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This is the Best Practices guide.
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This is the Best Practices guide.
Tap on a topic and then subtopic below to navigate this guide.
Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) is the application of behavioral principles on everyday situations with the goal of increasing desired behaviors and decreasin undesired behaviors (called target behaviors). How this translates into practical application will depend on the specific situation. Nevertheless, all ABA programs share similar components: discrete trial teaching, programming for generalization to the natural environment, reinforcement, prompting and fading strategies, and outcome-based decision-making.
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Some people think that Applied Behavior Analysis relies heavily on the use of aversive, or unpleasant stimuli, to change behavior through punishment.
This is not correct. ABA primarily emphasizes reinforcement of desired behavior, and manipulation of the environment, not the individual.
Use of aversives to change behavior at Accend Services is prohibited. This includes any method or procedure that:
Our ABA services use exclusively reinforcement and rewards to promote desired behavior, in an environment that is designed for success, is trauma-informed, and that is charactarized by unconditional positive regard and compassion.
The only exception to this is the case of emergency restraints to protect a child or others from serious harm, and then only as described in our Positive Behavioral Redirection, De-Escalation and Intervention policy.
In order to provide an ABA service completely and wholeheartedly, there must be a constant collaborative connection between these seven dimensions:
If any of these seven dimensions were to be removed or forgotten, we would lose an important component of what makes up applied behavior analysis. Ensuring that each dimension is present and active in services will promote ethical and successful treatment outcomes.
Discrete Trial Teaching, or DTT, means breaking a task down into smaller, more teachable components, and teaching each component separately.
The ABA Practitioner uses prompts or cues to elicit a certain response from the individual. If the desired response follows, the ABA Practitioner rewards the response with a reinforcer.
Three terms are important here:
In reality, this looks like this:
| Stimulus | Response | Reinforcement |
| A cue is given—› | the individual responds—› | a reward is given for a correct response. |
| Sd, or discriminative Stimulus | R or Response | Sr or Stimulus reinforcer |
| Example stimulus | Example response | Example reinforcer |
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