Newsletter
Volume 29 | 2006 | Number 2
Behavior Analysis Association of Michigan
By Dr. James T. Todd
The two major activities of the Behavior Analysis Association of Michigan (BAAM) this year have been enhancing the Association’s presence on the worldwide Web and conducting its annual convention. Both efforts have been successful and will continue.
BAAM’s Web presence has been considerably enhanced by several additions to its Web site and regular content updates. BAAM is now the top-listed “BAAM” on Yahoo and other search engines, and BAAM content increasingly appears in the top ten items on searches for certain topics in behavior analysis. BAAM has added several new pages of links and resources on topics such as “Behavior News,” autism, journals of interest to behavior analysts, behavioral history, book reviews, and “Behavioral Q&A.” BAAM is the only organization to offer a comprehensive set of links to the laws, rules, and guidelines concerning the practice of psychology in Michigan. BAAM gained significant worldwide visibility this year by creating a mechanism for interested people and organizations to become signatories to its 1998 resolution on lack of scientific evidence for facilitated communication. The resolution now has approximately 350 signatories, with a few more added each month. Due to the visibility of the signatory effort, BAAM has received inquiries about autism and developmental disabilities from media outlets in the United States, Europe, and Australia. Visibility in other areas has increased as well. An item comparing the behavioral capabilities of dogs and cats from BAAM’s “Behavioral Q&A” section is quoted in the forthcoming book, Waiting for Your Cat to Bark?: Persuading Customers When They Ignore Marketing by Bryan Eisenberg, Jeffrey Eisenberg, and Lisa T. Davis (Thomas Nelson Publishers). The most recent significant addition to the site is a set of downloadable demonstrations of basic schedules of reinforcement, each of which includes user definable schedule parameters, and a real-time, on-screen cumulative recorder. The demonstrations may be run in a Web browser or used as stand-alone applicants on computers with Macintosh and Windows operating systems. The demonstrations are free for personal and classroom use.
The major event of the year for BAAM was its 20 th annual convention, held March 23-24, 2006 at the McKenny Union Building at Eastern Michigan University in Ypsilanti, Michigan. The theme of the 2006 convention was “Real Science, Real Treatment, Real Independence, Real Dignity.” The opening day of the convention was marked by a proclamation of “Behavior Analysis Association of Michigan 20th Anniversary Day.” The proclamation was granted by the mayor of Ypsilanti, Cheryl Farmer, and read at the opening of the convention by city council member, Brian Filipiak.
The convention theme was selected in response to the growing influence of pseudoscience, non-science, and anti-science on Michigan disability advocacy, treatment selection, IDEA implementation, and university instruction in autism. Consistent with its theme, the BAAM convention featured a variety of papers, posters, and other presentations on the essential role of science in the analysis of behavior. Keynote speaker Murray Sidman explored the question of why many people do not value science as behavior analysts do in his address, “Why Isn’t Everyone Like Us?” A panel discussion featuring Murray Sidman, Jack Michael, Mark Sundberg, James Mulick, and James Todd considered the subject of “Science, Pseudoscience, Non-science in the Analysis of Behavior.” Todd also presented an account of facilitated communication training sessions that he and behavior analyst Krista M. Kennedy (Behavioral Building Blocks) had attended. Todd and Kennedy’s observations, described in “Strangers in a Strange Land: A First-Hand Behavior Analytic Account of Facilitated Communication Training,” indicated that facilitated communication advocates are highly skilled at using testimonials, emotional appeals, and simple demonstrations to convince their audiences of the effectiveness of facilitated communication. Some behavior analysts, in contrast, fail to engage with clients on a personal level, often approaching behavior analysis advocacy from an academic point of view even when their potential audience is more interested in getting treatment for a child with autism than in becoming a behavior analyst. James Mulick gave a special invited address on science and pseudoscience in autism treatment: “Fads, Fashion and Science in Autism Treatment.” Mulick’s address was so well attended that it had to be moved to a ballroom to accommodate the audience. A contrasting view by Phil Smith of Eastern Michigan University’s Special Education Department questioned the scientific status of behavior analysis, and advocated taking a “post-modern” perspective in which the legitimacy and effectiveness of non-scientific approaches such as facilitated communication could be accepted. Somewhat disappointing, but entirely understandable, was the cancellation of a presentation James Randi for health reasons. Mr. Randi’s talk, “Quackery and Health Scams in the New Millennium,” had garnered considerable public attention due to his million-dollar challenge to the Oakland County (Michigan) Chapter of the Autism Society of America to demonstrate the validity of facilitated communication, which the Oakland County group strongly promotes and advocates. Fortunately, Mr. Randi is recovering, and BAAM may reschedule his presentation.
The BAAM convention also had its usual mix of presentations, posters, and other events in all areas of behavior analysis: theoretical, historical, conceptual, applied, basic, and professional. Workshops on behavioral treatments for developmental disabilities by Mark Sundberg and John and Barbara Esch were especially well attended. Peter Holmes gave an interesting and informative account of the history of BAAM. Students and faculty from Western Michigan University were well represented in talks and in the poster session. Jay Moore came in from Milwaukee to give another excellent address on conceptual and theoretical issues. In all, approximately 100 presenters and 250 attendees represented approximately 40 universities, agencies, and institutions in Michigan, Pennsylvania, New York, Wisconsin, Illinois, Indiana, New York, Ohio, Minnesota, West Virginia, California, Nevada, and Ontario. We were especially honored to have Jerry Mertens and students come all the way (by car) from Minnesota’s St. Cloud State University. We were also very pleased that Paul Andronis and others from Northern Michigan University made the nearly 500-mile drive from Michigan’s Upper Peninsula to Ypsilanti for the meeting. The growing contingent of behavior analysts from Ohio State University continues to enhance the BAAM program. Others, too numerous to name individually, also contributed significantly to the academic and intellectual excellence of this year’s convention.
Special thanks are due to the BAAM staff, Heather Anson, Joseph Golson, Jennifer Bullock, and Erin Lynch and their team of volunteers, for doing an excellent job managing the convention. The staff of the McKenny Union facility did their usual great job with the facilities, anticipating and solving all of the inevitable last-minute changes and problems that come with a meeting like BAAM’s. Eastern Michigan’s catering staff created and provided excellent refreshments. The success of the convention must also be attributed to the efforts of a host of people on whose past contributions we have built: these include previous convention managers Janet L. Pietrowski, Krista M. Kennedy, Gina Truesdell-Todd, Amy Yurk, and Katherine Holverstott-Cockrell, and especially previous BAAM Secretary/Treasurer Peter Holmes. Holmes guided BAAM from its founding 20 years ago through its first decade to become a significant organization in Michigan and an asset to the behavior analysis community worldwide.
BAAM is making plans to tentatively hold its 21st annual convention on March 22-23, 2007 in Eastern Michigan University’s new student union and events facility that is currently nearing completion. The 2007 BAAM convention will again offer a mix of basic, applied, and theoretical presentations and workshops. We plan to continue to expand the number and variety of CEUs we sponsor. On-line program submission and registration will again be available, and we look forward to adding even more sessions, more refreshments, and other new convention features. For more information, visit the BAAM Web site at our address: www.baam.org.
The Behavior Analysis Association of Michigan has been organized to support and promote scientific research on the basic principles of behavior and the extension of those principles to create demonstrably effective and humane outcome-based therapies with the primary goal of establishing and enhancing functional independent living skills.