How to Support an Autistic Child at Home using ABA Principles
Parent Advice: Supporting an Autistic Child at Home Using ABA Principles
Parenting an Autistic child can often feel like navigating an unpredictable and sometimes overwhelming journey.
The challenges can seem endless, and you may question how you can offer the best support, especially when you're doing your best to balance everyday life with your child's unique needs.
You are not alone and you’re doing more than you realise by simply being there for them.
Supporting an Autistic child at home is never an easy task, whether or not you're already using Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) therapy.
The challenges can feel even more daunting if you haven’t yet accessed ABA services, but you still have the power to make a profound impact on your child's progress and well-being. As a parent, you are one of the most important influences in their life.
For parents who are familiar with ABA therapy, you can reinforce the skills your child is learning, and that’s truly invaluable.
But even if you haven’t yet started ABA, there are still countless ways you can integrate its principles at home to help guide and support your child’s development.
You don’t have to be an expert to start making a meaningful difference – your love, patience, and dedication already make you the best person to support your child.
So if you’re wondering, “How can I help support my Autistic child at home?”, the good news is that there are simple, practical strategies rooted in ABA that you can easily apply at home to make a positive impact on your child’s behaviour and emotional well-being.
In this guide, we’ve put together some easy-to-follow tips that will help you navigate the ups and downs of parenting an Autistic child.
Autistic children have a lot to offer the world, and their strengths should be treasured and celebrated.
And with just a little guidance, you'll feel empowered to guide your child’s growth.
What is the best way to deal with challenging child behaviour?
Challenge the environment - not the behaviour.
Georgiana Koyama, BCBA, MSc, Founder of All Behaviour Consultancy
First, create a nurturing environment where your child can thrive.
You can use ABA principles to create a supportive, neurodiverse environment that encourages inner well-being and calmness in your child.
By establishing safe spaces in your own home, you will be able to parent your Autistic child with less stress, build trust and develop a deeper connection.
Scroll down to learn more and read the rest of our practical tips for integrating ABA principles into your daily life at home.
A quick message from our Founder:
Our approach at All Behaviour Consultancy is about supporting every child with a joint goal of ensuring their happiness above all else!
Our ABA Specialists’ entire Behavioural programme is based on this.
4 Practical ABA Tips for Parents looking after an Autistic Child at Home
Our highly knowledgeable team are dedicated to providing individualised compassionate support services for Autism.
We understand that every individual and family have distinct challenges and goals.
Scroll down to read our tips or get in touch with us for additional parental support for your Autistic child at home.
Practical Tip 1: Adapt Your Environment
At ABC, we believe that the environment is everything!
A well-designed sensory environment can significantly reduce challenging behaviours in Autistic children by addressing their unique sensory needs, and simultaneously creating a calming atmosphere.
We recommend creating a ‘safe place’ somewhere in your home, ideally, a room would be perfect but if you don’t have the space, a corner of a room can be adapted perfectly well.
These environments offer calming stimuli, such as soft lighting, soothing sounds, and tactile playful elements for Autistic kids to touch, pull, bend, twist etc, which help regulate sensory input.
You could also create two spaces, one for preventing over-stimulation to calm sensory overload, and one for under-stimulation to reduce challenging behaviours and get them involved in a sensory pleasure instead.
Both over and under-stimulation can result in emotional meltdowns which don’t feel good for either the child or the parent of the Autistic child.
The key is to always have a safe space (or activity) for when either of these moments occurs.
Here is an example of a calming sensory environment for preventing over-stimulation in Autistic kids:
A sensory environment can help Autistic children regulate and process emotions in a way that feels most comfortable and safe for them, in an area where they instantly feel calm and understand that this is a quiet and safe space, ‘free from demands’.
The last part is essential for parents to remember.🔑
When your child is over-stimulated, they need to become free of ‘demands’ or ‘instructions’, until they have self-regulated.
The sensory room is their essential ‘me time’.
Now is not the time for you or your ABA therapist to increase demands or worry about “reinforcing negative behaviours”
Allow your child the time that they require to regulate their emotions to de-escalate.
Allow them to enjoy being alone, doing what they love to do, may it be reading their favourite book, or simply sitting with their noise-cancelling earphones on a comfy, cosy beanbag.
The regulating sensory environment focuses on soothing music, weighted blankets, sensory toys, and a quiet space for self-soothing or whatever they find regulating and relaxing.
And when your child is under-stimulated, you can re-engage them with an area full of fun sensory play games, activities and happy music they love.
You can create both environments in one area, just simply change the lighting to a more ‘awake’ one, and adapt the music, and you can remove/add in the sensory tools/games/toys as you see fit.
The photo above is an example of another sensory environment but for under-stimulation in Autistic kids. You can see in this room that the lighting is brighter and there are more active areas and games.
Music makes a big difference. Find out what songs make your child excited and what music soothes them.
Having a ready-made playlist for both situations is very handy!
You can find more ideas for sensory play ideas and sensory rooms here.
Practical Tip 2: Assess How your Child is Feeling
Understanding your Autistic child's sensory and emotional state is THE KEY in supporting their well-being!
Recognising whether they are over-stimulated or under-stimulated helps you respond to their needs appropriately.
Learn how to know when your Autistic Child is over-stimulated or under-stimulated by observing their reactions closely.
