What Is ABA Therapy?

ABA therapy is the application of the principles of learning and motivation to increase language, social, and communication skills while also helping to reduce behaviors that may interfere with learning (or may be harmful).

From the BACB (Behavior Analyst Certification Board):

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA): A systematic approach for influencing socially important behavior through the identification of reliably related environmental variables and the production of behavior change techniques that make use of those findings. Practitioners of behavior analysis provide services consistent with the dimensions of ABA.

Common services may include, but are not limited to:

• Conducting behavioral assessments
• Analyzing data
• Writing and revising behavior-analytic treatment plans
• Training others to implement components of treatment plans
• Overseeing the implementation of treatment plans

Behavior analysts provide services to clients with a variety of needs including, but not limited to:

• Organizational Functioning (e.g., staff performance, management and pay structure interventions)
• Skill Deficits (e.g., communication, adaptive behavior)
• Problem Behavior (e.g., aggression, self-injurious behavior)

Our ABA intervention services hit the core of helping children with autism by following one simple rule: every child is unique, and we have to help them to best reflect those social needs. Through our ABA therapy program, children learn by playing with their peers and with small group activities. Some learn to communicate by exchanging pictures or using an iPad. Others expand their verbal skills. At the elementary school level, activities offer the chance to practice how to attend and participate with age-appropriate lessons and learn from others through board games, dramatic play and conversations volleys.