Parent-Led ABA for Autism & ADHD: Proven Home Strategies That Actually Work | Dr. Amara

Dr. Eko and Dr. Amara discuss how Parent-Led ABA can be effectively used in real home environments for children with Autism and ADHD.

This episode explores why communication often breaks down, how behavior is shaped by environment and reinforcement, and how structured parent-led strategies can reduce meltdowns while increasing functional communication.

We cover:

• Communication development using evidence-based ABA principles
 • Reducing behavioral escalation without relying only on therapy hours
 • Creating consistency between home routines and professional recommendations
 • Building parent confidence in daily support and intervention
 • Why parents are often the most powerful change agents in a child’s progress

This conversation helps families shift from feeling helpless to leading meaningful progress at home.

Listen to the full episode on your favorite podcast platform and check out the video version on our YouTube channel!

CONNECT WITH ME!
If you want to schedule an ADHD/Autism appointment for your child, you may contact Glow Pediatrics:

• Phone: 405-871-5807
• Fax: 949-695-2681
•  info@glowpediatrics.com

🌐 Website: www.glowpediatrics.com
📱 Instagram: @drhokeheeko / @glowpediatrics
📧 dreko@glowpediatrics.com
👍 Facebook: Dr.HokeheEko / glowpediatrics 
💼 LinkedIn: hokeheeffiongmd 

Transcript

Why Home Communication Feels Hard

SPEAKER_01 0:25

I think we're alive. Yeah, real life. Okay. Good morning everybody. So it's we're here again today to talk with you about what communication concerns you may have with your children at home, your children with autism and ADHD. Because we hear from parents all the time about the concerns they're having, about how difficult it is to communicate with their with their kids, to interact with them appropriately, to strengthen the bond with them. And so we just wanted to come on here and share some thoughts and and just some solutions that we found in our practice that works. And so if you don't know who I am, I'm Dr. Hoke, a co-founder of Glow Pediatrics, and I have the amazing Dr. Mara with me, who is our tell us who you are.

