Introductory ABA Tutor Training

SCF Bucharest Romania

 Behavior Analysis

• Behavior Analysis: Philosophy based on the the principles of

Behaviorism.
• Applied Behavior Analysis: Applying the principles of Behavior
Analysis to address individual, social and cultural issues.

• Why Use Behavior Analysis?

– Empirically Based Outcomes
– Research Based Intervention
– Data Driven Quality Control
 Characteristics of Autism
• Deficits • Excesses
– Communication – Self Stimulatory Behavior

– Social Skills – Tantrums

– Language Processing – Aggressive Behavior

– Play – Self Injurious Behavior

– Independent Living Skills – Obsessive Compulsive Behavior

– Imitative Skills – Inappropriate Social Behavior

– Skill Generalization
 Three Term Contingency Model
• Antecedent – Behavior- Consequence
– Antecedents: Environmental and biological conditions
occurring before a specific behavior.

– Behavior: A concrete action that can be operationally

defined and empirically measured.

– Consequence: What occurs following a specific

behavior.
 Operational Definition
• Specific: The behavior is a specific action that
can be seen or heard and empirically defined.

• Observable: The behavior can be observed by

others.

• Measurable: The frequency, duration, or

intensity of the behavior can be measured.
 Interpretations
• Interpretations serve to make general
statements about a behavior rather than
operationally defining specifically what has
occurred.
• Interpretations often result in people putting
meaning upon the behavior that have more to
do with their personal feelings rather than the
actual function of the behavior.
 Increasing Behavior
• Reinforcer: Anything that serves to increase or
maintain the frequency or duration of a behavior.
• Positive Reinforcement: Using reinforcers to
increase the frequency of behavior.
• Natural Reinforcer: A reinforcer that naturally
follows a behavior. (Go outside after putting on
shoes)
• Arbitrary Reinforcer: A reinforcer that doesn’t
naturally follow a behavior. (Receiving bobo for
clapping hands)
 Identifying Reinforcers
• Watch what the child engages with in the
environment.
• Interview teachers and family members
regarding items and activities the child enjoys.
• Present the child with novel potentially
reinforcing items.
• Complete reinforcer inventories and perform a
reinforcement preference assessment before
each session.
Rearranging Antecedents For Effective
Teaching
• In order to effectively teach, antecedents have to be
arranged in order to maximize the effectiveness of a
teaching session.
– Have Lesson Materials Ready
– Clear the environment of distractions
– Have Reinforcers Ready
– Identify a current reinforcer for the lesson
– Have Materials Ready for Data Collection
– Identify Appropriate Place to Teach Skill
– Know the lesson format before teaching
– Be aware of specific troubleshooting techniques and how
the lesson is to be run across tutors
Reinforcement Preference Assessment
Definition: RPA is the random presentation of several reinforcing items
for the child to freely choose from in order to identify what is most
reinforcing to the child at the time.
Importance: It is important to do a reinforcer preference assessment
prior to beginning each lesson in order that the highest preferred
available reinforcer be identified.
Variety: It is important to give several choices each preference
assessment and to change the items that are available regularly in
order to prevent satiation.
Types of Reinforcers: Activities, Edible, Toys or Items that can be
manipulated, Social, Tokens (Secondary Reinforcers)
Choice Board: A visual board with icons representing reinforcing items
and activities. An RPA can be administered more easily with a
choice board, as activities such as computer or swing can be added
to the variety of reinforcers available.
 Effective Reinforcement
• Immediacy: The delivery of the reinforcement is
0-1 second following the behavior.
• Appropriateness: The size of the reinforcer
equals the difficulty of the behavior.
• Contingency: The reinforcer is contingent upon a
specific operationally defined behavior or chain
of behaviors.
• Consistency: The schedule of reinforcement is
identified specific to the lesson or child and is
followed consistently.
 Satiation
• Satiation: Frequent access or delivery of a
reinforcer brings down the reinforcing value.
– It is important to give access to a variety of reinforcers
in order to prevent satiation and promote increasing
motivation to participate in lessons.
– It is also important to give access to novel potentially
reinforcing items and activities on a regular basis in
order to establish a wider variety of available
reinforcers and promote and increase in play
activities.
 Deprivation
• Deprivation: Withholding access to a reinforcer
over time or when a person is in a particular state
increases the value of the reinforcer.
– Depriving a child from a particular reinforcer during
easy lessons can increase the value of the reinforcer
and the child’s motivation when engaging in more
difficult lessons.
– A child may be in a state of deprivation after specific
activities. For intance, even though the child received
water twenty minutes ago, they may be in a state of
deprivation if they recently finished playing outside on
a hot day.
 Motivating Operations
• Motivating Operations: A temporary change
in the environment that temporarily increases
the reinforcing value of a reinforcer.
– Examples:
• After being in the hot sun the reinforcing value of water
increases.
• After smelling a pot of coffee the reinforcing value of
coffee increases.
• Being in a state of deprivation of any reinforcer.
• Being in the cold increases the reinforcing value of
warm clothing.
 Capturing And Contriving MO’s
Capturing Contriving
• Capturing opportunities to teach • Contriving or creating MO’s in
a skill when an MO is in place. order to maximize the
Examples: reinforcing value of completing a
*Teaching to ask for water after playing specific behavior.
outside on a hot day.
Examples:
* Teaching to ask for juice after the child
has eaten salty food. *Giving a child a bag of chips and then
holding a glass of water.
* Teaching the child to ask for help when
they are having trouble zipping a jacket * Putting a favored reinforcer in view but
before going outside. out of reach when the child hasn’t had
access to it for a while.
* Teaching to ask for music when the
child can hear a favorite CD in the other * Popping popcorn in the microwave so
room. the the child can here it popping.
Teaching Techniques
 Discrete Trial Therapy
• DTT: Structured therapy specifically designed to teach
discrimination between single unit responses.
• Purpose: Discrete trial therapy is designed specifically
to teach children who are having difficulty learning to
make discriminations in natural learning environments.
• Fading: Discrete trial therapy is designed to be a
temporary tool in which a child learns how to learn. It
is the goal to transfer the childs therapeutic learning
environment from a structured DTT environment to
learning from naturally occurring contingencies.
 Terms To Know
• Discriminative Stimulus: A stimulus in the presence of which a behavior is
reinforced. In other words (the instruction).
• Materials: Tangible or auditory materials used for a lesson.
• Response Class: A group of items or responses sharing a similar
characteristic.
• Target: The current item being taught within a response class.
• Mastered Targets: Mastered items within a response class.
• Error Correction Procedure: A procedure used to correct an incorrect
response in the consequence condition.
• Prompt: An added stimulus used to facilitate a correct response.
• Data: Collecting data on incorrect, correct, non-responses and prompts
used in the lesson.
• Lesson Format: Format in which the Sd’s are delivered. Errorless
Learning, Mass Trial, Expanded Trial, Random Rotation, Random Trials.
 Discrete Trial Format
• Antecedent: The antecedent condition consists
of the vocal and material Sd’s and is in a
structured setting.
• Behavior: A specific operationally designed
behavior within a response class which is to be
cued to be performed upon delivery of the Sd.
• Consequence: Delivery and reinforer if the
response is correct or an error correction
procedure if the response is incorrect.
Conducting an Effective DTT Lesson
• The Sd should be clear and concise.
• A reinforcer should be ready for immediate delivery.
• The lesson should be run quickly. This cuts down on boredom and helps the child
to focus on the task at hand.
• The child should be attending when the Sd is delivered.
• Materials should be presented in an environment with minimal distractions.
• Prompt strategies should have been identified before beginning the lesson.
• Materials for data collection should be at hand and collection be taken during the
lesson.
• Error correction should be chosen based upon the lesson and the needs of the
child.
• Reinforcer or error correction should occur immediately following the correct or
incorrect response.
• The lesson format should be identified and noted in the data collection materials.
• Reinforcers should be updated and reinforcer preference assessments frequently
conducted.
 Prompts
• Prompts: An added stimulus which facilitates a
correct response.
• Types:
– Physical: Full hand over hand physical prompt.
– Partial Physical: Partially physically prompting.
– Gestural Prompt: Pointing or gesturing.
– Model: Demonstrating the correct response.
– Positional: Positioning items or people in the
environment.
– Visual: Using a visual cue, such as a card or object.
– Vocal: Using a vocalization.
 Shaping and Fading
• Shaping: Reinforcing successive
approximations to a final response or chain of
responses.

