Autism Spectrum Disorder Basics
5%of exam
Legal, Ethical, Professional Considerations
10%of exam
Core Principles of ABA
10%of exam
Antecedent Interventions
12%of exam
Skill Acquisition Programming
10%of exam
Behavior Reduction Interventions
14%of exam
Data Collection and Analysis
15%of exam
Assessment
14%of exam
Training and Supervision
10%of exam
Quick Facts
- Exam
- QABA QBA
- Items
- 125 (100 scored)
- Time
- 3 hours
- Pass
- Not published
- Fee
- $350 application
- Retake
- $225
- Renewal
- 2 years, 32 CEUs
- Degree
- Master's minimum
- Coursework
- 270 hours
- Fieldwork
- 2,000 supervised hours
- Proctor
- Premier Proctoring, online
- Accreditation
- ANAB ISO/IEC 17024
ASD Basics
- DSM-5 domains
- Social communication plus RRBs
- Levels 1-3
- Support needs severityDSM-5
- Joint attention
- Shared focus deficit
- Stereotypy
- Repetitive nonfunctional behavior
- Echolalia
- Immediate or delayed repetition
- Pragmatic language
- Social use of language
- Receptive vs expressive
- Understanding vs producing
- Comorbidities
- ADHD, anxiety, epilepsy, ID
- SCD
- Social communication disorderNo RRBs
- Differential diagnosis
- Rule out similar disorders
QABA Ethics Core
- Scope of competence
- Practice within your training
- Informed consent
- Risks, alternatives, right withdraw
- Confidentiality
- HIPAA-aligned safeguards
- Mandated reporting
- Suspected abuse or neglect
- Duty to warn
- Notify identified potential victim
- Duty to protect
- Act to prevent harm
- Multiple relationships
- Avoid dual roles
- Risk-benefit assessment
- Weigh harm against gain
- Social validity
- Goals, procedures, outcomes acceptable
- Transition of services
- No abrupt client abandonment
Education Law Terms
- IDEA
- Special education entitlement law
- IEP
- Individualized education program
- LRE
- Least restrictive environment
- 504 Plan
- Accommodations, not specialized instruction
- ADA
- Disability civil rights
- Rehabilitation Act
- Section 504 foundation
- HIPAA
- Health information privacy
- Person-centered planning
- Goals from client values
- PBS
- Positive behavior support
Exam + Renewal Logistics
- Items
- 125 total, 100 scored
- Pretest items
- 25 unscored, unmarked
- Time
- 3 hours
- Proctor
- Premier Proctoring, live online
- Cut score
- Not published by QABA
- Application fee
- $350 nonrefundable
- Retake fee
- $225 per attempt
- Renewal fee
- $200 every two years
- CEUs
- 32 per renewal cycle
- Renewal deadlines
- Jan, April, July, October
- Lapse penalty
- $50 then $100
- Attempt cap
- Four per year maximum
Verbal Operant Order
Mand, Tact, Echoic, Intraverbal, Textual, Transcription
Mand: MO controlledTact: stimulus controlledEchoic: vocal copyIntraverbal: conversation
Negative Reinforcement vs Punishment
Negative reinforcement
- Removes aversive stimulus
- Behavior increases
- Escape and avoidance
Punishment
- Follows the behavior
- Behavior decreases
- Positive adds, negative removes
Increase vs decrease
Four-Term Contingency
- MO
- Alters reinforcer value
- SD
- Signals reinforcement available
- S-delta
- Signals reinforcement unavailable
- R
- The target response
- SR+
- Adds preferred stimulus
- SR-
- Removes aversive stimulus
- SDp
- Signals punishment available
- Respondent
- Elicited by antecedent stimulus
- Operant
- Selected by its consequences
- Matching law
- Responding matches reinforcement proportion
Seven ABA Dimensions
GET A CAB: Baer, Wolf, Risley
Generality, Effective, TechnologicalApplied, Conceptually systematicAnalytic, Behavioral
MO vs SD
MO
- Alters reinforcer value
- Motivation
- Deprivation or satiation
SD
- Signals availability
- Discrimination
- Learned history
Value vs availability
Reinforcement Schedules
- CRF
- Every response reinforcedAcquisition
- FR
- Fixed response countPause after reinforcer
- VR
- Averaged response countHighest steady rate
- FI
- First response after intervalScalloped
- VI
- Averaged time intervalSteady moderate rate
- Ratio strain
- Thinned too quickly
- Intermittent
- Resists extinction longer
- Premack
- High-probability reinforces low-probability
- Concurrent schedules
- Two options available simultaneously
Mand vs Tact
Mand
- Controlled by MO
- Speaker benefits directly
- A request
Tact
- Controlled by stimulus
- Social reinforcement
- A label
Want it vs name it
Motivating Operations
- EO
- Raises value, evokes behavior
- AO
- Lowers value, abates behavior
- UMO
