ABA Corner: ABA In My World: Or Is My World ABA?
[Source: bSsci21.org]
By Christopher Bloh .D., BCBA-D, Guest Writer
I don’t think that I’m unique as a behavior analyst to say that I understand my world through Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). What my friends may say is ‘fun,’ I note as reinforcing (provided that the behavior is repeated). When students or others greet me at work, I wonder if they are manding for just attention or something else. If my communicative partner replies something that I view to be odd, I mark it as an incorrect or inappropriate intraverbal. Being given vocal directions on an exercise, I say to myself, “Don’t bother telling me about it. I’m just going to engage in motor imitation.” While this may seem odd, weird, or geeky for the non-behavior analyst, this is fun for me. It helps me to understand and even control (a little…maybe) how my world works. It may sound like a cliché, but my behavior analyst ‘meter’ does not stop running when I’m outside of work. I analyze the world around me on the way home, in stores, and even analyze behaviors and stimuli that occur at home. Don’t pity me. As I stated previously, this is fun and apparently reinforcing for me.
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