Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) has gone through many innovations since it was developed for autism treatment in 1965. In particular, ABA is evolving to be more client-led, fun, socially significant, and compassionate.
As a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), I don’t practice the way I did ten years ago, five years ago, or even two years ago. Science, by nature, is always evolving. More effective processes are discovered. Best practices change. Progress is made. Behavioral science, which includes ABA, is no different.
It is our responsibility as clinicians to be life-long learners, and to seek out resources that make us better at what we do. There are many resources available to BCBAs, including access to academic journals, professional conferences, and continuing education courses, to name a few.
Recently, there has been a push toward innovative applications of ABA in the treatment of autistic individuals and other developmental disabilities.
A Fun, Client-led Approach
It’s impossible to discuss the new directions of ABA without mentioning Dr. Greg Hanley. In “A Perspective on Today’s ABA” by Dr. Hanley, he introduces a values-based treatment process that encourages BCBAs to create contexts in which students are “happy, relaxed, and engaged.” Hanley often speaks of teaching from a place of joy. Our students should want to work with us, not be required to. When a learning environment is full of a student’s favorite things and instruction is engaging, students learn more. More importantly, they want to learn more.
This type of progressive ABA is enjoyable because it’s client-centered. It empowers learners to make choices. It requires clinicians to pay attention to students’ preferences and aversions; and to learn from students before teaching them. When a student shows that they are no longer interested in an activity and wants to move on to another, the clinician follows, taking advantage of naturally occurring motivation.
This fun, client-led approach comes in contrast with the rote, impersonal nature of “traditional” or “conventional” ABA popularized by Ivar Lovaas in the 1980s and earlier. Though Lovaas had a pivotal role in establishing the effectiveness of ABA as a treatment method for autism, new research shows we can make improvements.
Targeting Socially Significant Skills
By definition, ABA targets socially significant behaviors. At times, we lose sight of this. We get stuck in our ways. Instead of thinking outside the box and putting the client first, we default to the programs with which we’re most familiar.
Socially significant behaviors are those that are meaningful for learners. For example, medication management is not socially significant for a three-year-old but could be very important for a 21-year-old.
Any skill worth teaching should be functional, or part of a larger chain of behaviors that achieves a functional outcome. Taking turns is a functional skill. Learning to touch your head is not functional or socially significant. However, when identifying body parts is taught as a building block for learning how to get dressed, it becomes socially significant.
Teaching in a child’s natural environment, like the home or community, lends itself to the development of socially significant skills. For example, when a clinician works with a client at home, skills like doing laundry, making the bed, or preparing a meal can be easily targeted.
Providing Compassionate Care
Too often, BCBAs make the treatment process about themselves instead of clients and families. They talk too much. They don’t understand what families go through every day. In a line of thought brought forth by Dr. Hanley, anyone who is autistic or involved in the care of an autistic individual has experienced some sort of trauma.
Consider how the following situations would affect you: Being in excruciating pain, knowing what you need to relieve it, but not being able to express it to anyone. Watching your child hurt himself so severely he ends up at the hospital. The joy you feel when your child says their first word and the deep frustration you experience when they stop talking completely.
BCBAs often fail to understand that the families they work with have other burdens to carry. Parents are human. They could be dealing with a medical scare, divorce, a death in the family, unemployment, substance abuse, mental health issues, or any host of other difficult situations.
Awareness of these issues is growing, resulting in an emphasis on compassionate, trauma-informed care. Compassionate care is a necessary component of ABA therapy that must be embedded in the way BCBAs interact with students and their caregivers. It involves empathy, perspective-taking, and courtesy.
In his 2021 article, “There’s no such thing as a bad boy: A Circumstances View of Problem Behavior” and the TED talk that followed, Dr. Patrick Friman illustrates this concept with the following example.
“Imagine you're late for work; you've just pulled in behind one car at the red light. The light turns green, but the lady in the car in front of you is looking in her backseat, not at the light.
The light turns yellow, red, and green again, but still, the woman is looking in the back seat. Finally, on the third red light, you get out of your car to go complain.
Imagine how annoyed, even angry, you are by now. You were late for work before, now it's worse. But when you knock on the car window, the woman looks up at you with tears in her eyes. You look in the backseat and see a baby turning blue.
Everything just changed, didn't it? Your anger has been replaced with empathy for the woman and a desire to help the baby, right?”
Looking to the Future
As ABA evolves, it’s important to recognize the contributions of those behavior analysts who built a foundation for us. Moving forward, the key is to find a balance between the structure of the ABA that we know to be effective with the flexibility and innovation of new research.
Continue to learn and grow with your students. Seek out information. Be open-minded. With our science constantly evolving, the future of ABA is bright.
Please tell us how your use of ABA has evolved in the comments section below.
We hope you enjoyed the information in this article. STAGES® Learning also offers free downloadable resources to support teaching and learning with autistic individuals. Start with our free Picture Noun Cards and see our collection of other downloadable resources here!