- Unlearned, such as deprivation
- CMO-S
- Surrogate paired stimulus
- CMO-R
- Reflexive warning stimulus
- CMO-T
- Transitive missing item
- Satiation
- Abolishing operation effect
- Deprivation
- Establishing operation effect
Verbal Operants
- Mand
- Request under MOSpeaker benefits
- Tact
- Labels a nonverbal stimulus
- Echoic
- Point-to-point vocal copy
- Intraverbal
- Answer without point-to-point
- Textual
- Reads written text aloud
- Transcription
- Writes a spoken word
- Listener behavior
- Responds to a speaker
- Stimulus equivalence
- Reflexivity, symmetry, transitivity
Antecedent Interventions
- NCR
- Time-based free reinforcement
- High-p sequence
- Easy tasks build momentum
- Demand fading
- Gradually increase task requirements
- Choice
- Offers controlled options
- Priming
- Preview the upcoming activity
- Visual schedule
- Predictable activity sequence
- Setting event
- Distant condition alters responding
- Response effort
- Make problem behavior harder
- Errorless learning
- Prompt before an error
FCT and Communication
- FCT
- Teaches functional replacement requestCarr, Durand
- Functional equivalence
- Same function, better form
- Mand training
- Teach requests under MO
- PECS
- Picture exchange communication system
- AAC device
- Speech-generating communication aid
- Response efficiency
- Easier and faster than problem
- Schedule thinning
- Delay or tolerate denial
- Pair with extinction
- Stop reinforcing problem behavior
Prompting and Fading
- Least-to-most
- Start with least intrusive
- Most-to-least
- Start with full support
- Graduated guidance
- Fade physical shadowing
- Constant time delay
- Fixed prompt delay
- Progressive time delay
- Gradually increasing delay
- Stimulus fading
- Fade exaggerated stimulus feature
- Stimulus shaping
- Change stimulus form gradually
- Prompt dependency
- Learner waits for prompt
- Transfer of control
- Move prompt to SD
Teaching + Chaining
- DTT
- Massed structured discrete trials
- NET
- Teaching within natural routines
- Incidental teaching
- Learner initiates the episode
- PRT
- Targets pivotal motivation skills
- Task analysis
- Break chain into steps
- Forward chaining
- Teach first step first
- Backward chaining
- Teach last step first
- Total task
- All steps every trial
- Error correction
- Re-present after incorrect response
- Self-management
- Learner records own behavior
- Mastery criteria
- Preset accuracy across sessions
- Shaping
- Reinforce successive approximations
DR Family
DRA replace, DRI block, DRO omit, DRL slow
DRA: alternative responseDRI: incompatible responseDRO: zero occurrencesDRL: lower rate
Extinction Burst vs Spontaneous Recovery
Extinction burst
- Immediate increase
- Starts when extinction begins
- Novel forms appear
Spontaneous recovery
- Reappears later
- Follows a time lapse
- Usually brief
Immediate spike vs later return
Differential Reinforcement Picker
- Teach a replacement→DRA(Add extinction)
- Need physically incompatible→DRI(Cannot co-occur)
- Any absence acceptable→DRO(Interval or momentary)
- Acceptable at low rate→DRL(Reduce, not eliminate)
- Rate too low→DRH(Increase responding)
Differential Reinforcement
- DRA
- Reinforce a specified alternative
- DRI
- Reinforce an incompatible response
- DRO
- Reinforce absence of behavior
- DRL
- Reinforce lower response rates
- DRH
- Reinforce higher response rates
- Interval DRO
- No behavior whole interval
- Momentary DRO
- No behavior at moment
- Full-session DRL
- Total count under limit
- Spaced-responding DRL
- Requires a minimum IRT
- Pair with extinction
- Withhold problem behavior reinforcer
DRO vs DRA
DRO
- Reinforces omission
- Teaches no replacement
- Interval based
DRA
- Reinforces alternative response
- Builds a skill
- Needs extinction
Omission vs replacement
Reduction Procedures
- Extinction
- Withhold the maintaining reinforcer
- Extinction burst
- Temporary increase then decrease
- Spontaneous recovery
- Return after time lapse
- Resurgence
- Previously reinforced behavior returns
- Response cost
- Removes earned reinforcersNegative punishment
- Time-out
- Loses reinforcement accessExclusionary or not
- Overcorrection
- Restitution plus positive practice
- Token economy
- Generalized conditioned reinforcers
- Behavioral contrast
- Untreated setting behavior increases
- Group contingency
- Independent, interdependent, dependent
- Contingency contract
- Written if-then agreement
