically and independently, ultimately leading to abilities and functions that make them virtually indistinguishable from their peers.
Many critics of ABA Training have seen the therapy only a few times and have formed an opinion. The fact is that ABA Therapy is the only treatment approved by most health insurance companies for children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. The reason for this is that it just works. For decades, ABA Therapy has been preparing children with varying degrees of ASD for school, work, and other social situations. While most effective when introduced during the toddler and preschool years, most people with ASD can see significant improvement with ABA training at any age.
Repetition plays an important role in ABA Therapy. A child is asked a question and given the answer. The child is then asked the same question and asked to respond. Clues are often given, though over time they become vague until the child is expected to respond without prompting. This is a valuable tool, because it helps not only teach the child to respond appropriately to questions and requests, but because it helps providers teach children what types of behavior will get results.
When a question is asked, only the appropriate answers and behavior will get any results. Any inappropriate behavior is ignored, teaching children over time that appropriate behavior is the only way to gain attention or favor. While answering questions helps children learn new things, this aspect of ABA Therapy also teaches the fundamentals of behavior and placing importance on human interaction over other stimuli, things that other children learn very differently.
In conclusion, repetition is really a fundamental part of ABA Training, but it is not an effort to teach memorization. Only through repetition can thought patterns within the brain be adapted and changed, and only through repetition can these children be taught the basics of behavior and social interaction. While to outsiders this repetition may make little sense, to parents who have seen it teach their children to think independently, the value of this aspect of ABA Therapy is remarkably obvious.
