Behaviour support you can run at home
A weekly session cannot outrun the house. Home behaviour work is one replacement skill inside one routine — not a token board for every minute of the day.
Written by the Inclusive Developmental and Therapy Center therapy team — our Speech & Language Therapist, psychology and ABA staff. This page is awaiting its clinical review.
What to try this week
Pick the behaviour that costs the most. Write what happened before and after for three days on the ABC chart. Teach one ask that gets the same job: “help”, a card, a walk. Practise the ask when everyone is calm, not in the flood. Home program: behaviour at home.
What not to do
A new punishment every night. A chart with twenty targets. Lectures in the doorway. If two adults use two scripts, the behaviour will pick the easier adult. When parents disagree, when a helper raises the child.
When it is not a home-practice problem
Anyone getting hurt, self-injury, a skill lost, or you running out of coping. That is not a data-collection week. Call or WhatsApp, or book. If someone is unsafe now, that is emergency care where you live, not our waiting room.
Everyone in the house, same two responses
Grandparents and helpers included, or the week unravels. Program: behaviour home program. Hitting: hitting and biting. Feelings underneath: child psychology.
The idea behind the work (in the books)
One replacement skill in one routine. Not a token board for every minute of the day.
Premack — first this, then that
A first-then board is Premack on the fridge. Three to five tokens is the same idea stretched: token board.
Kazdin — catch the behaviour you want
Praise the ten quiet seconds. The hard thing is what gets attention fastest in most houses.
What the research tells us
This isn’t just our opinion — it’s grounded in published research. Here are a few findings from trusted, independent sources:
Cheng and colleagues (2023) meta-analysed parent-implemented interventions. Overall benefits were moderate; adaptive behaviour and life-skills effects were the smallest. Coaching helps. It is not a guarantee of independence.
— Cheng et al., Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders (2023). View sourceA Cochrane review of early intensive behavioural intervention found improvements in adaptive behaviour, learning and language compared with standard care, and did not find evidence that it reduced autism symptom severity. The work teaches skills. It is not a treatment for autism itself.
— Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews — Reichow et al. (2018), CD009260. View source
Take a worksheet home
Print one sheet. Fill it in this week. Bring it to the consultation — a consultation is Rs 1,500 and lasts up to 50 minutes.
ABC behaviour record
What happened before, the behaviour, what happened after. A fortnight is enough.
First–then board
The hard moment, then the promised good thing — set out before the fight starts.
Token board
Three to five tokens for one skill, cashed in the moment the row is full.
Home practice log
One skill, a few minutes, one line of what happened. Bring it next time.
Book a consultation
Contact owner Muhammad Salman Afzal first. No referral needed. A consultation is Rs 1,500 and lasts up to 50 minutes.
At home — questions parents ask
Should I ignore it?
Only if you are sure the job is attention, and only if the child is safe. Escape-maintained behaviour gets worse if you “ignore” the demand and then give it up later.
Rewards feel like bribery.
A reward for a new skill is teaching. A bribe to stop a flood you already entered is something else. We use the first, not the second.
It only happens with one parent.
Then the consequence is different with that parent. That is useful. It is not proof the child is “manipulative”.
Can you watch a home video?
Yes. A messy clip of the doorway is worth more than a tidy child in our room. A consultation is Rs 1,500 and lasts up to 50 minutes.
The token board became a fight.
Then it is too big or cashed in too late. Three tokens, cashed the moment the row is full. Or drop it and use first-then for one moment.
Ask about at home
A short, friendly conversation is the best first step. Call, text or WhatsApp us — we’ll listen and guide you, with no pressure.
MPS Road, Block A Model Town, Multan (near Bloomfield Hall School, Street No. 2) · Mon–Fri, 2 PM – 6 PM