- Least restrictive
- Reinforcement before punishment
Visual Analysis Checks
Level, Trend, Variability, Immediacy, Overlap
Level: mean valueTrend: slopeVariability: bounceImmediacy: change at phase
Partial vs Whole Interval
Partial interval
- Any occurrence counts
- Overestimates duration
- Fits reduction goals
Whole interval
- Entire interval required
- Underestimates duration
- Fits increase goals
Over vs underestimate
Measurement Picker
- Discrete countable responses→Frequency or rate(Continuous)
- Episodes vary in length→Duration(Continuous)
- Slow to begin→Latency(From SD)
- Responses cluster together→IRT(Between responses)
- Continuous behavior, limited staff→Momentary time sampling(Least biased)
- Reducing a behavior→Partial interval(Overestimates)
- Increasing sustained engagement→Whole interval(Underestimates)
- Leaves a physical outcome→Permanent product(Score later)
Measurement Systems
- Count
- Number of responses
- Rate
- Count per unit time
- Duration
- How long behavior lasts
- Latency
- SD to response onset
- IRT
- Time between responses
- Trials to criterion
- Trials until mastery
- Partial interval
- Any occurrence countsOverestimates
- Whole interval
- Entire interval requiredUnderestimates
- Momentary time sampling
- Occurrence at interval end
- Permanent product
- Measure the lasting outcome
- Continuous measurement
- Every occurrence recorded
- Operational definition
- Observable and measurable wording
IOA Stringency Order
Total < interval < exact count
Total count: least stringentInterval-by-interval: moderateExact count-per-interval: most stringent
IOA Types
- Total count IOA
- Smaller divided by larger
- Mean count-per-interval
- Average of interval agreements
- Exact count-per-interval
- Only identical counts agreeMost stringent
- Trial-by-trial IOA
- Agreements divided by trials
- Interval-by-interval
- All intervals comparedLeast stringent
- Scored-interval IOA
- Only occurrence intervalsHigh-rate behavior
- Unscored-interval IOA
- Only nonoccurrence intervalsLow-rate behavior
- Accuracy
- Matches a true value
Visual Analysis
- Level
- Average data value
- Trend
- Direction of change
- Variability
- Data spread around trend
- Immediacy
- Change right after phase
- Overlap
- Shared values between phases
- Consistency
- Similar patterns across phases
- Line graph
- Standard ABA display
- Cumulative record
- Slope shows rate
Four Behavior Functions
SEAT: Sensory, Escape, Attention, Tangible
Sensory: automaticEscape: demand removalAttention: social contactTangible: item or activity
Descriptive FBA vs Functional Analysis
Descriptive
- Observation only
- Correlational
- ABC and scatterplot
Functional analysis
- Manipulates conditions
- Shows causation
- Attention, demand, alone, play
Correlation vs experimental control
Function Picker
- Function unclear→Functional analysis(Experimental)
- Behavior dangerous to evoke→Latency-based FA(Shorter exposure)
- Classroom routine constraints→Trial-based FA(Embedded probes)
- Attention maintained→DRA plus planned ignoring(Extinction)
- Escape maintained→FCT plus escape extinction(Demand fading)
- Tangible maintained→NCR plus DRA(Then thin schedule)
- Automatic maintained→Matched stimulation, response blocking(Competing items)
- No functional communication→FCT(Equivalent mand)
FBA Methods
- Indirect FBA
- Interviews and rating scales
- FAST / MAS / QABF
- Indirect assessment questionnaires
- Descriptive FBA
- Observation without manipulation
- ABC data
- Antecedent, behavior, consequence
- Scatterplot
- Time-of-day patterns
- Functional analysis
- Manipulates conditions experimentallyIwata
- FA conditions
- Attention, demand, alone, play
- Trial-based FA
- Embedded in natural routines
- Latency-based FA
- Time to first occurrence
- Conditional probability
- Likelihood given antecedent event
- Environmental analysis
- Setting factors affecting behavior
Design Picker
- Behavior is reversible→ABAB reversal(Strongest control)
- Withdrawal unethical→Multiple baseline(Staggered tiers)
- Repeated baseline reactive→Multiple probe(Intermittent)
- Compare two treatments→Alternating treatments(Rapid switching)
- Goal rises stepwise→Changing criterion(Gradual)
- Package effect unclear→Component analysis(Isolate parts)
Preference Assessments
- Single stimulus
- One item at a time
- Paired choice
- Two items, pick one
- MSW
- Array with replacement
- MSWO
- Array without replacement
