Applied behavior analysis, commonly known as ABA therapy, has been around since the late 1960s as a formally defined field, though its roots stretch back to the 1930s. The principles behind it developed over decades before anyone applied them to autism treatment, and the therapy as most families encounter it today took shape through a series of milestones spanning more than 60 years.
The Scientific Roots: 1930s to 1950s
ABA didn’t appear out of nowhere. It grew from a branch of psychology called behaviorism, which studies how consequences shape behavior. B.F. Skinner laid the groundwork with his 1938 book The Behavior of Organisms, where he described the core idea that would eventually power ABA: behaviors that are reinforced tend to happen more often, and behaviors that aren’t reinforced tend to fade. Skinner expanded on this through the 1950s with additional works on how reinforcement schedules work and how language develops through behavioral principles.
These ideas were tested in labs with animals for years before anyone tried applying them systematically to human behavior in clinical settings. That leap took another decade.
First Applications to Autism: The 1960s
In 1960, researchers Charles Ferster and Marian DeMyer became the first to conduct behavioral experiments with autistic children. By 1962, they had published a formal method for experimentally analyzing the behavior of autistic children. Around the same time, researchers at the University of Washington designed a behavioral program for a child diagnosed with childhood schizophrenia (a label commonly applied to autistic children at the time) to reduce tantrums and address sleeping and eating problems.
These early efforts were experimental and small-scale, but they proved something important: the reinforcement principles Skinner had described in the lab could meaningfully change behavior in children with developmental differences.
ABA Gets Its Name: 1968
The field was formally defined in 1968 when the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis published its first issue. In that inaugural issue, researchers Baer, Wolf, and Risley outlined what “applied behavior analysis” actually meant as a discipline, distinguishing it from basic laboratory research. This is the moment most professionals point to as the official birth of ABA. The year 1968 is effectively the field’s founding date, making ABA roughly 57 years old as a named practice.
The UCLA Study That Changed Everything
ABA existed for years as a broad approach to behavior change, applied in schools, institutions, and clinics for a range of conditions. Its deep association with autism treatment came largely from one project. In 1970, psychologist Ivar Lovaas launched the UCLA Young Autism Project, an intensive early intervention program that applied ABA principles to young autistic children for up to 40 hours per week. When Lovaas published outcomes from this project in 1987, the results drew enormous attention and essentially established intensive ABA as the dominant early intervention model for autism.
The UCLA project shaped how ABA therapy is still commonly structured today: early start (often before age 5), high intensity, one-on-one sessions, and a focus on building communication, social, and daily living skills through systematic reinforcement. It also sparked ongoing debate about the intensity and goals of the therapy, conversations that continue in the autism community.
Professional Standards and Certification
For the first three decades of ABA’s existence, there was no standardized credentialing for practitioners. Anyone could claim to practice ABA without meeting specific training requirements. That changed in 1998 when the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) was established as a nonprofit to create professional certification standards. The BACB introduced the Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) credential, which requires a graduate degree, supervised clinical hours, and passing an exam.
The field has grown dramatically since then. As of April 2026, there are 83,586 individuals holding BCBA certification. That number reflects explosive growth, particularly over the last 15 years, driven largely by rising autism diagnoses and expanding insurance coverage.
Insurance Coverage and Access
For most of ABA’s history, families paid out of pocket for therapy, which can cost tens of thousands of dollars per year at the intensive levels many providers recommend. That began to shift in 2001, when Indiana became the first state to pass a mandate requiring health insurance to cover autism treatment, including ABA. Other states followed gradually. By October 2015, 43 states and Washington, D.C., had enacted autism insurance reform mandates.
These mandates transformed ABA from a therapy accessible mainly to families with significant financial resources into one that most insured families could access. They also fueled the rapid growth in BCBA certification and the expansion of ABA provider organizations across the country.
How ABA Has Evolved Over Time
The ABA practiced today looks quite different from what Lovaas implemented in the 1970s. Early approaches relied heavily on structured, repetitive drills at a table, sometimes called “discrete trial training.” Modern ABA increasingly incorporates play-based and naturalistic methods, where therapists work within a child’s everyday activities and interests rather than drilling isolated skills in a clinical setting. Many practitioners now prioritize goals chosen by the family and the individual rather than focusing primarily on compliance or reducing behaviors that look different but aren’t harmful.
The field has also faced meaningful criticism, particularly from autistic adults who went through ABA as children. Common concerns include the historical focus on making autistic children appear neurotypical rather than supporting their wellbeing, and the intensity of early programs. These critiques have pushed many modern ABA providers to adopt more flexible, child-led approaches and to center the therapy around skills the individual actually wants or needs, like communication and independence, rather than surface-level conformity.
From Skinner’s lab work in 1938 to a field with over 83,000 certified practitioners and insurance coverage in nearly every state, ABA’s development spans close to nine decades of scientific evolution. As a formally named discipline, it has been around since 1968. As the intensive autism intervention most families recognize today, it dates to the 1970s and 1980s, with the infrastructure of certification and insurance access arriving only in the last 25 years.