Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)
What is Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)?
Applied behaviour analysis, commonly referred to as “ABA” is a systematic method of supporting and/or altering behaviour. It involves studying behaviour (via observation), analysing the steps involved in producing a behaviour, and then teaching or modifying these steps one at a time. The principles of behaviour therapy have been developed through more than 50 years of scientific research.
Key components of ABA are:
Although behaviour therapy is a method of intervention used for children with Autism, it is also used extensively in the general community. For example, behaviour therapy techniques are used in sports psychology to motivate and train elite athletes, in the teaching of daily skills such as learning how to ride a bike or teaching a child how to brush their teeth, and in the corporate world to enhance staff performance (e.g., workplace incentives or monetary bonuses).
ABA involves the development of individualised programs based on the child’s strengths to help target their areas of difficulties. The programs are implemented in collaboration with families and all other health and/or education providers working with the child. Therapy sessions typically involve a well balanced amount of play time and table task time to develop learning, social and communication skills. The play times make therapy sessions much more fun and, therefore, more motivating for the child. Learning is generalised to various natural environments including day care, preschool or school.
ABA Techniques
The first step in any ABA program is to observe the child and develop a plan to change behaviours. The behaviours requiring modification are observed to determine the antecedents and consequences of the behaviour (i.e., what serves to reinforce or keep the behaviour going). Goals are then formulated to determine which particular behaviours will be addressed in intervention and in what order. The new behaviours will be broken down into smaller steps to teach the specific skills necessary to develop them.
A variety of techniques are used within ABA to teach these skills. Discrete trial learning, Natural Environment Training, Task Analysis, Reinforcements, Prompting and various Visual Supports are some of the techniques employed to teach a skill. Following is a brief explanation of each technique:
- Discrete trial learning is a structured method of presenting learning in systematic drills where the goal is purposefully and rapidly attaining mastery on a skill. It consists of the therapist’s presentation of an instruction, the child’s response, the consequence, and a short pause between the consequence and the next instruction.
E.g.,
Instruction ¨C “Come here”
Response ¨C Child goes to the person who gave the instruction
Consequence ¨C Child gets a hug for complying with instruction
There would then be a pause before another instruction is given.
- Natural Environment Training (NET) is a teaching technique, which uses the skills that your child has gained, often through Discrete Trial Training, and generalises them to the natural environment. The natural environment is that which the child encounters on a daily basis. Therefore, the aim is to teach the child how to learn from their natural setting in the same way that typically developing children might learn. That is, to teach the child to apply and to generalise the skills they learn so that they can successfully interact within their environment in a way that is functional, meaningful and independent.
Natural Environment Training uses the child’s interests to consolidate the skills they have learned. All skills taught in a discrete setting can be generalised to the natural environment. Indeed, many skills are taught most efficaciously within the natural environment e.g., play skills, social skills, and social language skills.
E.g., If a child is playing with a preferred toy train, then the therapist may join in play with the child and begin a conversation about the trains (eg “my favourite train is Percy”), whilst prompting the child to maintain eye contact and provide an appropriate verbal response. In this way, the child is taught how to respond to social conversation cues and how to reciprocate interest and communication. When mastered, the child can then extend their use of these skills to settings such as preschool or school where this kind of interaction helps form the basis of successful, reciprocal peer relationships.
- Task analysis refers to breaking complex behaviours down into their small components/ steps. This technique particularly helps in learning complex, chained behaviours and functional skills.
E.g., The behaviour of washing hands involves the following steps:
1. Turn tap on
2. Wet hands
3. Put soap on hands
4. Rub hands
5. Rinse hands
6. Dry hands with towel
- Reinforcement is a technique used to motive a child to learn. It has been found that reinforcers delivered immediately after a child’s appropriate response will increase the likelihood of that response. Reinforcements can be anything that may motivate a child to want to learn e.g., physical interactions such as tickles and hugs, or tangible rewards such as lollies, favourite toys, or having a break.
- Prompts are used to help children to acquire new skills during the discrete trial learning process. Prompts can be given at the same time as the instruction, during the child’s response or after the child’s incorrect response to show them the expected response.
Examples of various prompts for turning on a tap:
Verbal ¨C “Turn tap on”
Visual ¨C Show a picture of the tap
Physical ¨CTherapist’s hand over the child’s hand to assist the child to turn tap on
Demonstration/Modelling ¨C Having someone demonstrate turning the tap on
Gesture ¨C Pointing to tap
- Visual support is especially useful for individuals that are visual learners and have difficulty processing verbal and/or auditory information. Visual tools facilitate expressive language and language comprehension. They also assist individuals in understanding their social and physical environments by providing structure to explain task expectations or daily events.
