We are very honored and thankful to the Board of the Society for Advancement of Behavior Analysis for having selected our project entitled "Publication Behavior Analysis From A to Z—promoting the discipline to the public" as one of the recipients of the 2009 International Development Grant.
The project will help in publishing a book entitled Behavior Analysis From A to Z. This publication will be the last stage of a process beginning in January of 2007, when a group of members from the Polish ABA embarked on creating and translating a glossary of behavior analytic terms from English into Polish (for details see Suchowierska, 2008, in Current Repertoire 24, 3). After having prepared the glossary it was decided to enlarge the project into a full book.
Behavior Analysis From A to Z will present, in a concise and original format, information on a developing—but still relatively unknown in Poland—discipline: behavior analysis. In Poland, behavior analysis has been associated mainly with working with children with autism. As there is a great need for individuals skilled in behavior therapy, also in the area of developmental disabilities, interest in behavior analysis has increased drastically over the last 5 years. There are several centers in Poland that offer therapy based on the principles of applied behavior analysis. Thus, many parents, teachers, and paraprofessionals are interested in learning more about this therapy. Unfortunately, there are only a few books that deal comprehensively with behavior analysis that are published in Polish. We hope the proposed book with be a useful recourse for those readers.
Additionally, more and more individuals from the academia, including scientist-practitioners, focus their work on behavior analytic techniques. Many of them teach courses in behavior analysis. In Poland, there are at least four higher-education institutions—Warsaw School of Social Sciences and Humanities (WSSSH), Jagiellonian University, Warsaw University, University of Gdańsk—where such courses are offered regularly. At WSSSH, the first Behavior Analyst Certification Board approved course sequence in applied behavior analysis in the country was established in 2006. Additionally, in 2009, the Department of Behavior Analysis—also the first in the country—was founded at WSSSH. The problem that many lecturers face is lack of publications in Polish that could be recommended to students. Thus, our hope is that the proposed book also will help students interested in behavior analysis.
Finally, there are two associations focusing their interest and activities on behavior analysis and behavior therapy—Polish Society for Behavioral Psychology and Polish Association for Behavior Therapy. We are convinced that authorities of those associations would happily recommend this publication for many of the associations' members. This is the third group of target readers.
The book is in the last stages of being written and it will be most likely published in the spring of 2010 by the Gdańsk Psychological Publications, one of the most well-known publishing companies in Poland. The authors of the book—Przemyslaw Bąbel, Monika Suchowierska, and Paweł Ostaszewski—hope that it will promote behavior analysis to the large number of individuals in different regions of the country and over an extended period of time.