Stimulus control

Stimulus control means a behavior reliably happens when a certain cue is present and not when it's absent. It forms because the behavior has been rewarded when that cue was there. Behavior analysts call the cue a discriminative stimulus (SD). It signals that a reward is there for that response. For example, a child says "Mary" when asked "What is your name?" and doesn't say it when someone asks another person.

Stimulus control is built through discrimination training, which teaches a child to respond to one cue and not to others. In applied behavior analysis (ABA), much of teaching is building the right stimulus control. Your child should respond to the real instruction or object. A side cue, like the therapist's glance or where a card sits, shouldn't be the signal. Prompts help at first, and the team fades them so the real cue takes over.

Your child may seem to know a skill only with one therapist or one set of materials. Then the skill may be tied to the wrong cue. This is called faulty stimulus control, and it can hold back key goals. That's one reason teams teach across people and places.

Mistakes that repeat in a pattern, such as always picking the same side, can also be learned by accident. In one study, smaller teaching steps fixed the pattern. Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs) run discrimination training, and Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) design it.

• Different people and places: Ask your BCBA how the team checks that your child uses each skill with different people and materials.
• Repeated mistakes: If your child keeps making the same kind of mistake, ask what change to the teaching steps the team will try.
• Practice at home: Ask whether parent training includes practicing new skills with you at home.