Behavioral Consulting of Tampa Bay

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is the science of human behavior. Over the past 30 years, several thousand published research studies have documented the effectiveness of ABA across a wide range of:

populations (children and adults with mental illness, developmental disabilities, learning disorders, and tyipcal children who engage in problem behavior)
interventionists (parents, teachers and staff)
settings (schools, homes, clinics, institutions, group homes, hospitals and business offices), and
behaviors (language; social, academic, leisure and functional life skills; aggression, self-injury, oppositional and stereotyped behaviors)

Applied Behavior Analysis is the process of systematically applying interventions based upon the principles of learning theory to improve socially significant behaviors to a meaningful degree, and to demonstrate that the interventions employed are responsible for the improvement in behavior (Baer, Wolf & Risley, 1968; Sulzer-Azaroff & Mayer, 1991).

"Socially significant behaviors" include reading, academics, social skills, communication, and adaptive living skills. Adaptive living skills include gross and fine motor skills, eating and food preparation, toileting, dressing, personal self-care, domestic skills, time and punctuality, money and value, home and community orientation, and work skills.

ABA methods are used to support persons with autism and similar disorders in at least six ways:

to increase behaviors (eg reinforcement procedures increase on-task behavior, or social interactions);
to teach new skills (eg, systematic instruction and reinforcement procedures teach functional life skills, communication skills, or social skills);
to maintain behaviors (eg, teaching self control and self-monitoring procedures to maintain and generalize job-related social skills);
to generalize or to transfer behavior from one situation or response to another (eg, from completing assignments in the resource room to performing as well in the mainstream classroom);
to restrict or narrow conditions under which interfering behaviors occur (eg, modifying the learning environment); and
to reduce interfering behaviors (eg, self injury or stereotypy).

ABA is an objective discipline. ABA focuses on the reliable measurement and objective evaluation of observable behavior.

Reliable measurement requires that behaviors are defined objectively. Vague terms such as anger, depression, aggression or tantrums are redefined in observable and quantifiable terms, so their frequency, duration or other measurable properties can be directly recorded (Sulzer-Azaroff & Mayer, 1991). For example, a goal to reduce a child's aggressive behavior might define "aggression" as: "attempts, episodes or occurrences (each separated by 10 seconds) of biting, scratching, pinching or pulling hair." "Initiating social interaction with peers" might be defined as: "looking at classmate and verbalizing an appropriate greeting."

ABA interventions require a demonstration of the events that are responsible for the occurrence, or non-occurrence, of behavior. ABA uses methods of analysis that yield convincing, reproducible, and conceptually sensible demonstrations of how to accomplish specific behavior changes (Baer & Risley, 1987). Moreover, these behaviors are evaluated within relevant settings such as schools, homes and the community. The use of single case experimental design to evaluate the effectiveness of individualized interventions is an essential component of programs based upon ABA methodologies. This is a process that includes the following components:

selection of interfering behavior or behavioral skill deficit
identification of goals and objectives
establishment of a method of measuring target behaviors
evaluation of the current levels of performance (baseline)
design and implementation of the interventions that teach new skills and/or reduce interfering behaviors
continuous measurement of target behaviors to determine the effectiveness of the intervention, and
ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention, with modifications made as necessary to maintain and/or increase both the effectiveness and the efficiency of the intervention.

This process incorporates all of the features that constitute a favorable and accountable approach to behavior change (Sulzer-Azaroff & Mayer, 1991).

Applied Behavior Analysis is also popularly referred to as Intensive Behavioral Intervention. There are actually differences between the two terms, but most parents and lay people use them in reference to an intense program of study for a person, usually a child, which utilizes principles from the field of Operant Conditioning ("aka Behavior Modification"). This field has its roots in the theories of B.F. Skinner. The popularly cited study by Ivar Lovaas in the 1980's showed that the principles of ABA could be Applied Behavior Analysisin an intense program of behaviorally based instruction to treat children with Autism. The study showed that children with Autism could make dramatic progress when receiving a program of instruction of this type.

Many techniques are often used in an ABA program, Discrete Trial Teaching (DTT) is one of the primary (but not the only) instructional methods used in ABA programs for children with Autism today. This technique is used to maximize learning and can be used to develop most skills including, cognitive, social, behavioral, fine motor, play, social and self help skills. DTT involves breaking down skills into small sub-skills and teaching each sub-skill, intensely, one at a time. It involves repeated practices with prompting and fading of prompts to insure the child’s success. DTT also uses reinforcement to help shape and maintain positive behaviors and skills.

Teaching in (and with) the Natural Environment is also a valuable method incorporated into many ABA programs today. As the child (or person) develops, more advanced methods are added to improve Verbal and Social skills deficits as well.

The common theme through most of the different methodologies used under the umbrella term of " ABA" is the use of Behavior based learning. A good description of the different theories of learning can be found at http://www.uib.no/People/sinia/CSCL/web_struktur-4.htm A simple way of understanding this is that we, as humans, learn to behave based upon the demands placed upon us by our environment. For most people, this occurs unconsciously without us being aware of it. For a child or person with Autism, learning occurs only when demands are carefully structured, repeated often and rewarded when the desired behavior is produced.

ABA is a large area of study, and this information is not intended to be a detailed or definitive explanation.