Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA):

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is the most comprehensive and most effective approach to improving the lives of persons with autism. For the past three decades, applied behavior analysis has been identified as the superior intervention for autistic behaviour. Several hundred studies have been published in scientific journals showing the effectiveness of behavior analytic procedures with persons with autism.

ABA provides the best methods for managing challenging and aberrant behavior such as self-injurious, ritualistic, repetitive, aggressive and disruptive behavior; it does this through teaching alternative “socially appropriate behaviour�?. “Socially appropriate behaviours” include academic skills, social skills, play skills, communication, and adaptive living skills. Adaptive living skills include eating, toileting, dressing, personal self-care, time and punctuality, money and value. The proper application of behavior analysis principles and procedures has also been proven effective in the prevention of problem behaviours.

The ABA approach is effective in helping children with autism in the following ways:

• It helps to increase the number of socially appropriate behaviours

• To teach new skills (e.g., systematic instruction and reinforcement procedures teach functional play, communication, and social skills)

• Provides maintenance of acquired behaviors (e.g., self control and self-monitoring procedures to maintain and generalize various skills)

• The generalisation of learned behaviour to other environments

• The reduction of aberrant or challenging behaviours (e.g., self-injury or stereotypy)

SAS uses a blend of different strategies based on ABA that is tailored to the needs of each individual child. The goal is for an enduring change that will result in an enhanced quality of life.

Discrete Trial Training (DTT)

Discrete Trail Training involves the intensive application of ABA principles within a structured teaching environment in order to teach specific skills. DTT programmes generally involve several hours of direct one-to-one instruction per day (including high rates of discrete trials) over an extended period.

Pivotal Response Training (PRT):

Another ABA approach particularly effective for children with autism is Pivotal Response Training (PRT). PRT incorporates principles of ABA to teach behaviours that seem to be central to wide areas of functioning.

PRT is a naturalistic behavioural intervention developed by Robert L. Koegel and Laura Schreibman at the University of California in Santa Barbara. Pivotal Response Training (PRT) is a behavioral treatment intervention based on the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA). PRT aims to increase the generalization of new skills by increasing motivation, including components such as child choice, turn-taking, reinforcing attempts and interspersing maintenance tasks. PRT has been used to develop language skills, play skills and social behaviors in children with autism.

PRT targets motivation by getting the child to respond more and more to expectations to communicate and socialize. Children with autism typically lack the motivation to learn new tasks and participate in their social environment. A lack of motivation may be seen as escape or avoidance behaviour.

PRT uses turn-taking, child choice, modeling, shaping, and direct reinforcement to increase appropriate social and communication behaviours in children with autism. For some children it is beneficial to blend PRT and DTT in order to maximize the child’s learning potential.

ABA vs. Verbal Behavior

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) over the past 15 years or so has mistakenly been referred to as Lovaas Programming when referring to its use with children with autism. With such a major increase in the interest and use of Verbal Behavior (VB) as a component in ABA programs, it is necessary to explain how ABA, Lovaas programming and Verbal Behavior differ and relate. As the science of ABA evolves, improvements to the application of its principles are carefully researched and published in peer reviewed journals. In the past, most ABA programs implemented for children with autism were based on the work published by Ivar Lovaas in the 1980’s. However, during those years Jack Michael, PHD., Mark Sundberg, PHD., and James Partington, PHD., among others in the field, focused on researching B.F. Skinner’s Analysis of Verbal Behavior and its effectiveness of teaching language skills. This research has improved ABA programs by emphasizing the important elements in language acquisition previously ignored by traditional Lovaas-based programs. *That is, capturing a child’s motivation to develop a connection between the value of a word and the word itself.

While the Lovaas-based approach uses ABA to teach language skills based on the premise that receptive language should be developed prior to expressive language. The Verbal Behavior approach focuses on teaching specific components of expressive language (mands, tacts, intraverbals, among others) first. This approach begins with what is called mand training. This teaches a child to request desired items, activities, and information. Therefore teaching the child that “words�? are valuable and lead them to getting their wants and needs met.

Another difference lies within the emphasis of “function�? (Verbal Behavior) of language, instead of “form�? (Lovaas-based). For example, in a VB program, a child is first taught to ask for a “cookie�? any way they can (vocally, sign language, etc.) only when they actually want a cookie. They capture that desire for a cookie and turn it into the lesson that the word (or sign) for a cookie will get you what you want… A Cookie! In a Lovaas-based program, the child may be taught to say the word “cookie�? while other words are also repeatedly taught but not necessarily when the child wants a cookie at that moment.

One of the primary ideas behind Verbal Behavior approach is that the meaning of a word is found in its function and not in the word itself. If you don’t take into account the function of language you often end up with a child who may be able to label or identify hundreds of objects but never uses them in functional ways or spontaneously requests them in the natural environment.

When using a Verbal Behavior approach, you teach each word or object across all functional relations to that word or object.

Verbal Behavior Terms:

Mand: Requesting wants and needs

Tact: Labeling or describing objects

Receptive repertoire: Non-verbally following directions, discriminating between pictures and objects

Imitation: Repeating, copying what was observed

Echoic: Vocal imitation

Intraverbal: Verbally (or using sign language) responding to the verbal behavior of others

Textural: reading

Transcriptive: Writing

Obviously you cannot teach all these components at once, but with some of these skills in the child’s repertoire it is possible to build all of these various language components earlier than once thought.

In a traditional Lovaas approach the concept of “cookie�? may be considered mastered when a child can point to a cookie and say cookie when shown a cookie, but with a Verbal Behavior approach the concept of “cookie�? is not considered mastered until the child can:

• Ask for a cookie when it is wanted (mand)
• Find the cookie when it is asked for (receptive)
• Select a cookie if asked:
• What do you eat? (function)
• What has chocolate chips? (feature)
• Find the food (class)
• Answer questions about the cookie when it is not present: (intraverbals)
• Tell me what you eat?
• What has chocolate chips?
• What’s crunchy?

In summary, traditional Lovaas programming and Verbal Behavior are two distinct approaches to using the principles of ABA to better the lives of children with autism. Although Lovaas style programming has been in the spotlight longer, more and more people are going to an ABA program with an emphasis on Verbal Behavior as it is showing the ability to bridge the gaps left in traditional ABA programs.

Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS)

This is a unique augmentative/alternative communication-training package developed for use with young children with autism and other social-communication deficits. This system does not require complex materials or highly technical training and can be used in a variety of settings, including the home, classroom, and community.

Children using PECS are taught to approach and give a picture of a desired item to a communicative partner in exchange for that item. By doing so, the child initiates a communicative act in return for a desired item within a social context. Therefore, increasing the child’s natural tendency to communicate.

Behavioural Management

SAS conducts a comprehensive behaviour assessment for each child. The outcome of this assessment is a detailed report of why the behaviours are occurring, what skills need to be taught, and what changes are needed within the child’s daily routines. The goals of each behaviour programme are functional skills (e.g. improvement of communication, self-help skills, play skills, sensory integration and social skills), thus improving their quality of life.