Loredana Angelescu is a clinical psychologist in supervision. She is an ABA therapist at the Help Autism Association since 2014. As a specialist in the recovery of children with autism, she creates intervention plans, implements them together with the teams that she supervises. She also applies diagnostic tests specific to her field of activity. Starting with 2020, she is the coordinator of the Autism Help Center in Târgoviște.
Abstract of the conference presentation
Generalization of Knowledge in ABA Therapy
Generalization refers to the transfer of behaviors, skills and knowledge learned in therapy (an organized and structured environment) to the external environment. Generalization is an important and complex process, thought and planned from the beginning of therapy, being done permanently and following the rhythm of every child.
Children with autism have delays when it comes to socialization, communication, and behavior. They don’t learn from the external environment, and don’t react like typical children. In ABA, the learning process evolves from structure to incidental learning. When we work with children with autism, the goal is to interact with them as naturally as possible, so that the transition from therapy to kindergarten, school etc. to be smooth and help them integrate into society more easily.
We need to set clear goals for the child to acquire functional communication skills that will help him interact in the external environment. In order to be able to transfer the information and to reach the generalization, it is necessary to vary the materials used, the SDs, the people with whom the child interacts, the teaching environment/ space.