What is extinction in ABA?

Extinction is defined by function, not by appearance. If a behavior has been maintained by attention, extinction means the behavior no longer produces attention. If it was maintained by escape from demands, extinction means the demand no longer goes away. 'Ignoring the behavior' is only extinction when attention was the reinforcer - for an escape-maintained behavior, ignoring it while the task disappears is the opposite of extinction.

Behavior on extinction often gets worse before it gets better. The temporary escalation - more intense, more frequent, sometimes novel forms of the behavior - is called an extinction burst. Teams plan for it: if the escalation gets reinforced ('we held out and then gave in'), the learner has effectively been taught the bigger version.

Modern practice almost never uses extinction alone. It is paired with teaching - most often reinforcing a replacement behavior that serves the same function, so the learner isn't simply losing a tool but trading up to a better one that works more reliably and with less effort.

There are real limits and ethics to weigh. Extinction of dangerous behavior can be unsafe to run; escape extinction in feeding or demand contexts is intrusive enough that many clinicians reach for antecedent and reinforcement-based alternatives first; and consistency is non-negotiable, because intermittent reinforcement - working only sometimes - is exactly the schedule that makes behavior most persistent.

The data signature of extinction done well is a burst, then a decline, alongside a rising line for the replacement skill. A plan whose replacement line stays flat while the target behavior falls is suppressing, not teaching - and that distinction is precisely what session-by-session graphs exist to catch.