Inside Behavior Analysis
Volume 3 | 2011 | Number 2 | Online ISSN: 2151-4704
Virginia ABA
By Tracy E. Zinn
On April 2, 2011, the Virginia Association for Behavior Analysis (VABA) held its seventh annual meeting. We invited six speakers:
- Heather Jennett (Kennedy Krieger Institute), "Behavioral Assessment and Treatment of Anxiety in Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities"
- Edward Morris (University of Kansas), "The Gernsbacher Lectures Redux: The Good, the Bad, and My Ugly"
- Miranda Reed (West Virginia University), "Altered Reinforce Efficacy: One Explanation for Perseverative Behavior?"
- Bryan Saville (James Madison University), "Interteaching: A Behavioral Approach to Increasing Student Performance and Enjoyment in the Classroom"
- Amber Valentino (Marcus Autism Center), "Verbal Behavior: Overcoming Stimulus Control Problems When Teaching Functional Language to Children With Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities"
- Carole Van Camp (University of North Carolina Wilmington), "Training and Motivating Caregivers to Implement Behavioral Interventions"
In addition, there was also a poster session and social at the end of the day.
Because of a scheduling mistake at the hosting university, VABA was inadvertently scheduled on the same weekend as the First Annual Association of Professional Behavior Analysts Conference in Boston, MA. This resulted in smaller than anticipated attendance at VABA. Nevertheless, we had approximately 60 conference attendees and, by all accounts, there were positive reviews of the conference and speakers. Attendees represented academic institutions, such as West Virginia University, University of North Carolina Wilmington, and James Madison University, as well as organizations such as the Kennedy Krieger Center, Commonwealth Autism Services, and the Virginia Public School System.
VABA is a type 2 accredited continuing education provider (OP-05-0070) for the Behavior Analyst Certification Board and offered six continuing education units (CEU) through attendance at this year's conference. We do not have a final count of the number of CEUs offered in total this year. We see it as one goal of our organization to provide CEUs for the practitioners in our state.
The annual VABA conference is the primary mission of our organization and is its only annual meeting. Membership in VABA includes registration for the annual conference; therefore, we do not distinguish between the number of conference attendees and the size of our organization. The eighth annual VABA conference will be held on March 24, 2012. Because of changes in our leadership, we will be undergoing an election for new officers. Questions about VABA should be directed to Tracy Zinn (zinnte@jmu.edu) in the interim period.