Key terms

251 terms in plain language.

Frequency: A count of each instance of the target behavior.
Rate: Count of behavior per unit of time, such as responses per minute.
Duration: Time spent engaged in a single instance of the target behavior.
Latency: Time from the onset of a stimulus to the onset of the response.
Inter-response time (IRT): The time between the end of one response and the beginning of the next.
Continuous measurement procedures: Recording each instance of the target behavior along the selected dimension, such as frequency, duration, and latency.
Discontinuous measurement procedures: Recording a sample of instances of the target behavior on a predetermined schedule: momentary time sampling, partial interval, and whole interval recording.
Momentary time sampling: Recording occurrence or non-occurrence of the behavior at a specific point in time, usually the end of each interval.
Partial interval recording: Recording the interval if the target behavior occurred at any point during that interval; tends to overestimate.
Whole interval recording: Recording the interval only if the target behavior occurred for its entire duration; tends to underestimate.
Permanent product recording: Recording performance of a skill based on observing a finished product rather than the performance itself.
Enter data and update graphs: Recording data according to the specific instructions for each program and updating the graph so it displays the most recent data collected.
Baseline: Objective, quantifiable data on pre-intervention performance of the target skill or behavior.
Baseline data: Data collected before any intervention is implemented, describing the level of the target behavior prior to intervention.
Why baseline data matters: Baseline shows the client's current skills so programming can be tailored: what intensity is needed, which skills to target, and how much progress is required.
Measurement procedures: The written description of what data will be collected and how it will be monitored.
Data system: The medium used to record data, such as paper and pencil, an electronic data system, or a shared cloud drive.
Means of collection: The materials needed to record data: data sheet and pen, a device with the required software, a tally counter, and similar tools.
Essential information: Information that must appear on every data record: date, client name, staff name, and program.
Prepare for data collection: Completing all steps needed before session so data can be recorded accurately, including sheets, recording tools, and required identifying information.
Interobserver agreement (IOA): The degree to which two independent observers record the same result; targets are often 80% or higher.
Assessment of effectiveness: Data review at regular intervals with an observation or conclusion about whether the intervention plan is working.
Conduct preference assessments: Running formal assessments to identify preferred items or activities, and informal preference checks throughout sessions to keep motivation high.
Multiple stimulus without replacement (MSWO): An array is presented, the client selects and engages with one item, and the array is re-presented without the selected item until all are chosen. The array runs 3-5 times and selection percentage gives a preference gradient.
Multiple stimulus with replacement (MSW): An array is presented and the selected item is returned each time, repeating for a set number of selection opportunities, with selection percentage calculated.
Paired choice (paired stimulus): Potential reinforcers are presented in pairs, each item paired with every other item, and selection percentage is calculated. Requires counterbalancing for positional bias.
Informal preference check: Presenting 2-3 items before a new task, or when motivation drops, so the client chooses what to work for.
Functional assessment procedures: Participating, as trained, in the elements of assessment used to determine the function of challenging behavior.
ABC data: Data recorded on the immediate antecedent and consequence for each observed instance of the target behavior.
Rating scale: A structured assessment form about possible functions of challenging behavior, completed by caregivers and others familiar with the client.
FAST: Functional Analysis Screening Tool: a 16-item assessment with yes/no/NA options about whether the behavior occurs under described circumstances.
MAS: Motivation Assessment Scale: a 16-item assessment using a 0-6 Likert scale for contexts in which the target behavior may or may not occur.
Function of behavior: The purpose the behavior serves for the person; the reinforcer that maintains it.
Access function: Social positive reinforcement: behavior maintained by gaining preferred items or activities.
Attention function: Social positive reinforcement: behavior maintained by attention delivered after it occurs.
Escape function: Social negative reinforcement: behavior maintained by removal or termination of an aversive stimulus.
Self-stimulation function: Automatic reinforcement: behavior maintained by the sensory input the behavior itself produces.
Behavior: Any muscular, glandular, or neuro-electrical activity; anything a person does, including covert behavior such as thinking.
Environment: The setting or context in which behavior occurs, including locations, stimuli, and people.
Antecedents: Setting conditions and events that occur before the target behavior.
Establishing operation (EO) / Motivating operation (MO): Conditions that momentarily change the value of a reinforcer and the likelihood of behaviors that have produced it.
