Learn how and when to modify your ABA plan

Hello, I am BCBA Minjeong Kwon.

Have you ever set goals for your child and helped them at home, but there are times when you don't see any significant changes in their behavior and you don't know if they are growing or not?

While it is important to maintain consistency in treatment with Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), it is equally important to be able to modify goals to accommodate changes in your child.

However, it can be a bit difficult for therapists to check the data and draw graphs at every moment at home. Today, we will learn how to easily check the data and modify the goals to suit the child while monitoring the children every day.

1. Monitor your child’s progress every day.

Once you have set treatment goals, how can you be sure that they are the right ones for your child? It is more important to monitor your child’s progress to see what is working and what needs to be adjusted .

That's why ABA continues to emphasize the importance of continuous data collection.

Keep records :

What if you thought about keeping a daily journal of your child's growth?

A daily journal that tracks your child's mood, engagement, and challenges or successes can be a great help in understanding your child, as can the notes from a professional therapist evaluating your child.

Recognize patterns :

As daily data accumulates, certain patterns tend to emerge, which often indicate when or where treatment goals need to be adjusted.

For example, if you have a hard time switching between activities consistently, you may need to provide visual cues or structured breaks. This is why it’s important to know when to adjust your goals based on objective observations, not necessarily to diligently and repeatedly perform the same goals.

2. Recognize when adjustments are needed

<Example: Completing blocks by yourself percentage graph>

It is important to check the daily records mentioned in number 1 and see if the difficulty of the homework is too high or too low for the child. In the US, we check the pattern once every mid-week (about 3 days in the middle of the week) and ask them to adjust the goal if necessary.

Activities that are too difficult :

If the task is too difficult, your child's success rate may show a pattern of decreasing success over time, as shown in the graph above.

In this case, you may need to break the goal down into smaller steps or provide additional instructions. For example, if a goal such as completing blocks while looking at a picture is too daunting, you can start with a simpler goal such as completing blocks while looking at a model shown by an adult or a video.

Too easy an activity :

Conversely, if the activity is too easy, you will get 100% performance even though you haven't practiced much. In this case, you can increase the complexity of the task or reduce the instructions and prompts to give more opportunities for self-directed learning.

You can adjust the goals to ensure that your child continues to participate and grow.

3. Check if the child has enough motivation to change!

Once you have checked the pattern and checked whether the goal is appropriate for the child, the next step is to check whether the child is sufficiently motivated to change.

Just as we adults do not like the same things or are motivated by the same things all the time, we also need to adjust our praise and rewards to maintain our children’s motivation.

What does our child really want? :

If your child seems less motivated, why not try making a more appealing offer? If you want your child to change, the rewards must also be meaningful and effective.

Timing Correction :

Timing is also important. Is your child having trouble focusing on a task?

Then, you can give rewards a little more frequently to help your child focus. On the other hand, if your child gradually becomes more focused and has a higher success rate, you can gradually reduce the number of times you give rewards so that he or she can maintain the behavior on his or her own.

4. Maintain flexibility over time

If the assignment seems appropriate for your child’s developmental level and he or she is motivated enough, try adjusting the activity time.

Extend or shorten your activity time :

If you check the data, is your child growing well? Then, how about reducing the time your child spends on activities a little? For example, reduce the time it takes to solve one math problem from 1 minute to 45 seconds.

Conversely, if you feel like your child needs a little more time to do this task, give your child a little more time to work on the task. Be patient and wait until your child masters it, even if it takes a long time.

5. Continuous cooperation and communication

Sufficient communication between parents, therapists, and teachers helps ensure that the child's target behaviors are successfully achieved.

Open communication :

Talk to the teachers who know your child and discuss what is working best and what is not. By adjusting your goals based on a common understanding of your child, you can create a treatment plan that is most helpful to your child.

Parent Feedback :

Parents often observe their child’s behavior in unstructured settings. The insight they gain from these situations can be incredibly helpful in gaining a more definitive picture of their child’s growth and progress, and in helping to fine-tune the ABA plan.

Please share honestly with teachers what you observe and feel about your child!

Simple Data Sheet for use at home

As mentioned before, an ABA plan should not be set in advance and then repeated until it is perfect. Rather, it should be analyzed regularly to identify patterns and determine when and how to adjust the plan.

Use a data sheet like this one if you want to increase the duration of a target behavior (e.g., increase attention span) or decrease the time it takes to perform a target behavior (e.g., perform a task a little faster or reduce problem behavior).

If you simply want to check the number of successes to see if the goal is right for your child, checking it with a simple data sheet like this can be a huge help in identifying patterns.

There doesn't have to be just one target behavior; there can be multiple.

Goal Reassessment- Midweek

As mentioned above, it is a good idea to check the pattern once every week or so. If your child is having difficulty with a particular part of the routine, focus on mastering that task first before moving on to the entire routine.

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Children don't grow according to plan, so flexibility seems to be the most important thing.

I hope you think of continually adjusting your plan based on data not as a failure, but as a proactive approach to doing what's best for your child.

Since growth in ABA therapy is not linear, I hope you understand that the reason we continue to emphasize data-driven approaches, even if they seem cumbersome and time-consuming, comes from our earnest desire to help children grow properly :)