Erikson's Cognitive Behavior Analysis

During early childhood, a child begins to explore their environment with less anxiety, become more aware of what others are doing and make advances in play and social skills. For most children, this process is a smooth transition and done without any form of trauma or distress. For those who are not developing at the same rate as their peers, this stage of life can be difficult. The importance of being included by peers in social and pretend play are crucial to a child’s development. A child with a developmental disability such as Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may lack the abilities to engage in such forms of play and therefore, be ostracized by their peers and not gain the knowledge and skills to socialize in the same manner. In Erikson’s …show more content…
These thoughts directed towards the aversive stimuli become obsessive and take over all over thoughts and focus. According to King, Muris and Ollendick (2005), the interaction between these thoughts and environmental interactions can be what maintains childhood phobias (p. 52). By focusing on what is the driving force of the phobia, steps can be taken to decrease the reaction to the aversive stimuli by utilizing reinforcement, peer modeling and parent interventions. The idea of parental intervention has been noted as a key component to decreasing the level of fear within a child with phobias. King, Muris and Ollendick (2005) state that parents are often considered “co-therapists” for implementing these procedures in environments that a therapist cannot be present for (p. …show more content…
With therapy such as Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) being provided by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Jackson will focus on increasing his verbal and communication skills, decrease his level of social anxiety by being placed in small groups of peers on the same level of functioning and then slowly faded into a larger group of children. Psychosocial intervention consisting of CBT and OST will be utilized to decrease the phobias that have been developed surrounding spiders, germs and heights. With the combination of these therapies being put into place, it is thought that Jackson will show signs of recovery and reduced anxiety when in social situations as well as when confronted with the aversive stimuli.
Parent training will continue simultaneously in order to ensure that treatment is being provided in the appropriate manner to reduce chance of relapse back into these