Pick One Clear Communication Goal

The Three Communication Skill Levels

Turn Routines Into Talking Opportunities

SPEAKER_00 1:15

So hi everyone, I'm Dr. Mara. I am a holistic health and nutrition coach for children and families. I am also an ABA parent coach. I am I have I am a doctor of educational psychology with emphasis on applied behavioral analysis and autism spectrum disorders. So today we just wanted to talk about communication challenges at home and how you can improve them. So if you have a child um currently attending therapy, currently um going through ABA speech or occupational therapy, we um understand that you know from the you know from the experience and from the cases we listen to at our practice, it is possible that your child can be making progress, you know, at the clinic or doing therapy and not making progress at home. And that's why we uh you know today we just want to talk about how you can improve communication at home. When the child goes in for therapy, there is um, you know, um the the environment is arranged to you know ensure that communication is improved. So if your child is struggling with requesting, they set up the environment to stimulate that you know that behavior. If your child is struggling with you know party training, there is you know um the environment is set up you know to address that behavior. But the question here is how can we you know set up the home in such a way that that communication that is established during therapy is generalized into the home setting, and that is where you know we come in to see that to ensure that whether you are a homeschooling mom or your child goes to therapy or your child goes to a public school, there is a need for you to practice communication at home. And one of the things you could do is to identify what goal do you have now, as um repetitive as that sounds, or as easy as it sounds, it is very crucial. Now, you want to be able to ask yourself, what you know, for my child with autism, or even for my child with ADHD, what is my goal? What do I want to achieve? Now, there are times there are their children. I have had um I've you know worked with over 200 parents of children with autism. And I would see, you know, the parents always tell me during our sessions that you know when this child goes to school or when he's in therapy, he's able to point for like for a child that is non-verbal, they are able to point, use the speech devices while at therapy. But when they come home, if they want the same item, let's say, for example, the child wants yogurt, a therapy is able to point, and the therapist will give him yogurt, but at home he will roll on the floor or drag mom's hand, or you know, and there is this mistake I see parents make, you know, being a mom myself, you understand what your child needs even before they say it, right? And that is a trap because when we provide things based on our understanding of their behavior, we are limiting communication. So I I and I going back to my um major topic is you need to identify your goal. So um in our program, we have different communication goals that you can focus on. So, for example, requesting for needs and wants is a major goal that every parent must have. If your child is not able to communicate basic now, for children with autism, um, that is a very um that is one of the major deficiencies they have in communication, where they're not able to tell you, you know, mom parents always say, I don't know what he wants, I'm not able to, you know, identify his needs. So that is one of the basic skills we want to, you know, teach every parent of children with autism how to, you know, teach your child to communicate their needs and want. That is basic. And then we have the next level, which is exchanging information, then being able to tell you how they feel, what they like, you know, their thoughts, their opinions. That is next level. And then we have the other level where we want to, you know, increase conversation tones, have them, you know, talk in an open-ended format, have them, you know, critically think and solve problems. That's a higher level. So I I've talked about after I've just spoken about three levels of communication, and I want you as a parent to begin to think, what level is my child? Is my child able to say, I want this? And this is regardless of um if your child is verbal or non-verbal. If your child is non-verbal, we can train them either through the PEC system, the picture exchange communication system, or we can train them through you know, using an AAC device and um an argumentative um, you know, um uh system to assist them to speak, or we can also teach them gestures, how to point, but um, even if your child is non-verbal, there is there are different multimodal um methods of communication that they could learn. So wherever you were, well uh one of our uh short um things uh our assignment for you today, if that if that's um what we should be, is identify based, not based on what the therapist is saying, not based on what the BCBA or what the speech therapist or what the OT is saying, based on your experience at home. I want you to evaluate is my child able to request for needs and what now. If the answer is yes, how often is it only when they desperately need something, or like can you beat your hand? Like, can you, you know, um um can you um um you know comfortably say that if my child needs yogurt, he will tell me he wants yogurt, if he needs water, he would like I I without me you know guessing and wondering and predicting, I'm able to tell. So that's a basic level because we want them to be able to communicate needs and want now. If your answer is no, then you need to identify the goal and start working on it, right? That is where the ABA strategies come in, um, where we need to start, you know, um providing lots of trainings, creating the right environment, um, employing some strategies to help that child um um um you know emit that behavior of requesting. Now, if your answer is yes, my child is able to say, I want this or I want that, the next thing is you know, we would need to move to the next level. Is your child able to respond to questions? Now, if you ask the child, do you like this? Now I want this is different from oh, I like this, or this is what this is. So I can say I want apples, but do I when you give me between apples and strawberries, am I able to tell you what I like? Am I able to tell you, oh, I think this one looks smaller than this one? Am I able to express my feelings? Oh, you know, apples. We you know, we get them at HB, for example, if you're in Texas, right? Um, so you want to ask, is your child able to exchange basic information, basic communication skills? Like, what do you like? You know, where is she? What is she doing? You know, what is this? You know, who is that? Basic, you know, response to questions. And if the answer is no, then that should be your goal. And um, talking about a goal, if you are looking for an individualized um, you know, um parent coaching program, we have one where we would walk you through this, evaluate you, um, you know, assess you and your child. Um, we there is an assessment for parents where we assess the parents' readiness so we can you can be assessed, and your child's um communication at home can be assessed. We can help you create a goal and walk you through it in six to eight weeks. And at the end of that, you should ex you should first of all learn how to turn your home into a communicative environment. I usually tell all my parents that your home can become a communicative. I have a son who is a toddler, um, not on the spectrum, but um, it's still the same thing when you're teaching toddlers to talk, it's almost the same format. You have to turn your environment into a communicative environment. You need and it's not anything complex. Like I was speaking to a parent yesterday who has a four-year-old son with autism, and you know, she was just sharing most of the activities. They recently did a pretend play where he, you know, he was um mom was acting, mom was washing her her car, and he was washing his own car, and he was pretending that he was doing a drive-thru. So she said that she realized that when she creates those communicative opportunities, he's able to express himself more. So I and I I just wanted to say that it doesn't have to be anything complex. You can use what you have at home, the activities you have at home, the routines you have at home, but all the difference there is you need to turn it into an opportunity for your child to communicate. Like the mom yesterday who ran up our program said um that one of the uh one of the things she learned from you know from the um from the parent coaching program was that you know it turned it opened her eyes to things she would normally do every day, she began to do them differently. And to me, that was really very satisfying for me to hear that you know the same thing you're doing, but you would be amazed at how powerful they are, how effective they can be when you turn them around intentionally to improve communication. So um I think that's what's possible. So if you have a child who is non-verbal, you need to get on our program. If you have a child who is verbal, but you know struggles to communicate their needs, struggles to communicate their wants, struggles to respond to questions, or you find they are just being repetitive. When you tell them how are you, they say how are you. When you tell them, do you want milk, they say, Do you want milk? If they are echoic, repeating what you're saying, you be you need to get on our program. If they are struggling with man, like requesting, you need to get on our program. If you want um to advance, you know, improve their communication to an advanced level, like for some children with artisan, they're not able to differentiate between what, who, where, why, and how. And that's something we can help you train them. So, um, Dr. Kaino, I'm sorry, I know I went ahead of myself, but please go ahead and ask, um, and let me know if there is any other um, yeah. So, but just to uh just a wrap up, right, from my own session, one of the major things I want you to do as an assignment, and maybe you can DM us and let us know if you did that is what stage of like evaluate your child's communication. Are they able to you know request for needs and wants? Are they able to engage in you know response to basic um you know basic questions like exchanging information? Um, are they able to you know critically think, you know, and you know, answer questions relating to problem solving, like, oh, why is this going on? And they are able to tell you, I think it's because this is happening. If you know, you when you identify the stage your child is you can just DM us and let us know. I think this is what we're struggling, and we could um you know let you know if our program is right for you.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

