Applied Behavioral Analysis is a particularly popular therapy in working with both children and adults who have social pragmatic and/or behavioral difficulties. ABA was first introduced in the 1950's and '60's as a psychological therapy strategy. This therapy has its roots in psychology research, from which the terms are taken.
The term applied refers to the idea of focusing on behaviors or outcomes because they affect things that are concerning to society as a whole. For example, you may study a theory that explains certain behaviors in a research setting, but that study does not become applied research until you study how the theory relates to the outcomes those behaviors effect in the real world. You may study the definition and mechanisms a social pragmatic deficit, but it is not applied theory until you are understanding how those deficits affect a person with such a deficit.
The term behavioral refers to the actual behaviors a person exhibits. If you present an item to a person and they reach for it, their reaching is the behavior. If you want them to perform certain tasks in order to receive a reward of some type, their performance is the behavior.
The term analysis refers to the ability of the researcher or person applying the technique to control the target behaviors. So, if you are trying to control a person's pointing gesture, you need to be able to control when and where that person will use this gesture. Once you control the behavior, you are able to analyze it and better understand it.
These three terms combine to form the title of a therapy technique that seeks to control the behaviors of an individual who struggle to perform in certain areas so that they might "trained" to perform in an acceptable manner. The reality is this therapy techniques is a behavioral model for training people to do what you want. The model is widely applied in working with social pragmatic and behavioral disorders. In the realm of speech language pathology, you will see this therapy used with those who have neurological disorders such as an Autism Spectrum Disorder or seizure disorders.
The efficacy of ABA therapy in the speech and language area is generally accepted, but this acceptance is based largely on its efficacy in psychology based studies. There is a large body of evidence for this therapy technique as an effective method of behavioral control, but the evidence for it as an effective method for addressing social pragmatic challenges is not as strong. The anecdotal evidence for it suggests that, as with most speech and language therapies, it is successful for some clients and not useful for others. However, this may have more to do with the way in which therapy is administered than with the theory behind the therapy. The idea that behavior can be elicited and then controlled has been proven over and over and is considered to be reliable. What is not reliable is the idea that behavior can be elicited and controlled in the same way for every person.
Autism Speaks, a large Autism advocacy group based in the United States, endorses ABA therapy as an effective therapy method for children and adults with an ASD. They explain ABA therapy as a method for learning a wide range of skills including language skills. It should be noted, though, that much of the evidence for ABA therapy they are referring to comes from modified forms of ABA therapy that combine ABA with other therapy techniques. Their website is a great resource for more information as well as for ideas on how to use this therapy technique in your clinical practice or at home. Their website is listed below.
My own personal feeling about ABA therapy, based on my use of it and my observation of its use by others, is that it has a limited range of use. The idea that a person will continue to work for a reward time and time again seems to represent a type of thinking that suggests we as humans are not capable of higher level reasoning, that all we can see is what is directly in front of us. In particular, it suggests to me that those with difficulties in the area of social pragmatics or with behavioral challenges are only concerned with rewards and thus they can be controlled with a series of rewards. Another problem I have with this technique is that it is touted as THE therapy technique for children with an ASD, implying that Autism is a behavioral disorder. I feel this is exceptionally short sighted and not an accurate way of approaching therapy for Autism. While Autism has historically been treated by psychologists, it is not a psychological disorder. It is a neurological disorder with behavioral symptoms which stem more from physiological and linguistic difficulties than they do from psychological difficulties. Thus, approaching therapy for this population from a purely behavioral perspective seems to be irresponsible and, in my humble opinion, not within the boundaries of evidence based practice (EBP). That doesn't mean you can't use it, it just means that your approach to using it needs to consider all the factors involved for each person. ABA therapy can be effectively applied. For lower level skills such as learning to point or learning follow a certain structure, this therapy can work very well. When trying to learn social interaction skills or learning how to express your feelings appropriately, it becomes harder to be successful at using this therapy.
Here is an example of ABA therapy being administered.
Below are several links for more information on this therapy technique if you care to do more research for yourself or want more resources.
Dimensions of Applied Behavioral Analysis PDF
Revised Dimensions of ABA PDF
Treatment Integrity in ABA with Children PDF
Autism Speaks ABA resources
ABA Professionals website
