Association for Behavior Analysis International

Navigating graduate school and academic life, and meeting the diverse needs of the families and individuals we serve requires more than the technical skills emphasized in most training programs. This symposium presents four papers exploring novel and efficient ways to support students and practitioners in navigating common challenges, such as public speaking, addressing burnout, communicating with caregivers, and ethically expanding their scope of competence and practice to new areas. The first paper explores the effects of values clarification, acceptance, and awareness training on speech disfluencies in college students. The second explores the effects of Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) on values-directed and supervisory behaviors in BCBAs, with a specific focus on reducing burnout and stress. The third paper presents a novel procedure for establishing relationship-building skills in ABA practitioners. The final paper presents key challenges and considerations for applied behavior analysts attempting to ethically and effectively integrate ACT into their practice.

The topics extend beyond the foundations of ABA. Recommended for advanced graduate students and BCBA's. Topics include teaching and supervising non-clinical adult population; and advanced functional assessment.

Avoidance of public speaking opportunities impedes success across work, education, and social contexts (e.g., Bördlein & Sander, 2019). Addressing speech disfluencies and public speaking anxiety is thus an important area of intervention. A randomized crossover design was used to assess the effects of awareness training (AT), values clarification (VC), and acceptance-based (AB) procedures (delivered via a digital meeting platform) on speech disfluencies in college students. Participants' performance during three short speeches (e.g., 3-5 min) was assessed at baseline and post-intervention by confederate audience members. Participants also rated their own anxiety and speaking behaviors. Results suggested decreased speech disfluencies for all participants, regardless of treatment sequence. However, the AT-VC-AB group demonstrated more rapid decreases across speech disfluencies, while the VC-AB-AT group demonstrated greater psychological flexibility and reduced distress post-intervention. Future implications and recommendations for future research are also discussed.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has led to an interest in the potential mitigating effects of psychological flexibility on stress and burnout in practitioners (Fiebig, Gould, Ming, & Watson, 2020). Acceptance and commitment training (ACT) is one approach that has used to promote psychological flexibility in the workplace, including within ABA settings (Pingo, Dixon, & Paliliunas, 2019).This study utilized a multiple baseline design across participants to examine the effects of a two-day ACT workshop on values-directed behaviors in BCBAs, specifically engagement in self-care and self-compassion. Measures included self-monitoring data with respect to values-directed actions, pre-and post- measures of psychological flexibility (AAQ, CAQ-8) and stress (Burnout Questionnaire; Perceived Stress Scale), and performance on a 10-item checklist designed to assess supervisory behaviors. Results indicate that, in addition to reduced stress, burnout, and psychological inflexibility, ACT may have a positive impact on valuing and supervisory performance in BCBAs. Future implications and recommendations are also discussed.

Skillfully and ethically delivered ACT-based interventions have the potential to produce powerful, socially significant outcomes within ABA settings (e.g., Castro et al., 2016; Gould et al., 2017). This paper examines the use of ACT and language as intervention within ABA contexts and raises important conceptual, ethical and practical concerns for practitioners. In particular, we emphasize that the explicit use of functional assessment (FA) is necessary for any intervention said to be behavior analytic, and to ensure the design and implementation of effective, context-sensitive interventions (Sandoz et al., 2021). We argue that the apparent omission of explicit FA within the ACT literature is concerning and that while BCBAs may be well-positioned to integrate ACT into their practice, they must ensure this is done in a way that is consistent with their specific scope of competence and practice as behavior analysts.