Two obvious signs of over-stimulation in an Autistic child are agitation or distress (e.g., crying, meltdowns) and sensory sensitivity (i.e covering ears, avoiding certain lights or sounds).
For under-stimulation, signs include boredom or disinterest and seeking repetitive or excessive sensory input (i.e kicking an object repeatedly).
Once you know how your child is feeling, you can help physically put distance between their uncomfortable emotions by changing their environment, and putting them somewhere that keeps them calm and happily engaged.
We highly recommend getting your child involved with designing their sensory spaces!
Ask them what colour to paint the wall, and or use their favourite toys and music.
The more involved they are in creating their spaces, the more they will learn to utilise them when they are experiencing distressing emotions and feelings.
PRO-TIP: An ABA Specialist can help you understand the causes and motivations behind your Autistic child’s behaviour. Sometimes a parent needs additional support because under-stimulation and over-stimulation can often look similar in terms of behavioural reactions.
Practical Tip 3: Focus on the Positive Behaviours
Parents can apply ABA techniques at home to manage challenging behaviours in their Autistic children.
Firstly, it is important to note that these challenging behaviours are not because your child is naughty or behaving badly. It is because your child is unable to communicate its needs which leads to distressing emotions and feelings.
Therefore, the main focus should be on positive behaviours, adhering to the principles of Positive Behaviour Support.
It is relatively simple. Reinforce the ‘good’ or ‘desired’ behaviours immediately with plenty of praise or rewards.
The focus is on recognising ALL good behaviours, ensuring to encourage actions that help the child feel safe, regulated, and connected.
We don’t want to ‘ignore’ the “bad behaviours’, as this teaches the child their feelings are unimportant.
The ‘Bad behaviours’ are often behaviours that are most distressing for the child, and usually come from being overwhelmed, over-stimulated or feeling uncomfortable.
These behaviours often signal that the child is experiencing distress or unmet needs.💔
We understand how frustrating this behaviour can be, but if parents can address the underlying emotions with empathy and patience, it will help their Autistic child feel understood and enable them to calm down quicker, resulting in a more harmonious environment.
So then we re-direct the attention onto what is good, what is working; instead of reprimanding the child for ‘not acting properly’.
Once you learn to understand the source of their distress in different scenarios, you can acknowledge how the child is feeling, and then re-direct their attention.
ABA Specialists do this by ‘modeling’ appropriate alternatives and celebrating every success, however small it may seem.
By re-directing the ‘challenging’ behaviour onto something positive, we shift the focus to what they can do, instead of what they can’t do.
PRO-TIP: Keeping your composure and being patient whilst shifting attention to something positive helps the child self-regulate, leading to an instant calming response. We offer online Parent Training which helps parents cope with the emotional challenges and guidance required for managing behaviour in Autistic children.
Examples of ‘Focusing on the
Positive’
Identify toys or activities your child enjoys playing with and praise them for playing or keeping them tidy, or join in playing with them when they are under-stimulated.
If your child understands the concepts of timers or visual schedules, use these to increase the amount of time they play independently and to help them play with a different toy in their favourite area.
Introduce new toys or activities and demonstrate how to use them (use the approaches to listener responding skills or motor imitation above).
Give praise and reinforcement for playing alongside siblings.
Practical Tip 4: Connect with your Child on their Level.
How do parents connect with their Autistic child?
You may think you have little in common, but if you get on their level, and see the world through their eyes, you’ll be able to build a beautiful relationship with them leading to child behaviour that is far more manageable.
Once you grow confident in supporting your child, you will be able to further the connection between parent and child.
The deeper the connection, the easier it is for parents to manage overwhelming Autistic behaviours and emotions at home.
To connect with your Autistic child, join them in activities they enjoy, such as their favourite games, hobbies or sounds.
For example, if they love blowing bubbles, blow bubbles with them!
Follow their lead, and show genuine interest and joy.
Try the following as a way to make playtime and learning enjoyable and appropriate for your own child's unique skills, preferences and abilities:
Imitate the sounds that your child makes and try to have a “conversation” with them, make silly sounds and see if they will imitate you.
Sing their favourite songs and leave spaces for them to fill in the blank words.
Talk to your child about what you are doing eg. “blowing bubbles”, making it fun and joyful, and use different voices to make them laugh.
Follow their lead: Observe and copy their actions or routines, allowing the child to lead, and creating a sense of comfort and shared enjoyment of activities.
Create a unique shared pastime which is special for just you and your child. It could be something as simple as a handshake or dance you do together when celebrating positive behaviours or small wins.
Once you understand your child’s emotions and unique personality, your home life will become more manageable, calmer and most importantly, happier.
Parent Support for Managing Challenging Child Behaviour
If you are a parent or family in desperate need of Behaviour Support for your Autistic, take a look at our Parent Training programme where we offer online ABA support sessions from the comfort of your own home.
Book a free consultation or fill out the form below for more information.
We are based in South London, and provide ABA therapy at home in the London areas, as well as offering online ABA services to the rest of the UK.
Our home-based ABA therapy service frequently operates in the following areas; Kensington and Chelsea, Harrow, Ealing, Southwark, Lambeth, Croydon, Hammersmith and Fulham.
Please don’t hesitate to get in touch, we’d love to hear from you.
If you would like to find out more about how we can help support parents and families, fill out the form below & we will contact you.