Association for Behavior Analysis International

Most individuals who are providing behavioral services are likely to receive more of their training in their agencies than they received in pre-service training. In some instances, agency-based training is the only training that the service providers will receive. In spite of this state of affairs, there is precious little attention given to how that training is delivered. There are often significant constraints on training that result in poorly designed training. If we accept that training is a method for skill acquisition then the training should be designed in ways that increase the probability of skill acquisition. This symposium will address the various issues associated with staff training as it is commonly practiced, propose a template for guiding training decisions, and provide an example of staff training done well.

While there is general consensus among Precision Teachers regarding the desired outcomes these procedures for building behavior frequency, standard practice varies with regard to certain procedural aspects. Very little published comparative evidence exists to guide instructors when making such methodological decisions. While a description, analysis and comparison of all these variations in clinical practice of Precision Teaching is beyond the scope of this symposium, an attempt will be made to continue to address a few of these procedural questions.

Functional assessment procedures are the gold standard used to assess the causes of a wide range of maladaptive behaviors. Over the past several years, researchers have assessed the influence of a myriad of variables that could influence functional analysis results. By doing so, client treatment has improved in quality. This symposium reports the results of several extensions of functional analysis methodology and suggests clinical implications of the findings.

Behavioral interventions have proven to be effective in reducing problem behaviors exhibited by individuals with developmental disabilities. Despite the efficacy of this technology, there continue to be barriers to long-term treatment success. One such barrier is effective parent and staff or teacher training. The purpose of this symposium is to present research in recent advances in parent/staff training. The goal is to facilitate a meaningful discussion of training, which we hope will promote a growth of research in this area.

Teaching parent to be effective behavior change agents can be a difficult process. This sysmposium will further the current literature on parent training in a number of ways. The first paper successfully demonstrated that they were able to teach 14 parents of preschool children with autism to conduct paired stimulus preference assessments within a 90 min training session. The second paper evaluated the effect of training parents on principles of Applied Behavior Analysis with respect to their treatment integrity as well as their level of acceptablity of the behavior plan. The third paper assessed the efficacy of various parent training components in an addivitve fashion in an effort to identify the most necessary training component. Finally, the papers will be synthesized with respect to their collection implications for training parents as behavior change agents, the merits of each of the research projects, and with respect to future directions.

This symposium will present three papers dealing with suicidal behavior in adults with developmental disabilities. The first paper is an overview of the prevalance of suicidal behavior in adults with developmental disabilities. The second paper is a case study of an adult male with Developmental Disabilities, and a lengthy history of suicidal behavior. Treatment approaches are reviewed along with data from the interventions. The third paper is a case study of an adult female with developmental disabilities and a lengthy history of suicidal behavior. Treatment approaches are reviewed along with analysis of the data from the interventions.

The VB-MAPP is designed to assess the verbal and social repertoires of a child with autism or other developmental disabilities in a brief and efficient manner. This assessment tool is based on Skinners analysis of verbal behavior, typical language developmental milestones, and field-test data from over 60 typically developing children and over 100 children with autism. The VB-MAPP contains 150 verbal behavior milestones across 3 levels and 14 different skill areas, as well as a more detailed task analysis and progress scoring system for each verbal operant. The results from the VB-MAPP assessment will suggest specific IEP goals, where to place a child in the verbal behavior curriculum, and will correspond with the specific intervention procedures designed to teach the absent or defective repertoires. The current symposium will present the basic components of the VB-MAPP as well as field-data from typical children, and children with autism.

The identification of potent reinforcers is a critical component of any behavior change program. Systematic investigations of the variables that affect preference and reinforcer assessment outcomes continue to be an active area research, and a topic of interest to many practiceners of applied behavior analysis. The papers in this symposium assess the effects of several procedures on the outcome of preference and reinforcer assessments. These variables include delayed selection, characteristics of reinforcers (quality, magitude and delay), time since preference assessment, and the combination of preference and reinforcer assessments. The papers utilize a variety of participants including individuals with developmental disabilities, preschoolers, and individuals with Prader-Willi Syndrome. These studies serve to highlight the range of variables, within several populations, that can affect the outcome of preference and reinforcer assessments.

