User:Kbischoff99/Evaluate an Article

Which article are you evaluating?
Applied behavior analysis

Why you have chosen this article to evaluate?
I chose this article to evaluate because this is the field I want to go in when I graduate. I always feel like you can never learn enough about what you're studying.

Evaluate the article
Lead Section

-      This article does a good job on explaining what applied behavior analysis is and how it used. On the other hand, it does not briefly describe the type of methods that are used further down in the article. The lead includes statements on the controversy of ABA and where is it compared to "dog training" but it does not mention it anywhere else in the article. It is concise in its details but I think it could leave out a few details such as the other types of behavior modifications as well as the controversial topics of ABA since it was not further clarified in the article.

Content

-      The content of this article is well thought out and gives out multiple methodologies on what ABA does and how it measures behaviors. It also gives articles on the results of ABA interventions as well as stating that more research is being done to help fully understand what types of methods work best for different stimuli such as: age, IQ, intervention starting age, and differences in disabilities. I like how the article also has updates on the efficacy of ABA. One thing I would change is that the article summarizes the findings from 2007-2009 and 2010-2019 but did not summarize the 2020-onward reviews, they only left an article link. On the other hand, the article does not focus on many positives of ABA, it mainly states the negatives and how the therapy can be aversive. Overall, I think the article has educational information on what ABA is and how it used.

Tone and balance

-      The tone in the article is mostly neutral since it is stating what ABA is and does. There are a few sections where I feel the tone can be a little negative and biased such as "focusing on changing autistic behaviors for the benefit of the parent and not the child." But overall it does a good job at staying neutral.

Sources and references

-      There is an abundance of sources that are relevant and reliable. Although I did find a reference that did not make sense in the article. The reference number 9 focuses on self-assessment of blood glucose level by a memory impaired woman with diabetes and in the article it was referenced by "rehabilitation of brain injury." When you click on the reference link it takes you to the article it is referring to but no where in the article does it mention ABA therapy.

Organization and writing

-      The article is put together very well and all the headings and subheadings match up with the information given. The article is easy to follow and the details are worded in a way that is easy to understand.

Images and media

-      There is images or media in this article.

Talk page discussion

-      This article is apart of three Wikiprojects: Psychology (Mid-importance), Autism (Mid-importance), and Education (Low-importance). There are a lot of authors contributing to this article to try and make it as educational, informative, and as neutral as possible. Most of the authors have pointed out the same biased phrasing that I saw.

Overall impressions

-      My overall impression of this article is very good. It does need a few changes but the information given about what ABA is and how it is executed is informative and interesting to read. I believe if someone read this article with no clue what ABA is, they would come out having a well detailed understanding, but would need to do a little more research on certain areas.