Deprivation: Being without access to a reinforcer, which increases its value.
Satiation: Consuming a substantial amount of a reinforcer, temporarily decreasing its value.
Operational definition of the target behavior: An objective, observable definition detailed enough that multiple people can reliably score occurrence and non-occurrence.
Contingencies of reinforcement: Using the principle of reinforcement effectively, with appropriate frequency and magnitude, throughout structured and unstructured skill acquisition.
Reinforcement: Providing a reinforcer contingent on a behavior you want to increase.
Reinforcer: A stimulus that, delivered immediately after a response, increases the future frequency of that response.
Unconditioned reinforcer: A stimulus that requires no learning history to have reinforcing value.
Conditioned reinforcer: A stimulus that acquires reinforcing value through pairing with other reinforcers, such as praise or tokens.
Intermittent reinforcement: Only some instances of a behavior produce a reinforcer, which builds greater resistance to extinction.
Fixed ratio (FR): A reinforcer follows a fixed number of responses.
Variable ratio (VR): A reinforcer follows a variable, averaged number of responses.
Fixed interval (FI): A reinforcer is contingent on the first response after a fixed amount of time since the last opportunity for reinforcement.
Variable interval (VI): A reinforcer is contingent on the first response after a variable amount of time since the last opportunity for reinforcement.
Token economy: A system in which tokens earned for target behaviors are exchanged for backup reinforcers.
Discrete trial teaching (DTT): A structured arrangement in which a task is presented as an instruction (SD), paired with a prompt as needed, followed by a response and a consequence, then a planned inter-trial interval.
Mass trials: Trials of the same task or program presented repeatedly for a set number of trials.
Mixed trials: Trials from various tasks or programs presented in random order for a set number of trials or amount of time.
Discriminative stimulus (SD): A stimulus in the presence of which a particular response will be reinforced; often used as another word for the instruction.
S-delta: A stimulus in the presence of which a response has not been reinforced, so it is less likely to occur.
Error correction: A planned staff response following client errors so the SD becomes reliably paired with correct responding.
Prompt: An additional stimulus paired with the SD that brings about correct responding. If it does not evoke correct responding, it is not a prompt.
Prompt and prompt fading procedures: Introducing extra stimuli to ensure correct performance and systematically removing them as independence increases.
Prompt hierarchy: Any system of prompts arranged along a gradient, used to systematically deliver and remove prompts.
Most-to-least prompting (MtL): Beginning with the most intrusive prompt needed for correct responding and fading as success is observed.
Least-to-most prompting (LtM): Beginning with the least intrusive prompt and increasing intrusiveness only as errors occur.
Prompt dependence: Responding only when a prompt is present, usually caused by insufficient prompt fading.
Stimulus fading procedures: Systematically fading additional stimuli used to teach a skill so control transfers to the natural target stimuli.
Stimulus control: When a response occurs more frequently in the presence of one stimulus than another.
Stimulus control transfer: Procedures that move control of responding from a prompt to the natural SD.
Transfer of control: Performance established at one time and place now occurring at a different time and place.
Discrimination training: Reinforcing a response in the presence of one stimulus (SD) and withholding reinforcement in the presence of another (S-delta).
Naturalistic teaching procedures: Intentionally arranging teaching so it is implemented in the natural context for the skill being targeted.
Natural environment teaching (NET): The planned use of behavioral strategies in the client's everyday environment.
Incidental teaching: Implementing behavioral strategies in the everyday environment as opportunities naturally arise.
Chaining: Teaching a sequence of responses so that completing one response serves as the SD for the next.
Task analysis: A set of successive component steps, in small teachable units, that make up a complex behavior.
Forward chaining: Training the first step to fluency while prompting all later steps, then adding steps as each reaches fluency.
Backward chaining: Training the last step to fluency while prompting all preceding steps, then working backward.
Total task presentation: Training all steps of the chain in the same session, with prompting as needed on any step.
Shaping: Differentially reinforcing successive approximations toward a terminal behavior.
Generalization: Performing a skill trained in one context in additional contexts that share similar stimuli.
Maintenance: Continued performance of a previously trained skill in the absence of programmed contingencies.
Programming for maintenance: Planning intermittent reinforcement and occasional post-mastery probes outside formal programming.
