Evidence-based Practice

Evidence-based practice is something that ABA practitioners often use in relation to ABA therapy. At first glance, it sounds quite straightforward - having some sort of rationale or data to back up the things that you do during your therapy. But what does the term actually mean? Let’s take a closer look.

Evidence-based practice has been described to have three main concepts that combine to form a more complete understanding of evidence-based practice. They are:

• Research Evidence

• Data Driven Professional Expertise

• Applicable and Meaningful Outcomes

Let’s take a deeper dive into each of these three

Research Evidence:

So, yes, at its core the most fundamental aspect of evidence-based practice is to have some data or reasoning to substantiate the decisions you make during therapy sessions. Things like Natural Environment Training (NET) or Discrete Trial Training (DTT) are well-researched methodologies within the ABA literature that have decades of research to demonstrate that they do work both in research settings as well as in the general community. The key thing to remember is that what we do in ABA is based on interventions that have been tested with real children, in real settings, and shown to lead to measurable improvements in skills like communication, behaviour, and daily living. Beyond that, it’s important that the research evidence continues to grow - as the world continues to develop, so must our ABA practices.

Data Driven Professional Expertise:

When you open a study, you will be treated to a lot of technical jargon and numbers printed onto seemingly never ending sheathes of paper, or I suppose a PDF in modern contexts. The thing that makes these words and numbers come to life is the ABA professional - the behaviour analysts and behaviour therapists that plan and conduct ABA therapy. These professionals need to tap on their experience and skill set to analyse the data - what is the story being told in the studies made available online? How far can we assume the numbers to be an accurate representation of what we will see in therapy? This means the clinician needs to have an active role in evaluating the data presented to them. What strategies to use, how to adapt them to the client’s learning style, and how to adjust the programme when something isn’t working as expected.

Applicable and Meaningful Outcomes:

Everything that we do in ABA is done in the interest of you - the client that we are working together with towards a common goal. This means that we want to hear more from you. What are some of the goals that you want to accomplish? How are you feeling about things so far? Any concerns or questions we can answer? The answers to these questions and having these conversations help us to get to know you better but also to adjust our practices to make sure that everything lines up nicely. At the end of the day, the success of ABA therapy goes far beyond the clinical setting and everyone has a part to play on the team.In short, there is a lot more to evidence-based practice than simply finding statistics that indicate a given therapy medium is effective. It’s about synthesising the data with the human touch. Bridging the gap from numbers on paper to real, observable outcomes in the world. After all, isn’t that what we’re all here for at the end of the day?