As an ABA Therapist, I am obliged to follow 3 very important rules:
1. Patient Confidentiality
2. Follow-Through
3. Don't Reinforce Problem Behaviors (or anything that could easily become a problem behavior)
Patient confidentiality: I think this is pretty self-explanatory. I am bound by HIPAA Law to maintain clients' confidentiality.
Follow-Through: If I ask one of the kids to do something and he doesn't do it, I have to follow through and prompt him to complete the task so he doesn't learn that he can get away with not doing what is asked of him. This also translates to correcting answers. If I ask someone a question and he gives me the wrong answer, I should correct him and not move on from the question until he gets the correct answer without prompting. Then, I should come back to it later.
Don't Reinforce Problem Behaviors: If a child is throwing a tantrum, hitting, scratching, screaming, swiping materials off the table, or whatever is disruptive to learning, I should not reinforce it. This can be a tricky rule because much of the situations are subjective. There are times where completely ignoring the child during the behavior works, and there are times when it needs to be intercepted and corrected immediately. However, not all problem behaviors are as wild and physical as the ones I listed earlier. If a child does something that is funny and I laugh, he will likely repeat it continuously. Just because it was funny once, doesn't mean it will continue to be funny or that it is appropriate to repeat. In a learning situation, a funny incorrect response needs to be calmly corrected so he doesn't get confused and learn something improperly.
Having said all that, earlier this week I was going through pictures of objects with one of my kids, saying, "What is this?" and he would tell me what the picture was. This boy is really smart academically and was doing very well at this task...until I pulled out the picture of a grandfather clock.
I held up the clock picture and asked, "What is this?"
In his volume control-challenged voice he, completely serious, blasted, "HICKORY DOCK!"
I lost it. I laughed so hard. And I wasn't the only one. At least one other therapist who was shadowing me caught it and bust a gut. We both completely blew it by possibly reinforcing an incorrect response.
The poor kid. I don't think I ever corrected him, which means I blew it on the follow-through, too. Luckily, he didn't seem to even notice that we were all laughing. He just zoned out a little, then came back and blurted, "RECESS?" to which I, still giggling, said we could work for ("recess" is merely playing outside where there's a swing set).
There have been a number of times I've had to turn my back or throw a clipboard up in front of my face so a kiddo can't see that I'm laughing, but "Hickory Dock" was so completely unexpected...
