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98LovittIntervention in School and Clinic Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2012

ISC47410.1177/10534512114245

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Current Topics in Review Andrea M. Babkie, Associate Editor

Intervention in School and Clinic 47(4) 252256 Hammill Institute on Disabilities 2012 Reprints and permission: http://www. sagepub.com/journalsPermissions.nav DOI: 10.1177/1053451211424598 http://isc.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com

Applied Behavior Analysis: A Method That Languished but Should Be Restored

Thomas C. Lovitt1

Keywords applied behavior analysis (ABA), children with disabilities, special education, teachers, instruction In a recent chat with a longtime colleague, we were discussing the many instructional approaches that had been arranged in special education, especially with learning disabilities. We noted several methods that had come and went, techniques that promoted various diets, those that focused on an assortment of exercises including eye movements, ones that changed or manipulated the colors or textures of symbols, and many others. We commented that it was interesting that although the field of learning disabilities has been a safe harbor for dozens of techniques, a number of others had been beached. It is regrettable that data rarely played a role in whether a technique was dispatched or retained. It seems like a technique simply stuck or didnt. We agreed that the demise of many of those techniques was a blessing but believed a few of them should have been retained. As for the latter, we mentioned applied behavior analysis (ABA). I told my colleague that although I did not have my finger on the pulse of all education since my retirement, I still read a few journals having to do with children in remedial situations, those classified as learning disabled, and children in general education classes, and only occasionally run across an article having to do with ABA. And the majority of those studies have to do with behavior problems, not many with academic subjects. And most of those procedures are carried out for only short periods of time. I mentioned also to my colleague that I have been involved for several years with two elementary schools and I would
1

University of Washington, Seattle, WA, USA

Corresponding Author: Thomas C. Lovitt, 14323 118th Ave. NE, Kirkland, WA 98034 (e-mail: [email protected]).

Lovitt have to search my memory to come up with instances in which ABA features were even obliquely apparent. She agreed, saying that in her area, few teachers of youngsters in general education or remedial education, or who have learning disabilities, relied even minimally on ABA. She went on to say that the context in which ABA comes up the most is with Lovasss program for children with autism (see www.lovass.com). That evening I did what all researchers do; I went to Google and typed in ABA. Sure enough, most of the references that appeared had to do with autism and Lovass. It is good that this ABA-type program is used with children with autism, especially if it is helpful, but it is unfortunate that features of ABA have not been more widely used. I then reviewed a few of my favorite ABA books and articles (e.g., Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968; Bijou & Baer, 1967; OLeary & OLeary, 1977; Ulrich, Stachnik, & Mabry, 1966) and identified seven components of ABA that should be seriously considered by teachers in regular and special education and by clinicians of all types in their efforts to develop and maintain behaviors of their clients. Five of the seven features of ABA that should be considered are more philosophical (i.e., direct measurement, contingency management, precise behavioral language, behavioral processes, and self-management) than technical (i.e., pinpointing behaviors and charting). Teachers would be far better off if they examined all seven aspects and did their best to implement them. But if they cannot bring themselves to carry out the technical characteristics of ABApinpointing and charting behaviors of their clients and making decisions from those datathey should at least develop a solid behavioral attitude by accepting the five philosophical features. What follows is a listing and discussion of those seven features. Many of the references in this section are rather old. I used classic references in most instances to show that this method has been around for some time.

253 is true for athletes and dozens of other professions (e.g., welders, bricklayers, carpenters). They are evaluated directly and naturally on their performance, not by some indirect test (Lovitt, 1986). This same directness should apply to academic and social behaviors.

Contingency Management
The primary, if not sole mission of teachers is to change academic and social behaviors of their pupils. In line with that responsibility, they must keep in mind that most behaviors do not just appear and then develop; certain circumstances, either planned or random, affect those actions. Teachers must, therefore, try to determine which events or circumstances are maintaining certain behaviors and which ones might alter other behaviors. They should be continually looking for events that if properly arranged could possibly change behaviors, preferably ones that are themselves valuable (Bijou, 1963).

Precise Behavioral Language

Lindsley (1964) offered an important message when he stressed the use of functional behavioral language when describing instructional components. He pointed out, for example, the difference between saying something is a reinforcer and when it is merely a consequential event (i.e., something that follows a behavior). We should keep in mind that if a behavior consistently increases, presumably because it was followed by a consequential event, we would refer to that event as a reinforcer. Lindsley was just as insistent that the other components of the equation be renamed as a matter of their function; that is, an antecedent event becomes a stimulus, a movement a response, and an arrangement a contingency.

