Behavior analysis is the science of behavior. ABA refers to a systematic approach to the assessment and evaluation of behavior, and the application of interventions that result in behavior change.

An intervention based on ABA principles, then, includes the design, implementation, and evaluation of environmental modifications in order to produce socially significant improvement in human behavior. Over the past 30 years, several thousand published research studies have documented the effectiveness of ABA across a wide range of:

• Populations - children and adults with developmental disabilities, learning disorders, and mental illnesses.
• Interventionists - parents, teachers and therapists
• Settings - schools, homes, institutions, group homes, hospitals and business offices
• Behaviors - language, social, academic, leisure and functional life skills, self-injury, and stereotyped behaviors

It is important to comprehend ABA as a framework for the practice of a science and not as a specific program in itself. One should remember that ABA is a set of principles and guidelines upon which educational programs (or any number of applications) are based.

The entire process of conceiving an ABA curriculum is a complex and an elaborate operation. In one of the seminal works on ABA, Baer, Wolf, and Risely (1967) outlined seven essential elements of an ABA-based program:

• The program must be applied - The behaviours chosen to focus on should have some social significance
• The program must be behavioural - The environment and physical events should be recorded with precision
• The program must be analytic - There should be clear and convincing evidence, through carefully collected data, that the intervention is responsible for a change in behavior
• The program must be technological - The techniques used should be described thoroughly enough to allow duplication by another individual
• The program must be conceptually systematic - There should be relevance to established and accepted principles (e.g. the principle of operant conditioning)
• The program must be effective - The program should seek to change the targeted behavior to a meaningful degree
• The program should display some generality - A change in behavior should be seen in a wide variety of environments, or should spread to a wide variety of related or similar behaviors

To sum, ABA is an objective field of study that focuses on the reliable measurement and objective evaluation of observable behavior. Intervention programs based on ABA methodologies are secured by principles of learning and operant conditioning, and influenced by the work of researchers such as Edward L. Thorndike and B.F. Skinner. To evaluate the effectiveness of the individual interventions, ABA researchers use single case experimental designs as an essential component of ABA programs. This process includes the following components which outline a reliable and accountable approach to behavior change (Sulzer-Azaroff & Mayer, 1991):

1. Selection of interfering behaviour or behavioural skill deficit
2. Identification of goals and objectives
3. Establishment of a method of measuring target behaviors
4. Evaluation of the current levels of performance (baseline)
5. Design and implementation of the interventions that teach new skills and/or reduce interfering behaviors
6. Continuous measurement of target behaviors to determine the effectiveness of the intervention
7. Ongoing evaluation of the effectiveness of the intervention, with modifications made as necessary to maintain and/or increase both the effectiveness and the efficiency of the intervention

Typically, developing children learn from their environment (other people) at an astounding rate, completely unassisted. The whole point of ABA is to teach the prerequisites to make it possible for a child to learn “naturally”.