23 Apr 2018

BY: admin

ABACAS Team

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Friendship Club Enrolments- Now Open for Term Two

Making friends are important skills for children to learn. Social skills are the things we develop that allow us to confidently make and keep friends with our peers. For some children a little extra social skills training is all that’s needed to get kids back on track with their friendships.

In Term Two, the Child Wellbeing Centre will be running a social skills program for children between 6-9 years of age. These sessions are run once a week after school.

Registration are now open for the Term Two program.

Please contact reception on 9274 7062 (or use the GET IN TOUCH link on the website) to express your interest in this program and to receive more information.

10 Apr 2018

BY: admin

ABACAS Team

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Autism Awareness Month – let’s talk about ABA and Autism!

Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) is a set of principles that explains how behaviour works and how learning takes place. Over the past 70 years, the field of applied behaviour analysis has been testing out many techniques and methods to make sure interventions are effective and to eliminate treatments that are harmful to the children and may interfere with learning.

As a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA), the principles of ABA I find myself using everyday are (1) finding out the functions of behaviour (the “ABC”), and (2) task analysis.

Finding out the function of a behaviour is the first step to create an intervention. And by knowing the function, it makes it so much easier to understand the causes of the behaviour.

Task analysis, also known as chaining, is a process of breaking a skill down into smaller and more manageable components. We teach the skills from the smaller components, such as putting on a shirt, slowly build up to a bigger picture, like completing a morning routine. And even within the smallest component, like putting on a shirt, we can deconstruct the skills into even smaller and more precise steps to teach and to master.

Do you know what’s behind your child’s intervention? Ask your therapist this week! If you have questions about ABA, please email Jenny Lin, Program Manager at cwbc@westnet.com.au

Autism Awareness Month is a month to ask questions and to understand what autism is. And I’m here to answer your questions!

Read more on ABA for Autism at:

https://www.autismspeaks.org/…/applied-behavior-analysis-aba

Jenny Lin, Program Manager, ABACAS

03 Apr 2018

BY: admin

ABACAS Team

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ABACAS Tuesdays – Young Entrepreneur’s Club (School Holiday Program)
Enrolments are now open for the Young Entrepreneur’s Club (School Holiday Program).
Young Entrepreneur’s Club is for children with ASD from ages 9-14. The program is set up for our young entrepreneurs to design and carry out a project. Children will practice social interaction, build the interpersonal relationship, negotiation and communication, and participate in teamwork.
We have a few options for the projects and will pick one that matches the interests of the children:
(1) Art or Science Exhibition
(2) (Autism) Awareness Exhibition
(2) Sport/Activity Carnival (for our younger clients)
(3) Fundraiser for a charity
Starting the first week of the school holildays, the Club will run Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays from 9:30-11:00. And a Presentation/Exhibit day on the last day (Thursday midday; TBA).
For more information, please contact Jenny Lin at 9274 0330 or leave a message at reception with your email address and Jenny will give you a call back.
20 Mar 2018

BY: admin

ABACAS Team

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Functions of Children’s Behaviour

There are 4 functions of behaviours: Social Attention, Tangible (or activities), Escape or Avoidance, and Sensory Stimulation

Social Attention

A person may engage in a behaviour to get some attention or reaction from another person. For example, a baby throws a cup, mommy comes to her high chair to pick up the cup and also talk to the baby.

Tangible or activities 

A person may engage in a behaviour to obtain a tangible item or gain access to an activity. For example, a child cries and throw himself on the floor at the checkout counter because he wants a bar of chocolate.

Escape or Avoidance

A person may engage in a behaviour to get away or delay getting to a (hard) task or work. For example, a child refuses to write her homework. So she cries. The longer she cries, the longer she doesn’t have to do her homework. And eventually, mom gives in and say you can do your homework later.

Sensory Stimulation

The behaviours under the function of sensory stimulation (or self-stim) do not rely on anything external. The behaviour serves a function to give the person some internal sensation that is pleasing. For example, a child sucks his finger; an adult twirl her hair when she’s nervous, a person rocking back and forth at the desk.

You may have one behaviour that serves multiple functions at one moment. You may have one behaviour that demonstrates different functions in a different location with different people.

Follow along with us as we explore the functions of behaviours. Pick a behaviour you have observed of yourself, your child, your partner, or even your neighbour or colleague. Next week, we will talk about how to respond to these behaviours under different functions.

13 Mar 2018

BY: admin

ABACAS Team

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Children, Behaviour and ABA

I often have parents telling me, “ My kid just doesn’t listen. He throws a tantrum. He cries and he kicks and yells. He is out of control.”
Then they asked me, “ Can ABA therapy work for my child?”

My approach usually is, “Tell me more about that crying incident.”

I first identify the problem behaviours. Then, I ask questions about what happened just before the problem behaviour. And ask parents, “What do YOU usually do right after the behaviour?”

What I am doing here is gathering information for the ABC.
A stands for Antecdent.
B stands for Behaviour.
C stands for Consequence.

Example: Child wants a chocolate bar at the checkout lane. Parent says “no”.
Child cries, yells, and throw a tantrum..
Parent gives in and buys the chocolate for the child.

Can you identify the A, B, C?

Behaviour- child crying and yelling.
Antecedent – Parent said “no” (denying access to a tangible)
Consequence- child gets the chocolate.

From the scenario, the child learns next time when their parent says no, he will just cry and yell, and throw a tantrum, then he will get what he wants.
What is the function of crying and yelling in this scenario? Tangible – which is the chocolate (and Attention).

Now that we know the child cries to get the tangible and also mom’s attention to buy the tangible, we can better find a solution to reduce the tantrum.
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Do you know what the four functions of behavior?

Stay tuned to ABACAS Tuesdays! We will tell you more about the functions of behaviors in next few weeks.

Please contact Jenny Lin, Program Manager on 9274 7062 if you have any questions or want to know more about Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA).

04 Feb 2018

BY: admin

ABACAS Team

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ABACAS Tuesdays – School Readiness Program 

ABACAS started the School Readiness Program in the second half of 2017. The School Readiness Program is designed to have 45 minutes of 1:1 session running individualized ABA programs and 45 minutes of Social/Group session. The Social/Group session simulates Circle Time and Free play time at a regular Kindy. Our program focuses on small group free play and facilitated play to increase social interaction (initiating play, asking for help, sharing, requesting an item, taking turn, etc.), following instructions (compliance training), and transitioning between play and work (Circle Time).

Our first class of graduates completed their program on 25th January, 2018 (see the photo below). The small group of children who graduated will continue with their 1:1 sessions but will be transitioning to full time kindergarten this year!

We are not only so proud to see our children blossoming into more independent individuals, we are even more exciting to see them forming friendships with their peers in the same group.

We are currently taking children ages 3-4 to participate in the 2018 School Readiness Program! Please contact Program Manager Jenny Lin at 9274 0330 for further information!

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