Here is some ABA terminology you may hear during your services with Behavior Roots. You can also review this glossary to learn more about applied behavior analysis!

Direct Assessment- When an individual is observing and taking data in-person (either live remotely, or in the direct setting)

Indirect Assessment- When an individual is observing and taking data through interviews, rating scales, and other forms of questionnaires

Medical variables- Any medical or biological concerns to the body that may be impacting a person’s behavior (i.e. urinary tract infection, sleep disorders, etc.)

Environmental variables- People, places, events, or circumstances that may impact a person’s behavior (i.e. bright lights, being cold, loud noise, etc.)

Preference Assessment- A way to observe what an individual or animal prefers (this could include objects, activities, people). Typically used to help motivate the individual during intervention

Motivation Operations (MO)- environmental variables that can increase or decrease the value of a person, place, object, or event (Example: if I am hungry, my MO may be very high when offered food. However, if I just had 2 large meals, my MO for food will be very low when offered food)

Satiated- This plays a part in MO’s. Satiated means they are fully satisfied and this may decrease the motivation to gain access to whatever item/event they have been satiated on. For example, if I just ate 10 donuts, I am satiated with donuts, therefore not likely to seek out anymore donuts.

Covert Behaviors- Behaviors that are “covered” and not observable, such as thoughts and feelings

Overt Behaviors- Behaviors that can be observed or seen on the outside such as physical actions, facial expressions, and sounds. For example, riding a bicycle, making a sad face, making a sigh)

Antecedent- what occurs prior to a behavior

Consequence- what occurs after a behavior

Negative Punishment- When a person, event, or object is taken away that causes the behavior to decrease in occurrence. For example, if you take away recess time, the child’s behavior of yelling may begin to stop.

Positive Punishment- When a person, event, or object is added, that causes the behavior to decrease in occurrence. For example, if you put the child in time out, and the child’s behavior of hitting may begin to stop.

*It is important to note that BCBA’s ethically use punishment only as a last resort. Studies show that reinforcement is more effective in obtaining desired behavior. Punishment procedures have many risks of emotional and mental side effects, and may only act as a temporary solution.

Negative Reinforcement- When a person, event, or object is taken away that causes the behavior to increase in occurrence. For example, putting sunscreen on takes away the likelihood you will get burned, therefore you will probably increase the use of wearing sunscreen,

Positive Reinforcement-When a person, event, or object is added that causes the behavior to increase in occurrence. For example, getting to buy a toy every time the child makes an A+ on their paper, may cause the child to work harder to get more A+’s and get more frequent A’s on their paper.

Primary Reinforcers- Reinforcers that are innately satisfying to our biological needs (i.e. food, warmth, oxygen, sex, etc)

Secondary Reinforcers- A person, place, or object that has been associated with a primary reinforcer (i.e. mom, money, a toy, a game, electronics)

Extinction burst- When an individual’s behavior (typically a challenging one) increase or becomes worse, before getting better. This is typically due to a person/event changing the way they respond to a previously learned response. *This can occur when we try to recondition old habits or changing the way we previously responded to a child

Extinction- Not providing attention/reward/satisfaction to a behavior anymore. This is a method of how individuals/situation may respond to another individual when we typically no longer want to reinforce that behavior anymore.

Behavior contrast- When a new response/intervention is implemented with one person, but not other people, the challenging or maladaptive behavior may stop with one person, but may increase with the other people. This typically is a result from an intervention not being applied with all people and all settings. For example, Abby would get the IPAD from both mom and dad whenever she cried. However, one day mom stopped giving the IPAD whenever Abby cried, but dad still did. Abby began crying more for the IPAD with only dad.

Rule governed behavior- When behaviors occur because of a spoken or unspoken rule. For example, every time I see a green light when driving, I press the gas pedal because I know that means “go”

Contingency shaped behavior- When behaviors occur because of an event that shapes my future behaviors. For example, getting a speeding ticket for speeding; Because I do not want to get a speeding ticket the next time, I drive the speed limit from now on

Respondent Behaviors- Behaviors that are reflexive and are controlled by the antecedent (what occurs before the behavior). For example, when I see the sun (antecedent), I blink (behavior)

Operant Behaviors- Behaviors that are functional and are controlled by the consequence (what occurs after the behavior). For example, the baby made a funny face (behavior) again because mommy laughed hysterically (consequence) from it

Contrived- When you plan ahead for the opportunity of a behavior to occur. For example, I may place a cup of water out of reach, in order to get my child to request “water” before giving access as an opportunity for them to practice using their words

Prompts- Instructions, gestures, demonstrations, touches, or other things that we may do to encourage a correct response or behavior. It is only considered a prompt if the individual responds.

Shaping- Providing reinforcement (such as verbal praise or edibles) for small approximations of behaviors in order to meet the bigger behavior goal. For example, if my goal if for a child to sit and attend during circle time, I may provide praise when they walk to the carpet, then another praise when they sit down, then another praise when they sit criss-cross, then another praise when they look at me, and so on.

Functional Communication Training (FCT)- this is a form of evidenced-based preventative intervention used to train and improve functional communication for individuals. Often times FCT is a great replacement behavior for reducing problem behaviors or relationship problems.

Frequency- counting; how often does someone do something or how often does something occur

Reactivity- when an individual may act differently during observation because they know they are being watched

Mentalism/Mentalistic- Explaining your own behavior or someone else’s behavior based on assumptions, inner thoughts or opinions. We typically want to avoid mentalism because this stems from the ego, and creates thoughts and labels that may not be true or factual. Examples of mentalistic terminology: “He has (insert label) ”, “She wants me to (insert action)”, “He is doing ___ because of _____”

Habituation- Someone or something that may become less responsive to an object/sight/sound because of repeated exposure. For example, the sound of the city noise may initially be loud or annoying, but after living in the city for 3 years you have gotten use to the city noise.

Stimulus (or stimuli for multiple)- Anything that one can experience with their 5 sense: see, touch, feel, or hear that affects an organism (human or animal)

SD (Discriminative Stimuli)- Changes in the environment that signal availability for reinforcement. For example: seeing a gas station sign (SD) so I can get gas (gas is the reinforcement because now my car is fueled!)

Discrete Trial Training (DTT)- This is a form of intervention teaching method that required repetitive responses. It breaks down responses into smaller components and teaches skills one by one in a structured environment (typically you will see this run at a table). This method is great if the learner responds well to repetition and/or memorization.

Natural Environment Training (NET)- This is another form of intervention teaching method that utilizes a person’s natural environment for learning opportunities. This method is motivation based, meaning the person teaching the skills continually gauges what the learners motivators are in order to learn. This teaching method is also great when you want to generalize the skills that are being taught, particularly on a day to day basis.