7 dimensions of ABA

Applied Behavioral Analyses (ABA) is based on 7 core dimensions. Any interventions your therapist uses with your child will fall within or be defined by these 7 categories. Therapists use the anagram GET A CAB to remember each part of the therapy.

G is for Generalization: This is moving skills from one situation to another. Sometimes your child with autism may perform certain skills like using the potty in one location but not in another. Generalization is the process of moving this skill from one place to another.

E is for Effective interventions: All interventions are monitored to ensure effectiveness and to see how they impact the behavior you are trying to change. They must be strong changes that affect something for the better.

T is for Technological: Where interventions and procedures are described thoroughly enough that anyone trained can implement them.

A is for Applied: Socially significant behaviors are worked on, more so than others.  

C is for Conceptually Systematic: The concept of the interventions is chosen from a specific theoretical base, rather than just a trick.

A is for Analytic: All decisions for an intervention or anything within the therapy must be data related.

B is for Behavioral: Only behavior that can be observed and measured should be targeted.

In ABA when measurable behaviors are targeted based on how well it will help your child cope in society, data is collected and explainable interventions are tried and tested, then your child will go far. ABA is a therapy where you record the changes in your child for the better, or worse leaving nothing to chance. This is why this therapy is so effective and gets results more often than any other intervention.

Reinforces: How to make them effective

We talked about token boards and how they help reinforce good behavior during Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) therapy sessions. But there is a way you can improve on the token boards and other reinforces to make them as effective as possible. Your therapist should use some of the following methods to help your child move forward through their skills quickly.

When offering a token or sticker for each completed task, your therapist will ensure it is given as soon as the child completes the task. It is here reinforcement will be the most powerful, mostly due to instant gratification. If you promise a treat later for doing something they were asked to do, the behavior change will not be as rapid. This is why stickers and tokens on hand are such an amazing tool, there’s no wait period.

The stickers, token or reward must also mean something to the child/teenager. If the reward isn’t very exciting, then it’s not motivating. Sure they might do it for the benefit of getting a sticker, but they’d do it with more gusto and energy if that sticker was of their favorite cartoon character and not a gold star.

The therapist should give the treat frequently. It would be a little ineffective to tell your child, ‘if you behave all day you can get a sticker.’ Not only is that unrealistic (who doesn’t make mistakes? What child doesn’t misbehave once or twice?) but the goal is out of reach, and the reward isn’t tangible. It’s not something they can easily imagine themselves receiving. Giving your reward frequently reminds your child how awesome it feels to get it.

The therapist should also make the reward exciting with the use of social engagement. Compliments, hyping up the gift, and being as positive about the reward as possible are some examples.

Another mistake newer ABA therapists make is turning the reward into a negative. Instead of saying, ‘if you don’t do X you won’t get this’, the therapist should say, ‘if you do X you will get this cool sticker!’ In an upbeat happy tone. Now the sticker is exciting, the praise is rewarding, and the outcome is something they want to work towards.

Just think about how it feels when someone tells you that you can’t have something unless you do as they say. Instantly we evaluate if we want that thing anyway, which makes us less likely to be happy about getting it. This is just human nature. One simple change in language can do a lot for any child.

ABA therapy is such a simple therapy really when broken down. From the outside it can be confusing and even a little scary at first, but when we look at it from a common sense angle, it’s little wonder why this therapy is so vastly used in all sorts of fields. Tokens, and stickers are nothing new, and if you ever have any issues with how they are used you can always ask the advice of your BCBA certified analyst or therapist.

How prompting can help during ABA

Prompting is a wonderful tool in applied behavioral analyses therapy (ABA) and probably the reason some children learn to communicate at all. This simple way of moving a child through the motions of an action/response so he/she can see the consequence is so powerful yet so simple. It really answers the question, how do you teach a child that can’t understand language intuitively, what you are asking of them?

My son was completely non-verbal until his speech therapist used hand-over-hand prompting to show signs and slowly weaned him through the process of prompting until he could mand (request things) for himself.

Here is a list showing some most invasive to the least invasive prompting.

Most invasive: Full Physical Prompting

This is when your therapist will essentially use your child’s hands to carry out a request. For instance, she/he may say, ‘pick up your toys,’ then take the child’s hands and close them around the toy, guiding it to the toy box.

Next Invasive: Partial Physical Prompting

In this case the therapist will put the child’s hand onto the toy to show them what she means and wait to see if the child carries out the rest of the direction. Normally this is the first step taken once the child has mastered full physical prompting.

Next Invasive: Modeling

The therapist will act out what she wants the child to do. For instance, she will pick up the toy and put it in the box after asking them to do it and wait to see the child’s response.

Next Invasive: Gestural

Where the therapist will point at the toy and the toy box to gesture to the child what is needed of them.

Next Invasive: Positional Prompt

The therapist places the object close to your child and tells them to clean it up.

Least Invasive: Simple Direction

The therapist will simply ask your child to clean up their toys and expect that they will do it without further help.

When we move down this chart the child slowly learns what is expected of them, or basically, what you’re asking them to do! Much of the time, just telling them what to do and showing them won’t work for an autistic child. Going from most invasive to least invasive (depending on the specific skill set of your child and what they are asked to do) teaches them in a way that they will actually understand. It’s so simple and effective but works beautifully.