Why Physical Activity Matters and What to Do about It!
Abstract
ABA therapists are no strangers to gummies, M&Ms, or other treats used during long therapy sessions. In a client’s home, many households have stocked cabinets of salty and sweet snacks, while healthier options are tucked in the fridge out of sight, out of mind. The lack of healthy alternatives, along with a reliance on iPads and other technologies as reinforcers during therapy, promote less physical activity and fewer nutritionally healthy options. On any given day, a young client can be at a desk from 1-6 hours with only short spurts of time dedicated to playing. In this course, Nick Green, Ph.D., health and fitness guru, and behavior analyst reviews the necessity for developing healthy habits in our clients and offers practical tips for making it a larger part of the therapeutic experience. He outlines key factors that will help case managers incorporate the usual skills taught (i.e. handwashing, changing clothes, direction following) with physical activities. He also presents a definition that behavior analysts should adopt, especially since we are ethically required to provide the greatest outcomes and well-being for our clients.
Learning Objectives
What you’ll learn in the course and be able to do afterward
- With a complete definition of general health, physical health, and an evolutionary perspective on physical activity and movement, you’ll learn how to do the following:
- Re-examine what it means to be sedentary and why it’s a problem throughout one’s lifespan
- Recommend physical activities for children, adults, and older adults
- Turn those recommendations into interventions and select the right dependent variables to measure
- Put healthy behavior and interventions into an ethical framework
- Behaviorally speaking, you’ll take an overview of basic nutrition and fat accumulation principles to
- read into the motivating operations related to physical activity and hunger;
- identify the maintaining variables which promote healthy behavior.
Partnership
This course is delivered through Florida Tech. Clicking "Enroll Now" will take you to Florida Tech’s website where you can Add to Cart, Checkout, and complete the course. Come back to our website for podcasts, blogs, courses, and content.
