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 Explainer

Everything parents, caregivers and professionals need to know about behaviour therapy explained in plain language

Behaviour therapy is full of complicated, clinical language, acronyms and short forms. If you’ve just started your journey with a child, family member or someone you care for understanding it all can be very confusing. Below you can find a comprehensive list of acronyms and terms often used in behaviour therapy with brief easy to understand explanations. Bookmark this page so you can refer to if when you need and feel free to share it with anyone who can benefit.

 

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

 A

What is ABA?

What is Applied Behaviour Analysis?

ABA stands for Applied Behaviour Analysis. Applied behaviour analysis is a scientific approach to understanding behaviour. ABA refers to a set of principles that focus on how behaviours change or are affected by the environment*, as well as how learning takes place. The term behaviour refers to the skills and actions needed to talk, play, and live.

Behaviour therapists use applied behaviour analysis to teach individuals with autism spectrum disorder or intellectual disabilities to learn new skills to to change behaviours that create negative outcomes into desired behaviours that create more positive outcomes for them and their community.

*Environments can be a place or context like at home with family or school with classmates, the grocery store with their staff and other customers, the park with friends even online.

 

What DOES ADL MEAN?

What are activities of daily living?

ADL stands for Activities of Daily Living. Activities of daily living are just that, all the things we normally do in daily living including any daily activity we perform for self-care such as feeding ourselves, bathing, dressing, grooming, work, homemaking, and leisure.

Sometimes individuals with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disabilities need help to learn these basic essential skills The principles of applied behaviour analysis (ABA) can be used to teach these skills and reinforce them as new behaviours for those individuals.

 

What IS an antecedent intervention?

An antecedent intervention is a strategy that is implemented before the behaviour occurs to minimize or prevent the behaviour from occurring.

A good example would be instead of asking a child to do a long homework assignment split it up into shorter tasks that can be completed faster. This increases the likelihood the child will remain focused on each task.

Here are some ways you can use an antecedent intervention through providing:

  • Choice

  • Prompting

  • Priming

  • High-probability sequence

  • Noncontingent reinforcement

  • Time delay

  • Contriving motivating operations

What is asd?

What is autism spectrum disorder?

ASD stands for autism spectrum disorder. Autism spectrum disorder is a developmental disorder of variable severity that is characterized by difficulties in social interaction and communication and by restricted or repetitive patterns of thought and behaviour.

 

 B

What is a BCBA?

What is a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst?

BCBA stands for Board Certified Behaviour Analyst. A BCBA is a graduate level of certification in behaviour analysis. Professionals certified at the BCBA level are independent practitioners who provide behaviour analysis services.

BCBAs receive their credentials from the Behaviour Analyst Certification Board (BACB) by completing a degree in a related field of study, work experience in the field of applied behaviour analysis (ABA) under the supervision of a qualified BCBA and the completion of a certification exam.

In order to maintain certification BCBAs must complete continuing education and submit a recertification application every two (2) years.

At Lake Ridge Community Support Services in addition to working with clients BCBAs provide clinical supervision of every client’s team of behaviour therapists. We have high number of certified BCBAs on our staff and we constantly have staff members working towards their BCBAs.

There are three (3) levels of BCBAs:

  1. BCaBA - Bachelors or undergraduate level

  2. BCBA - Master’s level or graduate

  3. BCBA-D - Doctoral level (highest)

17

The number of BCBA’s Lake Ridge Community Support Services has on staff.

(Jan-2020)

What is a Behaviour Technician?

A Behaviour Technician is a is a paraprofessional* who is primarily responsible for the direct implementation of behaviour therapy services. They would work directly with individuals to implement their specific behaviour plan.

*A paraprofessional is someone who’s trained to assist a licenses professional but who is not licensed themselves.

What is BST?

What is A Behaviour skills training?

BST stands for Behaviour Skills Training. A behaviour skills training model is a training package that utilizes instructions, modelling, rehearsal, and feedback in order to teach a new skill.

What is a Behaviour COnsultant?

A Behaviour Consultant is someone who provides behaviour consultation to those with behavioural and emotional challenges such as autism spectrum disorder. They work wherever their clients need them. Be that in their client’s home or in centres implementing Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) intervention strategies that are often developed by a team of specialists.

 C

 D

What the dcDsb?

What is the durham catholic district school board?

DCDSB stands for Durham Catholic District School Board. The Durham Catholic District School Board is a publicly funded Catholic school board located in Durham Region, east of Toronto, Ontario.

Like the public school board the DCDSB offers specific resources for children and youth with special needs in their school board.

For more information click here for DCDSB Autism Resource Team.

What is the ddsb?

What is the durham district school board?

DDSB stands for Durham District School Board. The Durham District School Board is a publicly funded school board located in Durham Region, east of Toronto, Ontario.

The DDSB provides a number of resources for children and youth with autism spectrum disorder and intellectual disabilities through the Inclusive Student Services division.

What IS DTT?

What is Discrete trial teaching?

Discrete trial teaching (DTT) is a form of teaching that gives a child an opportunity to perform a skill, after being given instruction, with help from a therapist. After the child does the skill, they may be given praise (e.g., “great job!”), a favourite item, or something they view as valuable. Giving the child praise or their favourite item after they have done a skill may make the child more likely to do that skill more often going forward. Help from the therapist is slowly removed over time so that the child can do the skill on their own. Examples of skills that can be taught using DTT are:

  • Toileting 

  • Morning, Bedtime, or School Routines

  • Following Instructions 

  • Responding to Others 

  • Playing Appropriately

What is a developmental domain?