- Free operant
- No removal, observe engagement
- RAISD
- Caregiver reinforcer interview
- Reinforcer assessment
- Tests effect on responding
- Progressive ratio
- Measures reinforcer strength
- Preference is not reinforcer
- Must verify behavior change
Preference Picker
- Need a quick ranking→MSWO(Array without replacement)
- Need strongest single item→Paired choice(Most accurate)
- Learner grabs everything→Free operant(No removal)
- Problem behavior on removal→Free operant(Avoids escalation)
- Poor scanning skills→Single stimulus(Successive presentation)
- Starting from scratch→RAISD interview(Caregiver report)
Experimental Designs
- ABAB reversal
- Withdraw and reintroduce treatment
- Multiple baseline
- Staggered starts across tiers
- Multiple probe
- Intermittent baseline measurement
- Alternating treatments
- Rapidly switch two conditions
- Changing criterion
- Stepwise criterion increases
- Component analysis
- Isolates package elements
- Parametric analysis
- Varies amount of one value
- Experimental control
- Replication demonstrates the effect
BST Steps
Instruct, Model, Rehearse, Feedback
Instruct: describe the skillModel: show itRehearse: practiceFeedback: immediate and specific
QBA vs QASP-S
QBA
- Master's degree required
- 2,000 fieldwork hours
- Supervises independently
QASP-S
- Bachelor's degree tier
- Mid-tier supervisor
- Works under QBA
Designs vs implements programs
Training and Supervision
- BST
- Instruct, model, rehearse, feedback
- Pyramidal training
- Trainers train other trainers
- Treatment integrity
- Plan implemented as written
- Procedural fidelity
- Steps delivered correctly
- Performance feedback
- Specific, timely, behavior-focused
- Mediator analysis
- Assess caregiver capacity, culture
- Sociocultural values
- Diversity shapes goal selection
- Competency-based
- Demonstrate skill, not attendance
- Supervision log
- QABA verification form required
QBA vs BCBA
QBA
- QABA board
- ANAB ISO 17024
- 270 coursework hours
BCBA
- BACB board
- NCCA accredited
- Verified course sequence
Check state and payer
QABA Credential Ladder
- ABAT
- Entry-level direct interventionist
- QASP-S
- Mid-tier supervisor tier
- QBA
- Master's-level independent analyst
- QBA supervises
- ABAT and QASP-S
- No ongoing supervision
- Certified QBA practices autonomously
- Fieldwork
- 2,000 supervised hours
- Oversight minimum
- At least 1,200 hours
- Direct hours cap
- Maximum 800 direct hours
- Monthly supervision
- 5% of service hours
- Group supervision cap
- Up to 50% group
270-Hour Coursework Map
- Assessment
- 45 hours
- Skill Acquisition
- 40 hours
- Core Principles
- 35 hours
- Antecedent Interventions
- 30 hours
- Behavior Reduction
- 30 hours
- Data Collection Analysis
- 30 hours
- Autism Spectrum Disorders
- 20 hours
- Legal, Ethical, Professional
- 20 hours
- Training and Supervision
- 20 hours
- Total
- 270 hours, 18 credits
Common Traps
Reinforcement vs punishment
Negative reinforcement increases behavior ≠ Punishment decreases behavior
Burst vs recovery
Burst starts immediately ≠ Recovery follows a pause
DRO vs DRA
DRO reinforces absence ≠ DRA reinforces a replacement
DRI vs DRA
DRI must be incompatible ≠ DRA is any alternative
MO vs SD
MO alters value ≠ SD signals availability
FBA vs functional analysis
FBA is the process ≠ FA manipulates conditions
Partial vs whole interval
Partial overestimates occurrence ≠ Whole underestimates occurrence
Preference vs reinforcer
Preference only predicts ≠ Reinforcer proves the effect
Escape vs avoidance
Escape ends ongoing aversive ≠ Avoidance prevents its onset
Time-out vs extinction
Time-out removes access ≠ Extinction withholds the reinforcer
Last Minute
- 1.125 items, 100 scored, 3 hours
- 2.Heaviest domain: Data Collection 15%
- 3.Reduction 14%, Assessment 14%, Antecedent 12%
- 4.Negative reinforcement increases; punishment decreases
- 5.DRO = absence; DRA = replacement
- 6.Escape function needs escape extinction
- 7.MO changes value; SD signals
- 8.Partial overestimates; whole underestimates
- 9.FA conditions: attention, demand, alone, play
- 10.BST: instruct, model, rehearse, feedback
- 11.MSWO ranks; paired choice compares
- 12.Reversal design needs reversible behavior
- 13.QBA supervises QASP-S and ABAT
- 14.Renewal: 2 years, 32 CEUs
- 15.Cut score not published by QABA
- 16.Proctored online by Premier Proctoring
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