Practical Principles Using Applied Behavior Analysis

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Practical Principles Using

Applied Behavior Analysis

Annie Baghdayan, PhD, BCBA-D, LBA [email protected]

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The Oklahoma Autism Network

• The Oklahoma Autism Network • Established in October 2003

• First step for implementation of the Individuals with Autism and Their Families, Oklahoma Plan.

• Funding by:

• The Department of Human Services, Developmental Disabilities Services

• Sponsored by:

The University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, College of Allied Health, Department of Rehabilitation Science, Tolbert Center for Developmental Disabilities

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Mission

The Oklahoma Autism Network is a center of excellence committed to improving quality of life for individuals with autism and their families. We facilitate and implement Oklahoma’s Statewide Autism Plan through research, education, and service while respecting individual preferences and promoting community inclusion.

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Oklahoma Autism Network The Oklahoma Plan

Statewide Administrative

Autism Unit: Facilitate planning, financing and administration of the plan

Level 1: Oklahoma System of Excellence

•The Oklahoma Family and Interagency Autism Council •Statewide Screening

•Autism Networks

•Research, Training and Technical Assistance

Level 2: Regional Hubs Level 3: Community-based Services and Supports

Services

•State’s Autism Information and Referral System

•Screening

•Training

•Technical Assistance

•Support to Parent-led Organizations

•Community Capacity and Systems Change

Research

•Autism Pilot Program

•Autism Prevalence / Registry

•Applied Behavior Analysis

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What is the Oklahoma Plan?

http://okautism.org/okplan

• Outlines a vision to improve and expand services in Oklahoma to address the needs of individuals with Autism Spectrum

Disorders across the lifespan.

• Developed and published in 2002 by a working group that included state agencies, community organizations, higher education, and families.

• The Plan is updated on a regular basis to be relevant to the current needs in our state.

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The Vision for Oklahoma’s

Systems of Services and Supports

• Key principles:

• The personal preferences and values of individuals and their family are respected;

• Oklahoma has a continuum of effective, integrated options for assistance;

• Each person with autism resides in the least restrictive environment; ideally in his/her own home;

• People with autism and their family have full

acceptance and participation in the community;

• Professionals are competent and educated; and

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ABA is…

APPLIED

• The application of the theory, principles, and

procedures of behaviorism to problems of human behavior in natural settings

BEHAVIOR

• Concerned with observable phenomena

ANALYSIS

• Deals with objective measures of intervention and

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What does “Applied” mean?

ABA interventions deal with behaviors of

demonstrated social significance -- behaviors that are important! When implementing

ABA interventions, we are targeting

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For Example

• The following list illustrates the scope of possible

behaviors:

• Teaching social skills

• Generalizing reading sight words in different texts

• Teaching toileting skills

• Teaching appropriate break room behavior

• Teaching the bed time routine

• Increasing requesting desired objects

• Generalizing conversational skills to colleagues in the work place, and

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What does “Behavior” mean?

• When behavior is discussed in the context of ABA, it is generally considered in three different contexts.

• Behaviors that are maintained over time, such as a child who has learned to brush his teeth or the adolescent who has

learned to manage a check book.

• Behaviors that should be increased. For the person who is unable to request something to eat or interact with a peer, teaching these skills is a priority.

• Behaviors that need to be decreased. Obviously, a parent

wants to see a child spending less time screaming or having a tantrum, in this case, the parent would also want to see

positive behaviors increase, such as communicating or asking for help.

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What does “Analysis” mean?

• Through the use of clear definitions for behavior and

systematic delivery of interventions, reliable relationships between interventions and behavior can be established.

Analysis allows objective decisions to be made about future interventions.

• Specific intervention goals and objectives,

• A well-defined plan including the strategies used to meet the goals and objectives,

• Ongoing data collection to show the intervention was actually responsible for the behavior gains, and

• A plan to ensure the generalization and maintenance of treatment gains.

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What is ABA?

• Applied Behavior Analysis

• ABA is the use of scientific principles of learning and motivation to teach effectively

• Applied in a systematic fashion

• Interested in socially significant behaviors

• Uses techniques derived from basic principles

• Interested in knowing that the intervention is what improved the behavior

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Commonly used Principles

• What is a principle?

