What is ABA?
Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) is a branch of Psychology. ABA uses Behavioral Theory to understand learning and analyze behaviors in a clinical setting. Applied Behavior Anaysis is at the most basic level, applying research from the field of behavioral psychology to clinical practice.

This is not however how most people actually use the term when it come to the treatment of Autism. ABA has become synonymous with the methods and research of Dr. Ivar Lovaas. Lovaas, a psychologist, first applied ABA to autism at the Psychology Department at UCLA. His idea was that social and behavioral skills could be taught, even to profoundly autistic children, through the ABA method. Indeed, his idea turned out to be quite correct: Many if not most children who receive ABA training learn to behave appropriately at least some of the time -- and some even lose their autism diagnosis after years of intensive therapy.

ABA as we will define it is the techniques and procedures of ABA applied to individuals with special needs, although this does not encompass the entire field of ABA.
A curriculum is an individualized plan to teach the child a wide variety of appropriate behaviours, skills, and knowledge. The curriculum may include modifying undesirable behaviour, and development of skills in language, personal care, play, social, motor, academics, and so on. It is made up of many programs, each teaching one specific behaviour, skill or information. The curriculum, which has been validated through research, is the Lovaas curriculum and it should be the basis of any ABA program for young children.
Required: ABA relies on behavioral principles. ABA is used to educate the child in many areas, not just to control undesirable behaviours.
Positive reinforcement and informative feedback are used. Physical aversive are generally not be used.
Each program must have a curriculum recommended by a rigorously trained ABA consultant detailing the skills that will be taught to the child. The curriculum should reflect the child's abilities and needs. The curriculum should be based on normal child development, as interpreted by the ABA consultant.
Although ABA therapy is currently the best therapy for all individuals with autism, it is most effective for children when treatment begins before age 5.
Structured one-on-one therapy is usually necessary for children in the first two to three years of therapy, but as a child progresses, therapy should be delivered in a more natural way.

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About Aspergers

Facts about Autism.
Autism is diagnosed in 1 in 150 children today and as often as 1 in 94 boys, boys are 4 times more likely to be diagnosed with Autism then girls. This results in 67 children diagnosed per day or a new case every 20 minutes for a total of 24,000 new cases per year in the United States.

More children will be diagnosed with autism this year than with AIDS, diabetes & cancer combined. Autism is also the fastest-growing serious developmental disability in the U.S. Autism costs the nation over $35 billion per year, a figure expected to significantly increase in the next decade yet Autism receives less than 5% of the research funding of many less prevalent childhood disease.

Although there are several theories regarding the cause of Autism, a conclusive cause has not yet been identifyed. Even though the cause is unknown, there is an effective treatment available. Applied Behavior Anlysis has been shown to be effective through replicated research and is the only treatment endorsed by the U.S. Surgeon General and the New York State Department of Health.

Reports of autism cases per 1,000 children in the U.S. from 1996 to 2007