Alternative Communication Options for Nonverbality
ABA Therapy vs. NeuroToggle
ABA therapy and NeuroToggle both target skill and behavior development. The difference is in how each framework explains behavior, what it identifies as the problem, and what it targets to create change.
NeuroToggle was developed by Kimberly Kitzerow after observing her daughter struggle to make progress within ABA-based approaches. She shifted to a neuroplasticity-based framework that targets the building of neural circuits that produce skills and behaviors, rather than behavior management through manipulating external variables.
ABA Modifies Behavior. NeuroToggle Builds the Circuitry Behind It.
ABA and NeuroToggle both address behavior and skill development, but they target change differently. ABA focuses on modifying observable behavior through reinforcement and consequence patterns. NeuroToggle focuses on developing the neural circuitry that stores, organizes, and executes the behavior or skill.
Both frameworks target skill and behavior development.
Four behavior functions do not include autonomic states.
These Frameworks Change Behavior Through Different Mechanisms
ABA changes behavior through behavior modification. A NeuroToggle framework changes behavior by targeting the neural circuitry that stores the information for how to perform the skill or behavior. One primarily modifies behavior at the level of observable response patterns. The other develops the circuitry that makes the behavior or skill possible, stable, and increasingly automatic.
Behavior is changed through behavior modification using observable patterns, antecedents, consequences, reinforcement, and behavioral function.
Behavior is changed by developing neural circuits through four principles: building (creating the circuit), strengthening (stabilizing it), timing (coordinating it), and expanding (generalizing it).
The Traditional Four Functions of Behavior
ABA generally evaluates behavior by asking what function it serves. In the traditional four-function model, behavior is interpreted according to the outcome it produces in that moment. The four functions describe contingencies, not whether behavior reflects skill, circuitry, or autonomic state.
Attention
Behavior used to gain attention from others.
Example: Yelling leads to adult attention.
Escape or Avoidance
Behavior used to avoid or end a demand.
Example: Dropping to the floor removes a task.
Access to Tangibles
Behavior used to obtain an item or activity.
Example: Throwing items results in getting a preferred object.
Sensory
Behavior maintained by internal sensory feedback.
Example: Repetitive movement produces a regulating sensation.
Autonomic Behaviors Do Not Fit Cleanly Into the Four Functions
Some behaviors do not originate from learned contingencies. They may reflect autonomic nervous system activation, threat response, or dysregulation. In these cases, the behavior is being driven by state, not by a learned function.
Panic-based avoidance may be read as escape behavior. Shutdown may be read as refusal or inattention. Appeasing behavior may be read as compliance. Hypervigilant control may be read as oppositionality.
When autonomic behaviors are treated as if they are primarily willful or environmentally maintained, intervention can target the wrong problem. Regulation and readiness may need to be addressed before higher-order skills can be expected.
Autonomic States Add Context Beyond the Four Functions
These patterns reflect autonomic nervous system responses to perceived threat. Fight and flight align with a PDA (Pathological Demand Avoidance) profile. Freeze and fawn align with an RSD (Rejection Sensitive Dysphoria) profile.
Fight and Flight
PDA Profile
Threat Through Control
May present as explosive anger, arguing, refusal, controlling interactions, interrupting, aggression, or escalating when demands are experienced as threat.
Threat Through Escape
May present as eloping, avoiding tasks, rushing, panic, restlessness, excessive talking, distraction, or frantic shifting away from demands.
Threat Through Shutdown
May present as shutdown, blanking, staring, inability to initiate, indecision, dissociation, withdrawal, or appearing unresponsive despite internal awareness.
Threat Through Appeasement
May present as people pleasing, compliance without understanding, over-agreement, masking distress, difficulty saying no, or prioritizing others’ emotions to avoid conflict.
Freeze and Fawn
RSD Profile
The Four NeuroToggle Principles for Skill and Behavior Development
NeuroToggle is based on the premise that every behavior and skill is stored and executed through neural circuits. If those circuits are not built, not stable, mistimed, or not integrated, the behavior will be inconsistent or unavailable regardless of reinforcement.
Building
Creating new neural pathways for a skill or behavior that is not yet established.
Example: Teaching a new motor plan, attention pattern, communication routine, or response pathway.
Strengthening
Increasing the efficiency and reliability of an existing neural pathway through repetition and meaningful use.
Example: Practicing a communication response across contexts until it becomes more stable and spontaneous.
Timing
Improving sequencing, coordination, and temporal precision so the skill occurs smoothly and at the right moment.
Example: Supporting initiation timing, motor timing, conversational timing, or inhibition timing.
Expanding
Increasing flexibility so the skill generalizes across settings, partners, demands, and levels of complexity.
Example: Moving from one rehearsed response to flexible use across real situations.
ABA and NeuroToggle Target Change Differently
Observable behavior, antecedent and consequence patterns, and reinforcement contingencies used to increase or decrease specific behaviors.
Building, strengthening, timing, and expanding neural circuits that store and execute the behavior or skill.