Developmental domains refer to specific areas of growth in your child’s development. These areas can be broken down into: social-emotional (understanding and control of their emotions), physical (growing taller, stronger, etc.), language (their ability to communicate verbally and non-verbally) and cognitive (understanding of the world around them, as well as their creativity).

What is the DSO?

What is developmental services ontario?

DSO stands for Developmental Services Ontario. The DSO is an access point to ministry-funded adult developmental services. The DSO helps connect individuals and their families to ministry-funded services in their community.

For example adults with intellectual disabilities (ID) or autism spectrum disorder (ASD) wishing to get services through Lake Ridge Community Support Services or join one of our Adult Social Skills Group Programs would do so by obtaining a referral through the DSO.

For more information or to contact the DSO visit https://www.dsontario.ca/ or call 1-855-277-2121.

 E

WhaT IS EDI?

What is an early development instrument?

EDI stands for Early Development Instrument. EDI is a tool the government uses to assess children’s developmental health and well-being prior to Grade 1.

The EDI is a questionnaire that teachers complete about the skills and abilities of each of their Year 2 (senior) kindergarten students. It measures developmental health and well-being across five developmental domains:

  1. Physical health and well-being

  2. Social competence

  3. Emotional maturity

  4. Language and cognitive development

  5. Communication skills and general knowledge

The EDI is used as a population measure (i.e., a measure of whole populations based on geographical or administrative boundaries) by the ministry, municipalities, school boards, and community organizations to inform decision-making and plan early years programs and services. The ministry uses the EDI as a key indicator to monitor the state of young children in Ontario.

EDI results can be compared over time to get a sense of how young children’s developmental health and well-being is changing in Ontario. Examining the percentage of vulnerable children by domain is a way of monitoring areas where children’s level of difficulty in meeting age appropriate developmental expectations may change over time. The results can also be combined to look at all those who are vulnerable in one or more of the five domains. Combining domains in this way provides a fuller picture and captures those children who may be vulnerable in single domains or in multiple domains.

 F

 G

WHAT DOES it mean to “generalize” a skill?

What is generalization?

Generalization is the ability of an individual to perform a skill of set of skills under different conditions.

 H

 I

What ARE IADLs?

What are instrumental activities of daily living?

IADL stands for Instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs). IADLs are things you do every day to take care of yourself and your home. Things like like making a meal or going to a birthday party.

While activities of daily living (ADLs) are basic self-care tasks like bathing, IADLs require more complex planning and thinking.

We often associate IADLs with elderly people becoming more dependent on others for help but these same tasks which or core to our independence are often discussed when assessing the skills of someone on the autism spectrum or with an intellectual disability along with skills needed for regular ADLs.

 J

What ARE Joint Attention Skills?

Joint attention is the ability to respond to a bid for your attention and to bid for another person’s attention in order to share the enjoyment of an object/activity with each other. Joint attention is crucial to building communication with others. Without it, social interactions do not happen.

Example: A parent and child are playing together. The parent looks at and points to a toy car and says “look at that car!” The child responds by following the parent’s gaze and point, and so looks at the car. At about 12 to 14 months of age, the child will start to check back with the parent, alternating his/her gaze between the car and the parent, confirming that they are both still attending to the car.

Joint attention skills are the skills that help make this possible. These are skills like:

  • Showing interest in others

  • Orienting and attending to a social partner (that is, the person you are interacting with)

  • Shifting of gaze between people and objects.

  • Sharing emotional states with another person

  • Following the gaze and point of another person

 K

 L

 M

 N

What is natural environment teaching (NET)?

Natural Environment Teaching (NET) is when teaching takes place in an individual's natural settings. Therapy can occur anywhere from in the home to in a public setting. This allows individuals receiving therapy to learn skills in one environment and generalize them to other environments.

 O

What is the OAP?

OAP stands for Ontario Autism Program. The OAP is a program run by the Ontario Ministry of Children, Community and Social Services to provide funding and supports to families with children and youth who have been diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) by a qualified professional. These families are eligible for the Ontario Autism Program (OAP) and their children can receive services and supports until the age of 18.

Learn More about the OAP including how to register your child on the Ontario.ca website.

 P

What is PECS?

PECS stands for Picture Exchange Communication System. PECS allows people with little or no communication abilities to communicate using pictures. For example someone who uses PECS may approach someone and present a picture of an item they want instead of asking for that item through speech.

What is Priming?

Priming is another word for providing a warning and can be done verbally or visually. Priming is a great proactive strategy to use with our kids as it sets clear expectations prior to the actual event. For example, you can use priming for timing, such as we are going to school in 10 minutes, or for expectations, such as we will wash our hands when we come inside.

Q

 R

 S

What is skill acquisition in aba?

Skill acquisition is the process of teaching new skills or building on skills that already exist. Skills can be taught across many categories including communication, daily living and self-help, school readiness, social, play and leisure, vocational, and self-regulation. In therapy, a skill can be taught in many different ways depending on what is going to be successful for the child. The skill is often broken down into smaller steps to make early learning of the skill easy. Over time, relationships are built between the small steps that result in the ability to perform the whole skill. These steps may be taught through the following types of teaching: discrete trial teaching (DTT) and natural environment teaching (NET). 

What A SOCIAL STORY & HOW IS IT USED TO SUPPORT SOMEONE WITH AUTISM SPECTRUM DISORDER (ASD)?

A social story is a story written in plain language that walks an individual through specific expectations in a given situation. They can be individualized to meet specific needs. Social stories explain to individuals why they need to do something, how to do it, and set clear expectations and rules to follow. Reading through relevant social stories proactively prior to a specific event can help clear up any confusion for individuals beforehand. Often times social stories are conveyed using visuals.

 T

 U

 V

 W

 X

 Y

 Z