ABA Glossary for Families: 101 Terms Explained

ABA Applied Behavior Analysis

The science of learning and behavior applied to teaching skills. In practice: breaking a skill into small steps, teaching each step, rewarding progress, and measuring results with data.

BCBA Board Certified Behavior Analyst

The professional who evaluates your child, designs the treatment plan, supervises the team and adjusts goals. Requires a master's degree, supervised fieldwork and a national board exam.

BCBA-D Doctoral-level BCBA

A BCBA who also holds a doctoral degree. Same certification scope, additional academic training.

BCaBA Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst

Bachelor's-level certified professional who works under a BCBA's supervision, helping implement and monitor programs.

RBT Registered Behavior Technician

The person who works one-on-one with your child in most sessions. Trained, certified, and always supervised by a BCBA.

BACB Behavior Analyst Certification Board

The organization that certifies BCBAs, BCaBAs and RBTs and sets the ethics code they must follow.

Supervision

The BCBA's regular oversight of the RBT and the program. Required by ethics and by insurers, and it is what keeps quality high.

Case manager

The BCBA responsible for your child's overall program: assessment, goals, reports, family meetings and coordination.

Interdisciplinary team

All the professionals working with your child — ABA, speech, OT, school, physician — ideally communicating with each other.

FBA Functional Behavior Assessment

A study of why a behavior happens: what triggers it, what maintains it, and what the child gets from it. Without knowing the why, you cannot teach a better alternative.

Functional analysis FA

A more controlled version of an FBA where conditions are tested systematically to confirm the function of a behavior.

VB-MAPP Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program

An assessment tool that maps which language and learning milestones a child has reached, to set realistic goals.

ABLLS-R Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills

Assessment covering language, self-help, academic, motor and social skills.

AFLS Assessment of Functional Living Skills

Assessment focused on everyday independence: hygiene, home, school and community skills.

PEAK Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge

An assessment and curriculum focused on more advanced language and reasoning skills.

Vineland Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales

A standardized measure of adaptive functioning — how a child manages everyday life compared to peers.

CDE Comprehensive Diagnostic Evaluation

The full evaluation that documents the autism diagnosis. Insurers often request it to authorize services.

EAP Evaluation and Assessment Package

Term some plans use for the diagnostic documentation package required before authorizing ABA.

Baseline

Where your child starts, measured before teaching begins — so progress can be proven, not assumed.

Preference assessment

A short, structured way to find out what your child actually finds motivating right now, instead of guessing.

Skill acquisition plan

The written plan of what your child is learning: the goals, how each is taught, and how mastery is defined.

Behavior Intervention Plan BIP

The written plan describing how the team will prevent, teach around and respond to a challenging behavior.

Discrete Trial Training DTT

Structured teaching in short repeated trials: instruction, response, consequence. Useful for teaching new, specific skills.

Natural Environment Teaching NET

Teaching during play and daily routines, using what the child is already interested in. Looks like play — it is teaching.

Incidental teaching

Capturing a moment the child creates (reaching for a toy) and turning it into a learning opportunity.

Pivotal Response Treatment PRT

A naturalistic approach targeting 'pivotal' areas like motivation and initiation, which then improve many other skills.

Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention EIBI

Comprehensive, high-hour ABA for young children, typically under age 5.

Task analysis

Breaking a complex skill (washing hands, getting dressed) into small, teachable steps.

Chaining

Teaching those steps in sequence — forward, backward, or the whole chain at once.

Shaping

Rewarding closer and closer approximations of a target skill until the child reaches it.

Prompting

Temporary help given so the child succeeds: a gesture, a word, a model, or physical guidance.

Prompt fading

Gradually removing that help so the skill becomes independent. A skill that only works with prompts is not learned yet.

Prompt hierarchy

The ordered levels of help, from most to least intrusive — so the team always uses the least help needed.

Errorless learning

Prompting immediately so the child answers correctly from the start, then fading. Reduces frustration and practice of errors.

Modeling

Showing the child what to do so they can imitate it. Can be in person or by video.

Video modeling

Using a short video of the skill being performed as the teaching model. Very effective for social and self-help skills.

Behavioral Skills Training BST

How we train parents and staff: instruction, modeling, rehearsal and feedback — not just explaining.

Discriminative stimulus SD

The cue that signals a specific response will be reinforced — for example, hearing 'come here' before coming.

Trial

One teaching opportunity: cue, response, consequence.

Mastery criteria

The agreed standard for saying a skill is learned — for example, 80% correct across three sessions with two different people.

Reinforcement

Anything that follows a behavior and makes it more likely to happen again. It is not bribery: it is how all learning works, for children and adults.

Positive reinforcement

Adding something the child values after the desired behavior. The core tool of modern ABA.

Negative reinforcement

Removing something unpleasant after a behavior, which also makes the behavior more likely. Not a punishment.

Reinforcer

The specific thing that works for your child: a toy, praise, a break, music, time with you.

Schedule of reinforcement

How often reinforcement is delivered — every time at first, then gradually less, so the skill lasts in the real world.

Token economy

Earning tokens or stars that are later exchanged for something the child wants.

Premack principle

'First this, then that' — doing a preferred activity after a less preferred one.