Programming for generalization: Planning multiple exemplars during training or moving the skill into natural environments after initial training.
Pairing: Associating yourself and the setting with reinforcers to build rapport and instructional control.
Mand: A verbal operant that requests something the speaker currently wants.
Echoic: A verbal operant in which the learner repeats what another speaker said.
Skill acquisition plan: The full context a program fits into, including plans for collecting baseline and monitoring effectiveness.
Program / protocol: The specific teaching components used to target a skill within the skill acquisition plan.
Specific goal: An objective, measurable goal that addresses a specific skill deficit.
Protocol purpose and rationale: A description of what the program teaches and why that skill matters in the client's life now or long-term.
Relevant SDs: What the RBT should say, do, or present to initiate the skill or set the occasion for spontaneous performance.
Description of target response: A clear description of what counts as correct performance so multiple observers score it consistently.
Step-by-step implementation process: The exact process the RBT follows to implement a program as written.
Error correction plan: What the RBT does after an error or challenging behavior, plus a definition of what counts as an error in that program.
Reinforcement plan: What reinforcers to use, on what schedule, and how reinforcement will be faded.
Data collection plan: What data is recorded, which system is used, and exactly what portion of the response is scored.
Modification plan: The system for changing the implementation protocol if the initial protocol is ineffective.
Behavior reduction: Procedures that change the environment to make appropriate behavior more likely and the target behavior less likely.
Behavior intervention plan: A written plan from the supervisor describing antecedent strategies, replacement skills, and consequence procedures.
Environmental enrichment: Altering the environment to increase access to reinforcers that were previously available only contingent on certain behaviors.
Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR): Delivering the functional reinforcer independent of behavior, usually on a time schedule.
Differential reinforcement: Delivering the functional reinforcer for appropriate behavior while withholding it for the target behavior.
DRA: Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior: reinforcing a specific replacement behavior while withholding reinforcement for the target behavior.
DRO: Differential reinforcement of other behavior: reinforcing any behavior other than the target behavior after a set period without it.
DRI: Differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior: reinforcing behavior that cannot occur at the same time as the target behavior.
Functional communication training (FCT): Teaching a communication response that produces the same reinforcer as the problem behavior.
Extinction: Discontinuing the reinforcer that maintained a behavior, resulting in a decrease in that behavior.
Attention extinction: No longer providing attention after a behavior that attention previously followed.
Escape extinction: No longer providing escape after a behavior that escape previously followed.
Extinction burst: A temporary increase in rate, intensity, or variability of behavior after extinction begins.
Spontaneous recovery: The reappearance of a previously extinguished behavior after a period without it.
Punishment: A consequence that decreases the future likelihood of the behavior it follows.
Negative reinforcement: Removing a stimulus after behavior, which increases future occurrences of that behavior.
Blocking: Using your body or environmental barriers to interrupt the opportunity for a behavior to occur, without restricting client movement.
Restraint: Physically restricting part or all of a person's movement; permitted only under specific written and legal requirements.
Crisis: A situation in which the client, a family member, or staff are at imminent risk of physical harm.
Crisis / emergency management procedures: Following the specified protocol for behaviors that are dangerous, require physical management, or are unusually intense.
Physical management interventions: Used only when written into the client's plan or when there is imminent danger, only by trained and certified staff, and documented in an incident report.
Operational definition of replacement behavior: An objective, observable definition of the appropriate alternative behavior, detailed enough for reliable scoring across observers.
Programmed response when target behavior occurs: Exactly what staff and caregivers should do following an occurrence of the challenging behavior.
Programmed response when target behavior ceases: Exactly what staff and caregivers should do once instances of the challenging behavior have stopped.
Programmed response when replacement behavior occurs: Exactly what staff and caregivers should do after the target replacement behavior occurs.
Plan for fading components: How and when each intervention component is faded, including the order of fading.
Plan for evaluating effectiveness: A target reduction rate set at the outset plus a system for graphing and reviewing progress data.
Objective session notes: Reporting what happened using objective language and observable behavior, without inferring intentions, emotions, or using mentalistic language.
NORM: A note-writing standard: Non-judgmental, Objective, Reliable, and Measurable.
Review notes: Reading session notes, your own and other staff members', to catch changes, updates, and current phases.
