ABC data
(Antecedent-Behaviour-Consequence)
A data collection method that is carried out daily on the antecedents (environmental triggers), that evoke specific behaviours and the consequences that followed the behaviours. ABC data is taken as an ongoing in-situ analysis and is used to identify patterns in the behaviours, such as when, where, and why.
ABA Consultant
Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) who oversees and supports the work of individual ABA supervisors across ABA programmes providing training and supervision where required. The ABA consultant is responsible for ensuring that the ABA teaching practice within the school enables the pupils to achieve their full potential.
ABA Supervisor
A person who is the key leader within the ABA programme also can be a BCBA. They are responsible for the overall progress of their students/clients and for the design and implementation of behavioural programmes and procedures based on the principles of ABA and guided by assessments.
ABA Tutor/therapist
A person who works 1:1 with a student and is responsible for the day-to-day implementation of the students’ individualised curriculum and ABA programme.
Antecedent
A change in the environment that occurs before a behaviour
AFLS (Assessment of Functional Living Skills)
The Assessment of Functional Living Skills (AFLS) assessment provides 6 protocols to assess functional, practical, and essential skills of everyday life, these are: Basic Living Skills, Home Skills, Community Participation, School Skills, Vocational Skills, and Independent Living Skills. Self-management, communication, housekeeping and chores, cooking and social awareness are some of the modules within these AFLS Protocols. The AFLS is primarily used to develop objectives that increase an individual’s independence in the community.
ABLLS-R (Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills)
The ABLLS-R is ‘an assessment tool based on a criterion-referenced set of skills that can demonstrate a student’s current repertoire and provides for the tracking of its progressive development’ (Partington, James W. The Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills). The ABLLS-R contains a task analysis of many skills necessary to communicate successfully and learn from everyday experiences. It comprises four assessments which are carried out on the learner, these are: Basic Learner Skills, Academic Skills, Self-Help Skills and Motor Skills.
Behaviour
Anything an organism ‘does’
Actions performed by individuals (both observable and not observable – e.g., thinking is an action that is not seen.)
Consequence
A physical change in the environment that happens directly as a result of that specific behaviour occurring.
Chaining
Chaining refers to a method of teaching a sequence of individual responses or behaviours using a behaviour chain
Echoic/Mimetic
Copying back what somebody else says or does (sometimes called imitation)
Function
The reason behind why a particular behaviour may be present in a person’s repertoire. For example, why the person is using that behaviour and what for.
Generalisation
Is when a person applies something learned in a specific situation to other novel situations
Intraverbals
Answering questions in social exchanges, engaging in conversation, filling in words from songs and phrases.
ITT (Intensive Teaching Trials)
The first method (ITT) is fast paced, repetitive table-based instruction which aims to teach a variety of language skills in a highly structured setting.
Mand/Manding
A request for a desired item, activity, action, or piece of information. Can be communicated through talking, signing, pictures or other behaviours e.g., pointing, gesturing, pulling you towards something
NET (Natural Environment Teaching)
NET is more loosely structured and incorporates incidental teaching opportunities in activities the student enjoys, to generalise skills taught using the intensive method to a natural setting.
Pairing
The process of associating a person, items, or environments with positive experiences. Used to teach a child or young person with autism that interactions with people are valuable.
PECS (Picture Exchange Communication System)
An augmentative communication method that involves teaching individuals who are unable to communicate using vocalisations to exchange pictures in order to interact with others in their environment or ask for items or activities they desire or need.
Problem behaviour/ challenging behaviour
This refers to any behaviour that the learner displays which is targeted for reduction for example, shouting, kicking, hitting, biting etc and will be recorded on an ABC data sheet
Problem behaviours are behaviours that impede social interactions, communications and learning of a person and can cause hard to them, their families their peers and other adults.
Prompt
Prompts can be gestures, instructions, demonstrations that another person can provide which increases the likelihood that a person will make the correct response or behaviour. It is a specific form of support or assistance given by someone to the person learning the skill.
Reinforcement
The presentation or removal of an event following a response or behaviour that increases the likelihood of the response or behaviour occurring in the future
Shaping
Shaping is the use of reinforcement of successive approximations of a desired behaviour
Signer
A pupil whose primary method of communication is through the use of sign language. Communication for this learner within the school is taught through the use of sign language (Makaton).
Tact/Tacting
Labelling anything in the immediate environment. This could include items, actions, emotions, smells, or interactions.
Token economy
A conditioned reinforcement system whereby ‘tokens’ are used to reinforce a specified response. Once the specified number of tokens has been earned, they can be exchanged for a backup reinforcer.
VB-MAPP (Verbal Behaviour Milestones Assessment and Placement Program)
The VB-MAPP is an assessment based on B.F. Skinner’s book Verbal Behaviour (1957), an analysis in the study of language. There are five components to the VB-MAPP that are used to assess language and other skills, to determine appropriate educational placements, and to assist in developing goals and objectives. The first component is the Milestones Assessment, which is designed to provide a representative sample of the learner’s current verbal and related skills. The second component of the VB-MAPP is the Barrier’s Assessment, which provides an assessment of 24 common learning and language acquisition barriers that many children with autism and other developmental disabilities may confront. By identifying these barriers, specific instructional practices can be developed to help decrease these issues and lead to more effective learning.
Vocal
A pupil whose primary method of communication is through clearly pronounced vocal words. Communication for this learner within the school is taught using Echoics (see above).
Vocal Signer
A pupil whose primary method of communication is through a combination of word approximations (unclear forms of the adult word) and sign language. Communication for this learner within the school is taught using Echoics (see above) and sign language.