House of Hearts ABA TherapyResources / GlossaryPlain English
No jargon —
Plain English for every acronym.
ABA, BCBA, FBA, EIBI, RBT, EOB. We translate the alphabet soup.
- ABA
- Applied Behavior Analysis — the evidence-based therapy at the core of what we do. It uses positive reinforcement and individualized teaching to build communication, social, daily-living, and emotional-regulation skills.
- ABC Data
- Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence data — a way of recording what happened before a behavior, the behavior itself, and what followed, to find patterns.
- BCaBA
- Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst — a bachelor’s-level analyst who works under a BCBA’s supervision to support assessment and program implementation.
- BCBA
- Board Certified Behavior Analyst — the master’s-level clinician who assesses your child, designs the treatment plan, and supervises the therapy team.
- DTT
- Discrete Trial Training — a structured teaching method that breaks skills into small steps, each taught through a clear prompt, response, and reinforcement.
- EIBI
- Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention — a high-frequency ABA model for very young children, typically ages 1 to 5, when the brain is most ready to learn.
- FBA
- Functional Behavior Assessment — the evaluation that identifies why a behavior happens so the treatment plan can address its root cause, not just its symptoms.
- Generalization
- Using a learned skill across new people, places, and situations — from session to school to home. It is the whole point of good ABA.
- Intraverbal
- Conversational verbal behavior — answering questions and holding back-and-forth exchanges, like saying “blue” when asked your favorite color.
- Mand
- A request — one of the first verbal-behavior skills we teach, where a child asks for something they want.
- Mass Trial
- Presenting the same skill repeatedly in a row to build fluency before mixing it with other targets.
- NET
- Natural Environment Teaching — teaching skills during everyday play and routines rather than at a table, so they generalize to real life.
- Prompt Fading
- Gradually reducing the help given during teaching so a child performs a skill independently over time.
- RBT
- Registered Behavior Technician — the paraprofessional who delivers most of the direct one-on-one therapy under a BCBA’s supervision.
- Reinforcement
- Anything that follows a behavior and makes it more likely to happen again. Positive reinforcement is the engine of ABA.
- Tact
- A label — naming or commenting on something in the environment, like saying “dog” when seeing a dog.
- Verbal Behavior Approach
- An ABA framework that teaches language by its function — requesting, labeling, conversing — rather than by form alone.
Still Curious?
We translate. You decide.
Have a term we did not cover? Ask our care coordinators — we add new ones every month.
Call 305-209-3144 or email intake@houseofheartsaba.com. Monday through Friday, 8:30 AM to 6:30 PM.