What Is ABA Therapy?

Does this situation sound familiar? You and your child are playing and you go to start dinner and WHAM your child throws their toy at their sister. You go out there to reprimand your child, have them say sorry to their sister and maybe move the sister into another room. Then you go back to making dinner. Then BOOM your child knocks over a lamp. You go in and reprimand them and offer them to help you make dinner so you can keep an eye on them.

Maybe you have this issue; everytime you put your child to bed they are up every 10 minutes asking for water or one more story or to check their closet for monsters. Maybe after the 5th try to put them back to bed you just bring them into your bed to sleep because you need your sleep too.

Whatever the scenario, Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) can help with these situations.

So let’s start here: What is ABA?

ABA is a research-based science. We observe behavior, take data, and come up with the “why” someone does or does not do a specific behavior. Then we can use the principles of ABA to change and shape that behavior into something new that is a more appropriate and effective way to get their needs met.

The Basics

Before we break down different scenarios let’s establish some basics

• Behavior – a behavior is something that a person (or animal) does. Behavior is observable either through the 5 senses or through instrumentation and is measurable in some way.
• A heartbeat is observed through a stethoscope and can be measured by how many beats it produces in 1 minute.
• Completing math problems is observed by the work on the paper of figuring out the problem and measured by how many correct answers compared to all the math problems available to solve.

• Antecedent – whatever happens right before the behavior you are trying to observe and measure.
• The antecedent for ordering food in a restaurant could be being presented with a menu.
• Calling out for your dog is the antecedent for the dog to come running towards you.

• Consequence – whatever happens right after the behavior you are trying to observe and measure. Consequences are neutral and are neither good nor bad.
• A boy gets a bat and then hits the ball. The consequence is he gets to run to first base.
• A baby is hungry and cries. The consequence of the crying is a caregiver comes by and feeds the baby.

• ABC data – This is where we take data on behaviors tracking the antecedent, behavior, and consequence to figure out the function or the “why” of the behavior. After taking data over several hours or days or weeks we look for patterns to establish the function or the “why” of the behavior.

• Behavior change – Behavior change comes when a person experiences the same consequences over and over again and it either reinforces or punishes the behavior causing it to increase or decrease over time.

Functions of behavior or the “why” of behavior:

• Escape – they do something to get out of or avoid a task that they have to do.
• A child is supposed to be getting his shoes and socks on to go to the dentist, but insists he can’t put them on himself, can’t find his socks, and must finish the puzzle that they are playing with before doing so. They are trying to escape or avoid going to the dentist.

• Access – they do something to get access to something else
• A teenager sneaks out of his bedroom at night to get to his phone that he’s not supposed to have after bedtime.

• Attention – they do something to get your attention. This could be “good” or “bad” attention.
• “Good” attention – A child brings the picture they drew to a caregiver and the caregiver says, “It’s beautiful!”
• “Bad” attention – A child throws all their toys when you are out of the room making you come back in and yell at them

• Automatic – they do something that makes them feel good on the inside
• Tapping a pen against a table or bouncing your leg during a meeting
• Spinning in a circle really fast can feel good to some kids

The Breakdown

Alright so let’s look at the 2 examples we started with.

• We will break this one down into 2 parts.
• You and your child are playing and you go to start dinner and WHAM your child throws their toy at their sister. You go out there to reprimand your child, have them say sorry to their sister and maybe move the sister into another room.
• The behavior is your child throws their toy
• The antecedent is you leaving the room
• The consequence is their sister cries and you come back into the room to yell at them.
• Function – Attention. The child is most likely seeking attention from their parent and/or sister.
• What did they learn? When I throw toys that hit my sister, people will pay attention to me.
• Then you go back to making dinner. BOOM your child knocks over a lamp. You go in and reprimand them and offer them to help you make dinner so you can keep an eye on them.
• The behavior is your child knocks over a lamp.
• The antecedent is leaving the room.
• The consequence is you reprimand the child and bring them with you to make dinner.
• Function – Attention. The child is looking for attention from the parent who is preoccupied
• What did they learn? When I knock things over my parent will bring me with them to play.

What’s the solution to this?

You have to be able to cook dinner without your child hurting their sister or breaking items and it’s unreasonable that you are available to your child 24/7. Now that we know the function of the behavior, attention, we can teach a more appropriate way to get it. This may look like teaching the child how to interrupt during dinner to talk to you for a few seconds before going back to play or it could mean teaching leisure skills to your child so they are able to occupy their own time. Another solution would be to teach your child to play appropriately with their sister so they can receive appropriate attention from her.

Let’s look at our second example.

• Everytime you put your child to bed they are up every 10 minutes asking for water or one more story or to check their closet for monsters. Maybe after the 5th try to put them back to bed you just bring them into your bed to sleep because you need your sleep too.
• The behavior is getting out of bed
• The antecedent is getting put to bed or bedtime
• The consequence is getting to sleep in your bed
• The function could be attention from parents and/or escape from going to sleep in their own bed.
• What did they learn? They learned that with persistence they will eventually be allowed to sleep in the big bed with their parents.

What is the solution for this?

If you are wanting to have your child sleeping in their own bed there are several things that may be effective. One is that you can start a reward system where the child gets a strong reward in the morning, like 10 minutes of iPad before school, for staying in their bed all night. Another way is to start the child out in their bed with a parent and the parent moves away after the child falls asleep. But wait! That’s not a long term solution as a child should eventually learn to put themselves to sleep. What can you do? Slowly start moving further away from your child. Instead of laying with them you sit on the bed and hold their hand, then the floor, then the doorway, and then the hallway until they are falling asleep without your presence.

ABA is a dense and exciting topic and if you are looking into ABA know that it can help you and your family develop new skills to approach everyday life, but don’t let this post fool you. ABA can be applied to any behavior like academics, personal hygiene, making friends, and learning how to communicate just to name a few!