Hi I’m Dr. Mary Barbera, autism mom, Board Certified Behavior Analyst and Best-Selling
Author.
I never had a goal to write a book.
It happened mostly by accident.
As you may know I fell into the autism world in 1999 when my first-born son, Lucas was
diagnosed with autism one day before his third birthday.
I then became a Behavior Analyst in 2003 and started focusing most of my work on training
teachers and other staff on ABA through a large state-wide grant called the Pennsylvania
Verbal Behavior Project.
I set out to write and publish a book when I realized that everything I learned about
autism and verbal behavior from 1999 until 2006 was not in any book and parents and professionals
desperately needed the information.
“The Verbal Behavior Approach: How to Teach Children with Autism and Related Disorders.”
was published in 2007.
It’s sold more than 50,000 copies and is available in several different languages.
The Foreword to my book is by Dr. Mark Sundberg and many other distinguished professionals
including Dr Jack Michael (who I call the Grandfather of the Verbal Behavior Approach)
and Dr. John Cooper (one of the co-authors of the famous white ABA book) have written wonderful
endorsements you can find at MaryBarbera.com/praise.
While my book can be read and understood by a novice parent, it is also required reading in many graduate
level ABA programs.
Here are a handful of things I learned over the past 10 years since my book was published:
1) Very few children with early signs of autism get a diagnosis quickly and most don’t get
high quality ABA programming started in the toddler and pre-school years which is so critical
to their long-term success.
These toddlers and preschoolers, especially those with more mild symptoms who start treatment
before the age of 30 months have the best odds of recovery which I talked about in a
previous video blog 2) Many children on the spectrum, especially
children, teens and adults with moderate to severe autism plus language problems struggle
in school, and at home, and in the community.
While I’ve helped many children with high functioning autism who were fully conversational,
the kids that my online courses and book help the most are those with moderate to severe autism
with language delays and disorders.
I’m one of the few people in the world that knows how to help these children reach their
fullest potentials.
3) Pairing and manding need to be at the center piece of every program for kids and adults
who are not conversational.
If your child or clients have minimal to no language, it is crucial that teaching the
child to communicate his needs and wants, this must take center stage.
4) The number one struggle of both autism professionals and parents is dealing with
problem behaviors.
I did a survey a few years ago and the #1 struggle of both parents and professionals
was handling problem behaviors.
If you see problem behaviors, the demands are most likely too high and/or the reinforcement
is probably too low.
5) And, my final lesson in the past decade that I'm going to share with today is this:
While my book is a great start, the best way to learn how to transform any autism program
is through my online training course where you see tons of video examples and get step-by-step
advice for starting or re-vamping an ABA program for toddlers through teens with autism plus
language delays.
Since November of 2016, I've also been providing Type II BACB CEUs for my online course.
For a free video workshop to get a sample of some of the techniques in my online course
for professionals and “gung-ho” parents, click the link right below.
And, if you’ve been in the autism world but haven’t read the Verbal Behavior Approach,
you can order that through Amazon by clicking below too.
Happy 10th Birthday to the Verbal Behavior Approach and I'll see you next week!