Here is a list of some commonly used terminology and acronyms used in the field of ABA.

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ABA: Applied Behaviour Analysis; the application of the science of learning to socially significant human behaviour.

Antecedent: The stimulus that immediately precedes a particular behaviour. In the 3-term contingency model, it is the “A” in A-B-C, whereby “B” is the behaviour, and “C” is the consequence.

Baseline: This is the period of observation (not teaching) where data that is relevant to the intervention collected. The data collected give behaviour analysts a value to compare against, and allows providers to determine whether measures from a behavioural intervention are meaningful.

BCBA: Board Certified Behaviour Analyst; refers to someone who has a Master's degree, completed all coursework and supervision hours, and passed the certification exam through the BACB. (BCBA-D refers to those who also have a PhD in the field of Behaviour Analysis)

BCaBA: Board Certified assistant Behaviour Analyst; refers to someone who has an undergraduate degree, completed all coursework and supervision hours, and passed the certification exam through the BACB.

Behaviour: refers to any type of activity of living organisms in relation to its environment. In the field, it refers to the interaction of an organism (any living thing) with the environment in any way that results in measurable change in one or more aspects of the environment. When used among therapists, it can refer to negative or non-compliant behaviours that may or may not require a behavioural service plan (i.e. aggressive behaviours, screaming, crying, tantrums, flopping, etc.)

Consequence: The specific immediate result of a behaviour. In the 3-term contingency, it is the “C” in the A-B-C, whereby “A” is the antecedent, and “B” is the behaviour.

First/Then:  A strategy that teaches learners that one activity will follow another. Typically, the second activity is a desirable one that follows a less desirable activity (i.e. "First eat your dinner, then you get iPad") This strategy also introduces learners to a basic visual schedule where they will see/know what will happen after one activity. Differs from bribing ( "You can have iPad if you finish your dinner")

EIBI: Early Intensive Behavioural Intervention; mainly refers to 1:1 direct service. This term will be slowly phased out as both ABA and IBI services in Ontario will be known collectively as "direct services" under the new OAP, however, this is still a widely used term within the ABA field in general. 

Function of Behaviour: This is the central process of ABA, where steps are taken to understand and answer the fundamental question of why a person does something. There are typically 4 functions of behaviour: 1) Sensory seeking, 2) Escape from demand/aversive, 3) Attention seeking, and 4) access to Tangible.

Fading: An ABA strategy where the extra prompts that have been initially introduced to aid in teaching are gradually decreased over time in order to increase independence. Think of it as a gradual removal of “hints”.

Maintenance: The retention of learned skills. This is the procedure whose purpose is to ensure that the skills acquired are not lost.

Mand: Short for 'command', this refers to any type of requests (i.e. "I want candy."). Includes both verbal and non-verbal requests. 

Mastery Criteria: This is the condition under which a particular skill is considered learned. In discrete trial training, for example, a target would be considered mastered if the learner can achieve 90% or above correct over 2 consecutive sessions. Depending on the learner and skill being taught, the mastery criteria may be set higher (100% over 2 consecutive sessions), or lower (80% over 3 consecutive sessions).

MO: motivating operations; refers to objects/ activities/ privileges that the learner enjoys that may be used as rewards during implementation of a particular intervention. 

Negative Punishment: something is removed in order to decrease a particular behaviour/ action (i.e. in order to decrease aggressive behaviour towards siblings, the therapist removed all toys that have sharp edges in the home)

Negative Reinforcement: something is removed in order to increase a particular behaviour/ action (e.g. in order to increase the duration on on-task behaviour, the therapist removed tinker toys in the classroom to minimize distractions)

OAP: Ontario Autism Program; refers to the ministry of Ontario's new autism program. See Ministry Resources for more information regarding guidelines and accessibility. 

Probe: a type of data collection whereby no teaching is done, but therapists will record whether or not the client displays the skill. This is done to determine whether the skill should be formally taught or not. If the client displays the skill, no teaching will occur, and the therapist will move on to the next target/skill to teach.

Prompt: assistance that reminds or allows the child to succeed in the current task/demand. Hierarchy of prompts (most-to-least) include: Full-Physical (errorless), echoic, partial physical, modeling, gestural, verbal, partial verbal, visual.

Positive Punishment: something is added in order to decrease a particular behaviour/ action (i.e. in order to decrease Sally's pinching, therapists provided her with a small soft toy to keep her hands occupied)

Positive Reinforcement: something is added in order to increase a particular behaviour/ action (i.e. in order to increase the time Sally sits at the table, therapists reward Sally a chocolate chip following every 30 seconds of appropriate sitting). 

Sd: stands for Discriminative Stimulus. It refers to a stimulus (an instruction) that, when elicited, will produce a particular response to be reinforced. Usually, the therapist's instruction ("point to the letter B") will produce a response. The correct answer (pointing to B) will be reinforced by the therapist ("Yes, that is pointing to B!") while all other responses (for example, if the learner points to A) will not be reinforced. The stimulus in this case is the card with the letter B, and the discrimination is the learner being able to discriminate between the correct answer from the incorrect answers.

Stim: refers to any type of stimulatory behaviours (hand flapping, vocalizations, spinning, etc.) This is very typical behaviour among individuals with ASD, as their sensory input/output may differ from typically developing individuals. Therapists may teach replacement behaviours or redirect stimulatory behaviours with more socially accepted behaviours. 

Tact: Short for 'contact', refer to any type of labeling (i.e. There is a cookie on the table. The therapist asks "what is it?", and the child replies "cookie"). Includes both verbal and non-verbal labeling.

Task Analysis: a teaching strategy whereby all the steps of a particular task are broken down into its simplest forms and taught as a chain of smaller targets. Data may be collected one step at a time, or as a total task (all steps included the teaching). Best used for skills that have multiple steps such as washing hands, brushing teeth, dressing, pouring juice, etc. 

Token Economy: an ABA strategy to increase a desired behaviour, token economies allow the child to earn a pre-determined amount of tokens towards an ultimate reward (chosen by the child before the deliver of tokens)