Extinction

No longer reinforcing a behavior that used to work, so it fades. Must be planned carefully and always paired with teaching a replacement.

Extinction burst

The temporary increase in a behavior right after extinction starts. Expected, and a sign the plan is working — as long as the team is prepared.

Satiation

When a reinforcer stops working because the child has had too much of it.

Motivating operation MO

Anything that changes how much a reinforcer is worth right now — being hungry makes food more motivating.

Punishment

In behavior science this simply means a consequence that decreases a behavior. Modern, ethical ABA prioritizes reinforcement and skill teaching; aversive procedures are not used here.

Mand

A request. Teaching a child to ask for what they want — with words, signs or a device — is usually the first and most life-changing goal.

Tact

Naming or labeling something in the environment: 'dog', 'red', 'hot'.

Echoic

Repeating what someone says. An early building block of spoken language.

Intraverbal

Answering or conversing — responding to 'What's your name?' or finishing 'Twinkle twinkle little…'.

Listener responding receptive language

Understanding and following what others say, such as 'give me the cup'.

Echolalia

Repeating words or phrases heard before. It is communication, not a defect — and it can be shaped into functional language.

AAC Augmentative and Alternative Communication

Systems that support or replace speech: picture boards, sign language, tablet apps. Research is clear: they do not delay speech, they often help it.

PECS Picture Exchange Communication System

A method where the child hands over a picture to request something. Often a first step toward speech.

Functional communication training FCT

Teaching the child an effective way to ask for what they need, so they no longer have to use a challenging behavior to get it.

Joint attention

Sharing focus on something with another person — pointing at a plane so you look too. A cornerstone of social development.

Antecedent A

What happens right before a behavior — the trigger or the context.

Behavior B

What the child actually does, described so specifically that two people would record it the same way.

Consequence C

What happens right after the behavior. Together these are the ABCs of behavior analysis.

Function of behavior

The reason a behavior happens: to get attention, to get an item or activity, to escape a demand, or for sensory input.

Replacement behavior

A safe, effective behavior taught to do the same job as the challenging one.

Antecedent intervention

Changing the environment ahead of time so the challenging behavior is less likely to happen at all — usually the kindest and most effective step.

Differential reinforcement DRA/DRO/DRI

Reinforcing a better alternative behavior instead of the problem behavior.

Self-stimulatory behavior stimming

Repetitive movements or sounds that regulate the nervous system. Not inherently a problem — we only address it when it blocks learning or is unsafe.

Escape behavior

Behavior that works to get out of a demand or situation.

Elopement

Leaving a supervised area without permission. Treated as a safety priority.

Crisis / safety plan

The written plan for keeping everyone safe if a behavior escalates, using the least restrictive approach.

Trauma-informed care

Practicing with awareness of a child's history and stress responses — assent, choice and safety before compliance.

Assent

The child's own willingness to participate, expressed however they can. Modern ABA watches for assent and respects withdrawal of it.

Data collection

Recording what happens each session. It is what tells us whether the plan is working or needs to change.

Frequency / rate

How often a behavior happens, sometimes per hour or per session.

Duration

How long a behavior lasts.

Latency

How long it takes to start responding after a cue.

Percentage correct

How many opportunities the child responded correctly out of the total.

Trend

The direction the data is moving over time — the real measure of progress.

Generalization

When a skill learned in one place works everywhere: at home, at school, with grandma, at the store. This is the real goal — not just performing in session.

Maintenance

Keeping a learned skill over time, after formal teaching ends.

Progress report

The periodic written summary the BCBA prepares for you and for your insurance, showing what has changed and what comes next.

Reassessment

The scheduled re-evaluation, usually every six months, that updates goals and supports the next authorization.

Parent / caregiver training

Sessions where the team teaches you the same strategies. It is a covered part of the program and one of the strongest predictors of progress.

Direct therapy

One-on-one sessions between the RBT and your child.

Protocol modification

Time the BCBA spends adjusting your child's programs based on the data — usually with your child present.

Telehealth

Sessions by secure video — useful for parent training, supervision and families far from the clinic.

In-home ABA

Services delivered in your home, where daily routines actually happen.

Center-based ABA

Services delivered at our clinic, useful for structure and peer interaction.

School-based ABA

Support delivered in the classroom, coordinated with the school team and subject to district agreement.

Community-based ABA

Practicing skills in real places: parks, stores, restaurants.

Prior authorization

The insurer's approval before services begin. We submit the assessment and plan, and follow up until it is approved.

Medical necessity

The documented justification that the service is needed for the child's health — the basis on which insurance approves ABA.

CPT codes

The billing codes for ABA services, such as 97151 (assessment), 97153 (direct therapy), 97155 (protocol modification) and 97156 (family training).

IEP Individualized Education Program

A legal document from the public school describing the supports your child receives to access the curriculum. Educational, not medical — it does not replace ABA therapy.

504 Plan Section 504 Accommodation Plan

A simpler school plan providing accommodations (extra time, seating, breaks) without specialized instruction.

IFSP Individualized Family Support Plan

The plan used by Early Steps for children under 3, centered on the whole family rather than just the child.

Early Steps

Florida's free early intervention program for children from birth to 36 months.

Discharge / transition plan

The plan for stepping down services as goals are met, so gains are maintained after therapy ends.