Applied Behavior Analysis

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is an organization of behavioral principles originally articulated by B. F. Skinner. ABA provides a framework for the systematic and replicable application of behavioral principles to change socially significant behavior to a meaningful degree in applied or natural settings. In education, these principles are used in individual classrooms, school buildings, community-instruction settings, and homes. The focus of ABA is on operant behaviors, those behaviors over which an individual has voluntary control. The principles of ABA are used to increase academic behaviors, verbal and nonverbal communication skills, and appropriate social behavior and to reduce challenging, inappropriate behaviors. Successful application is achieved when data-based analysis documents that a strategy has resulted in an outcome that increases students' competence and control in their interactions in the settings in which they operate. ABA provides the strategies for teaching a wide range of skills, including, for example, communication skills that result in environmental changes (e.g., food brought, knowledge demonstrated), computer skills that result in a greater range of job possibilities, and social skills that result in friendships with a broader range of peers.

The foundation of ABA is a three-term expression used to denote the basic reinforcement contingency and the basic units of analysis: stimulus-response-stimulus (SRS; also ABC, or antecedent-behavior-consequence). This expression depicts the relationships between behavior and environmental events that influence it. The key tenet of ABA implied by this expression is that the occurrence of an operant behavior is influenced by these environmental relationships. The role of the behavior analyst or teacher is to describe, predict, and control behavior such that students learn socially valid behaviors that provide them with increased opportunities for success. This outcome is accomplished by identifying or structuring a pattern of variables that precedes a behavior's occurrence (antecedent stimuli that occasion or signal the opportunity to perform the behavior) or follow a behavior (consequent stimuli that reinforce or punish, thereby increasing or decreasing, respectively, the probability of the behavior occurring again) and that affect a selected behavior in an agreed-on direction.

In education, these relationships are applied to issues of learning. From an ABA perspective, learning is the acquisition (or change) and generalization of operant behavior resulting from interactions with the environment. Academic and social learning occur through the repeated reinforcement or punishment of a behavior in the presence of an antecedent. For example, each time students are presented with the antecedent letters c-a-t and read “cat,” their response is reinforced. Repeated occurrences of this interaction and reinforcement result in learning such that students continue to read “cat” in the presence of the antecedent. If students do not read “cat,” the teacher may provide feedback and prompts to help the students produce the response that can be reinforced.

Students also learn new appropriate behaviors to replace socially challenging behaviors. ABA provides a framework for the systematic assessment of the function and reinforcers of challenging behavior and the establishment of a positive behavior support system. For example, a student whose tantrums result in teacher attention is taught to gain that attention by verbal request. The verbal request is reinforced, while tantrums are ignored and no longer result in attention.

...