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About ABA
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a behavioral treatment
system based on over 50 years of scientific research. These
scientific research studies have time and again provided
empirical evidence of the efficacy of ABA as a behavioral
treatment methodology for the treatment of a wide range
of behavioral and developmental disorders. Positive results
from ABA research include improvement in the areas of speech,
social skill, self-help skill, play and marked decrease
in the manifestation of Autism typical disorderly behaviors
including tantrum, self-injury and self-stimulation.
Other research findings
have also found ABA to be effective in helping autistic
children integrate into regular classrooms after receiving
ABA based preschool programs (Harris and Handleman).
These positive findings have been documented
across behaviors as well as settings (schools, homes, institutions,
group homes, hospitals and business offices) and populations
(children and adults with mental illness, developmental disabilities
and learning disorders).
In a nutshell, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is the process
of systematically applying interventions based on 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 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 (e.g., 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).
Over 30 years of rigorous research and peer review of applied
behavior analysis' effectiveness for individuals with autism
demonstrate ABA has been objectively substantiated as effective
based upon the scope and quality of science.
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