ABA Therapy
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Pricing Information Centre Based: $85 per hour Home Based: $120 per hour Monthly Packages 4-hours weekly: $1,475 per month 15-hours weekly: $5,335 per month |
| In psychology terms | In layman terms and our comments | |
| What is ABA and ABA therapy? | ABA stands for applied behavioral analysis.
ABA therapy is a scientific approach identifying environmental variables that influence socially significant behavior and are used to develop individualized and practical interventions. ABA primarily considers antecedents, responses/behaviors and reinforcing consequences together with functions of such behavior. Motivations are explored to shape the behavior. |
ABA is a type of therapy used for intervention.
ABA looks at what happened before, during and after the behavior to understand why the behavior. ABA considers and works on motivation.
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| What are some strengths of ABA therapy for autism? | ABA has shown evidence for improving cognitive ability and adaptive behavior. For instance, in a recent meta-analysis of 11 studies (n=632) Eckes et al. (2023) found that compared to treatment as usual comprehensive ABA-based interventions showed medium effects for intellectual functioning and adaptive behavior.
In an earlier systematic review of 21 studies (n=831), Makrygianni et al. (2018) reported that ABA was effective in improving intellectual abilities (g = 0.740); moderately to very effective in improving communication skills (g = 0.650), expressive-language skills (g = 0.742) and receptive- language skills (g = 0.597); moderately effective in improving non-verbal IQ, adaptive behavior, socialization and daily living skills. |
A review of 11 studies suggest that ABA is better than conventional methods in improving IQ and adaptive behavior. This is encouraging because cognitive and adaptive domains are important considerations for SPED schools in Singapore.
ABA was also found to improve communication, how they express themselves and their understanding. This is also encouraging because communication is often the biggest source of stress for parents.
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| What are important cultural considerations for use of ABA in Singapore? | Studies demonstrating efficacy for ABA involved 25 and 40 hours per week. Thus ABA is premised on intensive hours. Also there is high insurance coverage in many US states to finance this cost. This is not the usual case in Singapore. | Intensity is key for success and thus we need to have a plan that achieves this – we will work with you on this. Also, financial planning is important – we have some ideas to help you.
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