Psychologist

Hekili had his visit today. I have to say I was rather pleased at the progress he has made. For those who are curious how Hekili has made his progress I shall share what we do.
We use ABA (Applied Behavior Analysis) Therapy. This is a form of intense one on one therapy. It consists of teaching your child how to use their language. The skills trainer/therapist becomes the giver of all good things. They use highly motivating reinforcer to get the child to work with them. We all know that when a child(any be NT or special needs) that they will not do things they don't find interesting. Especially at the toddler age.

I will share an example. My son loves his Winnie the Pooh stuffed animals.He would like them up every chance he got. So we used this as his reinforcer. We would have him start slowly and use one word to ask for what he wanted, which was the stuffed animals. he knows their names so we would have him say Pooh and so on. Then it was want Pooh. Then I want Pooh. You get the idea. Now that he understands what "I WANT" means, he says it for everything. All day I hear "I want outside, I want drinking, I want bath,".

So at his visit today the DR. recognized that he went from hardly any communication to tons in a matter of a couple of months. I was pleased to hear this. I encourage any of you to at least look into ABA if you haven't already done so. It is pricey as many will tell you. Find out from your state who would cover this type of therapy. I know some it is the DOE and in others it is insurance or regional centers.

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