Review recent data: Checking recent data so you target the correct program phases and know where to set expectations for the day.
Review protocols: Reviewing the protocols in place at the start of each session so updates are not missed.
Prep materials: Gathering protocol materials, reinforcers, and data collection systems before the session starts.
Report other factors affecting the client: Reporting illness, relocation, medication changes, or earlier events through session notes or direct contact with the supervisor.
Communicating with stakeholders as authorized: Relaying session-specific information to family or caregivers, seeking information, and requesting changes to things interfering with sessions.
Answering questions from parents: Be honest and objective about sessions, defer programming and staffing questions to the BCBA, and never promise outcomes or use other clients as examples.
Respond appropriately to feedback: Listening to feedback, implementing it at the next opportunity, asking clarifying questions, and staying non-emotional.
Mandated reporter: A person legally required to report suspected abuse or neglect to designated authorities.
Incident report: Required documentation of crisis events, injuries, or use of physical management procedures.
Primary role of the RBT: Implement skill acquisition and behavior reduction programming designed and trained by the supervising BCBA/BCaBA, always under ongoing supervision, never designing programming or working independently.
Scope of practice: The tasks a credentialed person is authorized to perform; RBTs implement plans and collect data under supervision.
Supervision: Ongoing oversight by a BCBA or BCaBA, including observation of direct service and feedback on implementation.
Confidentiality: Ensuring client information, including the fact that someone is a client, is not shared outside the treatment team without written consent.
Multiple relationships: Any relationship with a client beyond providing services as an RBT. RBTs avoid these and work to resolve them if they arise.
Social media contact: Direct interaction with clients or families on social media creates a multiple relationship and risks breaching confidentiality.
Babysitting: A multiple relationship that blurs expectations for how session time is used and erodes therapeutic value.
Family parties: Social events that create a friendship-type multiple relationship and should be declined.
Socializing in public: RBTs do not initiate contact with clients seen in public, since the reason you know them is that they are clients.
Gifts: RBTs do not accept gifts from clients or their families.
Food from clients: RBTs do not accept food from clients, since it is a form of gift.
Socializing at sessions: Conversation with families stays client-focused; RBTs do not discuss their personal lives during sessions.
Maintain client dignity: Offering choices, using client preferences and age-appropriate interaction, matching same-age peer contexts, and minimizing audience during challenging behavior.
Treatment integrity: The degree to which a plan is implemented exactly as written.
Training of stakeholders: Providing support or direct training on plans to parents, siblings, teachers, and others, as authorized and trained.
Repeatability: A dimension of behavior describing that an instance of the response can be counted each time it occurs.
Temporal extent: A dimension of behavior describing that every instance occurs during some amount of time, which duration measures.
Temporal locus: A dimension of behavior describing that every instance occurs at a point in time relative to other events, which latency and IRT measure.
Celeration: The change, acceleration or deceleration, in the rate of a behavior over time.
Cumulative record: A graph on which each data point adds to the total of all previous points, so the line never decreases and its slope shows response rate.
Overall response rate: The average rate of responding calculated across an entire session or observation period.
Local response rate: The rate of responding during a smaller segment of a session, which can differ from the overall rate.
Ordinate: The vertical (y) axis of a graph, which represents the dimension of behavior being measured.
Abscissa: The horizontal (x) axis of a graph, which typically represents the passage of time or sessions.
Condition change line: A vertical line drawn on a graph to mark the point where one condition or phase ends and another begins.
Condition label: Text placed above a graphed phase identifying the condition in effect, such as baseline or intervention.
Figure caption: A brief written description below a graph that explains what the graph displays.
Data path: The line connecting successive data points within the same condition on a graph.
Data point: A single plotted value representing the measured dimension of behavior for one session or observation.
Visual analysis: Systematically examining graphed data for level, trend, and variability to judge whether a behavior is changing.
Trend: The overall direction, increasing, decreasing, or flat, that data points take across a condition.
Level: The relative magnitude of the data, often described by the average value of data points within a condition.
Variability: The extent to which data points fluctuate around the trend or level within a condition.
Procedural fidelity: The extent to which a procedure is implemented exactly as it was designed and trained.
Respondent behavior: Behavior elicited automatically by an antecedent stimulus, such as reflexes, independent of its consequences.
