by: Hailey Mankey
The things we do for our clients!
If you visited NGAC at any given time, you’d likely see some staff looking pretty silly! From wearing stickers on our foreheads, talking in funny voices, wearing stylish headbands and sweet light-up shades- we do it all! But why?
Simple- “Attending!”
“Attending” is an ABA term we use to refer to our kids giving us their attention during their sessions! Attending is one of the first socially significant skills young children need to learn. It may be especially challenging for young children on the Autism spectrum. To learn, they have to be able to attend to the teacher or parent by watching, listening, and responding when asked.
At NGAC, we like to get creative when it comes to getting our clients to attend to us! One way we like to naturally teach eye contact and attending is by making ourselves, particularly our faces, lots of fun to look at! We put our client’s favorite cartoon character or animal on a sticker on our foreheads to familiarize them with looking at our eyes, we wear cool light-up sunglasses to get them to pay attention to us while teaching skills, and we talk in funny voices to make learning more fun and interesting! We do whatever it takes to meet them where they are and promote long-term success- and we have fun doing it too!