ABA Fact Sheet

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) approach is the utilization of basic behavioral practices (positive reinforcement, repetition, and prompting) to help cause the development of language, positive skills, and social behavior as well as help to reduce everyday social problems and serious behavior disorders.

Children and adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities that have participated in ABA have helped to indicate the high effectiveness of this method through all data collected through hundreds of studies.

The Surgeon General, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Association for Science in Autism Research all endorse ABA practices, which have been tested by research and experience for more than 35 years. The skills and experience of an ABA professional are essential for successful treatment. A fundamental component of the ABA approach is the continuous and systematic evaluation of effectiveness.

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

Many environments: such as work, school, home, and the community; work with ABA techniques. Examples of therapy goals for each of these environments could include:

• Work – Increasing performance output, improving upon social interactions among colleagues or employers, reducing off-task behavior, increasing task fluency (speed at which a skill is performed)

• Home – Toilet training, sibling interaction/social interaction, communication or language training, chores or task completion, homework completion

• School – Increasing group participation, reduction of problem behaviors, functional behavior assessments, reducing off-task instructional behavior

• Community – Generalization of skills across settings, extinguishing wandering or elopement behaviors, teaching street safety, stranger danger

ABA therapy is not a “one size fits all” approach. A skilled therapist customizes the intervention to each of the learner’s own skills, needs, interests, preferences, and family situation. For these reasons, an ABA program should never be viewed as a “canned” set of drills but will look different from one learner to the next. With that being said, quality ABA programs for learners with autism have the following in common:

Planning and Ongoing Assessment

• A qualified and trained behavior analyst designs and directly oversees the intervention.

• The analyst’s development of treatment goals stems from a detailed assessment of each learner’s skills and preferences and may also include family goals.

• Treatment goals and instruction are developmentally appropriate and target a broad range of skill areas such as communication, sociability, self-care, play and leisure, motor development and academic skills.

• Goals emphasize skills that will enable learners to become independent and successful in both the short and long terms.

• The instruction plan breaks down desired skills into manageable steps to be taught from the simplest (e.g., imitating single sounds) to the more complex (e.g., carrying on a conversation)

• The intervention involves ongoing objective measurement of the learner’s progress.

• The behavior analyst frequently reviews information on the learner’s progress and uses this to adjust procedures and goals as needed.

ABA Techniques and Philosophy

• The instructor uses a variety of behavior analytic procedures, some of which are directed by the instructor and other initiated by the learner.

• The learner’s day is structured to provide many opportunities – both planned and naturally occurring – to acquire and practice skills in both structured and unstructured situations.

• The learner receives an abundance of positive reinforcement for demonstrating useful skills and socially appropriate behaviors.

• The emphasis is on positive social interactions and enjoyable learning.

• The learner receives no reinforcement for behaviors that pose a harm or impede learning.