Applied Behavior Analysis Principles

At Autism Home Support Services, we believe that every child can learn. In order to achieve their full potential, children with autism need people who understand their motivation and can break down goals into tasks that they can accomplish. Even complex behaviors can be analyzed to identify ways to promote adaptive behavior and reduce maladaptive behaviors, step by step.

AHSS Individualized Care Plans are designed to incorporate those evidence based practices that can build on a child’s skills and further develop capabilities.

ABA Therapy

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) methodology is the application of basic behavioral practices (positive reinforcement, teaching in small steps, prompting, and repeated practice) to facilitate the development of language, social interactions, and independent living skills.

ABA procedures are rooted in scientific research. ABA includes ongoing collection of performance data to help guide teachers in making decisions regarding how to best individualize instruction for each unique child. ABA is the most effective method to teach children and adolescents with autism, pervasive developmental disorder (PDD), and other developmental disabilities. ABA practices have been endorsed by the Surgeon General, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Association for Science in Autism Research.

ABA can be used to teach a variety of skills and positive behaviors, including functional living skills, language, reading, social skills, positive peer interactions, academic engagement, and independent play skills. ABA methodology is also effective in decreasing challenging behaviors such as noncompliance, tantrums, bed-wetting, feeding problems, aggression, and self-injury.

ABA techniques can be used both in the home and at school. What most attracts parents to an ABA program are its positive and reinforcing tone, its strong focus on teaching new skills, the documentation of progress in reports and charts, its foundation in research, and the manner in which it is individualized for every child.

The following are different applications of Applied Behavior Analysis.

Lovaas Model

Dr. O. Ivar Lovaas began working with autistic children in the 1960s. He published The ME Book, which laid out his teaching application of ABA, and Teaching Individuals with Developmental Delays: Basic Intervention Techniques, which describes how programming has changed in the past few decades. Lovaas’s program was the first application of the science of behavior analysis widely used to teach individuals with autism.

Applied Verbal Behavior (AVB)

B.F. Skinner began studying behavior in the late 1920s and eventually published numerous books including Science and Human Behavior, Schedules of Reinforcement, and Verbal Behavior. In Verbal Behavior, Skinner analyzes why we say, write, and even think the way we do. Since the book was written in 1957 many researchers have been able to apply this work when teaching children, especially those with autism.

Jack Michael, Vince Carbone, Mark Sundberg, James Partington, Patrick McGreevy, and others have all contributed in the application of Skinner’s research with children with autism.

Differences between Lovaas and AVB

Lovaas-based approach teaches language skills based on the idea that receptive language should be developed prior to expressive language.

Verbal Behavior (VB) approach teaches specific components of expressive language (requests, labels, basic conversation) first.

Lovaas-based approach emphasizes the form of language – a child is taught to say the word “cookie” and many other words but not necessarily at the moment when the child wants a cookie.

Verbal Behavior approach emphasizes the function of language – a child is taught to ask for a “cookie” (vocally, sign language, etc.) only when they actually want a cookie. VB captures the desire for a cookie and turns it into the lesson that the word (or sign) for a cookie will get you what you want … a cookie!

Lovaas-based approach teaches the concept of an item in several ways and teaches another. For example: when a child can point to a cookie and say cookie when shown one, a new item is taught.

Verbal Behavior approach teaches across all functional classes. The meaning of a word is found in its function, not in the word itself.

More About Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

“Applied” means practice, rather than research or philosophy. “Behavior analysis” may be read as “learning theory,” that is, understanding what leads to (or doesn’t lead to) new skills. In fact, ABA is just as much about maintaining and using skills as it is about learning. It may seem odd to use the word “behavior” when talking about learning to talk, play, and live as a complex social animal, but to a behaviorist all these can be taught, so long as there are intact brain functions to learn and practice the skills. That is the essence of the recovery hypothesis–that for many children, the excesses and deficits of autism result largely from a learning ‘blockage,’ which can be overcome by intensive teaching.

Typically developing children learn without our intervention–that is, the ‘typical’ environment they are born into provides the right conditions to learn language, play, and social skills. After a few years, however, this breaks down, and we no longer learn everything ‘naturally’–it takes a very structured environment, for example, for most of us to learn to read, write, and do arithmetic.

Children with autism learn much, much less from the environment. They are often capable of learning, but it takes a very structured environment, one where conditions are optimized for acquiring the same skills that typical children learn ‘naturally.’ ABA is all about the rules for setting up the environment to enable our kids to learn.

Behavior analysis dates back at least to Skinner, who performed animal experiments showing that food rewards (immediate positive consequences to a target behavior) lead to behavior changes. This is accepted by everyone who wants to train their dog to ‘go’ outside, but we are not so inclined to want to believe the same of ourselves. Part of the problem is that people do respond to a broad range of reinforcements (rewards), but it is really true that an edible treat is among the most reliable, especially at first. The skills that we more often think lead to learning–motivation, self-discipline, curiosity–are marvelous, and really do set us apart from other animals–but those are truly sophisticated ‘behaviors’ that fully develop only after more basic language and social skills are in place.

Conversely, any new behavior that an animal (or you or I) may try that is never rewarded, is likely to die out after a while (how often will you dial that busy number?). And, as common sense would have it, a behavior that results in something unpleasant (an aversive) is even less likely to be repeated. These are the basics of behavioral learning theory. ABA uses these principles to set up an environment in which our kids learn as much as they can as quickly as possible. It is a science, not a ‘philosophy.’ Even the “as quickly as possible” part is based on science, since there is some evidence that the developmentally disordered brain “learns how to learn” best if the basic skills are taught in early childhood.

