Thank you to all who participated in our ABA Toolbox giveaway last week! We’ve received some wonderful responses and feedback from parents, teachers, and therapists on their favorite products from our catalog and how they are using it with a special child, and we are thrilled to be sharing them with you!
Our biggest goal in this endeavor was to share with you the unbelievable wealth of experience and knowledge our community of parents, teachers, and therapists have in using our products in innovative and creative ways for their ABA programs.
Name: Tana, ABA Provider
Favorite product: VB-MAPP Assessment Kit
How do you use this product? I use this kit when taking in new clients. It is invaluable and allows me to obtain information necessary to complete and VB-MAPP assessment.
Name: Tiana, Parent/Relative
Favorite product: Token Board
How do you use this product? Our ABA team created a simple reward chart by laminating a piece of paper and 5 stars. Amaya now works for something and she can see how much she has to work for it and when it’s coming. Before this type of reward system, we were giving a highly preferred item. Typically, cookie, chip, candy — everything not healthy. Now with the 5-star reward system, it drags out our edibles and frequency as well as satisfies Amaya’s want. This also has helped with Amaya’s patience. Working for all the stars…
Name: Mary, ABA Provider
Favorite product: Photo Cause and Effect Cards
How do you use this product? It is difficult to find good pictures to show cause and effect situations. These cards are used to teach if/then statements and thinking, as well as to teach children to identify the cause of actions and the effect of actions. Later the cards can be expanded to predict actions and to create stories. I use them to help kids generalize their skills beyond memorized situations to use their ability to inference from the environment.
Name: Dawn, ABA Provider
Favorite product: VB-MAPP Set
How do you use this product? I use the VB-MAPP to assess a child’s current level and to pinpoint ongoing treatment goals. I prefer the VB-MAPP because it includes an assessment of the child’s barriers to success and because the skills are broken down into developmental milestone categories (i.e., age ranges). I find that the parents of my students can understand this breakdown better than a standard score.
Name: Karilynn, Parent/Relative
Favorite product: People in My Neighborhood
How do you use this product? We use the people in my neighborhood flash cards to teach my son who has ASD, as well as my NT daughter who is 6. Today I showed my son the “fireman” card, and he looked at it, thought for a moment, then used his words (he is not much of a talker, yet), and gave me the right answer. He made me so proud!
Name: Claribel, ABA Provider
Favorite product: Assessment Kit for ABLLS®-R
How do you use this product? I use this product everyday to create my VB programs and teaching procedures.
Name: Heather, ABA Provider
Favorite product: Crafting Connections
How do you use this product? My ABA toolbox always must have the Crafting Connections book by Taubman, Leaf, & McEachin. This is a follow-up book to their popular A Work in Progress and is loaded with social skills curriculum. What is different about this book compared to other social skills books is that it has easy to follow programs, and targets complex social skills more than just the basic greetings or eye contact programs you see out there. I have used it for every student no matter what kind of learner they are. The curriculum is so comprehensive and targets real world social skills for building meaningful friendships. This is a must-have for any ABA therapist.
Name: Audrey, Parent/Relative
Favorite product: Time Tracker, Now I Get It! Social Stories
How do you use this product? I love so many products but right now the Time Tracker has been so effective in helping our son with preparing for tests and being able to take breaks. It helps him focus more when he’s reading his questions and not rushing as much because he knows he will be getting his breaks. It’s helping very much with all the standardized testing. The social stories Now I Get It and Talking Together are great for school. We send in ones with areas he may be having trouble with, and he can pull it out and read it again and again to help him with these social situations. These are a must have especially if the child does well with that reinforcing social story. There are sooo many more I can name, but these two are our go-to right now! Thanks for the great products!
Name: Jo
Favorite product: Tall-Stacker Peg Board
How do you use this product?
- Can gain attention, then bridge that to joint attention
- Build postural muscles if doing it on tummy or a swing
- Help kids learn to follow a sequence
- Learn to wait and follow directions, if you are doing a sequence, or a line to cross mid-line so they begin to train their eyes to converge and start to follow a right to left sequence
- Stack them up to track horizontally
- Learn colors
- Learn to count
- Spread them out across the floor to gather them combining gross motor with learning
- Toot the pegs like party horns
- Sing “Happy Birthday” once the board is filled and blow out the candles
Name: Claire, ABA Provider
Favorite product: VB-MAPP Set
How do you use this product? I use the VB-MAPP for ongoing assessment and planning. The language, play, and social milestones are clear, functional, and sequential. I know I’m writing much better goals since assessing with the VB-MAPP. The barriers assessment gave me a clear way to track (and decrease) my students’ symptoms of autism, especially those that wax and wane, such as obsessive behavior. The transitions assessment really helped me talk to families of students, even those without autism, about the skills that a student needs to develop to move to less restrictive class.
Name: Linda, ABA Provider
Favorite product: Visual Timer
How do you use this product? I love to use this timer with young learners so that they can visually have a sense of when it is time for a transition, or when they can stop doing a task or when their free time/break ends. It takes the pressure away from having to give multiple verbal reminders and takes away the emotionalism when a parent is indicating that something fun may be ending etc.
Name: Jennifer, Pre-K School Teacher
Favorite product: A Work in Progress
How do you use this product? Program planning, skill level assessment, data collection.
Name: Aliza, ABA Provider
Favorite product: A Work in Progress
How do you use this product? As a BCBA doing ABA programing for preschoolers this reference book has been my ultimate ABA guide. I use the curriculum component to base my programs on and the explanation of varied topics in ABA for staff training. A classic!
