Techniques of Applied Behaviour Analysis (A.B.A)

“Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a type of therapy that focuses on improving specific behaviors, such as social skills, communication, reading, and academics as well as adaptive learning skills, such as fine motor dexterity, hygiene, grooming, domestic capabilities, punctuality, and job competence.”

In other words, ABA Therapy focuses on identifying problems with an individual’s behaviors and/or learning skills and correcting or addressing any detected issues.

TECHNIQUES USED IN APPLIED BEHAVIOUR ANALYSIS

Applied Behavior Analysis involves several techniques to produce desired results in children who can benefit from behaviour modification. Here are some of those valuable techniques:

DISCRETE TRIAL TRAINING

Learners on the Autism Spectrum have a difficult time learning incidentally and through observation as typical peers learn. DTT is particularly effective for early intervention as it simplifies and isolates concepts that the child has not yet learned. Complex skills are taught to children by first teaching the sub components of a skill. ABA techniques such as shaping are also utilized to teach sub components of more complex skills. Once a child masters the subcomponents of a complex skill, they are then linked together so that the child learns the functional use of the complex skill. DTT teaches basic concepts as well as play, communication and daily living skills. Feedback is given to the child immediately to prevent any confusion. The goal of DTT is to teach new concepts over time by reinforcing correct responses. Learning is maximized because each trial is brief and many learning opportunities are presented. Prompts and feedback are very concise and simple and instructions are presented very clearly to the child. DTT is faded out as the learner progresses and more naturalistic strategies replace DTT.

PIVOTAL RESPONSE TRAINING

pivotal response training, a play-based approach to ABA intervention, originates from the individual. Not only that, it doesn’t target one single, specific behaviour. Rather, it focuses on broader behavioural areas such as self-management, motivation, and initiation in various social situations. Playing with toys provides reward actions and responses that make sense within the context of the environment (e.g., someone who expresses a desire for a toy will be rewarded by receiving that toy as opposed to an unrelated reward). This streamlined process may allow individuals to better understand the behavioral action and reward, which may make it easier for them to comprehend the importance of positive behaviors.

Chaining is an instructional strategy grounded in applied behavior analysis (ABA) theory. Chaining is based on task analysis, in which individual steps are recognized as requirements for task mastery. Chaining breaks a task down into small steps and then teaches each step within the sequence by itself.

POSITIVE REINFORCEMENT

A child with special needs who face difficulties in learning or social interaction may not know how to respond in certain situations. One way to encourage positive social behaviours involves using positive reinforcement immediately to encourage the behavior in the future.

NEGATIVE REINFORCEMENT

When maladaptive behaviours occur, the behavior needs to be corrected immediately. A good way to correct bad behavior is to remove a desired object or activity from the child. This is a form of non- aversive punishment. More importantly, negative reinforcement should be consistent for the child to understand the relevance of the action and consequence.

USING PROMPTS AND CUES

Prompts are visual or verbal cues used to encourage a particular behaviour. Verbal cues are gentle reminders while visual cues are even less direct and might be a gesture or a look of your eyes. The child will see this cue and be reminded to behave in a simple way. Examples could be taking their shoes off when walking into the house or washing their hands before a meal. The idea is to eventually fade out the prompts when the child no longer needs them. The prompts can be helpful because they are typically not intimidating or accusatory.

TASK ANALYSIS

This is an analysis model of current behavioural trends and actions to help learn about the child rather than correct or reinforce the behaviour. The child psychologist gives the child a task and observes how they perform it. This analysis is broken down into a number of categories :

● Physical actions

● Cognitive actions

● Repetition

● Allocation

● Environment

Once the therapist has analysed how the child performs tasks, this information is used to make other tasks easier for the particular child by breaking them down into steps that will be easily understood by the child.

GENERALIZATION

Through this model, the therapist takes what the child has learned in one instance and applies it to other instances. For example, If a child knows how to say the alphabet when singing it, the child psychologist can take their knowledge of the alphabet and try to apply it to teaching the child to spell out their name.

It is important that an individual's treatment plan has goals following these 7 dimensions:

1) Generality,

2) Effective,

3) Technological,

4) Applied,

5) ConceptuallySystematic,

6) Analytic,

7) Behavioral.