• Fading: Systematically removing prompts until

the desired behavior is independently
performed.
 Lesson Formats
• Errorless Learning: Presenting every trial with a
prompted response which receives
reinforcement.
• Mass Trial: Presentation of one item in the field
with the same repeated vocal Sd.
• Expanded Trial: Systematic presentation of Sd’s
to promote discrimination.
• Random Rotation: Random presentation of Sd’s
within a response class.
• Random Trials: Random presentation of Sd’s
across response classes.
Practice
 Pivotal Responses

• Pivotal Response: A response

class whose mastery aids in
the learning of more complex
responses in relation to that
response class.
 Manding (Requesting)
• Antecedent: State of deprivation, presence of
the item, activity

• Behavior: Requesting for the reinforcer via

vocalization, sign or PECS.

• Consequence: Receipt of the requested item

or activity.
 Tacting (Labeling)
• Antecedent: Presence of the item to be
labeled

• Behavior: Child labels item

• Consequence: Generalized social

reinforcement/reinforcer
 Matching/Sorting
• Antecedent: Presence of items to be sorted or
matched and Sd “match”.

• Behavior: Child matches or sorts items.

• Consequence: Generalized social

reinforcement and receipt of the reinforcer.
 Non-Vocal Imitation
• Antecedent: Tutor performs the action to be
performed and vocal Sd “Do this”.

• Behavior: Child imitates the action.

