How To Make the Most of Virtual ABA Therapy Sessions
Over the past two years, the threat of COVID-19 has been an obstacle to receiving ABA therapy services in person, especially early on in the pandemic. Many providers switched to offering services virtually, using programs like Zoom and Microsoft Teams.
Here at The Behavior Exchange, we quickly ramped up our Telehealth services to ensure clients had continuity of care. It’s been a great option when in-person therapy is not possible.
Distance learning has its own set of unique challenges though. Technical difficulties can interfere with the delivery of therapy. Children miss out on the benefits of peer-to-peer social interaction. And parents are often required to take an active role in the therapy sessions.
The upside is a little preparation goes a long way in making virtual ABA therapy sessions productive and worthwhile for your child and family.
Preparation is key.
Exposing your child to seeing themselves on camera, having them interact with receptive identification targets like flashcards, and you learning how to use the streaming service or platform are all very helpful in making virtual therapy successful.
In a virtual therapy setting, your child may be asked to draw lines between pictures (known as Matching), select certain items in an array (known as LRFFC or Listener Responding of Feature, Function or Class), click icons (Boom Learning decks), or in some cases, to share their own screen. Online resources do present a beneficial tool in the ABA therapist’s tool kit for making learning fun and engaging!
The approach and style of ABA therapy can vary per child and will ultimately be a collaborative effort that involves the therapist, a supervisor, and a parent or parents. The specific needs of your child will determine what programs are used and what materials you’ll need to supply for a virtual therapy session, such as white boards, dry erase markers, paper, pencils, books, etc.
Don't forget to bring snacks.
As any trained ABA therapist will tell you, having a variety of positive reinforcement options are also key to working with children with autism and other developmental delays. As a parent, you should come prepared to a virtual ABA therapy session with items like snacks, toys, preferred videos/songs/games, or any other stimulus that your child responds to. Positive reinforcement is essential for therapy success, whether virtual or in person.
Lastly, some children may need more prompting by a parent in a virtual therapy session than other children who can interact with the computer and therapist almost independently. Even so, if you’re child is more independent, you should continue to monitor their behavior throughout the session to ensure they stay on task due to the limited ability of a therapist to prompt a child in a virtual therapy setting.
