Benefits of ABA for autism

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Benefits of ABA for autism

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40 or 50 years ago, when a parent heard that their child was autistic, the pediatrician's general recommendation was institutionalize and throw away the key. And that's what many families did. But about 35 years ago, a gentleman out of UCLA, Dr. Ivar Lovaas, a behaviorist and himself a student of Dr. B.F. Skinner, he came up with a revolutionary idea about our kids with autism. What he said is you don't have to institutionalize kids with autism. What we can do, rather, is modify the most worrisome behaviors, the aggression, the withdrawing behaviors. ABA is a cognitive reproach that helps with improving and reinforcing positive behaviors of our kids with autism, and minimizing and eliminating the interfering behaviors.

Watch Video: Benefits of ABA for autism by Esther Hess, PhD, ...

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Esther Hess, PhD

Pediatric Psychologist

Dr. Esther Hess is a developmental psychologist. She specializes in the assessment, diagnosis and treatment of children with developmental delays, regulatory disorders and language impairment, specifically autism, Asperger’s Disorder and Pervasive Developmental Disorder, not otherwise specified.  In addition, she treats various psychological ailments including, affective disorders, selective mutism, school phobias, attention deficit disorder, non-verbal learning disorders and difficulties as related to childhood response to parental divorce. Her expertise is in the utilization and application of a developmentally based psychotherapy (the DIR model) as devised by Dr. Stanley Greenspan. This model, conceptualized as Floor Time, takes into consideration the various underlying elements that may be impeding the child including where he/she is at developmentally, various biological constraints, and the relationship between the child and the parent. 

In addition to working with the impacted person, Dr. Hess interfaces with the entire family and coordinates the efforts of the various members of team specialists who assist in boosting the impacted individual’s developmental lag.  She is currently one of Dr. Greenspan’s Senior Clinicians on the West Coast, certified in  D.I.R./Floor Time and has trained parents, interventionists and clinicians both nationally and internationally in the developmental/relational method known as Floor Time.  Dr. Hess is the executive director of a multidisciplinary treatment facility in West Los Angeles, Center for the Developing Mind.

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