Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) emerges as a potent non-pharmaceutical intervention for children grappling with Attention Deficit Disorder/Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADD/ADHD).
As more parents seek alternatives or complements to stimulant medications, ABA gains recognition for its role in treating these conditions. However, it remains relatively unfamiliar to parents navigating uncertain diagnoses or seeking alternatives to pharmaceuticals. A behaviorally trained psychologist or a Board Certified Behavior Analyst should be a primary consideration for families in these situations.
Understanding ADHD and its Behavioral Loop
ADHD, or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, relates to a chemical imbalance affecting how individuals control impulses and focus their attention at a biological level. This imbalance significantly influences their behavior, leading to specific behavioral patterns in how someone with ADHD engages with their environment and crucially, how the environment reacts in response.
Every person, including children with ADHD, learns from the responses they receive from their surroundings. This constant feedback loop adds insights into which behaviors trigger specific environmental reactions. This learned response system stems from understanding when to avoid challenging tasks, how to garner desired reactions, and how to access preferred items or activities.
Everyone uses this information to guide their behavior decisions. However, for children with ADHD, this feedback loop can swiftly elevate maladaptive behaviors over functional ones. These disruptive behaviors, while easier to engage in and often producing immediate desired outcomes, contribute to a cycle. These learned behaviors, coupled with the responses of teachers and parents, create a substantial history of problematic behaviors, reinforcing and worsening the underlying chemical imbalance.
This is where behavioral therapy plays a pivotal role. It intervenes precisely when learned behaviors amplify the effects of the chemical imbalance based on how individuals interact within their environments. Addressing these learned behaviors through therapy becomes essential to redirect the feedback loop towards more adaptive and functional behaviors, countering the negative impact of the underlying imbalance.
In essence, the interaction between behaviors and environmental responses creates a feedback loop that significantly affects children with ADHD, emphasizing the critical role of behavioral therapy in reshaping these learned behaviors for a more positive outcome.
We know that medication can be hugely helpful for kids with ADHD symptoms—but we also know medication alone is seldom a silver bullet and non-pharmaceutical interventions can be powerful agents for change in the lives of children with attention deficit feedback loop histories.
Benefits of Behavioral Intervention for ADHD
Behavioral interventions serve as a meaningful option for parents who are hesitant about ADHD diagnoses or uncomfortable with medication. These interventions can profoundly impact a child’s well-being and serve as a stepping stone toward assessing the necessity for medication.
Such children might be identified by their teachers due to struggles with attention, consistency in routines, not actualizing their potential, or displaying their “best effort”. Teachers may not that these children become frustrated easily, express anxiety around time assignments, need frequent reminders to attend to tasks at hand, or are developing a reputation as a “bad kid”.
Well-designed behavioral interventions can be game-changing for the children described above. At this point, parents might be thinking “My kid isn’t badly behaved, so why should they need behavior therapy?” Effectively designed behavioral interventions not only reduce problematic behaviors but also enhance skills and adaptive behaviors crucial for success in school. They focus on decreasing undesirable behaviors while simultaneously fostering behaviors conducive to academic success.
For example- if a child is staring vacantly instead of attending to their teachers, a behaviorist might describe goals for them in two ways:
- Reduce the behavior of “spacing out”(staring at nothing, in particular, not visibly attending).
- Increase the behavior of being “on task” (looking at the teacher, taking notes, interacting by asking relevant questions, etc).
Implementing change through ABA
There are plenty of ways a BCBA might tackle this challenge. One of the most popular methods is called a Token Economy, often recognized as a “sticker chart.” This approach rewards desired behaviors, redirecting attention towards positive actions rather than disruptive behaviors. For instance, once a child has collected enough tokens/stickers, they can trade them in for a preferred prize. So, for our child who is “spacing out”, we may start by giving them a sticker for every minute they are displaying “on task” behavior. As they become successful, we would fade the frequency of sticker reward to every 3 minutes, every 5 minutes, every 10, etc., until they no longer need the reward.
Regardless of whether your child meets the criteria for a diagnosis, if spacing out is a consistent problem for them at school, a properly implemented Token Economy will meet them where they are and guide them to where they need to be by teaching and attending at the same time as they are learning whatever subject is being imparted.
It sounds simple, but the problem is, it’s pretty complicated. Plenty of well-meaning educators try to implement such procedures in their schools and classrooms, but without specific behavior training can design token economies in a way that will make things worse. This is in no way a dig at educators—their job is to teach a whole group of kids. One child who has different needs can’t always come before the rest of the class. Teachers might not have the time or resources to research individualized behavior strategies while tackling the many, many other tasks they have on their plates.
This is where a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst can play a pivotal role. They can develop tailored behavioral plans, assist teachers in implementing these strategies, and train parents to reinforce them effectively.
ABA stands as a powerful ally in addressing ADHD-related challenges. Whether used independently or in conjunction with medication, a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst can be a huge asset here. BCBAs can go into schools, observe, write individualized behavior plans (that a teacher can comfortably enforce in a classroom setting), and train parents and teachers to implement them as well. These systems, when written properly, are designed to be faded so children will not need them permanently. If a child can be successful without medication or needs support in addition to medication, a BCBA at Manhattan Psychology Group would be happy to help support your family.
