Every day, professionals use Applied Behavior Analysis or ABA to help people with autism or other developmental disorders acquire new skills and lead independent lives. ABA is evidence based and focuses on the analysis of behaviors and how certain outcomes and responses are predictable and affected by the environment. ABA uses multiple, individualized strategies to help autistic people develop specific skills and coping mechanisms.
Why is ABA required?
Autism spectrum disorder is a neurodevelopmental disorder that may limit the ability to comprehend and retain knowledge. Some people with autism can be overwhelmed easily and take longer to process information or make associations between two things.
ABA has been successfully used to help persons with autism or other developmental disorders to acquire basic and advanced life skills. A key reason behind the success is that with ABA, learners do not need to learn the same way everyone else does, the therapy is individualized.
How does ABA help?
Autism is a spectrum of disorders, it is not a simple detect-and-cure type of issue, and, in fact, is incurable. It affects each person differently. So the selected therapy has to be customized to suit the individual's cognitive development and the type of skills they want to learn.
In ABA, multiple strategies are used independently or synergistically, such as task analysis, positive reinforcement, prompting and fading, and generalization, to help people learn in the most efficient and effective manner.
The goal is not to teach these skills for a temporary period in a specific location, but rather for a lifetime and to ensure completion without any assistance. Therefore, a customized plan is necessary for each autistic individual and this is where the role of a BCBAⓇ - board-certified behavior analyst - someone who has been sufficiently trained in ABA - is crucial for successful therapy.
How Does Skill Acquisition Begin?
The first step before any strategy is applied, is to assess the current level of the autistic learner. The therapist will perform this initial assessment to gauge where the individual is with respect to where they want to be so they can move forward with the most effective strategy.
Role of Data Collection in ABA’s Success
To make clinical decisions therapists need to ensure there is correct and reliable data collection.
Motivity is specifically designed to take and chart data the way you want it to be done. For example, therapists can use Motivity’s cold probe feature for the initial skills assessment,. This involves seeing if the learner is able to perform a previously taught skill the first time they are asked in the next session, without assistance. This separates the assessment of the skills from the teaching phase. If the learner does not perform adequately, then teaching continues.
Multiple tools are present to help therapists collect data in a structured, reliable, and well-organized way. Efficient data collection plays a significant role in visualizing the patient’s progress to better understand the effectiveness of the selected behavioral or skill acquisition strategy.If data collection is removed from the picture, practitioners would need to rely on trial-and-error or train-and-hope methods that are note the most efficient and effective for their clients. . It would be nearly impossible to detect to what extent a certain strategy is helpful, or whether it is entirely or partially ineffective.
Data collection is the lynch pin that solidifies the effectiveness of ABA. Choosing the right tool is dependent upon the goal and the intervention. Now that we know what ABA is and the role of data collection for ABA, let’s look at some of the techniques used in ABA to enhance skills acquisition.
Techniques Used in ABA for Skill Acquisition
Because ABA is based in the science of behavior and relies on well-researched principles; it can be helpful for an autistic individual of any age or developmental level wanting to learn any skill, basic or advanced. As people and goals are varied, many different types of interventions are applied for maximum effect. Some of these techniques include:
Task Analysis
Task analysis is a technique that breaks down any task into smaller, more manageable, components. This helps people to be more successful at learning or completing the task because they can focus on crossing over each stepping stone to reach the final destination, instead of being intimidated by how big the leap is.
For example, putting on a pair of pants can be broken down into the following steps to make it more manageable for a younger or delayed learner:
- Putting the right leg in
- Putting the left leg in
- Pulling the pants up
- Zipping it up
- Closing the button
There are different types of task analyses including forward chaining, backward chaining, and total task presentation. Backward chaining is prompting or assisting the person with all of the steps of putting on their pants, and then letting the individual complete the last step - closing the button in this case - on their own. Once this step is mastered, the therapists or caregivers work backwards until eventually the person has learned the skill completely.
Motivity has a variety of sample programs for all types of chaining and task analysis. The graphing function helps therapists know when to move to the next step and even transitions the program based on a predetermined set of mastery criteria.
Positive Reinforcement
Positive reinforcement is a principle of behavioral science and is usually included with almost every other type of technique used in ABA. It involves rewarding successful performance of a skill or a correct response. The reward is specifically chosen as an incentive or motivation to consistently demonstrate the desired behavior or response.
The reinforcer selected should be desirable for the learner otherwise they will not see it as a reward, and hence will not be tempted to complete the task. It is also important to gradually decrease the prevalence of use of extrinsic rewards so the learners do not see the reward as the stimulus for the response, but rather learn to associate the response with the actual stimulus.
Prompting and Fading
Prompting is an important teaching tool of ABA. Prompting means providing cues to the learner to direct them towards the correct response. Prompting is effective as it helps increase the number of successful attempts rather than failures, which boosts the confidence of learners and motivates them to perform that skill rather than being intimidated by it.
All prompts are not the same. They exist as a hierarchy, ranging from most intrusive to least intrusive. The prompt level selected depends on the developmental level of the individual.
Prompting is paired with other techniques such as task analysis and chaining. A helpful tool to monitor the progress of prompting is Motivity’s Backward Chaining with Prompt Hierarchy feature. The therapists can use it to collect data at each step at each prompt level and use the graph to plot the number of successful attempts of the current step.
Prompting goes hand in hand with fading - which is the process of gradual reduction so learners can perform the skill independently, rather than with assistance. Without fading, learners are at a risk of developing prompt dependency which will prevent autistic individuals from leading independent lives. Understanding data and using visual inspection help to increase learning efficiency. A data collection system such as Motivity’s makes it easy to move a learner along the steps and fade prompts in a systematic manner.
Generalization Strategies
Generalization is another important dimension of ABA. Generalization does not teach a new skill, it teaches the application of newly learned skills to different situations. For example, generalization will not teach an autistic child how to zip up their jacket, instead, it will teach them that since they learned how to zip up their jacket they can now zip up their bag or pants as well.
Generalization broadens the scope of any technique used in ABA as it encourages learners to apply what they have learned to new and different situations. Generalization can be trained or happen naturally. The more exemplars provided, the more likely an autistic person is to generalize the skill.
ABA at Home
The techniques used in ABA to teach skills to autistic learners are not limited to an office or clinic setting. A therapist doesn't need to be the only person who employs these strategies with the child.
For any strategy and any skill, practice is key. So autistic people need to practice what they learned with their therapist at home as well. This is why caregivers and parents need to understand the logic behind each technique and how it is applied to teach a new skill.
Therapists can make use of the Parent/Caregiver Data collection feature of Motivity to assign goals to parents and caregivers and teach them how to collect data at home as well. This way the therapist knows what is happening in the home and can make better treatment decisions.
Conclusion
ABA or applied behavior analysis is an effective, scientifically-proven method of teaching new skills to autistic individuals or improving their already existing skills. To make therapy sessions more effective, it is important to collect data and use those data to make treatment decisions. ABA uses multiple methods such as task analysis, positive reinforcement, prompting and fading, and generalization to help autistic individuals learn new skills and become better at demonstrating them so they can eventually lead independent lives.
