Parent’s engagement in ABA therapy and their impact in the reduction of behaviour that is perceived to challenge

Filipa Costa

ABSTRACT: The parent-child relationship is a never-ending journey of learning and experimenting. This is even more true when you are a parent of a child with special needs. Accordingly, to Perry and Salish’s studies made in 2008, parents play a pivotal role in their child’s therapy, (Odonnell, 2017).

In the Early Years’ service, we have the advantage of working alongside the parents, giving them knowledge of ABA principles and different strategies, and how to apply them during the sessions. Providing a space, where parents can learn and understand their children, empowering the parents to generalise the learned tools to other environments and observe a change in their children’s lives.

In this case study, I will try to demonstrate one example of the impact that a mother’s full engagement has on her child’s behaviours that challenge.