• Describes how behavior works

• Shows relationship between behavior and an

immediate consequence

• Discovers the increase or the decrease

frequency of the behavior

• Some examples are:

• Reinforcement

• Shaping

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Commonly used Principle

Premack Principle

Use a preferred activity to motivate student to engage in a less preferred activity

• When you finish ______ you can ______.

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Commonly used Principle

• Positive reinforcement: behaviors that produce a good outcome are more likely to occur in the

future

• People are motivated by what they get out of what

they do

• Examples: money, feeling good for helping

someone, approval from others, satisfaction of a good book, etc.

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What does “positive” mean?

• The term “positive” is used in conjunction with reinforcement to denote a specific

form of reinforcement. It does not mean something “good” but instead the term positive relates more to the mathematical term of “adding” or “addition”.

• Positive reinforcement is the addition of

something as a result of a behavior that was engaged.

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Example

• Riley is asked by the teacher to get her

book and start reading. Riley gets her book and starts reading. Riley’s teacher says

“great work Riley!”

• In the future, under similar conditions, Riley continues to get her book and read when asked to do so by her teacher.

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More Examples

• A mother gives her son praise (positive

stimulus) for doing homework (behavior).

• The little boy receives $5.00 (positive

stimulus) for every A he earns on his report card (behavior).

• A father gives his daughter candy (positive stimulus) for cleaning up toys (behavior).

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Positive Reinforcement

• The ABA approach is to identify what motivates

each individual child

• Every child is different

• Teaching must use what is motivating to the child,

not what we think should be motivating to the

child

• Then we teach the child by teaching new skills in

very small steps and rewarding the child with

positive reinforcement when they make an effort at learning

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Negative Reinforcement

Negative reinforcement occurs when a certain stimulus (usually an aversive stimulus) is

removed after a particular behavior is

exhibited. The likelihood of the particular behavior occurring again in the future is

increased because of removing/avoiding the negative consequence.

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Negative Reinforcement

• Negative reinforcement should not be

thought of as a punishment procedure. With negative reinforcement, you are increasing a behavior, whereas with punishment, you are decreasing a behavior.

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For Example

• Riley is given 10 worksheets and told by

her teacher to complete them all. Riley asks her teacher “Can I please only complete six worksheets?” The teacher agrees and

removes 4 worksheets.

• In the future, under similar conditions, Riley continues to ask nicely to have frustrating task demands reduced.

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More Examples

• Bob does the dishes (behavior) in order to avoid his mother nagging (negative

stimulus).

• Natalie can get up from the dinner table

(negative stimulus) when she eats 2 bites of her broccoli (behavior).

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The ABCs of Behavior

ANTECEDENT A BEHAVIOR CONSEQUENCE C B Any stimulus that precedes the behavior Anything an organism does Stimulus that occurs after the behavior

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A-B-C Assessment

• Conducted by directly observing the student and

recording data over several observation periods

• Information is collected on: context/activity,

antecedent, target behavior, perceived function, & consequence

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A-B-C Assessment

Antecedent: Johnny is given a vocational bin and asked to assemble the parts.

Behavior: Johnny throws the bin with all the parts onto the floor.

Consequence: Johnny is taken to time out and the classroom aide picks up the pieces. Johnny has avoided the task, so the function of the behavior is avoidance.

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Replacement Behavior

Step 1=Choose 1 undesirable behavior to replace

Step 2=Look at what is maintaining the behavior

Step 3=Pick a replacement behavior that serves the same function

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Extinction

Reinforcement is no longer provided for a behavior that was previously reinforced resulting in a decrease in the behavior

• Extinction of positive reinforcement

• Escape extinction

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For Example

• When Riley was given 10 worksheets and told by her teacher to complete them all, she crawled under her desk. Riley would

continue to scream and remain under her desk until her teacher removed the

worksheet and left her alone.

• When an extinction procedure was put in place, Riley’s behavior was no longer met the removal of the worksheets…

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Continued

When she screamed and crawled under the table to try and escape the worksheet, the

teacher simply continued to present the task (under the table), prompting the completion of the task.

