Role of parents and guardians
First, we need you to take a deep breath! Parents and caregivers, we know this whole process can be so overwhelming. There’s so much to learn and comprehend, and you may not entirely understand your role in your child’s therapy or how you can help at home.
This is where we come in! You won’t ever feel alone at NAC – you’ll have our full support from staff and clinical professionals who are well-versed and experienced with all the intimidating lingo. We promise to work together as a team and explain everything that concerns you or your child.
One way we do this is through our Parent Trainings and Social Skills groups in Las Vegas, NV. They are just what they sound like – a session, typically weekly, where the BCBA on your child’s case and the parent/caregiver sit down together and discuss progress, setbacks, and the meat and bones of your child’s programs.
We want the parent or caregiver that is home with the child to be able to implement the same programs in the same manner your child has familiarized themselves with at NAC.
For example, teeth brushing. Your BCBA will explain the program and teach you to run it at home during the morning/nighttime routine with your child. You’ll teach each step and allow your child to practice at the level of modeling identified by the BCBA. Working on skills at home is critical to your child’s success.
Being able to practice and use their new skillsets in the natural environment and in various settings allows them to strengthen that skill and ensure it is learned and not just demonstrated in one setting. If you have any questions at all on how to appropriately implement any program at home, be sure to ask!
Here are some topics that you’ll be taught during Parent Trainings as a parent/caregiver of a child with Autism:
- Learn how to implement behavior intervention strategies for your child’s challenging behavior at home
- Learn to identify and discuss your child’s reinforcers
- Learn your overall role in helping your child generalize and strengthen their skills into various settings with various people
- Learn how to practice natural environment teaching, or teaching in a setting that feels familiar and comfortable to your child
- Learn how to identify which self-help or daily living skills your child may need to develop
- Learn how to break parts of a large task into smaller parts to teach your child
- Learn to use playtime as an aid to practice or teach skills
- Learn to identify or hypothesis the function of your child’s behavior
- Learn how to document A-B-C (antecedent, behavior, consequence) data
In short, don’t stress! Our trained professionals are here to help you along this entire journey. We want to get your child right into services and working with you to help them! Be sure to ask questions as often as they come to your mind and don’t be afraid to speak up or ask for clarification on any part of your child’s therapy.
We want this experience to be a great one for you and your family and we thank you for trusting your child’s therapy needs to NAC!