Simple ABA Strategies to Teach Cooperation and Sharing

Event
October 3, 2025

Teaching children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to cooperate and share with peers can be challenging, but Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy offers proven, evidence-based strategies that make a real difference. ABA offers evidence-based techniques that systematically teach these skills through structured routines, reinforcement, and modeling. In this comprehensive guide, we’ll explore the most effective ABA strategies therapists use to help children develop these essential social skills.

Understanding Why Cooperation and Sharing Matter

Social skills like cooperation and sharing are fundamental for children’s overall development. They enable children to form meaningful friendships, participate in group activities, and navigate social environments successfully. Developing social skills such as turn-taking and sharing is essential for children with autism to interact effectively and build meaningful relationships.

For children with autism, these skills often need to be explicitly taught and reinforced, as they may not develop naturally through observation alone.

Core ABA Strategies for Teaching Cooperation

1. Positive Reinforcement

Positive reinforcement is one of the main strategies used in ABA. When a behavior is followed by something that is valued (a reward), a person is more likely to repeat that behavior. Over time, this encourages positive behavior change.

When teaching cooperation, therapists use positive reinforcement by:

Providing immediate praise when a child shares a toy
Offering tangible rewards for taking turns during activities
Using token systems to track and reward cooperative behaviors

2. Discrete Trial Training (DTT)

Structured interventions like Discrete Trial Training (DTT) and Natural Environment Teaching (NET) break down the complex skill of sharing into smaller steps. DTT helps children master one component of cooperation at a time through repetition and clear instruction.

For example, a child might first learn to:

Ask for a turn
Wait for their turn
Give a turn to someone else
Thank the other person

3. Natural Environment Teaching (NET)

Natural Environment Training (NET) involves creating opportunities for children to interact with others in their natural environment. For example RBTs may facilitate group activities like PE and music class then provide reinforcement for each child based on their behavior. This approach helps children generalize the social skills they have learned in therapy to real-world situations, promoting long-term behavior change.

4. Role-Playing and Modeling

Role-playing and simulated scenarios are powerful tools in ABA for teaching children how to apply social skills in real-life situations. By practicing everyday interactions like greeting peers, sharing toys, or joining a game, children can internalize expected behaviors in a safe environment. Therapists often use puppets, dolls, or peer role models to make these activities engaging and realistic.

Visual Supports and Social Stories

Social Stories

Social stories are a widely used method in ABA to teach turn-taking, especially for children with autism. These stories use simple vocabulary, visuals, and scenarios to illustrate the concept of waiting for one’s turn, sharing, and participating cooperatively. They help children understand what behaviors are expected, manage anxiety related to waiting, and develop patience.

Visual Aids

Therapists incorporate various visual supports to help children understand and remember cooperative behaviors:

Visual schedules showing turn-taking sequences
Timers to help children understand waiting periods
Picture cards demonstrating sharing scenarios
Cue cards with step-by-step instructions

Teaching Sharing Skills Step-by-Step

ABA therapists use a blend of strategies to help children develop sharing and cooperative behaviors with peers. Modeling plays a significant role: children observe peers sharing toys, taking turns, and engaging in collaborative play. Therapists incorporate prompts and visual supports, such as picture cards or timers, to guide children in sharing activities.

The typical progression includes:

Simple sharing – Passing objects back and forth
Turn-taking with preferred items – Sharing favorite toys for brief periods
Parallel play – Playing alongside peers
Interactive play – Engaging in cooperative games
Cooperative play – Working together toward shared goals

Behavioral Skills Training (BST)

One of the most effective ABA-based techniques is Behavioral Skills Training (BST), which includes four steps to teach new skills in a systematic way. Instruction: Clearly explain the skill and why it’s important.

The four components of BST are:

Instruction – Explaining what cooperation looks like
Modeling – Demonstrating the desired behavior
Rehearsal – Allowing the child to practice
Feedback – Providing constructive guidance

Structured Activities for Cooperation

Games and Activities

One of the most common approaches involves structured games like board games, card games, and outdoor activities. These games naturally require players to wait for their turn, creating a fun and engaging way to practice patience and cooperation.

Popular activities include:

Board games requiring turn-taking
Puzzle-solving as a team
Ball-passing games
Group art projects
Cooperative building with blocks

Group Sessions

Group sessions create an organized structure for collaborative play and peer engagement, vital for acquiring the skills necessary for successful interactions. During these sessions, engaging in group activities helps individuals with ASD practice teamwork, cooperation, and shared responsibility.

The Role of Generalization

One of the most important aspects of ABA therapy is ensuring that skills learned in therapy sessions transfer to real-world situations. To ensure that social and play behaviors carry over into real-world settings, ABA strategies emphasize the generalization of skills. This includes teaching children to apply learned behaviors across different people, settings, and toys. Structured peer interventions and caregiver-led activities create diverse opportunities for practice.

Data-Driven Progress Monitoring

The BCBA and therapists measure progress by collecting data in each therapy session. Data helps them to monitor the person’s progress toward goals on an ongoing basis.

Therapists track:

Frequency of sharing behaviors
Duration of cooperative play
Level of prompting needed
Generalization across settings
Quality of social interactions

Parent and Caregiver Involvement

Family and caregivers are involved to promote consistency across environments. Parents play a crucial role by:

Reinforcing skills at home
Creating opportunities for practice
Maintaining consistency with therapy strategies
Celebrating successes

Evidence of Effectiveness

More than 20 studies have established that intensive and long-term therapy using ABA principles improves outcomes for many but not all children with autism. “Intensive” and “long term” refer to programs that provide 25 to 40 hours a week of therapy for 1 to 3 years. These studies show gains in intellectual functioning, language development, daily living skills and social functioning.

Recent research continues to demonstrate ABA’s impact on social skills development, with results indicating that the behavioral analysis program significantly impacts institutionalized children’s social and communicative skills, improving their daily lives.

Key Takeaways

Teaching cooperation and sharing through ABA therapy is a systematic, individualized process that combines multiple evidence-based strategies. ABA therapy offers a structured, evidence-based approach that not only improves children’s communication and social skills but also fosters meaningful peer relationships and lifelong social competence. By teaching children to interpret social cues, share, take turns, and engage in cooperative play, ABA empowers them to navigate their social worlds with confidence.

The most effective approach includes:

Positive reinforcement of desired behaviors
Breaking down complex skills into manageable steps
Using visual supports and social stories
Practicing in natural environments
Involving families in the learning process
Monitoring progress through data collection

With patience, consistency, and the right strategies, children with autism can develop strong cooperation and sharing skills that will serve them throughout their lives.