What Is ABA?

Applied Behavior Analysis is a therapeutic strategy in which a person’s existing behaviors are observed, and the principles of conditioning are applied in order to encourage or discourage certain behaviors or to create new responses to existing stimuli. This approach can be used to assist students facing multiple kinds of challenges in educational settings, including children with ASD (autism spectrum disorder). ABA therapy sessions can be provided at any location, though most commonly happen at home or at school, where behaviors can be observed when and as they occur authentically. For those based in San Jose, for example, autism therapists San Jose can be contacted and a consultation or observations arranged. Alternatively, one could attend an autism group in San Jose where social skills can be developed. ABA can help students by replacing harmful behaviors (to themselves, others, or their learning process) with behaviors that are more likely to lead to successful outcomes and a positive educational experience.

How Is ABA Related To Operant Conditioning?

Operant conditioning gained traction as a psychological phenomenon and theory around the middle of the 20^th century. Simply put, operant conditioning posits that humans (and animals) can be primed to behave in a certain way when presented with specific stimuli through positive or negative reinforcement. This principle can be used in psychology to increase positive or desired behaviors and reduce the occurrence of unwanted behaviors. Applied Behavior Analysis uses this principle in an educational setting, often with children with ASD. Conditioning uses a three-step process (often referred to as the ‘ABC’ steps), comprising the antecedent, behavior, and consequence. The antecedent can be seen as the event, stimulus, or trigger that results in a certain behavior. The behavior is the subject’s response to the antecedent, and the consequence is the reaction to/ result of the behavior. Therapists can use the consequence as reinforcement: positive reinforcement being the introduction of a positive ‘consequence’ following a desired behavior, or negative reinforcement being the removal of an unwanted consequence following a desired behavior. This is how ABA aims to reduce unwanted behaviors and increase the occurrence of desired behaviors.

Techniques And Interventions:

Positive reinforcement: Positive reinforcement is one of the principal strategies of ABA, used to encourage or motivate a desired behavior or response to a stimulus. Positive reinforcement can be an extremely effective tool for behavior modification, a common goal for people who use ABA therapy. For example, a student with ASD might have trouble socializing with their peers. Positive reinforcement could be used by incentivizing the student to interact positively with their peers. By setting manageable, incentivized goals over a reasonable time frame, the eventual goal may be for the student to be able to hold a short conversation with at least one peer per day. Ideally, this would also become decreasingly stressful for the student. Positive reinforcement can also replace an unwanted behavior or response: Therapists using this strategy will identify a behavior that may harm or disrupt a student’s education in a particular way. This behavior may be a response to a stressful trigger for the student. The therapist would then set goals with the student, which typically would include an alternative behavior (response) to the stressful trigger, which has a neutral or positive consequence rather than a negative one. Guardians of a student struggling with symptoms of ASD in the San Jose school district could research autism therapists in San Jose or look for an appropriate autism group San Jose that can offer ABA therapy.

Negative reinforcement: Where positive reinforcement introduces a reward to encourage a desired behavior, negative reinforcement removes an unwanted stimulus to encourage the desired behavior. For example, if a student with ASD is susceptible to loud noises and is not able to focus on their schoolwork for a significant amount of time after hearing the school bell ring, their schoolwork is likely to be affected. Providing noise-canceling headphones (that might only need to be worn when the bell is expected to ring) removes the negative stimulus for the student and encourages a desired behavior (focus on schoolwork or a neutral, unstressed state). ABA therapy effectively uses the principles of operant conditioning to encourage desired behavior in students with ASD.