What is chaining in ABA?
Chaining is a set of teaching procedures that link the individual steps of a multi-step routine - identified through a task analysis - into one fluent sequence, teaching one step at a time while the rest of the chain is prompted or completed for the learner.
Most daily living skills are chains: handwashing, dressing, packing a bag, making a snack. Chaining procedures teach these by breaking the routine into steps and bringing each step under the control of the one before it, so finishing one step becomes the cue to start the next.
Forward chaining teaches the first step until the learner performs it independently, with the therapist completing the remainder; then the first two steps, and so on. Backward chaining works in reverse - the therapist completes everything except the final step, which the learner performs and then immediately contacts the finished outcome. Total task presentation runs the whole chain every time, prompting whichever steps need it.
The choice between them is clinical. Backward chaining is often favored when completing the routine is itself rewarding, because the learner always ends with the payoff - the snack made, the shoes on. Total task suits learners who already perform many steps and mainly need the sequence linked. Forward chaining follows the natural order, which can make it easier for caregivers to run consistently.
Step-by-step data is what makes chaining manageable. Recording each step as independent, prompted, or missed shows exactly where the chain breaks rather than only whether the routine finished, and the teaching effort moves to that step instead of re-running the whole sequence blind.
Chaining and shaping are complementary rather than interchangeable: chaining links distinct responses into a sequence, while shaping refines a single response by reinforcing closer and closer approximations. A program may use both - shaping a difficult step within a chain that is otherwise being forward-chained.