What is ABA therapy?
Applied behavior analytic therapy is the only empirically-validated form of intervention for young children with autism. In ABA therapy, the client’s behavior is assessed through observations that focus on exactly what the client does, when the client does it, at what rate, and what happens before (antecedents) and what happens after (consequences) behavior. Strengths and weaknesses are specified in this way. Skills that each client shows deficiencies in are broken down into small steps and taught in learnable chunks. The therapy is usually very intensive and is done on a one-to-one ratio of therapist to child. ABA focuses on observable behavior and data collection to allow for monitoring of progress and alteration of programming as needed, to ensure the best possible intervention for the targeted child.
