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The Impact of Changing Social Systems on Behavioral Practice: Overcoming Barriers to Providing Socially Valid Behavioral Interventions |
| Sunday, January 20, 2019 |
| 11:30 AM–12:20 PM |
| Grand Ballroom A-C |
| Area: AUT; Domain: Service Delivery |
| Instruction Level: Intermediate |
| CE Instructor: Traci Cihon, Ph.D. |
| Chair: Christine Milne (Autism Partnership Foundation; Endicott College) |
| TRACI CIHON (University of North Texas) |
 Traci M. Cihon, PhD, BCBA-D is an Associate Professor in the Department of Behavior Analysis at The University of North Texas (UNT). She teaches graduate level courses in Behavior Principles; Verbal Behavior; and Legal, Ethical and Professional Issues. She oversees the Teaching Science Lab, which is a system that designs, delivers, and evaluates the undergraduate Introduction to Behavior Analysis courses and she co-supervises the Cultural Selection Lab. Dr. Cihon has worked in several clinical and academic systems including public and private sectors in both school and home settings in and outside of the US with a variety of individuals with disabilities, children who are at-risk for school failure, and university students. Her scholarship focuses on verbal behavior, international and interdisciplinary dissemination of behavior analysis, behavior analysis as applied to social issues – namely education, and cultural selection and has published in a number of peer-reviewed journals both within and outside of the field of behavior analysis. Dr. Cihon serves on the editorial boards for several major disciplinary and non-disciplinary peer-reviewed journals such as The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, the American Annals of the Deaf, Perspectives on Behavior Science, and she is an Associate Editor for Behavior and Social Issues. |
| Abstract: The rise in popularity (for good reason of course) of interventions based on behavior analytic principles for individuals with autism has changed the contingencies for those who provide the behavioral interventions for individuals with autism. Specifically, a number of systems-level practices and/or regulations have been established or have evolved by a variety of governing organizations (e.g., the licensing boards and certifying organizations, university-based training programs in behavior analysis and related disciplines) and social systems (e.g., economic, education, health care). Many of these practices and/or regulations have been established or have evolved due to the need to process increasing numbers of clients who are being served or increasing numbers of those providing/coordinating the service provision. These practices and/or regulations might serve several functions – from strengthening to evocative to selective. For example, they set the occasion for individual behaviors to be reinforced (or not) or punished, they restrict the repertoire of potential responses that are likely to be emitted, and they condition or perhaps make different classes of reinforcers more available. Each of us – practitioner, scientist-practitioner, student, researcher, professor – should be engaging in the complex contingency analyses that elucidate how these practices and/or regulations affect our behaviors with respect to our contributions to our science, our discipline, our research, our practice, and most importantly to the education and training of behavior analysts in order to ensure that we are engaging in a scientific approach to socially valid behavior change. |
| Target Audience: Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students. |
| Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, participants will be able to: (1) list some of the practices and/or regulations that have been established or have evolved by a variety of governing organizations and social systems that have changed the contingencies for those who provide the behavioral interventions for individuals with autism; (2) describe the effects these practices and/or regulations may have on our behaviors with respect to our contributions to our science, our discipline, our research, our practice, and on the education and training of behavior analysts; (3) state at least one way in which they might adjust their research, practice, and/or education and training of behavior analysts repertoire to ensure that we are engaging in a scientific approach to socially valid behavior change. |
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