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Function of Behavior Extinction Procedure

Example Other Procedures Useful in Conjunction with Extinction

To gain attention Planned ignoring Learner is calling out to get the teacher’s

attention, and the teacher does not respond to the calls.

Functional Communication Training(FCT) Differential reinforcement

Non-contingent reinforcement

To escape/ avoid demands or interaction Deny opportunity for breaks

Learner screams whenever he is asked to complete a new task to avoid the demand. The

teacher/practitione r continues with task even though the learner is screaming.

To gain sensory stimulation or to avoid unwanted stimulation

Interrupt and re-direct the behavior

OR change the consequence (from the sensory behavior) so it is no longer

reinforcing

Learner bangs his head on a desk so the teacher puts a soft pillow to block the reinforcing sensation.

Response interruption/redirection

To gain tangible items Deny access to

materials Learner screams to get time on a computer and is denied access.

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Time-Out

Loss of access to positive reinforcers for a

specified period of time contingent on a behavior

• Non-exclusion time-out

• Remove a positive reinforcer

• “Sit and watch”

• Time out ribbon • Exclusion time-out

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Using Time-Out Effectively

• Implement immediately & consistently

• Make time-in rewarding

• Define behaviors that lead to time-out

• Select duration

• Keep records

• Do not use with escape maintained behaviors

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Teaching New Skills:

Shaping

Reinforce small steps to a target behavior

Approximations Form Intensity Rate Duration Target

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Teaching New Skills:

Shaping

From How to Use Shaping by M. Panyan (1980)

Touching glasses Picking up glasses Touching glasses Putting glasses up to his face Picking up glasses Touching glasses Touching glasses Picking up glasses Putting glasses up to his face

Placing glasses in their proper position First day of training Last day of training Time

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Myths about ABA

• ABA only uses punishment techniques and aversive controls.

• ABA is only for animal trainers.

• ABA is inhumane because it takes away from the individual's freedom of choice

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More Myths

• ABA is only token reinforcement

• ABA is M&M’s and Tootsie rolls

• ABA is when you ignore all student

misbehavior and only reward good behavior

• ABA is equivalent to bribery

• ABA reinforcement programs undermine intrinsic motivation

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Effectiveness of ABA

• ABA assumes that if an individual is not learning, it is NOT the individual’s fault, it is our fault

• We must change the way we are teaching

• We must continue to try different ways of teaching until we find one that works

• ABA is the best method for finding what works

• We do not blame the child if learning does not happen

• We believe it’s our responsibility to figure out how to teach whatever the child needs to learn

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Effectiveness of ABA

• Is consistent with general principles of learning:

• Task analysis:

• Breaks complex material into smaller, more teachable units. Provides numerous structured opportunities for a child to learn a new skill before advancing to the next skill

• Stimulus Control:

• Highlights relevant stimuli while simultaneously minimizing extraneous stimuli

• Prompting and prompt fading procedures

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Effectiveness of ABA

• Is consistent with general principles of learning:

• Reinforcement

• All students have an individualized motivational system

• Generalization

• Promotes skills across settings, instructors, and situations

• Maintenance

• Skills are functional and therefore continually used by students

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References

• Catania, C. (2007) Learning, Fourth Interim Edition. Cornwall-on-Hudson, NY: Sloan Publishing.

• Cooper, J., Heron, T., & Heward, W. (2007) Applied Behavior Analysis, Second Edition. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Prentice Hall.

• Lovaas, O. I. (1987). Behavioral treatment and normal educational and

intellectual functioning in young autistic children. Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, 55(1), 3-9.

• Simpson, R. L. (1999). Early intervention with children with autism: The search for best practices. Journal of the Association for Persons with Severe Handicaps, 24, 218-221.

• Simpson, R. L. (2001). ABA and students with autism spectrum disorders: Issues and considerations for effective practice. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 16(2), 68-71.

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Contact Us

Address: Oklahoma Autism Network _{University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center}

College of Allied Health

1200 North stonewall Avenue Oklahoma City, OK 73117 Phone: 405.271.7476 or 1.877.2AUTISM (228-8476) Fax: 405.271.2630 Email: [email protected] Web: okautism.org