What Should an ABA Session Look Like?
Every child learns differently and has different strengths and weaknesses. Therefore, every child must have his own list of skills that would benefit him/her aka an 'individualized education plan' (IEP). ABA is not a “one size fits all” approach. One ABA session may vary from another, but when analyzed carefully, the sessions must utilize the same principles of behavior and learning. A comprehensive ABA session will work with the child’s motivation, presenting multiple teaching opportunities in short periods of time, and using effective and efficient teaching practices. Appropriate and desired behaviors will be reinforced, so that they are likely to occur again in the future. Inappropriate and undesired behaviors will be shaped.
Whether it’s the first session or the 20th, an ABA session will usually begin with pairing. In fact, pairing must occur continuously throughout the sessions. Pairing refers to the instructor providing 'free' access to the ‘fun stuff’ to the learner, by placing almost no or very minimal demands on the learner. There’s really no obvious teaching going on here, but this is a foundational step in building the relationship between the learner and his teacher. This time helps associate the instructor with the ‘fun things’ a.k.a reinforcers. On the other hand, it teaches the learner which behaviors will be rewarded, and that the instructor is fun to be around!
Gradually, the instructor will fade in small demands and systematically increase task effort (the amount of effort a learner puts into work). This may seem like just play but a good behavior analyst may already be on his/her way to working on skills like requesting, eye contact, social responsiveness and joint attention.
As much as possible, skills should be taught in the natural context. This is referred to as Natural Environment Training. Animal sounds can be taught while playing with animal figurines or reading a zoo story. Prepositions can be taught while playing ‘hide & seek’ or ‘I spy’. Children with Autism often have trouble generalizing skills and demonstrating mastered skills in the real context. So why not teach in context?
Teaching in context allows the learner to exhibit the skill in the naturally existing contingency/environment and have more functional value. This also allows the behavior to contact the consequences that are natural reinforcers, rather than tangible treats or tokens. For example, hand-washing can be taught after playing with play-doh: the child’s hands get dirty, and he now needs to wash hands before he eats a snack. Another example, sorting by categories can be taught while sorting his toys into animals, legos and play-doh tools.
While teaching in context or in the natural environment may be the preferred option, it may not always be realistic or possible (e.g., social skills or money management skills during grocery shopping are difficult to teach in the natural environment each time). Discrete trial teaching or DTT is a commonly used practice in ABA wherein the behavior analyst breaks down a skill, into smaller steps, and teaches one step at a time, in a contrived & controlled set up. The behavior analyst will carefully shape the students’ behavior using evidence-based practices such as reinforcement, extinction, differential reinforcement, prompt and prompt fading etc, to reach the final goal.
Remember, it's all about shaping small steps until you get to the final goal!
Throughout a session, the behavior analyst will collect data on the programs conducted. The data may be of various kinds: +/- or yes/no (whether the learner responded correctly or not), frequency (how many times did the learner do something), duration (how long the learner did something for), fluency (how fast he did something) etc. All of this data will be analyzed to understand the learner's responding and troubleshoot any barriers to learning. The analysis via data collection is an integral aspect of an ABA practice. It’s in the name- Applied Behavior Analysis!
No data = no analysis = not ABA!
Another component of ABA session is generalization of skills. This can be programmed within the session by the instructor and/or set up as parent training. Parents play an integral part in ensuring maintenance of mastered skills and their generalization into the natural environment. A skill will only reach its final completion, when the learner can demonstrate that skill in the natural context independently or with minimal prompting, without any contrived or artificial reinforcers.
On an ending note, the above are broad components of an ABA session. But whether the session was a success or not, only one person can tell. And that's the child!
Final take away is that we have to learn to let the child guide the sessions. We have to listen to not just the child's words, but his behavior. The child, through his behavior, will tell us whether he trusts us, likes us and wants to be with us. Our relationship with the child must shine through!