ABA therapy involves multiple treatment steps that help individuals overcome challenging behaviors and develop socially significant skills.
Overcoming Challenging Behavior
Functional Behavior Assessment, or FBA: An FBA is one of the first assessments conducted in ABA therapy when individuals engages in challenging behavior. It is a comprehensive set of assessment procedures to help understand why problem behavior occurs so that the therapist can best provide intervention services. FBA involves an indirect assessment, direct observational data collection and sometimes a systematic, structured assessment called a functional analysis. The results can reveal a cause and effect relationship between a problem behavior and what is maintaining it.
Defining a plan: After assessing challenging behavior, therapists at Auspice develop a collaborative function-based treatment plan with clients to reach a set goal. The team discusses the best therapeutic methods and measurements of success to try under the ABA plan.
Developing New Skills
Systematic instructional procedures: Auspice therapists are trained in the most-effective ways to teach clients. Some of these methods include discrete trial training (or breaking down a task into small, achievable pieces), positive reinforcement, repetition and altering antecedent stimuli. These strategies help individuals learn.
Ongoing assessment: ABA therapy does not end when a goal is met. An effective therapist will continue to support their client, revisiting instruction when needed. The goal is to help the individual continually experience success with their learned skill, in different settings and as they grow.
With the right interventions through ABA therapy, individuals can improve their behaviors and reach their full potential.
