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2005, Fall

A Message From the ABA President

Update from the SABA President

2006 SABA Fellowship Awardees

2005 SABA Donors

ABA Delegation Goes to Jordan

Think Tank on Metacontingencies and Cultural Analysis

Organizational Members

News from the Behavioral Community

Calendar of Upcoming Conferences

ABA Financial Update

ABA Membership Information

Available from ABA

The Analysis of Verbal Behavior Order Form

SABA Donations

Newsletter

Volume 28 | 2005 | Number 3

Parents and Professionals in Partnership:

Special Interest Group Update

By Suzanne Buchanan, Ph.D., BCBA, and David Celiberti, Ph.D., BCBA

Behavior analysts have long advocated for parents as partners in their child’s education and treatment. For the behavior analyst working with individuals with autism and related disabilities, collaboration with parents is essential. In an effort to formally incorporate the growing number of parents who are seeking information from the Association for Behavior Analysis, we created the Parent-Professional Partnership SIG in 2000. The SIG is intended to serve both parents of children with autism and related disabilities and interested professionals. While the Autism SIG has a long and successful history of providing a forum for professional discussion and networking, the Parent-Professional Partnership SIG will address the specific needs and concerns of parents, particularly parents who are active participants in the ABA conference.

The creation of the Parent-Professional Partnership SIG is a result of a welcome advance in the field of ABA. Over the last decade, there has been an increasing trend in the rate of consumers who are requesting ABA services (e.g., Jacobson, 2000). Greater numbers of parents are becoming knowledgeable about science-based treatments. They assertively advocate for their children’s right to effective education. Some parents have gone the extra mile to promote effective education and treatment for all persons with autism. These parents have created organizations (e.g., Association for Science in Autism Treatment) designed to raise awareness of science-based treatments and to generate the funds necessary to achieve such objectives. Goals of these organizations include helping parents gain access to accurate information and effective services and increasing the number of qualified professionals.

The members of the Parent-Professional Partnership SIG desire to use parents’ perspectives, experiences, and compassion to make the journey easier for others. We also hope that this SIG serves as a forum for discussion among parents and professionals to improve service delivery to families.

The SIG’s has achieved some of its objectives this year such as:

  1. ABA Conference
    1. Providing an orientation letter to the 118 members of the SIG (many of whom are parents) to help them make the most of the upcoming conference experiences and opportunities;
    2. Providing a categorized list of conference events more relevant to parents’ interests (e.g., social skills, communication, toilet training);
    3. Sponsoring a formal conference event on how to enhance parent-professional collaboration;
    4. Hosting an annual business meeting that was attended by approximately 40 parents and professionals;
    5. Participating in the ABA Expo to promote networking and distribute literature and resources on effective collaboration practices; and
    6. Actively soliciting more parent-friendly workshops through an announcement in the Call for Papers.
  2. Supporting the activities of the Autism Special Interest Group (e.g., recruiting content for the quarterly newsletter)
  3. Provided input for the revision of the Autism SIG’s Consumer Guidelines

The SIG will continue its efforts in the coming year to:

  1. Support initiatives to help parents access accurate information from existing resources and web links
  2. Reach parents who are interested in attending the Annual Conference in a more timely manner through:
    1. Local outreach efforts; and
    2. Orientation materials
  3. Assist ABA staff in responding to parental inquiries
  4. Create new resources to help parents become more familiar with ABA services, how to better access such services, and how to better advocate for such services, and how to promote accountability
  5. Continue to support the efforts of the Autism SIG
  6. Launch a webpage

If you are interested in improving parent-professional collaboration or just want to know more about our activities, we strongly encourage you to join the Parent-Professional Partnership SIG. You may contact any one of the officers.

Suzanne Buchanan, Vice President

David Celiberti, President

Ruth Donlin, Secretary/Treasurer

References

Jacobson, J. W. (2000). Early intensive behavioral intervention: Emergence of a consumer-driven service model. The Behavior Analyst, 23, 149-171.

You can obtain information about The Association for Science in Autism Treatment (ASAT) by visiting their website www.asatonline.org.