Direct Measurement
In the context of instruction, assessment is very important, just as important as teaching. It is necessary to know how effective ones teaching is. Unfortunately, when most teachers consider assessment they think of standardized tests. And little wonder, there is at least one, sometimes dozens of them for about any behavior. Moreover, they are generally easy to administer and score, and they facilitate rather straightforward comparisons across youngsters. Regrettably, many of these standardized tests generally provide unnatural and indirect measures of most skills. Interestingly, there are a number of behaviors for which standardized tests are not given. A trumpet players performance, for example, is continually evaluated by listening as she or he actually performs. There is no trumpet achievement test. Indeed, such a test would be quite silly. The same

Behavioral Processes
Teachers would do well to examine the behavioral techniques that have been identified and researched by applied behavior analysts and understand that these techniques are granted their names only when their function has been demonstrated, that is, when the frequency of a behavior either increased or decreased as it was supposed to (Lovitt, 2007). There are several of these techniques: extinction, punishment, satiation, positive and negative reinforcement, response cost, overcorrection, and time out.

Self-Management or Self-Control
Since the early 1960s, ABA researchers have carried out dozens of investigations having to do with self-management (OLeary & Dubey, 1979). In those studies, children were allowed to self-count, self-chart, self-select contingencies and

254 consequences, and decide on other aspects of their instruction. Ordinarily, in those studies, data were acquired in certain phases when pupils chose one or more of those components and in other phases when an instructor selected them. Several of those studies revealed that when children selected various instructional components their academic or social performances were enhanced, and at the same time they assumed certain responsibilities for their instruction. Some nonbehavioral folks relabeled self-management as self-determination, believing, perhaps, that it was a more acceptable label (e.g., Field, 1996). By so doing, those researchers ignored the discoveries from the former group and, of course, failed to build on them. For example, that there are dozens of instructional components that, when assumed by individuals, influence their performances in a desired direction, either up or down.

Intervention in School and Clinic 47(4) are often so busy trying to teach new stuff in new ways that they do not remind themselves of the important and fundamental aspects of instruction. Posters that list and briefly describe the seven ABA features should be plastered all over the classrooms. Teachers and their students should read and discuss the reminders from time to time. Beyond simply reminding themselves about the seven features, teachers should deliberately consider each of them in pertinent contexts of instruction. 1. Direct measurement. Instead of testing a lads oral reading ability by administering the Gray Oral Reading Test, or some such instrument, have him read orally from one of his instructional books, and keep data on fluency and comprehension. 2. Contingency management. When thinking about which intervention to arrange to change a certain behavior, for example, being impolite (of course, that would need to be defined), consider which behaviors or circumstances are possibly maintaining those behaviors and which ones might promote being polite (again, that would need to be defined). 3. Precise behavioral language. Go ahead and use terms such as stimulus, response, and reinforcer; they have been bandied about for years. Just treat them with the respect they deserve: Their function must be determined with data. 4. Behavioral processes. When exploring which intervention to put in place to change the frequency of a behavior, do not overlook those processes mentioned earlier that have been identified by applied behavior analysts. As is true of the terms noted in the previous section, what practice to use with a student should be functionally determined. One of them, time out, is used by hundreds of parents in efforts to manage their children, but its effects are rarely functionally determined. 5. Self-management or self-control. When planning to instruct pupils to be more independent, to take on more responsibility for their education, teach them to handle certain instructional components such as pinpointing and charting their own behaviors, arranging their own contingencies, selecting their own reinforcers, and other aspects. 6. Pinpointing behaviors. One example of the importance of precisely pinpointing behaviors is when medications are used for children who allegedly have a condition such as attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Behaviors should be clearly stated, defined, measured, and reported to the family instead of simply saying that a child is not doing well when he or she is on or off meds.

Pinpointing Behaviors
It is important for teachers and clinicians to precisely identify and describe the behaviors of clients they intend to change, to either increase or decrease. Indeed, it is an art form to accurately pinpoint behaviors that should be dealt with. As for teaching reading, for example, a teacher could say that she will focus her attention on a youngsters reading comprehension. From there, she could declare that her concern is his ability to read a chapter in a Harry Potter book and identify the four most important points. She could be even more specific and describe how detailed those responses should be, and so on. But the teachers chances of improving the lads skills, one step at a time, will be greatly increased the more specific her instructional focus is (Haughton, 1971).

Charting
Once important behaviors have been precisely defined, they should be monitored and charted. There are a number of options when it comes to charting data (e.g., frequency, intensity, time, ratio or percentage, duration or latency), although rate-per-minute is a favored method for many. For most behaviors, several days data should be gathered and charted, that is, until the direction of the data has been revealed. A related and subsequent step to charting data is to make decisions from that information, decisions about placement and instructional techniques, among other educational matters (White & Haring, 1980).

What Teachers Should Do

What should teachers do to increase the chances they will use some of the attributes just noted? For openers, they should remind themselves occasionally to consider those features. Generally, teachers do not do enough of that. They

Lovitt 7. Charting data. When you are about to make an instructional decision, consider whether you have acquired appropriate data. If you have collected data for enough days so that a pattern is revealed (either up, down, or flat), go ahead with the decision. If you do not have data regarding the instructional trend, gather some.

