4 minute read
ABA. Applied Behavioral Analysis
When your child/youth receives an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis (ASD), or if there is a concern that they might have Autism, your pediatrician has likely brought up the subject of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)
Adults with Autism or an Intellectual Disability (IDD) diagnosis also benefit from ABA.
Behaviour analysis is a scientific technique that helps us to understand, predict, and eventually change behaviour over time. It uses evidence-based strategies to work on goals that are meaningful to the child/youth and their families. ABA focuses on teaching new skills/ behaviours, increasing appropriate behaviours and reducing inappropriate behaviours. When teaching a new skill/behaviour, the clinician will break down the task into small, teachable steps to help increase success.
ABA uses data to track progress of the target goal(s). The clinician will always begin with baseline, which is when the clinician will track what skills your child/ youth have before any intervention starts. The clinician may ask parents, other caregivers and/or school staff to also track the target behaviour(s) to see how your child/youth behaves across different settings/locations. Once the clinician has collected enough baseline data, they will review the data to look for patterns. This could be looking for low/no responding to teach a new skill/ behaviour (i.e. toilet training, communication, daily living skills, following instructions). It may also focus on high responding for challenging/inappropriate behaviours (i.e. aggression, self-injurious behaviour, off task behaviour). The clinician will then write an intervention plan and continue to track the target behaviour(s) to see if the intervention is working. ABA clinicians always use data to make the decision if the intervention should continue, needs to be revised or can be discontinued.
When analyzing behaviour, the clinician will always look for the function of behaviour, the “why”. Why is the challenging behaviour increasing or getting worse? Why is the skill not happening consistently? In ABA, there are four main reasons why we behave the way we do:
• To escape/avoid a task, situation or person
• To get attention from someone
• To access an item, activity or situation
• Because it feels good to you (sensory/ automatic)
When thinking of the word “consequence”, typically we think of something that is negative or a punishment. However, in ABA, a consequence is simply something that happens right after a behaviour occurs. This can be reinforcement (increases the behaviour), punishment (decreases a behaviour) or no response (decreases a behaviour). A behaviour that is reinforced will continue to happen, or even increase, over time. The longer a behaviour is reinforced, the stronger the behaviour will become. Reinforcement may be planned (i.e. a sticker/token for completing a chore, child keeps completing chores in the future) or accidental (i.e. child rips up homework and gets sent to their room, child keeps ripping up homework in the future). Reinforcement can also be intrinsic/internal (i.e. you get A+ on a test and feel proud of yourself). A behaviour that is punished will decrease over time and may eventually disappear completely.
Punishment can also be planned (i.e. send child to room for hitting, child stops hitting in the future) or accidental (i.e. hand-over-hand prompts to brush teeth, child avoids brushing teeth in the future). In ABA, interventions will focus on reinforcement-based strategies as a first option. Punishment-based strategies will only be recommended if reinforcement-based strategies do not work over time or the challenging behaviour is harmful and must be decreased immediately.
At Bethesda, ABA clinicians will work with you and your family to choose meaningful goals and focus on positive interventions.
The clinician will focus on teaching parents and other caregivers so they can help set their child/youth up for success at home and in the community. At Bethesda, we are committed to working with other professionals (i.e. school) to develop a plan that best supports the child/ youth, and adults with IDD and their caregivers in all environments.
