Matching,Manding and Imitation Techniques in ABA helps to improve attention and eye contact of kids with autism.
1. Matching
How matching skills does helps children with Autism?
Matching skill is one of the primary skill to be learned in ABA. Matching is really helpful to develop language skills of a child with Autism.
Remember while teaching ABA matching skills, therapist will start with the easiest tasks and slowly advances to the most complex task. As the child progress, they will be able to match real life objects with corresponding picture cards.
Benefits of matching technique
• Improves attention and concentration
• Visual scanning and visual memory
• Classify the objects into bases on their common properties
Matching concept can be done as
• *Object-object matching
• *Card-card marching
• *Object-card matching
2. Imitation
What is imitation in ABA?
Imitation is child’s ability to imitate others around him. Imitation helps to learn things around quickly and effectively.it plays a major role in the improvement of attention and eye contact.
Some common examples for imitations are:
• Imitation of actions or objects (Eg: Pushing a chair, playing piano)
• Imitation of gestures (Eg: Clapping hands)
• Imitation of sounds
If you watch a child and mother, there will be lot of communication between each other by imitating each other’s sounds and expressions. This helps child to express basic needs and emotions to the mother.
Kids usually imitates without being taught. However children with developmental delays may not start imitation naturally.
3. Manding
Mand is actually a request. Mand training helps child to request for a desired thing.
The ability to use communication to get basic needs met is of major importance to the child. In order to fulfill his needs child has to give eye contact to caregiver and request for his need through gesture/word.
In the Mand Model approach of ABA therapy , the therapist focus on the developof child’s language , communication and developmental skills.
In the man model approach therapist motivate the child to ask for a desired thing using toys which likes the most. This method highly effective in autism cases. The Mand model approach in ABA is very useful to imrpvove the receptive and expressive communication skills.