Operant behavior: Behavior that is selected and maintained by its consequences in the environment.
Response class: A group of responses, which may look different from one another, that all produce the same effect on the environment.
Stimulus: Any event or object in the environment that can be detected and can affect behavior.
Mentalistic language: Describing behavior in terms of unobservable internal states, such as motives or feelings, rather than objective, observable terms.
Free operant observation: A preference assessment format in which the client freely accesses multiple items in an unrestricted environment while an observer records engagement time.
Single stimulus preference assessment: Presenting one item at a time and recording approach or engagement versus no response, useful for clients with limited assessment repertoires.
Indirect assessment: Gathering information about the function of behavior through interviews, rating scales, or checklists rather than direct observation.
Descriptive assessment: Directly observing and recording behavior along with its natural antecedents and consequences, such as ABC data, without manipulating variables.
Functional analysis: A systematic assessment that manipulates antecedents and consequences across conditions to experimentally identify the function of behavior.
Test condition: A functional analysis condition in which the suspected maintaining consequence is delivered contingent on the target behavior.
Control condition: A functional analysis condition, such as play, in which reinforcement is freely available and the target behavior is not expected to occur.
Attention condition: A functional analysis condition in which attention is delivered contingent on the target behavior to test for an attention function.
Demand condition: A functional analysis condition in which instructions are presented and escape is provided contingent on the target behavior to test for an escape function.
Alone condition: A functional analysis condition with no attention, items, or demands present, used to test for an automatic function.
Motivating operation: An antecedent event that alters the reinforcing value of a stimulus and the current likelihood of behavior related to that stimulus.
Establishing operation: A motivating operation that increases the reinforcing value of a stimulus and evokes behavior that has produced it.
Abolishing operation: A motivating operation that decreases the reinforcing value of a stimulus and reduces behavior that has produced it.
Generalized reinforcer: A conditioned reinforcer, such as tokens or money, paired with many other reinforcers so its value does not depend on momentary deprivation.
Stimulus-stimulus pairing: Repeatedly presenting a neutral stimulus alongside an established reinforcer so the neutral stimulus takes on reinforcing value.
Continuous schedule of reinforcement: A schedule in which every occurrence of the target response is reinforced, useful for teaching new skills.
Schedule thinning: Gradually moving from a continuous schedule to an intermittent schedule as a skill is acquired.
Inter-trial interval: The brief pause between the end of one discrete trial and the presentation of the next.
Errorless learning: A teaching approach that uses prompts to prevent errors from occurring during acquisition of a new skill.
Time delay: A prompting procedure in which the amount of time between the SD and the prompt is systematically increased so the learner responds before the prompt.
Graduated guidance: A physical prompting procedure in which the amount of physical assistance is adjusted moment to moment based on the learner's performance.
Successive approximations: Responses that are progressively more similar to a terminal target behavior and are differentially reinforced during shaping.
Stimulus generalization: A learned response occurs in the presence of stimuli that are similar to, but not identical to, the training stimulus.
Response generalization: Untrained variations of a response occur that still produce the same reinforcing outcome.
Setting/situation generalization: A trained skill occurs across different locations, people, or materials beyond the original training context.
Backup reinforcer: The tangible item or activity that a token can be exchanged for within a token economy.
Fading: Gradually and systematically removing a prompt or altered stimulus while maintaining correct responding.
Instructive feedback: Presenting extra, non-targeted information during an established learning trial without requiring a response to it.
Antecedent interventions: Strategies that change events before behavior occurs to make challenging behavior less likely and appropriate behavior more likely.
Demand fading: Gradually reintroducing or increasing task demands after they have been reduced, to build tolerance while minimizing escape-motivated behavior.
High-probability request sequence: Presenting several easy requests the learner reliably follows immediately before a lower-probability request, to build compliance momentum.
DRL: Differential reinforcement of low rates of behavior: reinforcement is delivered when behavior occurs at or below a specified low rate.
Resurgence: The reappearance of a previously extinguished or reduced behavior when a more recently reinforced alternative behavior is placed on extinction.
Response cost: A punishment procedure in which a specified amount of a reinforcer, such as tokens, is removed contingent on the target behavior.
Nonexclusionary time-out: A time-out procedure in which the client remains in the instructional setting but access to reinforcement is briefly removed.
