Applied behaviour analysis (ABA) is a scientific approach to understanding behaviour and how it is influenced by the environment. It involves systematically applying interventions based on principles of learning theory to improve socially significant behaviours.

There isn’t a “one size fits all” answer to this question. Every child and youth has their own strengths,

needs, preferences, which guides the creation of their treatment plan. However, there are some

common elements that you’ll often see in ABA services

• Individualized treatment – ABA services are directly tailored to the needs of the client, their preferences, and their goals.

• Pairing activities – This involves the behaviour therapist and your child doing something to together that your child enjoys. This helps your child make positive associations with their therapist and helps motivate your child to participate and be excited to come to sessions.

• Running programs – This term refers to the specific methods for working on treatment goals. Your child’s therapist will work on programs with your child to help them learn new skills.

There are a variety of approaches to providing ABA services and skill building. Two of the most common approaches are Discrete Trial Training (DTT) and Natural Environment Teaching (NET).

DTT is often taught at a table or desk. It’s a more formal and structured interaction where each opportunity to teach a skill has a discrete beginning and end. DTT is useful in providing many learning opportunities to practice new and developing skills. The use of positive reinforcement is a big part of DTT.

NET is an approach that uses situations that occur in everyday life to help learn new things. For example, it may look like your child is just playing with toys, or just having snack, however, your therapist has strategically set-up these activities to work on specific skills. Some examples could be skills such as requesting, asking for help, or imitation.

Both types of teaching are important, DTT helps develop new skills quickly and efficiently while NET allows your child to generalize those skills to new situations, people, and materials.

ABA services have been effective in teaching I wide range of skills across a variety of developmental domains. Some examples include communication, self-care and life skills, and social skills.

The outcome of your ABA services will depend on you and your child’s goals and needs.

ABA is effective for people of all ages. While therapy looks different in young children versus adolescents and adults, the principles remain the same. ABA can help adolescents or adults achieve goals that they want to work on. These might include: 

• Strategies for coping with waiting.

• Using public transportation.  

• Other skills to help them be more independent at home, in the community or at work.

The amount of service time is very dependent on the goals and needs of your child. These decisions will be made in collaboration with your treatment team. Focused goals such as learning a new life skill will require less session time, whereas more comprehensive treatment that focuses on several developmental domains will require more treatment time to see meaningful progress.

The first step is completing the intake process. This involves getting your basic information, your child’s preference and dislikes and your reasons for seeking services. At this point it’s helpful to provide any previous assessments, Individualized Education Plans (IEPs), or previous treatment outcomes. This information will be reviewed by the clinical team. Based on this information a meeting to discuss goals will be made. Once goals are chosen and a behaviour plan is developed the clinical team will start to collect more information to guide the treatment plan. Depending on the chosen goals this can include:

• Parent/Caregiver/educator interviews.

• Questionnaires.

• Observations.

• Functional behaviour assessment (FBA) or practical functional assessment (PFA).

• Skills assessments such as the VB-MAPP or PEAK.

Results of these assessments will be communicated with you and from these sources the treatment plan will be developed. This information gathering is helpful to shape programming and to serve as a benchmark to track your child’s progress towards their goals.