ABA/AVB for social skills & making friends

[Guest guest]

My son has done fabulously with ABA/AVB for language development and concept

development. However, his one glaring area of weakness is social skills (37

months on the Battelle, he is 55 months).

Is there literature on the effectiveness of behavioral techniques for

developing social skills and more specifically, friendships with peers?

Or do any of you have personal stories about how behavioral techniques

helped your child develop socially?

And how about those of you using shadows who use behavioral techniques to

shape social behavior in preschool?

I guess I'm just feeling kind of unsure about whether ABA can address this,

or whether I need to look to floor time type programming to address these

issues.

My son, btw, does play very well with his 3 year old sister, but not with

his 5 year old peers. The things he plays are so concrete and related to

real life, they play house, doll house, in the kitchen, and doctor. He has

taught her Bingo which he loves too. He talks a lot with her, and while

she is very familiar, I am hard pressed to determine just what makes her so

reinforcing because she does antagonize him quite a bit (hey she's 3) and

they fight a lot. But he always wants to be with her, he makes play bids to

her constantly, and even negotiates a bit if she isn't thrilled with his

initial ideas.

I guess I'm wondering whether artificial reinforcers provided by a shadow

are really going to make him transfer his ability for friendship with Becca

to his 5 year old peers.

Playdates also go well, but they are kind of structured, I do that to make

sure the peer also finds it very reinforcing to come to our house. That

free give and take that he demonstrates with Becca just isn't there though

with the peers in playdates, even though he sees the same peer weekly.

I kind of feel that he is on a different plane than most of the 5 year olds

socially, they can pretend and understand things that he can't, they can

watch an entire movie (Buzz Lightyear, Cinderella) and comprehend it, he

can't, even though he tests as " age appropriate " for receptive and

expressive language. He doesn't get good versus evil yet, or those kinds of

things that 5 year olds seem to play a lot.

And when I try to think about how you would use ABA to get an adult to like

another adult, it seems impossible to do that with extrinsic reinforcers. I

mean, would any of us genuinely LIKE someone just because we were offered a

no-kids vacation to Tahiti or whatever? So maybe a 5 year old is also more

complex like that, and ABA can't really help develop friendship. But maybe

the specific skills necessary to friendship, like pretending and flexible

thinking and negotiating and understanding the other person's point of view,

etc..., maybe those CAN be shaped by ABA.

Okay, I guess you get the gist of what I'm asking. I am planning my son's

programs for this summer and next year, and I want to know if/how ABA can

help us with his weaknesses. Not just theoretically, I want to know if

anyone has actually been SUCCESSFUL. Thanks -

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