what is ABA

What is ABA?
Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a discipline devoted to the understanding and improvement of human behavior.

What do you mean by behavior?
Behavior is defined as any observable and measurable act.Many people mistakenly think of only ‘bad behavior’ like hitting, biting, tantrums, etc., when they hear the word behavior; but that is only a SMALL part of it.  Some other examples of behavior are:

pointing	eating	talking
playing a game	watching TV	playing
doing chores	homework	walking
exercising	socializing	driving
learning to read	teaching language	etc., etc., etc

So now that you understand what behavior in Applied Behavior Analysis means,  you can better understand that ABA is a discipline that encompasses a variety of scientifically proven procedures to increase and/or decrease the targeted behavior.

The ABC’s of ABA

The basic concepts of ABA deals with:
A:  Antecedent (an event which happens just prior to the behavior occurring)
B:  Behavior (the behavior itself- what has happened after the antecedent has occurred)
C: Consequence (response or consequence for the behavior)
Basically stated, human behavior is affected by events that precede it (antecedents) and events that follow it (consequences).
Let’s take a look at some examples:

Antecedent	Behavior	Consequence
At grocery store check out and your child hands you a candy bar to buy and you say “NO” and put it back…	Your child throws himself down on floor screaming	You give in and say “fine, but only 1” to quiet the child

It is the consequence, or how one responds to the behavior, that will determine the probability of that behavior in the future  -  in this case, what do you think the child will do the next time he goes to the checkout line?  In this example, the child learned that throwing himself to the floor screaming got him what he wanted.  Therefore, it is more likely that the child WILL respond with this behavior again in the future when he is at the grocery store check out. 

Let’s take another look at this example:

Antecedent	Behavior	Consequence
At grocery store check out and your child hands you a candy bar to buy and you say “NO” and put it back…	Your child throws himself down on floor screaming	You ignore

Again, it is the consequence, or how one responds to the behavior, that will determine the probability of that behavior in the future – so in this case, what do you think the child will do the next time he goes to the checkout line?  In this example, the child learned that throwing himself to the floor did NOT get him what we wanted.  Therefore, it is LESS likely that the child will respond with this behavior again in the future when he is at the grocery store check out.

 

Another example:

Antecedent	Behavior	Consequence
Child is asked to go get their shoes	Child gets shoes and brings them to parent	Parent puts on child’s shoes and then goes in the back yard to play with child

From this ABC analysis, the child learns that listening to what is asked gets me to what I like to do.  It is the consequence that will determine how the child will respond to similar antecedents in the future.  The chances of the child going to get his shoes the next time the parent asks is greater than not getting the shoes when asked.

As we learned from the ABC examples above, learned behaviors are a function of their consequences.  Those behaviors followed by positive or pleasurable consequences will occur more often in the future.  Furthermore, those behaviors followed by a undesired response or consequence will less likely occur under similar conditions in the future.

All learned behavior serves a function or reason.
There are 4 main functions of behavior:

1.  Attention/Social:  Behavior (of any kind) is emitted to obtain attention from another individual(s) (examples: saying hi to someone, hitting someone, etc.) The person in engaging in the specific behavior in order to gain your attention!
2. Avoid/Escape: Behavior (of any kind) is emitted to avoid or escape a demand or situation (examples: asking to leave, running away, etc.)
3. Tangible: Behavior (of any kind) is emitted to obtain a preferred or wanted item (examples: asking for a cookie, stealing a cookie)
4. Sensory: Behavior (of any kind) is emitted to calm, organize, feels good, etc. This is called automatic reinforcement.

That is ABA:  Analyzing behavior and then applying procedures that will increase desired behaviors and applying procedures that will decrease undesired behaviors!!