Okay, wonderful. Wow, thank you, Dr. Amar. Yes, you are the expert, so I let you talk. So, so parents, I hope you heard you heard everything she said, and please share this, of course, with whoever's in your world that you know needs to hear this because it is possible, there is hope. Our children with automatic age, they can learn to communicate better their wants, their needs, so that they can thrive better in the environment they are in, right? And and especially for we parents, right? It's important to know that your your child isn't stuck, your child can improve. There is a way to do it, and yes, is it a process? Absolutely. Is there a magic pill? No, there isn't. Is it possible to improve? Yes, again, it is possible. So, but you just need to be willing to put in the practice, and we're not trying to make you into an ABA therapist, not at all. We want to empower you, the parents, in your own home environment, to set up your home, like you said, Dr. Amara, as a communicative place, right? And where your child can just I don't want to use the word it diffuse, infuse, but you know, they can just just being in that environment just improves their communication, and and that's what we want every parent to experience with who has a child with autism and with ADHD. And a lot of times people don't think ABA, we only talk about it for autism, but absolutely it does help for children with ADHD to communicate better because there is that need there as well. And so reach out to us. We'd love to hear where the assignment she gave you, which is where where is your child, what goals do you have for your child, where is your child on the communicative ladder, and what would you like to see improve for you and your child at home? And and yes, we're here happy to serve. We have a cohort starting, we're looking for 10 families, and we want to just walk alongside you in a personalized manner, one-on-one care, so that you can get the best, best care for your child. And here at GoPediatrics, we believe in serving children, mind, body, spirit, and the parents, right? We call ourselves like adult doctors at this point, even though we're not for the child, we're also for the parents because it's the whole family, right? That we want to improve things, yeah.

Inside The 12 Week Parent Program

Assignment And How To Reach Us

SPEAKER_00 15:08

Yeah, and and Dr. Echo, do you want us to just stop through what our program looks like? And sure, okay. So if you join the program, the first thing that happens, so just um uh going from the assignment I gave, let's imagine that you identify that your child, um, for example, is not able to request, they're not able to communicate their needs and one that could be your one major goal. And um bear in mind that one of the things I have seen over the years, I think in about seven years of doing this, is that um when you you know train on one side, there are chances that what you you know the training could reflect in other areas. So why it is that you're teaching your child to be able to request for their needs, it's possible they could be able to do that outside of the house or with someone else. But um, going back to what I was saying, the moment you're able to identify what that goal is, what we do in the program is in the first is a 12-week program. So in the first and the second week, we meet with you to understand. So um, based on that goal you have set, I would have you know observe your child for like a week. And it's a it's a practical program. You're gonna be working every week. So you would have a child observation from where you just act as a mom therapist, you know, to kind of observe your child to know, okay, what exactly, where are the deficiencies, what is the problem, and we will walk you through that. And then the second week, based on the interview, the observations, we would come up with a comprehensive, practicable, home-based intervention plan. So when your child goes through, remember IEP, IEP is used in school. Now imagine you having your own IEP designed for your home, designed for your child based on what goes on in your home. And every week, bi weekly, sorry, we would work. So if we would have goals every week, every two weeks. So let's say our goal this week will be to ensure that, um, uh, for example, if it's for requesting, uh, an example of a goal could be that across breakfast, lunch, dinner, we want to train um the child to be able to request without aggression, without tantrums, without dragging mom's hand to the fridge and like, hey, give it to me. But we want you, you know, regardless of if the child is verbal or non-verbal, and we would walk you through those goals and you know, get ready is a practical training program. So you would send videos of what you're doing so that we can provide you know feedback. And we would also have a group session where you meet with other parents to share ideas, and um, so that would go on for about eight weeks, and on the ninth week, we would you know evaluate your progress, see where you are, and then allow you to begin to set goals yourself. So we train you to the point where number one, you're able to understand what you should do at home to help your child communicate how to prompt properly, how to model, how to use you know, error less learning the right way, how to generalize those skills your child has learned at home to other environments. And a good example of this is I was working with a mom, we are teaching the child to request for food and you know basic needs. And when he learned that skill, mom did a drive-thru at Chick fil A and he was able to request, you know, at you know, he was able to order for his favorite um meal uh, you know, at the drive-thru. So we could do that now. The same thing happened with the recent parent I concluded with. We worked, uh, my work with mom on responding to questions, making choices, and he was able to shop at the grocery store. Like mom took him to HEB and he was able to point and you know, say, Oh, I want this, let's shop for this, and that was amazing. So we would you know walk you through that process on and teach you, you know, how to implement these strategies in the comfort of your home. So and by so by the end of 12 weeks, I am very sure that number one, you will understand, you know, what communication is in the confines of your home. It's not just oh, he's improving, but you can you don't have a personal testimony to that, right? So with that is what we're going to teach you, and you would learn how to set up your home to be able to improve your child's communication. So we look forward to seeing you at our program.

SPEAKER_01 19:30

Okay, okay, wonderful. Yes, so that's that's it. Come on over, we're here to serve you and your charity.

SPEAKER_00 19:40

Okay, thank you.

SPEAKER_01 19:41

And and uh for those watching on YouTube, I think there's a link in the description box, and for people watching on Facebook, we'll have a link there as well. So looking forward to having you so with whoever needs to hear this. Have a wonderful day.