Exclusionary time-out: A time-out procedure in which the client is removed from the instructional setting but not from the general area, and cannot observe ongoing activity.
Seclusionary time-out: A time-out procedure in which the client is placed alone in a separate, locked or restricted space away from others.
Crisis plan: A written protocol specifying exactly how staff should respond to dangerous behavior to keep everyone safe.
Chain of command: The defined order of people to contact during a crisis or emergency, ensuring a clear line of communication and decision-making.
Session note components: The required elements of a session note, including date, time, location, people present, activities, data summary, and any notable events.
Timely documentation: Completing session notes and data entry as close to the session as possible so details are accurate and complete.
Accurate reporting: Documenting exactly what was observed, including successes and difficulties, without omission or exaggeration.
Cultural humility: An ongoing process of self-reflection and openness to a client's cultural background, values, and preferences when providing services.
Behavioral skills training (BST): A teaching method for staff or caregivers that combines instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback to build a new skill.
Instruction (BST): The BST component in which the trainer explains the skill, its rationale, and when it should be used.
Modeling (BST): The BST component in which the trainer demonstrates the correct performance of the target skill.
Rehearsal (BST): The BST component in which the trainee practices the target skill, often through role-play.
Feedback (BST): The BST component in which the trainer provides specific praise and corrective information after the trainee's rehearsal.
Receiving gifts guidelines: RBTs decline gifts from clients and families and refer questions about exceptions to the supervisor to protect the therapeutic relationship.
Professional boundaries: Limits that keep the RBT-client relationship focused on service delivery and prevent it from becoming personal or dual in nature.
Informed consent: Permission obtained from a client or guardian, based on a clear understanding of the service, before treatment or assessment begins.
Integrity: Being honest and accurate in all professional conduct, including data collection, reporting, and representations of credentials.
Interobserver agreement calculation methods: Formulas such as total count, exact count-per-interval, or trial-by-trial agreement used to compute IOA depending on the measurement system.
Trial-by-trial IOA: An interobserver agreement method that compares two observers' scoring on each individual trial and divides agreements by total trials.
Split-middle line of progress: A trend line drawn through graphed data by splitting the data into halves and connecting the median points, used to summarize direction of change.
Phase change: The point at which one experimental condition ends and a new one begins, marked by a condition change line on a graph.
Preference hierarchy: The ranking of items or activities from most to least preferred, based on selection percentage during a preference assessment.
Contrived motivating operation: A motivating operation intentionally arranged by staff, such as briefly withholding an item, to evoke a target response during teaching.
Setting event: A broader contextual factor, such as illness or a change in routine, that influences the likelihood of behavior without directly preceding it.
Discriminated operant: A response that occurs at a higher rate in the presence of a particular antecedent stimulus because that stimulus has signaled reinforcement.
Conditional discrimination: Responding correctly to a stimulus only when a second, contextual stimulus is also present, requiring the learner to attend to both.
Tact: A verbal operant in which a speaker labels or describes an object, action, or event in the environment and is reinforced with generalized reinforcement.
Intraverbal: A verbal operant in which a speaker responds to another person's words with different words, such as answering a question.
Listener responding: Following verbal instructions or identifying items in response to another person's speech, without necessarily speaking oneself.
Fluency: Performing a skill both accurately and at a functional speed, indicating mastery beyond simple correct responding.
Mastery criterion: The predetermined level of accuracy and consistency, such as 80% correct across three consecutive sessions, that indicates a skill has been learned.
Extinction-induced aggression: An increase in aggressive behavior that can occur when a previously reinforced behavior is placed on extinction.
Functional communication response: An appropriate communicative behavior taught to replace challenging behavior because it produces the same reinforcer more efficiently.
Contingency: The relationship between a behavior and the consequence that reliably follows it.
Least restrictive alternative: The principle that intervention procedures should use the least intrusive and restrictive approach that is still effective.
Right to effective treatment: A client's right to services based on scientifically supported procedures that produce meaningful behavior change.
Termination of services: Ending the provision of ABA services, which the RBT does not decide but may be informed about and asked to support the transition.
Continuing education: Ongoing training activities RBTs complete to maintain certification and stay current in the field.
RBT Ethics Code adherence: Following the behavior analyst ethics code requirements that apply to RBTs, including honesty, competence, and client welfare.