255 consequences for this. My colleague mentioned that when folks referred to their work as self-management or selfcontrol they were involved with recording, assessment, selecting contingencies and consequences, and instruction. Then, in her opinion, when researchers used the term selfdetermination, their topics were fluffier. They were concerned with actualization, assertiveness, creativity, pride, and self-advocacy. Being rather caustic, she stated that it was too bad that time out had not undergone a name change because that procedure is so often misused. She mentioned that teachers and parents, before they set out to use this procedure, should read the excellent article by Mike Nelson (1997) in which he lays out the proper steps for carrying out this sophisticated procedure. Actually, his steps may be a bit overly complex, for even Super Nannys use would not pass muster, but it is not a procedure that should just be picked up and casually used. She then wished me luck in coming up with a final copy. Declaration of Conflicting Interest
The author(s) declared no conflicts of interest with respect to the authorship and/or publication of this article.

Conclusion
When I had written a pretty good draft, I sent it to my colleague. I thought that she would reply immediately because she was so jazzed when we talked about the near demise of ABA a few weeks earlier. After a week or so, when she hadnt replied, I began having second thoughts about the piece, and considered that she might view it as another of my silly esoteric exercises. Finally, she got back to me. Boy, you talk about red ink! I hadnt intended for her to edit it; I simply wanted her to tell me that it was a great piece of writing that had captured our discussion. She spotted a couple of punctuation blips and a few grammatical errors, offered a number of organizational suggestions, and made dozens of comments. She wanted me to phone her to discuss a couple of other matters. The next day I called and thanked her for her detailed work. I then thought I would preempt a criticism I believed she would bring up. I told her that I had given more thought to the features of ABA that had to do with functional analysis, especially those inspired by Og Lindsley. I told her that they might be a tad abstruse and could detract from the importance of the other features. After this apologetic spiel I waited a few seconds for her reply, thinking she would agree that that material should be cut, or at least heavily edited. To my surprise, she said that it was very important to mention the functional analysis features, noting that the Individuals With Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA) calls for a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) in certain cases. On that topic, she mentioned the excellent book of John Umbreit and his friends (Umbreit, Ferro, Liaupsin, & Lane, 2007) that explained in detail the process and importance of FBA. With some relief, I agreed that it should be included. I then waited for her next comment. She said that it would be important to include selfmanagement or self-control as one of the ABA features that teachers should consider. I told her that I had given that line of research considerable thought initially but decided not to include it, thinking it was not theoretical enough to fit with the other components. I had no problem, however, in agreeing that it should be considered as an important ABA feature. Commenting on self-management or self-control, she reminded me that some researchers had changed the label to self-determination. We discussed the possible reasons and

Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the research and/ or authorship of this article.

References
Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1968). Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1(1), 9197. Bijou, S. W. (1963). Theory and research in mental (developmental) retardation. The Psychological Record, 13, 95110. Bijou, S. W., & Baer, D. M. (1967). Child development: Readings in experimental analysis. New York, NY: Appleton-CenturyCrofts. Field, S. (1996). Self-determination instructional strategies for youth with learning disabilities. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 29(1), 4052. Haughton, E. (1971). Great gains from small starts. Teaching Exceptional Children, 3(3), 141146. Lindsley, O. R. (1964). Direct measurement and prosthesis of retarded behavior. Journal of Education, 147, 6281. Lovitt, T. (1986). Oh! that this too too solid flesh would melt . . . the erosion of standardized tests. The Pointer, 30, 5557. Lovitt, T. C. (2007). Promoting school success (3rd ed.). Austin, TX: Pro-Ed. Nelson, C. M. (1997). Effective use of timeout. Available from the Behavior Home Page for the Kentucky Department of Education: http://www.state.ky.us/agencies/behave/homepage .html

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OLeary, S. G., & Dubey, D. R. (1979). Applications of selfcontrol procedures by children: A review. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 12(3), 449465. OLeary, K. D., & OLeary, S. G. (1977). Classroom management: The successful use of behavior modification (2nd ed.). New York, NY: Pergamon. Ulrich, R., Stachnik, T., & Mabry, J. (1966). Control of human behavior. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman. Umbreit, J., Ferro, J. B., Liaupsin, C. J., & Lane, K. Y. (2007). Functional behavioral assessment and function-based intervention:

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An effective, practical approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Merrill/Prentice Hall. White, O. R., & Haring, N. G. (1980). Exceptional teaching (2nd ed.). Columbus, OH: Charles E. Merrill.

About the Author

Thomas C. Lovitt, ED, is a professor emeritus in special education at the University of Washington. His current interest is with children in the dependency process.