What are some of the benefits of ABA?
A major strength of ABA is that it is a systematic approach. There are clear sets of expectations and tasks are broken down into small attainable parts. ABA also helps teach skills such as attention. It can help increase socially appropriate behaviour, including complex behaviours like language. ABA targets consistency in the child’s environment.
Even though ABA does not lead to a “cure” of autism, the application of ABA principles offer a reasonable probability of gains in functioning in areas such as language, play, social and self-help skills. Naturally, there is a range in the degree of treatment outcomes. Outcomes depend upon several factors including age at onset of treatment, quality of treatment, the child’s cognitive capacity and consistency in the home environment. Nonetheless, treatment is designed to bring out the child’s fullest potential, to maximise children’s functioning so that they can develop meaningful relationships with others and to take better advantage of learning opportunities in their homes, schools, and communities.
What are our philosophies regarding ABA?
At CCR we believe in a holistic approach to a child’s intervention program. We believe strongly in working in collaboration with parents and other professionals to help maximise the child’s potential. In our center, we work closely with Speech Pathologists, Occupational Therapists and Educational Psychologists to develop comprehensive and individualised programs for the child. (IEP)
At CCR we believe that treatment should be fun for children, families and therapists. It is important that therapy is a positive experience for the child. In creating a positive learning environment, the child will be more motivated to participate in therapy sessions and, therefore, to learn and develop skills taught.
At CCR we believe that parents play a pivotal role in their child’s therapy. Therefore, we would like parents to be as closely involved as possible in their child’s therapy programs e.g., we believe in training parents to work as therapists with their own child, where possible. This helps parents to gain a better understanding of their child’s skills as well as how to support their child’s daily development.
For more information: Contact 95307344
www.ccr-oman.com
What is Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA)?
Applied behaviour analysis, commonly referred to as “ABA” is a systematic method of supporting and/or altering behaviour. It involves studying behaviour (via observation), analysing the steps involved in producing a behaviour, and then teaching or modifying these steps one at a time. The principles of behaviour therapy have been developed through more than 50 years of scientific research.
Key components of ABA are:
- A “functional analysis” of behaviour. This refers to the observation of current behaviours for their frequency as well as the antecedents and consequences of displayed behaviour
- Breaking down desired skills into manageable steps
- Teaching the steps through repeated presentation of skills (these repeated learning opportunities are sometimes referred to as “discrete trials”)
- Collecting data on behaviour to measure quantitative and qualitative changes over time
- To teach new skills: Breaking skills into manageable steps to be taught systematically using reinforcement e.g., to teach new functional life skills, communication skills or social skills
- To increase desired behaviours: Positive reinforcement to increase behaviour e.g., rewarding a child to increase staying on-task or to increase their attempts to initiate play in a social interaction
- To reduce inappropriate behaviours: Modification of the child’s environment or redirecting the child to a more appropriate activity e.g., ignoring a tantrum and redirecting the child to a functional activity
- Generalisation of new skills: Teaching skills in various environments to ensure the new behaviour is transferred from one situation or response to several e.g., generalising compliant behaviours from the home environment to various public/ community settings
Although behaviour therapy is a method of intervention used for children with Autism, it is also used extensively in the general community. For example, behaviour therapy techniques are used in sports psychology to motivate and train elite athletes, in the teaching of daily skills such as learning how to ride a bike or teaching a child how to brush their teeth, and in the corporate world to enhance staff performance (e.g., workplace incentives or monetary bonuses).
ABA involves the development of individualised programs based on the child’s strengths to help target their areas of difficulties. The programs are implemented in collaboration with families and all other health and/or education providers working with the child. Therapy sessions typically involve a well balanced amount of play time and table task time to develop learning, social and communication skills. The play times make therapy sessions much more fun and, therefore, more motivating for the child. Learning is generalised to various natural environments including day care, preschool or school.
ABA Techniques
The first step in any ABA program is to observe the child and develop a plan to change behaviours. The behaviours requiring modification are observed to determine the antecedents and consequences of the behaviour (i.e., what serves to reinforce or keep the behaviour going). Goals are then formulated to determine which particular behaviours will be addressed in intervention and in what order. The new behaviours will be broken down into smaller steps to teach the specific skills necessary to develop them.
A variety of techniques are used within ABA to teach these skills. Discrete trial learning, Natural Environment Training, Task Analysis, Reinforcements, Prompting and various Visual Supports are some of the techniques employed to teach a skill. Following is a brief explanation of each technique:
- Discrete trial learning is a structured method of presenting learning in systematic drills where the goal is purposefully and rapidly attaining mastery on a skill. It consists of the therapist’s presentation of an instruction, the child’s response, the consequence, and a short pause between the consequence and the next instruction.
