Inside Behavior Analysis
Volume 1 | 2009 | Number 1
ABA Colombia
By Wilson Lopez-Lopez, María Constanza Aguilar Bustamante, Luis Manuel Silva, and Camilo Hurtado
This year, ABA Colombia has worked on developing projects associated to the Iberoamerican Federation of Psychology Faculties (FIAP), including the consolidation of the PSICOREDALYC Psychology Journal Network, consisting of more than 40 Ibero-American Psychology Journals (its Web site is http://redalyc.uaemex.mx/portales/areas/indices/psicologia/IndexPsicologia.jsp). Most of them have their articles in full text available. Other goals include the development of new tools to identify uses of information and the dynamics of the communities’ communications and relationships. These new tools will enable researchers and research managers to assess a part of the research activity and to promote decisions that improve research management. On the other hand, we’ve worked with the Spanish College of Psychologists in the development of FOCAD, a free internet-based learning tool that has performed well in its first tests in Spain. In its version designed for FIAP, first-level professors from Latin America, Spain, and Portugal will participate, and it will be hosted in FIAP’s Web site. The President of ABA Colombia was designated as Secretary General of the FIAP, with the challenge of accompanying the forthcoming Ibero-American Congress of Psychology which will take place in Oviedo, Spain, in 2011. He also intends to carry out the aforementioned projects and promote new goals.
ABA Colombia has also undertaken a permanent accompaniment of autism-related work. In this capacity, and together with the Faculty of Psychology at the Santo Tomas University, ABA’s President organized a course entitled “The Use of ABA Methodology for the Treatment of Autism and Other Development Disorders” http://www.abacolombia.org.co/postnuke/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=394&mode=thread&order=0&thold=0. This course was coordinated by María Constanza Aguilar and instructed by three professors: Psychologist Benjamin Giraldo, the head of ABA Colombia’s autism and special population division and who is trained in Special Education and has worked with Melmark—a private school—since 2001; Professor Hermencia García; and Professor Claudia Liliana Valencia. The course was a success, attended by more than 60 people from different places in Colombia and even from neighboring countries. An alliance with the University was proposed in order to develop further courses in this line.
The main challenge is to look for routes that let us strengthen the education and certification in the use of ABA methodology in Colombia for working with populations with special needs. This is emphasized by the fact that there is a growing need in Colombia for ensuring quality of attention to this population. ABA Colombia is trying to find support to consolidate education in ABA methodology so that appropriate certification can be extended to work with this methodology. We’re currently working in the development of protocols designed to verify whether an organization or individual (upon request) are rigorous users of the methodology. We hope to get the support of ABAI in carrying out these two activities.