Behavioral learning is not the only type of learning. Most learning in schools is from an explanation or from a model, what people call ‘natural’ learning. Typically developing children learn from their environment (other people) at an astounding rate, completely unassisted. The whole point of ABA is to teach the prerequisites to make it possible for a child to learn ‘naturally.’ If our kids could learn without assistance in the first place they wouldn’t have autism!

The most common and distinguishing type of intervention based on applied behavior analysis is discrete trial teaching. It is what people most often think of when you say “ABA” or “Lovaas method.” This is partly because there are so many hundreds of hours of DT teaching, and partly because it looks so odd. But it is what it is because that’s what works–every aspect has been refined (and is still being refined) to result in maximum learning efficiency.

Briefly: the student is given a stimulus–a question, a set of blocks and a pattern, a request to go ask Mom for a glass of water–along with the correct response as a prompt, or a strong ‘hint’ at what the response should be. He is rewarded (an M&M, a piggy-back ride, a happy “good job!”) for repeating the right answer; anything else is ignored or corrected very neutrally. As his response becomes more reliable, the ‘clues’ are withdrawn until he can respond independently. This is usually done one-on-one at a table (thus the term table-top work), with detailed planning of the requests, timing, wording, and the therapist’s reaction to the student’s responses.

It is a mistake, however, to think of an ABA program as just DT teaching. Lovaas (among others) notes very clearly that a behavioral program is a comprehensive intervention, carried out in every setting, every available moment. The skills that are taught so efficiently in discrete trial drills must be practiced and generalized in ‘natural’ settings. A child who does not know the difference between ‘ask’ and ‘tell’ may slowly get a higher and higher percentage of right answers during table-top drills until he is considered to have ‘mastered’ that skill; but he will not go on to use ‘ask’ and ‘tell’ appropriately without additional support in natural situations; it takes time to go from ‘mastery’ to ‘ownership.’ It takes trained and supportive people–parents, teachers, relatives, even peers–to help reinforce a wide range of appropriate behaviors in a variety of settings, until the level of reinforcement fades to a typical level (such as the smile you get when you greet someone).

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Here is a child’s interaction with a teacher or other adult who is being as helpful as possible without appropriate training:

Teacher: Hi, Alex, are you excited about Christmas?

A: [no response]

Teacher: What are you going to do on Christmas?

A: I don’t know.

Teacher: Are you going to get presents?

A: Yes.

Teacher: What else are you going to do?

A: [no response]

Teacher: Do you have a tree?

A: Yes.

Teacher: Who’s going to bring presents on Christmas?

A: I don’t know.

Teacher: Is it Santa Claus?

A: Yes.

Teacher: [smile] Thanks, Alex!

This is the child’s half of the conversation:

“I don’t know, Yes, Yes, I don’t know, Yes.”

Any learning going on? (By the way, I’ve watched people have conversations like this, then comment “He’s talking so much more!”)

Here’s how a trained person might make this an opportunity for practicing conversation skills:

Teacher: Hi, Alex, are you excited about Christmas?

A: [no response]

Teacher: Are you excited about Christmas? Say, Yeah, I want to open my…

A: Yeah, I want to open my presents!

Teacher: [Smile] Me too! What presents did you ask for?

A: I asked for presents.

Teacher: What presents did you ask for? Say, For Christmas, I asked for…

A: I asked for a bike. For Christmas.

Teacher: Cool! [Small tickle] Are you excited about Christmas?

A: Yeah, I want a bike.

Teacher: [Bigger tickle] A bike! That’s great! I’ve got my tree all decorated with ornaments. I put lots of ornaments on MY tree. [Point to A's tree.]

A: I put heart ornaments on my tree.

Teacher: Alex, that’s so great! [Great big tickle]

A: Ahhhhh! Cut it out!

Reinforcement and ABA Therapy

Since many children with autism are not motivated to learn by intrinsic rewards, it is the therapist’s job to provide external reinforcement as a means to increase the likelihood of a desired behavior.

For a behavior to re-occur, reinforcement must be contingent on the desired behavior. As well, if a therapist wants to decrease inappropriate behavior, reinforcing APPROPRIATE behavior and ignoring the inappropriate behavior will decrease the frequency or duration of the inappropriate behavior and increase the likelihood of appropriate behavior.

In the beginning of an ABA program, reinforcement is delivered in high frequency in order to shape appropriate behavior and motivate the child to learn. Common reinforcers in the beginning are food and drink, as these are natural reinforcers for any living creature. Social praise is always paired with food to teach the child to enjoy verbal praise, a type of secondary reinforcement.

The style of programming will vary so that skills can be generalized in appropriate environments. Sitting at the table will resemble the time the child must sit at school. Reinforcement during this time is faded in frequency and in type. Programs taught formally at the table have been moved and generalized in the environment so that skills can be used in different rooms and different positions vs. only at a therapy table.

Big reinforcers such as computer time are saved after long periods of program work and smaller toy, food, or verbal praise occur intermittently within programs.

Food should be faded so that the child only receives food during snack time or for behaviors that need to be heavily praised such as peeing in the toilet. Autism Home Support Services will work with parents to identify and leverage reinforcers by learning about what most motivates your child.