Name: Mindy, ABA Provider
Favorite product: A Work in Progress
How do you use this product? I use this book as a resource to help plan programs for students.
Name: Judy, ABA Provider
Favorite product: Time Timer
How do you use this product? I use this product to show my student, who is an early learner, the passage of time until a preferred activity is available. This enables him to wait while visually seeing how much time is left until he can play with his puzzle or his iPad. This makes less preferred activities finite and allows him to put forth the effort that might otherwise derail him.
Name: Joanna, ABA Provider
Favorite product: MotivAider
How do you use this product? This specialty timer makes implementing interval data recording and interval reinforcement schedules possible. Without it, it is much more difficult implement either of these very effective behavior tools.
Name: Fransisco, Parent/Relative
Favorite product: Emotions
How do you use this product? I told Kimberly to try to imitate the action, and she learned very fast. I love it.
Name: Sarah, High School Teacher
Favorite product: Auditory Timer
How do you use this product? I love the auditory timer. It is the one piece of technology that I cannot live without. I have seen so much change in the world of technology, but nothing surpasses the good old auditory timer. I use it to signal the end of a break, I use it to let a student know how much time is left to complete a task, I use it when a student is in pre-crisis to give them a few more minutes to cool down… the possibilities are practically endless! I have even taken one home (on loan of course) to use with my own child. It’s amazing how much faster one gets ready for bed when the auditory timer is ticking! Best tool ever!! (:
Name: Regina, High School Teacher
Favorite product: ABLLS-R Protocol
How do you use this product? This protocol serves as an excellent assessment, development, and curriculum guide. It is useful for all of my students on the autism spectrum. It’s also helpful for providing meaningful data when paraprofessionals or other teachers work with my students.
Name: Terri, Speech & Language Pathologist
Favorite product: The ABA Language Cards: Early Language Manipulatives
How do you use this product? These cards are used daily for early language learning with ABA drilling.
Name: Valencia, ABA Provider
Favorite product: Auditory Timer
How do you use this product? I use this product in a variety of ways. Most importantly, we have conditioned the timer to help young learners understand when there is an end to a task or activity, that would otherwise not be received well by the learner… When the learner’s cooperate, they are reinforced accordingly. We have replaced inappropriate behavior with an appropriate transition. With this, we have gained cooperative effectiveness in ending an activity, waiting, and transitioning appropriately between activities.
Name: Candace, ABA Provider
Favorite product: File Folders
How do you use this product? I print and Velcro pictures onto file folders so that the students can independently use these to help practice matching, adding, identification, etc.
Name: Lilian, ABA Provider
Favorite product: Emotions Language Cards
How do you use this product? I like these cards because I can show my kids how different people can show their emotions. Also, I use them to compare our emotions, how they look, how the people look in the picture, and how other people in the center look. We also play a game “look for the person who looks like…” and at the end who ever has the most cards wins the game.
Name: Kelly, ABA Provider
Favorite product: Language Builder Picture Cards
How do you use this product? The Language Builder box is my go-to tool. We use the ABLLS-R assessment tool and then use the results to guide our instruction. The Language Builder box fits with so many of the skills on the ABLLS-R. We use the cards for receptive picture ID, labeling pictures, matching, sorting, identifying colors and shapes, scanning items in an array, receptive discrimination (point to, touch, give me, pick up, etc.), feature, function and class discrimination, associations, and more. I would have a difficult time running discrete trials without my Language Builder boxes!
Name: Noreen, Speech & Language Pathologist
Favorite product: Token Board
How do you use this product? I like to find out what motivates my students with autism. Once they can move past immediate reinforcement these token boards are my go to. I have pictures for what they like to work for and give stars intermittently, once they reach 5 they get their reward. Love the wait cards too ties in nicely when I teach “wait”.
Name: Jennie, ABA Provider
Favorite product: Language Builder Picture Cards
How do you use this product? I use this box of photos everyday. They are very useful for a variety of language building programs. Labels, discrimination, verbs, categories, etc. It has been one of the best investments I have made.
Name: Jemelle, Parent/Relative
Favorite product: Time Timer
How do you use this product? We use a timer to help him in every aspect of his life, from brushing his teeth to lessening negative behaviors. I should say behavior that may be thought of negatively by peers at school like putting his hands to his mouth etc. We have a Time Timer. We cannot afford much else, but this is an important tool for learning, and he loves watching it count down, thus being successful in his goals!
Name: Barbara, ABA Provider
Favorite product: Assessment of Functional Living Skills (AFLS)
How do you use this product? I use this product as an assessment and place to start program.
Name: Sarah, Parent/Relative
Favorite product: Audible Time Timer (8-Inch)
How do you use this product? The Audible Time Timer makes transitions SO much easier for my 6 year old with autism! She can see how much time is left for an activity, whether is something she prefers to do or a work time. The visual of the red circle moving as time elapses helps her know when she will be done, and she can be ready to shift to something else. It has greatly decreased her frustration! As a classroom teacher, I have used this product with much success at school, too, for students with disabilities and for others who benefit from a visual cue.
Name: Laura, ABA Provider
Favorite product: VB-MAPP Set
How do you use this product? We use the VB-MAPP and gather our own items and materials to put kits together.
Name: Deb, Kindergarten Teacher
Favorite product: Time Timer
How do you use this product? As a Special Education Teacher, I have several Time Timers around my classroom. I use Time Timers to let my students know when the current activity will end. It’s a great visual for my students, staff, and myself. I love Time Timers!