
Despite all our medical advances, there still is no foreseeable cure for autism. Yet experts in the field have found impressive ways to help manage autism symptoms, as well as help individuals with autism spectrum disorder develop independence skills that significantly improve their overall quality of life.
This is typically done through ABA therapy, which is seen as the gold standard for treating autism spectrum disorder. Its methodology tends to work best for this complicated condition that can present differently in every individual.
What Causes Autism Spectrum Disorder?
A growing body of research points to a variety of potential causes for autism spectrum disorder. This includes a variety of factors including:
- Prenatal Condition
- Genetics
- Family History
- Non-Genetic Influences
- Environmental Influences
Though there are also several other unknown factors. It also seems clear that there is no single cause of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Rather it seems to be a combination of factors that affect the individual at the genetic level in a way that alters brain function.
What ultimately matters most is that health care providers have a plethora of tools to help people with autism spectrum disorder to live full and rewarding lives. ABA therapists and behavior technicians are equipped with techniques for improving the lives of their patients through a science-backed, data-driven approach to individualized care.
Therapists and behavior technicians at Magnolia strive to help individuals with ASD to thrive by working closely with every patient and the families who support them.
This typically starts with recognizing specific symptoms, assessing their severity, and any other important traits. This allows the ABA therapists to create a customized treatment strategy for the individual with ASD, and the support team that helps them reach increasingly higher treatment goals.
Addressing Sensory Differences of ASD
These are several common symptoms of autism spectrum disorder that can cause distress and frustration for the individual. Magnolia Behavioral Therapy offers a diverse range of treatment options for both hyper-responsiveness and hypo-responsiveness, as well as sensory and tactile defensiveness. Our experienced ABA therapists also have methods for handling sensory overload, attentional shifts, and selective attention.
Speech and Communication Problems With ASD
Magnolia Behavioral Therapy’s experts use cutting research-based findings and data-driven approaches in speech and language pathology. We set speech, language, and communication goals that are integrated into our comprehensive ABA treatment strategy to help children with autism spectrum disorder to develop the skills they need to do important things like communicating their thoughts, feelings, and needs.
Our approach to speech and language therapy is carefully integrated with other ABA treatments to help individuals with autism spectrum disorder to improve their verbal, nonverbal, and social communication skills in all aspects of their life.
This includes measurable goals like:
- Improving spoken language skills
- Learning to accurately read nonverbal cues including facial expressions and hand gestures
- Improving their ability to communicate through images or technology
These integrated approaches go a long way toward helping individuals with ASD to learn how to effectively communicate in a wide range of social settings. Magnolia’s behavior analysts and RBTs teach the social skills groups with typically developing peers to further develop competency in interactions and observational learning.
Social Skill Developmental Issues
At Magnolia Behavioral Therapy, we offer extensive services to help children, teenagers, and adults with autism spectrum disorder to improve their social skills and ability to manage interpersonal relationships.
This includes things like guided social skills groups, where our ABA therapists work closely with children and adolescents. The overarching goal of these sessions is to help them effectively manage behaviors that might otherwise interfere with things like self-acceptance and self-regulation.
It serves as a strong foundation for building the necessary skills for productive social interaction. Many of the children, teens, and young adults who engage in these guided groups not only build strong friendships with each other, but they go on to be able to build new friendships in many other areas of their life.
There is a wide range of social, speech, and behavioral difficulties associated with autism spectrum disorder. ABA therapy can help children, teenagers, and adults with autism develop the skills to better interact with others, including emotional regulation and appropriate social interaction. We don’t just show them how to interact, we facilitate the learning process and interact with them directly.
Many experts consider ABA the most studied intervention for autism. It’s a structured scientific approach that teaches social skills, communication, self-care, and many other skills through methods of repetition and reinforcement. Most individuals who have autism struggle in at least one of these areas, and our experienced ABA therapists are here to guide, teach, and support our clients towards their individual goals.
There are volumes of research suggesting that this approach can also reduce problematic behaviors in individuals with ASD. Magnolia Behavior Therpay has had great success in helping children and adolescents achieve independence through ABA.
Family Support For Children With ASD
A Magnolia Behavioral Therapy, we recognize that children and young adults with ASD rely on a diverse team of caregivers and family members to meet milestones and reach every higher positive therapy outcome. To that point, we offer in-depth ABA therapy for clients as well as extensive parent and caregiver training to strengthen relationships between children with autism and their support team.
This parental training helps to address areas where parents or caregivers can improve to create a healthy, supportive, and inclusive environment for their child with autism spectrum disorder.
Our team of highly experienced ABA therapists works closely with family members and other caregivers to accurately identify the specific needs of every child in our care. The goal is to provide all of the child’s caregivers with the resources they need to create the best environment for their child’s social, emotional, and academic development. This helps ensure that the child with ASD is properly supported and consistently receives the best conditions for growth towards independence.