ABA Glosssary

 

New to ABA? ABA basic jargons and acronyms explained: 

Feel free to add more to the comments. A brief definition and a link if you feel it needs expanding. 

1- ABA/VB- ABA with a focus on teaching verbal behaviour. 
http://www.christinaburkaba.com/AVB.htm

2- Pairing- playing and having fun with your child so they see you as a reinforcer and someone fun to be with.

3- Reinforcer- something that motivates your child and that they want.

4- Instructional control- you have established instructional control when your child finds you fun (you have paired with your child), you have their environment under control so they are motivated to cooperate with you in order to obtain what they want (reinforcer). Your child sees you as a source of reinforcement and is motivated to work with you. The seven steps of instructional control can be found here: 

http://knospe-aba.com/cms/us/aba-info/aba-articles/the-7-steps.

5- Sanitised environment- well organised, decluttered environment. It is difficult to deal with an inappropriate behaviour successfully or teach using motivation if your child can freely access what they want or if he is easily distracted by his environment. 

6- ABC- antecedent, behaviour and consequence (abc data is important to establish patterns of behaviour so that a plan of action is put in place). You/Your team should be trained on how to recognise antecedents that lead to certain behaviours and deal with them appropriately, also what to do when unexpected Inappropriate behaviour occurs. Behaviour may occur for one of these 4 reasons: Escape, Attention, Tangible, and Automatic 
Reinforcement. 

http://www.erinoakkids.ca/getattachment/Resources/Autism/Applied-Behaviour-Analysis/ABA-for-Families-Functions-of-Behaviour.pdf.aspx

7- Extinction burst- If someone's gained some reward every time for a particular behavior, the behavior will persist. If suddnely the reward stops coming, it's likely that the person or animal will not immediately give up the behavior. Instead, they'll try it again and again, harder, faster, more emphatically. It's a burst of activity. If the reward still doesn't come, eventually the behavior will extinguish, or become extinct. So, the burst of behavior before extinction of the behavior is called an "extinction burst". Think about trying to call the lift when the button doesn't work. You will eventually give up and take the stairs but you will try hard first.

http://www.shirleychong.com/keepers/archives/bursts.txt

8- Mands (Manding)- Requests. Your child requests/mands for what they want.

9- Demand- commands given (demands placed) to the child by others.

10- Sd: the commands given to the child eg 'do this'.

http://abamath.sourceforge.net/ababasics.html 

11- R (Response): The student's action in response to the Sd, usually one of: correct response, incorrect response, no response or response with prompting.

http://abamath.sourceforge.net/ababasics.html

12- Sr (Reinforcing Stimulus): The therapist's reponse to the student, e.g., "Good job!" or "oops, try again." Edible treats, praise, hugs, etc. are also Sr's.

http://abamath.sourceforge.net/ababasics.html

13- Discrete Trial (trials): The sequence Sd-->R-->Sr. There is only one Sd and each trial is scored.

http://abamath.sourceforge.net/ababasics.html

14- Prompt: Assistance given to the student to help him along. It may be as simple as a nudge in the right direction or as intrusive as "hand over hand" modeling of the desired action. The least intrusive possible prompt is always used whenever a prompt is necessary. Prompts need to be faded so the child acquires independence.

http://abamath.sourceforge.net/ababasics.html

15- Acquisition Item: The item being learned.

http://abamath.sourceforge.net/ababasics.html

16- Mastered Item: A item that has already been learned.

http://abamath.sourceforge.net/ababasics.html

17- Receptive: A program where the student acts on a direct command, e.g., "Touch pencil".

http://abamath.sourceforge.net/ababasics.html

18- Expressive/tact/labelling: A program where the student answers, e.g., Sd="What is this?", R="a pencil". 
http://abamath.sourceforge.net/ababasics.html

19- visual performance- includes all the jigsaw, sequences and matching programs.

20- Probing programs: testing of new programs to check where your child's level is in each particular skill area. If your child knows a skill at probe then that programme does not need teaching.

21- Programs in acquisition: programs that were probed by your consultant and need teaching (when tested). 

22- Targets on acquisition: each program on acquisition contains different targets. In a program like imitation, clap hands, touch head and jump are targets. A child's data probe contains targets from various programs (eg receptive, imitation and tact). 

23- Data probe: data sheet containing all the targets on acquisition from the child's different programs (eg receptive, imitation, visual performance etc). 

24- Probing the child's targets (probe data)- tutors test the child's acquisition targets each day and write down the prompt level for each one at the child's first response. 

25- Mastery criteria- the ABA consultant determines the number of independent correct responses over a number of days needed for a target to be considered mastered (learned)- eg one independent response over a period of x days. 

26- YES and NO acquisition targets- YES targets are the ones that the child has answered independently at probe. NO targets are the ones that needed prompting and will need teaching as your child is still learning them. We put our YES targets away following probe and work intensively on teaching the NOs the rest of the day/session. Remember that a YES target was once a NO as you shouldn't be putting in targets that don't need teaching on your data probe. 
We have got separate drawers for YES and NO targets. We probe in the morning, separate YES and NO targets and teach the NOs in the afternoon. If the child is on a part time program, this can be done at the beginning of the session. Probing targets is usually quick and when it is done at the beginning of the day/session, it helps you plan your teaching more efficiently. 

27- ABLLs- Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills. Where the main curriculum and programs for most ABA interventions come from. A lot of children start with the ABLLs curriculum before they can access the national curriculum, and continue with it throughout their education.
Official ABLLs website:
http://www.partingtonbehavioranalysts.com/page/ablls-r-25.html

28- VB-MAPP- Assessment tool that will look at your child's milestones (where they are developmentally), Barriers (what is stopping them from learning). The VB-MAPP also helps identify the most effective educational setting for your child and access whether they are making progress in their current placement. 

More on VB-MAPP: http://www.marksundberg.com/vb-mapp.htm

29- NET- natural environment teaching- using your child's natural environment to teach them skills. The environment needs to be reinforcing to the child for effective NET to take place (eg park, soft play, make a snack when the child is hungry).

30- Maintenance is the ability to keep the same skill over time. This means that if a child can ask for juice today, he will be able to ask for juice tomorrow, and the next day and a week from now and a month from now. The child has maintained the behavior.

31- Generalization is the ability to display the behavior across different settings. across different people and different times. This means that if a child can ask for the bathroom, he can do it at home, at school, at a diner, with dad, with grandma, when he is tired, in the morning and at night.

http://appliedbehavioranalysis.blogspot.co.uk/2007/05/maintenance-and-generalization.html?m=1

Two really good books:

The verbal behaviour approach, Mary Barbera

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1843108526?pc_redir=1399319266&robot_redir=1

Motivation and reinforcement: Robert Schramm

http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/1447748360?pc_redir=1398937024&robot_redir=1


That's the basics for you. :)