• Consequence: Generalized social

reinforcement and receipt of reinforcer.
 Vocal Imitation
• Antecedent: Sound, word or phrase to be
imitated.

• Behavior: Child imitates sound, word or

phrase

• Consequence: Generalized social

reinforcement and receipt of the reinforcer.
 Receptive Object Labels
• Antecedent: Objects to be identified and
vocal Sd “Touch _____.”

• Behavior: Child touches or gives item.

• Consequence: Generalized social

reinforcement and receipt of reinforcer.
 Instructions
• Antecedent: “Instruction”

• Behavior: Child follows the instruction

• Consequence: Generalized social

reinforcement
 Generalization

• A response can’t be considered to

be truly mastered until it can be
demonstrated across people,
Sd’s, materials, environments and
naturally occurring contingencies.
 Generalization Process
• People: A response should be generalized
across multiple adults and peers, plus, novel
people in the community.
• Sd’s and materials: Generalization across
various vocal Sd’s and materials.
• Environments: The response can be
demonstrated under incidental contingencies
across various environments.
 Generalization Across Natural
Contingencies
• A naturally occurring contingency is an Sd that is naturally occurring
within the environment and the reinforcer for exhibiting the
behavior is in the context of a natural situation.
• Examples:
– A child imitates the movements of a teacher during circle time and the
behavior is reinforced by being able to participate in the activity.
– A child raises his hand and requests to use the bathroom and is
excused to go to the WC.
– A child sees other children line up to go to lunch and imitates their
peers by getting in line. The reinforcer is participating in lunch.
– The child puts his shoes on at the front door before leaving to go
outside to play. The reinforcer is being able to go outside to play.
– The child sees that the child next to him finished their turn in a game.
The child takes his turn. The reinforcement is taking his turn.
Sequencing Tasks
 Task Analysis
• Task Analysis: A task analysis is used when
teaching complex sequences of behaviors.
• Reason For Using A Task Analysis:
– To make sure the steps are taught in the same order
every time.
– To make sure all people are teaching the steps in the
same order.
– In order that everyone is aware of prompts necessary
for each step.
– In order that systematic fading of prompts is insured.
– To make sure no steps are skipped when teaching.
 Backwards Chaining
• Backwards Chaining: Prompting the child
through the whole sequence of behaviors
while fading prompts from the last step.
When steps are mastered prompts will be
systematically faded from successive steps.
• Leaps: As a child shows mastery of steps in
the middle of the chain before later steps,
prompts will be removed from that step and
reintroduced on steps that require prompts.
Behavior Problems
 When Is Behavior A Problem
• When it endangers other people or ones self.
• When it interferes in the ability to learn new
skills.
• When it interferes in the ability to participate
in social interactions and engage in
community activities and events.
 Functions of Behavior
• All behavior serves the function of access to
some sort of reinforcement.
– Access to Reinforcement
– Escape (escaping aversive or less preferred
activities.
– Avoidance (to avoid the onset of an aversive
or less preferred activity.
 Identifying Functions
• Descriptive Analysis Data: Narrative
recording of the operationally
defined behavior, the antecedents
and the consequences that followed
the behavior.
 Recording Antecedents
• What to record under the antecedent condition
when taking a descriptive analysis.
– Where did the behavior occur
– When (time of day, type of activity, what was
previously happening)
– What was happening before the before occurred
– What demand was given
– What was the person doing when demand was given
– Information regarding sleep the night before or if the
person was sick
 Recording The Behavior
• Record exactly what the person was doing.
(ex. Ilia bit his arm and fell onto the bed)
• Do not record interpretations (ex. Adi became
angry, or Ami was frustrated because ____.)
• Record the duration of the behavior if it was in
the context of a tantrum or series of
behaviors.
 Prevention Procedures
• Once a baseline of consistent antecedents to the
behavior are identified, prevention procedures should
be identified.
• Prevention procedures should include reinforcement of
appropriate alternative behaviors and replacement
behaviors.
• Generally, a specific reinforcement schedule should be
identified when preventing problem behaviors.
• Prevention is about reinforcing appropriate behavior
before the inappropriate behavior has a chance to
occur. Therefore consistency of reinforcement
schedules and behaviors reinforced is imperative.
 Functionally Equivalent Alternative
Behavior
• FEAB: The FEAB is an alternative behavior to
the problem behavior that serves the same
function of the behavior.
– Examples:
• A child who pushes for attention learns to raise his
hand or tap someone on the shoulder.
• A child who engages in a tantrum to escape and activity
is taught to ask for a break.
• A child who has aggression when asked to leave a
preferred activity is taught to request for more time.
 Planned Ignore And Redirect
• Planned Ignoring: This consequence means that
you act as if the behavior never occurred.
Therefore, whatever is occurring at the time, will
carry on as if the behavior didn’t occur.
• No direct attention will be given during or after
the behavior. (Look through the windshield and
not the rearview mirror.)
• Planned ignoring ensures that the behavior is not
accidentally reinforced by attention or a change
in behavior by the adult.