Newsletter
Volume 30 | 2007 | Number 2
Polish ABA
By Dr. Monika Suchowierska
Making Steady Progress Introducing Behavior Analysis to Students, Parents and Professionals
The Polish Association for Behavior Analysis (PABA) was funded in 2000 by Jacek Kozlowski, Ph.D. and his colleagues at the University of Gdansk. Since 2000, PABA has been fulfilling its goals of developing and disseminating knowledge about behavior analysis as a science of behavior and about radical behaviorism of B. F. Skinner as a philosophy of this science. In seven years, PABA’s efforts have concentrated on disseminating knowledge about conceptual, experimental and applied behavior analysis to students and professionals interested in behavioral approaches in Poland. Specifically, in 2006 we had the following accomplishments (in chronological order):
- In May 2006, Warsaw School of Social Psychology has approved the first in the country program in applied behavior analysis (also approved by the Behavior Analysis Certification Board) for master-level students in Psychology as well as for students who have already graduated (Dr. Monika Suchowierska is the director of that specialization). There were some 20 students enrolled in the program. They graduated in June 2007 and at least eight of them are seeking certification as Board Certified Behavior Analysts.
- Dr. Monika Suchowierska became the Associate Editor of the Behavior Analysis Digest (BAD) and is currently working with Professor Wyatt on making a transition from an English-only BAD to English-and-Polish BAD so the journal can be read in Poland more widely.
- During the 32nd ABA conference in Atlanta, Dr. Monika Suchowierska met with Drs. Maria Malott and Simon Dymond to discuss a possibility of organizing the first PABA conference in late 2007. The conference is planned to be held in November 2007 at the Warsaw School of Social Psychology.
- In Atlanta, PABA presented a poster which attracted many visitors and showed them history, goals, and accomplishments of our organization.
- Dr. Monika Suchowierska has become an advisor to the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies.
- PABA has assumed a patronage over the Center for Early Intervention Step by Step, the first private institution in Warsaw that offers early intensive behavioral intervention to children with developmental and behavior disorders.
- Members of PABA have been working on a glossary of behavior-analytic terms in Polish - a list of 800 terms have been selected, currently those terms and their definitions are being translated from English into Polish, we hope to have a first draft of the entire glossary by November 2007.
- In November 2006, a new term has began for PABA and a new President (Dr. Monika Suchowierska) as well as a new Board of Directors has been elected (Professor Pawel; Ostaszewski, Jacek Kozowski, Ph.D., Agnieszka Aksamit-Ramotowska, MA, Wojciech Bialaszek, MA).
- In December 2006, Warsaw School of Social Psychology (WSSP) received a grant for a transatlantic exchange of students between WSSP, University of Debrecen, Debrecen, Hungary and the Marshall University, Huntington, West Virginia. Each university will have a “trademark” course that is only offered at that university. The trademark course for WSSP is “Introduction to Applied Behavior Analysis” taught by Dr. Monika Suchowierska.
- Board members of PABA continue teaching courses on behavior analysis at the University of Gdansk, the Warsaw University, and the Warsaw School of Social Psychology; four meetings of PTAB have been held during which four lectures were given.
Although we are proud of PABA’s accomplishments in the last year, we have set high goals for ourselves for the next year. In 2007-2008 we plan to: 1) hold the first conference of PABA; 2) publish the first issue of the Behavior Analysis Digest in Polish, 3) publish a glossary of behavior-analytic terms in Polish and 4) increase membership.