When is the right time to take away the pacifier? This question has been posed to me many times before and I know I am not alone. Most focus on this topic is on the social acceptance of "sucking on a binky" around other people. This topic is a hot one among the parenting and therapy communities so I want to share an ABA functional perspective.
Let's start with the actual item.
Pacifier: I have heard it called a "cork" & "mute button" and why is that? It is because once put in the child's mouth child will normally stop crying. A pacifier functions as a way to sooth the child. So from a function perspective it serves what we call an "automatic" function. The act of sucking on the pacifier provides the input the child is seeking.
So we have established that the binky serve a function: to sooth through oral input.
One area of ABA many people don't understand is the need to replace the undesired behavior if we want to it gone and this is no different with most binky issues. We take the binky but we don't replace the need to have oral input with anything. Then we wonder why these children struggle to cope with situations and regulate......
Think about many adults you know:
How many chew gum, smoke, vape, bite their nails, or chew on other items such as pens or pencils?
Answer: A LOT almost every adult I know utilizes some type of oral input to sooth themselves.
The thing with any coping skill is that it needs to be the person who decides they are ready to no longer use it and use something else. There are other oral input items such as chewy sticks or necklaces that can be used as replacements if you think your child may prefer it I always say give it a try but the fight to get the binky away is just not a beneficial fight for anyone. A child is ready to give up the binky when they are ready to give up the binky.
Elise Bagley, MEd BCBA LBA
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