Behavioral intervention: ABA
ABA was defined by Baer, Wolf and Risley (1968) as the ”application of behavioral principles to improve specific behaviors and simultaneously assess changes attributable to this process. ABA emphasizes the ongoing assessment of behavioral treatment through systematic data collection, so that results are not affected by variables extraneous to the treatment.
The relationship Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence with particular focus on context (understood as both a physical space and a social context) is the basis of the behavioral method. We can lead a child to produce the desired behavior by manipulating both the antecedent and the consequence (reinforcement). If a behavior is followed by the presentation of a positive reinforcement (a reward) the result is that in the future that behavior (the response) will present itself more often. Thus when we ask a child to perform a task and she carries it out correctly, giving her something gratifying increases the probability that the desired behavior will be repeated.
One of the procedures used by behavior analysts is discrete trial teaching (DTT), which allows students to acquire complex skills by first separately acquiring each part into which the skill can be broken down. Once all the individual parts are acquired, they are linked together to allow the acquisition of the complex target ability. DTT teaches the child different skills (cognitive, social, communication, play, independence) while at the same time working to develop aspects that are deficient in children with autism: attention, motivation, discrimination between relevant stimuli, generalization and communication. The teaching creates a situation in which the child does not experience failure or make mistakes; the child is helped to respond correctly to the instructions, and this aid is gradually reduced until the child responds independently in an appropriate way. For this reason it is also called “errorless learning”.
A fundamental characteristic of ABA is that it is evidence-based: it only adopts procedures that scientific research have proven to be effective, applying them with scientific rigor and constantly monitoring the results achieved. ABA focuses on behaviors that can be measured and quantified. During ABA interventions, data on target behaviors are continuously collected, allowing program managers to identify whether or not the interventions are yielding results.
Daily, precise data recording is essential for monitoring the child’s learning and documenting the progress of the intervention to see whether the process is producing results. The consultant can constantly monitor behavior to evaluate improvements, in order to assess whether the procedures are suitable for that particular child in that particular context.