Behavior Analysis (BA)
Behavior Analysis (BA)
Behavior Analysis Services, also known as “BA”, are provided to assist individuals to learn new, or increase existing, functionally equivalent replacement skills directly related to existing challenging behaviors. Challenging behaviors include those behaviors exhibited by the individual that pose risk of harm to the individual or others (i.e., aggression, self-injury, property destruction, behaviors that prevent inclusion in normal settings, or behaviors that the individual does not exhibit with sufficient proficiency or skill to prevent harm to the individual or others, including resisting basic hygiene, and refusal to take medications).
Behavior analysis includes the design, implementation, and evaluation of systematic environmental modifications that assist in understanding an individual’s behavior and to produce significant change in the individual’s behavior that is socially meaningful. Behavior analysis uses direct observation and measurement of an individual’s behavior and environment to identify contextual factors, conditions influencing motivation, stimulus events occurring prior to behavior, as well as reinforcement and other consequences that affect these practical changes in behavior.
The services are designed to facilitate ongoing changes in the individual’s environment, the interactional styles of caregivers, and the contingencies for the individual’s behavior provided by other people in order to make lasting improvements in the individual’s behavior. Training for parents, caregivers, and staff is integral to the implementation of a behavior analysis services plan as is the monitoring of procedural integrity and program effectiveness.
In order to determine when and in what situations the individual’s challenging behavior occurs, the individual’s behavior is assessed to identify functional relationships between a particular behavior and the individual’s environment. A variety of techniques, including positive reinforcement, are used in order to produce practical behavior change.
Many times individuals that have not responded successfully to traditional talk therapy, have responded with significant improvements via the behavior analytic treatment approach. Similarly, Behavior Analytic Life Coaching utilizes a varying approach while maintaining the applied behavior analytic foundations.
Behavior Assistant Services/Behavior Technician/ Registered Behavior Technician (RBT)
The primary purpose of behavior assistant services (BAS), Behavior Analysis Technician, and/or RBT is to provide support in implementing the service/treatment plan created by the Board Certified Behavior Analyst. This includes assisting the Board Certified Behavior Analyst in assessing the client, assisting in implementing new procedures in the presence of the behavior analyst, acting as a model for correct implementation for the client or the caregivers, or coaching caregivers to implement the behavior program. These individuals are highly qualified supportive professionals whom receive intensive supervision by a Board Certified Behavior Analyst.
