Invest In Your Child's Interests
Unlocking the Power of Individuality
About Mighty Heroes
Here at Mighty Heroes, we have a specific mission. We are here to help children. That is what we have devoted our academic and professional lives to. We want families to know that when you come to us, we care about what makes your child unique. We want to embrace that while helping your child access more reinforcement from his or her environment. We use ABA therapy to teach language skills, living skills, and social skills. We also utilize evidence-based interventions to help reduce behavior that may be interfering with these areas, and seek to replace these behaviors with an alternative behavior that still allows them to access their needs, but without the stress and frustration.
While working on skill deficits is vital for development, it is also important to assess interests and current strengths of the child. By focusing on these interests and strengths, your child will develop adaptive skills to achieve long-term outcomes that will best serve him/her in his/her life. Gaining specialized behavior skills in focused areas of interest may lead to potential career skills and social group inclusion later in life. This idea is at the core of our approach to the implementation of our ABA therapy practice.
Values
Frequently asked Questions about our Therapy
Parental involvement is instrumental towards progress in ABA therapy. In most scenarios, there would be no reason for you to need to leave the room, and it is actually encouraged for you to be present and observe even during 1:1 work between your child and behavior tech. Moreover, direct parent training will also be necessary in all cases. There may be rare occasions where it may beneficial for you (the parent) to be out of your child's immediate line of sight, but this does not mean to exclude you from session. Even in these scenarios it would be encouraged for you to observe or listen in without being in direct view of the child.
Stimming is very common in children with autism spectrum disorder. Many individuals with autism identify these behaviors as coping mechanisms (much like we do if we bounce our leg, or bite our nails when nervous). Moreover, some of these behaviors may "feel good" to your child. With this in mind, we should not immediately seek to reduce these behaviors. We always ask these three questions when considering reduction: 1) Is the behavior harmful to self or others? 2) Is the behavior interfering with development? 3) Is the behavior interfering with socialization? If yes to any of these, reduction may be worth consideration, but even in these scenarios, appropriate replacement behaviors can often be taught so the child continues to get the stimulation they need.
An ABA session can look different ways depending on a number of factors (the child's needs, the setting, length of session, etc). Typical sessions take place throughout a given setting (at a table, on the floor, in the backyard, etc). Some direct instruction work will be conducted while sitting or standing at a table, while other learning goals will take place while walking around or playing games.
ABA is the application of the science of human behavior. The principles that govern learning apply to all individuals regardless of labels. We take special care in identifying the specific needs of your child, and approaching therapy tailored to his or her needs. A diagnosis can inform us of general patterns common among that population, but a full assessment on your child will be conducted and evaluation will be an on-going process throughout the length of ABA therapy. Therefore, the general systematic approach is the same, yet this approach allows for custom-tailored plan for your child as his or her needs are his or her own.
We ask you to always be forthcoming with us and inform us how you feel about what we are doing. We never want you to feel uncomfortable and will answer any questions you may have. If you do not like a specific intervention, you can ask if there are others to consider. Moreover, you have the right to immediately stop any intervention at any time.
The first question we always ask ourselves is: "can we change the behavior through the use of positive reinforcement?" In most scenarios, the answer is: YES! Why change behavior through punishment when we can use reinforcement? You will probably notice rather quickly that ABA techniques are full of positive reinforcement, and often at levels much higher than the child was receiving in their current environment. There are some instances where basic punishment procedures (i.e. time-out from reinforcement), may be more effective and less restrictive to your child. Punishment procedures will always be discussed with you, the parent, before implementation, and you have the right to end the procedures at any time!
ABA therapy typically takes place in the natural environment where the interfering behaviors are occurring. This can be in a variety of settings: home, school, or out in the community.
Your child is unique, therefore his or her goals will not be the same as the other children we work with. We can focus on language goals, social skills, self-calming strategies, independent living skills, academic skills, and behavior reduction for interfering behavior. The goal is to set the child up for successful independent living where they do not need ABA to function effectively throughout his or her life.
We don't want your child to simply memorize a set of responses to specific questions. The idea is to teach him some basic associations, and then begin to show him many different examples thus targeting for generalization. Moreover, teaching is not something where we "tell" him what to do; we "show" him how to do something, allow them to do it, and then expand on that new skill. We cannot possibly teach your child every single word, math problem, etc there is, but we can teach him how to learn new things.
We will be collecting data throughout every session on all targeted skill acquisition goals as well as behavior reduction goals. You can ask to access these data at any time, and your BCBA will review them with you during your next meeting.