Association for Behavior Analysis International

More than five decades of research have documented the effectiveness of applied behavior analytic (ABA) treatment for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The ABA service delivery industry has proliferated accordingly and various models of ABA treatment have been largely influenced by the research and practice sites where they originated. As clinical practices have spread, many traditional practices that have been components of larger models have maintained, regardless of whether research has shown those individual components to be crucial. This symposium brings together two presentations that reevaluate traditional practices and discuss directions for future research and practice. The first presentation, by Lisa Stoddard, discusses the concept of purpose-driven understanding at the level of the direct implementer ABA therapist. The second presentation, by Erin Herbe, is a program evaluation of the effects of transitioning from all-trials data collection to first trial data collection in a multiple baseline across three children with autism. The symposium concludes with a discussion by Dr. Amanda Adams.

Board certified behavior analysts working with children with autism and interested in staff training and data collection issues

Procedural integrity has been emphasized as a critical piece of applied behavior analysis (ABA) service delivery and research, since the beginnings of our field. Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968) emphasized the importance of ABA procedures being described with technological precision, so that they can be replicated by others. Accordingly, the need for consistency is almost universally emphasized when training entry-level ABA therapists. A common practice across service delivery agencies has been to train entry-level ABA therapists to implement treatment protocols with a high degree of precision but training entry-level therapists on the overall purpose of individual programs may be less common. This presentation will revisit this common practice and discuss potential strengths and limitations. A behavioral conceptual analysis will be made in terms of therapist attending behavior and what various training practices may inadvertently result in (e.g., therapists paying more attention to data collection than to the teaching interaction, etc.). Potential directions for research and practice will be discussed.