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Going to Bed

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Expert Name: Erin Lombard
Expert Title: Erin Lombard
Company Name:  Step by Step Academy
Company URL: www.stepbystepacademy.org
Short Bio: Erin Lombard is a Board Certified Bahavior Analyst and a certified Special Education educator 

currently teaching graduate level Positive Bahavior Support courses at Northern Arizona University. She holds an undergraduate degree in Child and Adolescent Studies and a master’s degree in Special Education obtained in California State University and University of North Texas respectively. She is currently working on her Ph.D. in Psychology at Capella University.

Going to Bed

Bed time can be a bit challenging for any child, but especially for a child with autism. Here are a  few steps to help your child catch some ZZZZ’s tonight!

1.  Have a consistent routine.  Many children with autism thrive on routine. Have a specific routine that you do every night at the same time.
Example:
      6:30 eat dinner
      7:00 watch one TV show
      7:30 take a bath
      8:00 read a story, sing a song
      8:15 lay down in bed to sleep

2.  Visualize this routine. Some children with autism are highly visual learners. Displaying the routine in pictures (or words if your child can read) may help the child transition through the bed time routine. You can take pictures of your child doing the activities, or pictures of the location of the activity. Or find pictures of the activities on Google images on the internet.

3.  Make bedtime especially fun by giving your child his or her favorite toy or stuffed animal.
The trick to making this effective is using the item exclusively at bedtime. Keep a favorite reinforcing toy or stuffed animal up in a special spot during the day. At night, this item will only be taken down and given at bedtime. 

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Being an RBT for me was extremely fun because where were you going to find a place where you can be completely silly without having to worry what people thought about you? This was the only job that made me feel like I could make a dramatic difference while being myself.

I also liked to be surrounded by people that had the same goals of wanting to help kids and the teamwork made the job much easier and more enjoyable.

Change and progress was the ultimate goal for our kiddos. The early intervention program was seriously only a miracle because I saw changes in the kiddos that from day one, you wouldn’t even recognize who they were.

Changes from being able to utter 3-4 words where they can only make a syllable from when they started, the behavior decreases in which kiddo that used to engage in 30-40 0 self-harm to only half, learning how to wait during games, table work where they use to swipe and drop to the floor if they had to.

My favorite was when the parents would tell us what amazing progress they were making at home. I used to tear up and felt for these parents so much because it was already difficult for them and now, they can trust and rely on ABA and the therapists knowing their goal was ours.

By Emma Rogers, BA, RBT

Mother Child
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