version: UK | USA | International

Understanding Applied Behavior Analysis

Understanding Applied Behavior Analysis

An Introduction to ABA for Parents, Teachers, and other Professionals

Albert J. Kearney

Part of the JKP Essentials series

Paperback: £13.99 / $19.95

2007, 246mm x 173mm / 10in x 7in, 120pp
ISBN: 978-1-84310-860-3, BIC 2: JM JNSG

add to cart
  • description |
  • reviews |
  • extract |
  • contents |

Introduction

There are countless scholarly texts and precise scientific volumes that have been written about applied behavior analysis (ABA). This is not one of them. Understanding Applied Behavior Analysis is written especially to help introduce applied behavior analysis to parents of children involved in ABA-based programs, teachers and administrators whose classrooms and schools are serving an increasing number of students receiving ABA-based interventions, paraprofessionals working directly on the front lines with these children, and anyone else working under the guidance of ABA specialists. Understanding Applied Behavior Analysis is intended to accomplish this by providing a brief introduction to basic terminology, underlying principles, and commonly used ABA treatment procedures.

Probably the first term that many readers find themselves mystified by is the term applied behavior analysis itself. While you'll certainly get a more thorough understanding of ABA as you read through this book, just to help you get started you should know that applied behavior analysis is an approach to changing behaviors that uses procedures based on scientifically established principles of learning. In ABA the behaviors targeted for change are behaviors that are usually socially important to someone in some way. As a scientific approach to behavior change, ABA involves a considerable amount of monitoring of the intervention programs, collecting data about the behaviors that we hope to change, and ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention procedures.

Most fields of science develop extensive and often confusing vocabularies of their own over the years and ABA is no exception. ABA language can be particularly intimidating to people new to ABA. Educators have often complained about the intimidating terminology used by some of the experts who have provided ABA training programs for them. A main goal of this book is to demystify the esoteric jargon commonly used in the ABA world. I hope to give readers a running start by providing an understanding of what the experts are talking and writing about before they get confused, frustrated and turned off by it all, which has too often been the case in the past.

Understanding Applied Behavior Analysis presents the basics, or the ABCs, of ABA. While ABA is the abbreviation for applied behavior analysis, as far as this book is concerned the letters ABC have a double meaning. The use of ABCs is of course intended to let readers know that this is an ABA primer, written for those who have little or no background in ABA. But as the more ABA-savvy reader will know, ABC also stands for the three building blocks upon which ABA is based, the building blocks that B. F. Skinner referred to as the contingencies of reinforcement-the antecedents, behaviors, and consequences. This book provides a solid introduction to these and other behavior analytic terms and concepts.

Besides being an introduction to ABA, Understanding Applied Behavior Analysis is also a user-friendly translation of professional jargon into plain English, sort of like an ABA to plain English dictionary. Rather than providing formal definitions of terms, I try to provide explanations of ABA terms and concepts in everyday common-sense language. So you should acquire a pretty good understanding of basic ABA vocabulary along the way.

I'll take you through all this as painlessly as I can. I've attempted to include occasional humor to help reduce the anxiety that some readers may experience when first exposed to behavior analytic language and literature. Although the writing style is intentionally light, the content is as accurate as you'll find in those graduate-level textbooks. While reading this book alone won't make you an expert practitioner of ABA, I hope it will make you an informed consumer or knowledgeable observer, sort of like being a knowledgeable baseball fan.

In Part 1, "The ABCs of ABA," I'll first explain what ABA is in more detail and talk about those basic principles or building blocks of ABA-antecedents, behaviors, and consequences. Building on this beginning, the various learning operations and reinforcement schedules of operant conditioning will then be presented. Other kinds of learning are also briefly introduced. In Part 2, "Putting It All Together," we'll talk more about practical applications of these basic principles as we discuss how the science of behavior analysis can be applied to real life everyday behavior problems. A systematic approach to behavioral assessment will be presented and many of the more common behavioral intervention techniques that have been employed with children will be described. Behavior analysts can be very creative and new applications seem to be appearing all the time. Although the presentation of ABA techniques can of course not be complete, we'll certainly present the key techniques you are likely to encounter.

I've tried to use numerous examples to illustrate many of the concepts presented. But examples can get boring, especially when certain words like they, the student, the child, and so forth just repeat themselves over and over again. So I chose a couple of fictional friends, whom some readers may remember, to play the parts of the children (and occasionally adults) in the examples used to help bring various points to life.

Understanding Applied Behavior Analysis can be used in a variety of ways. It is designed to be read cover to cover as well as being usable as a nonalphabetical glossary. The terms and concepts included build on each other throughout the text to provide a more complete understanding than one might acquire by simply looking up words here and there. Rather than presenting terms in alphabetical order, they are introduced in logical order so that by becoming familiar with certain basic terms first it should be easier to understand some of the other terms when you run into them later in the book. The quick reference A-Z, along with the table of contents, is placed at the front of the book.

After reading through the book, just stick it on a nearby bookshelf to keep it handy as a quick and easy reference book or as a companion to more specialized texts. As one reader suggested, you can think of your Understanding Applied Behavior Analysis as your Swiss army knife of ABA books!

This book has been many years in the making and countless people have contributed to its development over the years. If you have any comments or suggestions for the second edition, or perhaps have a good real-life example of any of the concepts presented, by all means send them on in to me, care of Jessica Kingsley Publishers.

So now if there are any terms that you were wondering about you can just turn to the quick reference A-Z that begins on the next page to see where to find those terms. Or you can turn to Chapter 1 and start at the beginning. Either way. The explanations you'll find are a good first step in understanding ABA, sort of like a step in the shaping process. What's that you say? You don't know what shaping is? Well, I could come right out and tell you, but you're much more likely to remember if you look it up yourself. So now read on, or if you're one of those people who like to read the end of mysteries first, you can just turn to page 73 to find shaping.