Applied behavior analysis is a not a therapy for autism. it is the applied branch of a science called Behavior Analysis. This is an extremely important starting point because often you will find that education and health authorities are not familiar with Applied Behavior Analysis and they describe it as, simply, one of a number of therapies for Autism. In addition, Applied Behavior Analysis is not a commercial product. When this mistake is made, there is the added assumption that only a few short courses are needed to understand it, or to practice it. Like any other science, there is a need for extensive training at university and graduate level before you can call yourself a Behavior Analyst. Applied behavior analysis is the science of behavior. Behavior Analyst design experiments to help us get a better understanding of behavior. That is, from the questions they ask and the answers they get, they are better able to explain why we do the things we do. These new ways of understanding behavior include new ways of influencing it. Being able to fine tune our ability to influence behavior is the hallmark of Applied Behavior Analysis.
