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What is ABA? ABA is the widely-used acronym for applied behavior analysis, a methodology based on the principles of operant conditioning theory. Remember the Skinner box from Psych 101? Same idea, different application. In the 1930s, behavioral scientists Skinner and Thorndike figured out that human behavior is affected by both its antecedents and its consequences. ABA attempts to modify these antecedents and consequences to alter the present behavior of an individual. So what to rats punching a lever to get a crunchy pellet have to do with our kids with autism? According to Dr. Doreen Granpeesheh, quite a bit. Granpeesheh, the founder and executive director of the Center for Autism and Related Disorders, earned her Ph.D. in Psychology from UCLA under the guidance of Dr. Ivar Lovaas (some of you might have heard of the "Lovaas Method;" this is ABA). The practitioners of ABA separate the characteristics of autistic behavior into deficits and excesses. Deficits usually include language, play, social, theory of mind, and executive functioning skills. Excesses include self-stimulatory behaviors ("stimming" by spinning, arm flapping, head banging, turning wheels, etc.) and maladaptive behaviors such as tantrums, aggression, and non-compliance. According to ABA therapists, once the specific deficits and excesses have been identified for a given child, a comprehensive behavioral program can be designed for individual children to teach appropriate replacement skills ("skill repertoire building") and manage difficult behaviors ("behavior management"). Here's an interesting summary I found at http://rsaffran.tripod.com/ "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. (This is a simplification: ABA is just as much about maintaining and using skills as 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, but 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--not conclusive--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. 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 from a model 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, 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). Here is a child's interaction with a teacher or other adult who is being as helpful as possible without appropriate training:
This is the child's half of the conversation:
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:
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