Has your child experienced a stressful situation and didn’t know how to manage it? Here is how ABA Therapy can help. Successful handling of stressful situations thanks to ABA Therapy
One of the most useful tools to reduce tension in Superkiddos is anticipation, but its use isn’t always possible. There are situations that simply happen and require strategies to avoid anxiety and stress to help kids keep calm.
It is common for children on the spectrum to have a more intense reaction to stress.
Knowing how to manage their emotions allows them to have a positive reaction to unexpected situations.
Furthermore, according to a recent research from the Thompson Center for Autism and Behavioral Disorders Neurodevelopment (University of Missouri-Columbia), stress could explain many of the digestive problems that a child with autism experiences.
WHAT IS STRESS?
The World Health Organization (WHO) on its website defines stress as “a state of worry or mental tension generated by a difficult situation.”
Authors Siman-Tov and Kaniel (PubMed, 2011) refer to the requirements that the organism has to adapt to a specific situation.
In general, there are 3 types of stress:
- Acute stress, which is the most common, usually appears before an exciting moment, a conflict or a complicated situation. Its consequences can vary from muscle pain and digestive disorders to nervous disorders, such as tachycardia, nausea and excessive sweating.
- Episodic acute stress is characterized by continuous anguish and a feeling of lack of control over the demand imposed. Those who suffer from it are concerned about the future and usually anticipate events.
- Pathological stress, occurs with a state of continuous alert (for example, a war). It’s the most serious and causes severe problems in the psychological health of those who suffer from it. It is manifested in marked physical and mental exhaustion.
WE ALL COPE WITH STRESS IN DIFFERENT WAYS!
When we talk about “coping”, we refer to the cognitive and behavioral efforts that people develop internally to control emotions and face situations that are accompanied by stress.
Some autistic children lack coping strategies. So, in the short term the interaction they have with their environment is affected. And in the long term, it can even affect their health.
Therefore, education in adequate resources to self-regulate is basic to take the next step: resolve and overcome this situation.
ABA THERAPY TO MANAGE STRESS SUCCESSFULLY
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapy -and subsequent approaches developed from it- can be applied to reduce individual behaviors that could have a negative impact on social interactions, like family dynamics, the classroom and learning at school.
This method can also help the concentration capacity of children, since the first thing it does is to study the behavior and situations that trigger disruptive or unwanted ways of acting.
ABA Therapy provides tools that allow kids to self-regulate and cope with stressful situations.
Plus, it is also applied to increase social, communication skills and life skills, such as potty training.
ABA IN SCHOOLS, A USEFUL TOOL?
One of the points in favor of this therapy is that in its application the environmental factors of each child are considered. For example, changes in the classroom, the number of students, the location of your chair near distractors elements, etc.
On the other hand, we know that social interactions are complicated for everyone but even more so for Superkiddos. In the event that there are problems with a classmate, ABA provides tools to favor the management of this stressful situation and avoid negative and/or aggressive reactions, due to the inability to self-regulate.
At SuperKids we try to teach skills that can be carried out in real life situations, through therapy.
One of the ways in which we manage to do so is by practicing the reactions of the children in different settings (educational, leisure, on the street, etc…).
In this way, when a similar situation occurs in real life, they will be able to remember what they learned in therapy and react positively to the situation.
We apply ABA in a naturalistic, engaging, play-based way and with a respectful approach to each child’s characteristics.
ABA THERAPY IS THE BEST OPTION!
Thanks to ABA therapy, children with autism acquire skills that facilitate their development and autonomy and, at the same time, improve their quality of life.
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