Summary Of Applied Behavioral Analysis Of ABA

Difficult behaviors are observable in various scenarios: classrooms, at-home, playgrounds, doctor’s offices, and anywhere else. Through research and personal experience working with those who have intellectual disabilities I have found that parents, teachers, and medical professionals have one goal in mind—to teach those with severe neurological disabilities the skills they need to be able to thrive independently. Through education, we attempt to reduce these unexpected behaviors. To do that we must first understand the objective of the behavior and analyze the root causes, the mechanisms that trigger them, and what the individual is trying to accomplish and communicate through these behaviors. Ultimately we can use this information to assess

One method of both defining and discovering the function of behavior in order to modify it is a therapy called Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA). In their piece for the Journal of Applied Behavioral Analysis, Donald M. Baer, Montrose M. Wolf, and Todd R. Risley (1968) define ABA as, “the process of systematically applying interventions based upon the principles of learning theory to improve socially significant behaviors to a meaningful degree and to demonstrate that the interventions employed are responsible for the improvement in behavior”. Although this journal is from 1968, it is still relevant and useful. ABA is a widely used practice that has shown promising results as a method of altering challenging

One of my clients named Calvin exhibited many physically aggressive behaviors: the main ones being pinching, biting, as well as destruction of property. For years Calvin’s parents tried everything to stop these behaviors. They tried to ignore Calvin, but found this would just cause his behaviors to increase until it was impossible to ignore, and he received the attention he so desperately craved. Time-outs did not work, supplying him with highly preferred items did not work, and no positive or negative reinforcement seemed to lessen his aggression. Eventually Calvin’s parents realized they needed extra help, they did research and found that ABA therapy could help their son. The issue was that Calvin did not have an official diagnosis, and ABA therapy is only covered by insurance for those diagnosed with Autism. Eventually they were able to get him the diagnosis and he started receiving ABA. The Board Certified Behavioral Analyst agreed that his behaviors served the purpose of attention-seeking, but the way we had been approaching it was all wrong. Calvin is non-verbal, he has no means of communicating, and he had learned that aggression was the only way for his voice to be heard. Instead of pinching, biting, or knocking things over, the BCBA suggested that we teach him a new way to ask for