E.g.,
Instruction ¨C “Come here”
Response ¨C Child goes to the person who gave the instruction
Consequence ¨C Child gets a hug for complying with instruction
There would then be a pause before another instruction is given.
- Natural Environment Training (NET) is a teaching technique, which uses the skills that your child has gained, often through Discrete Trial Training, and generalises them to the natural environment. The natural environment is that which the child encounters on a daily basis. Therefore, the aim is to teach the child how to learn from their natural setting in the same way that typically developing children might learn. That is, to teach the child to apply and to generalise the skills they learn so that they can successfully interact within their environment in a way that is functional, meaningful and independent.
Natural Environment Training uses the child’s interests to consolidate the skills they have learned. All skills taught in a discrete setting can be generalised to the natural environment. Indeed, many skills are taught most efficaciously within the natural environment e.g., play skills, social skills, and social language skills.
E.g., If a child is playing with a preferred toy train, then the therapist may join in play with the child and begin a conversation about the trains (eg “my favourite train is Percy”), whilst prompting the child to maintain eye contact and provide an appropriate verbal response. In this way, the child is taught how to respond to social conversation cues and how to reciprocate interest and communication. When mastered, the child can then extend their use of these skills to settings such as preschool or school where this kind of interaction helps form the basis of successful, reciprocal peer relationships.
- Task analysis refers to breaking complex behaviours down into their small components/ steps. This technique particularly helps in learning complex, chained behaviours and functional skills.
E.g., The behaviour of washing hands involves the following steps:
1. Turn tap on
2. Wet hands
3. Put soap on hands
4. Rub hands
5. Rinse hands
6. Dry hands with towel
- Reinforcement is a technique used to motive a child to learn. It has been found that reinforcers delivered immediately after a child’s appropriate response will increase the likelihood of that response. Reinforcements can be anything that may motivate a child to want to learn e.g., physical interactions such as tickles and hugs, or tangible rewards such as lollies, favourite toys, or having a break.
- Prompts are used to help children to acquire new skills during the discrete trial learning process. Prompts can be given at the same time as the instruction, during the child’s response or after the child’s incorrect response to show them the expected response.
Examples of various prompts for turning on a tap:
Verbal ¨C “Turn tap on”
Visual ¨C Show a picture of the tap
Physical ¨CTherapist’s hand over the child’s hand to assist the child to turn tap on
Demonstration/Modelling ¨C Having someone demonstrate turning the tap on
Gesture ¨C Pointing to tap
- Visual support is especially useful for individuals that are visual learners and have difficulty processing verbal and/or auditory information. Visual tools facilitate expressive language and language comprehension. They also assist individuals in understanding their social and physical environments by providing structure to explain task expectations or daily events.
What are some of the benefits of ABA?
A major strength of ABA is that it is a systematic approach. There are clear sets of expectations and tasks are broken down into small attainable parts. ABA also helps teach skills such as attention. It can help increase socially appropriate behaviour, including complex behaviours like language. ABA targets consistency in the child’s environment.
Even though ABA does not lead to a “cure” of autism, the application of ABA principles offer a reasonable probability of gains in functioning in areas such as language, play, social and self-help skills. Naturally, there is a range in the degree of treatment outcomes. Outcomes depend upon several factors including age at onset of treatment, quality of treatment, the child’s cognitive capacity and consistency in the home environment. Nonetheless, treatment is designed to bring out the child’s fullest potential, to maximise children’s functioning so that they can develop meaningful relationships with others and to take better advantage of learning opportunities in their homes, schools, and communities.
What are our philosophies regarding ABA?
At CCR we believe in a holistic approach to a child’s intervention program. We believe strongly in working in collaboration with parents and other professionals to help maximise the child’s potential. In our center, we work closely with Speech Pathologists, Occupational Therapists and Educational Psychologists to develop comprehensive and individualised programs for the child. (IEP)
At CCR we believe that treatment should be fun for children, families and therapists. It is important that therapy is a positive experience for the child. In creating a positive learning environment, the child will be more motivated to participate in therapy sessions and, therefore, to learn and develop skills taught.
At CCR we believe that parents play a pivotal role in their child’s therapy. Therefore, we would like parents to be as closely involved as possible in their child’s therapy programs e.g., we believe in training parents to work as therapists with their own child, where possible. This helps parents to gain a better understanding of their child’s skills as well as how to support their child’s daily development.
For more information: Contact 95307344
www.ccr-oman.com
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