Although behavioral treatment methods have been established as efficacious for children with autism in laboratory settings, research examining their translation into service systems is virtually nonexistent. This symposium will present current research on how evidence-based interventions are used in education programs for children with autism. First, we will present an examination of the use of behavioral techniques by 80 early intervention providers. Their understanding of evidence-based practices and their adaptation of techniques will be discussed. Ninety-one percent reported using at least one behavioral technique in their programs; providers typically combined up to seven methods, and modified techniques based on child, personal and external factors. Next, we will present results of a study examining fidelity of teacher use of a specific behavioral intervention, Pivotal Response Training (PRT). Teachers received either traditional training or training specifically designed for classroom settings. Fidelity of implementation of PRT varied with the amount and type of training teachers received. Finally, we will discuss the incorporation of behaviorally-based parent training programs into community educational services, including how it is "working" in the real world (e.g., how many districts & families served, consumer satisfaction). Recommendations for improving effective translation of behavioral methods into community settings will be presented.

"A common cliche is that education is a complex endeavor. We examine at least a portion of this complexity in a number of ways. In its overall operation what does an educational system require in order to be successful? It requires a proper organizational structure as well as the proper science from which successful engineering practices can be drawn. It requires as well more than just a statement of the requirement. It requires a long-term demonstration of a successful model of instruction over a sufficiently diverse set of students and schools to provide a factual basis for evaluation of that success, and as important, for evaluation as to how to move beyond current gains. It also requires an analysis of the historical background by which such a model was set in place. Each of the participantsTucci, Scutta, and Vargasaddress each of these requirements separately, and to some degree, address the considerations pertinent to one across to the others."

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New research has shown that a baby that will eventually develop autism begins the first months of his life with seemingly normal social behavior; he smiles and coos and appears indistinguishable from other children. In fact, two new prospective studies followed infants at risk for autism (by virtue of having an older sibling with the disorder) from birth into toddlerhood and found no differences in social or language behavior from normally developing infants during the first six months of life (Zwaigenbaum, et al., 2005; Landa, et al., 2006). By the time infants were one year old, however, signs of autism that included increased passivity and abnormal attention and language development were in evidence. These findings are consistent with retrospective studies that have shown reduced responding to name and abnormal social interaction skills at the first birthday parties of infants later diagnosed as autistic. What has gone wrong in the developing brains of children with autism? Despite over 60 years of close scientific scrutiny, this essential question remains unanswered. While social behavior is complex and relies on the normal development of a host of systems relating to attention, language, and emotion processing, it also relies heavily on the normal development of face processing. Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is a non-invasive technique that capitalizes on the fact that rates of blood flow change in the brain when humans engage in a particular task (e.g., a math problem) or activity (e.g., daydreaming). fMRI as a research tool has been used extensively to study face processing in autism. Most studies focus on the fusiform gyrus, a brain region in the temporal lobe that contains an area in the middle lateral portion that responds strongly to faces (i.e., the Fusiform Face Area, or FFA). If functional responding in the fusiform appears abnormal in autism, it would not be surprising that higher-order cognitive functions that rely on the ability to interpret a face, such as theory of mind and emotion perception, would also be impaired. It is thus essential that this first step in understanding the social mind of autistic individuals, that is, testing the ability to decode information from a face, be tested thoroughly. This presentation will discuss the following: 1. The development of social behavior, particularly face perception, in normally developing infants and children; 2. Face processing fMRI research with adults and children with auti

This symposium will address effective treatment of students with severe behavior disorders who have a history of not responding to traditional positive-only programs. The first presenter will present various case studies of specific students. A review of the students treatment histories will also be discussed and behavioral charts will be shown to document the students behavioral improvement. The second presenter will discuss the implementation of contingent skin shock as a supplement to positive behavior programming for students with significant histories of severe behavior disorders. Safeguards to ensure the proper implementation of the skin shock will also be discussed. A demonstration of the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED) used at the Judge Rotenberg Center will be provided. The third presentation will include the effects of sudden fading of the contingent skin shock device. Case studies will be discussed and behavioral charts presented documenting the behavioral regressions when the GED is faded abruptly. Finally, case studies will be presented showing the successful fading of the GED.

B. F. Skinner took over 20 years to complete his book Verbal Behavior. In this talk, we address the development of his analysis. Our sources include major life events, publications, and notes Skinner wrote over the years, especially those written for his 1947 William James Lectures. We discuss the notes he made after the books publication in 1957. As with any evolutionary development, we also point to the effect of his analysis and to some of the directions in which it is now going.

These four presentations focus on behavioral training with parents of children in the child welfare system. Two presentations focus on the SafeCare model parenting program. The first presentation discusses the efficacy of the model in preventing child maltreatment, replications of the model in other areas of the country, and implications on staff training. The second presentation focuses on replication of the SafeCare model for assessment and training in home-based and clinic-based settings. The final 2 presentations focus on a parent training curriculum designed to increase parenting skills. One presentation focuses on evaluating potential effects of the curriculum on skill acquisition; repeated administration of quizzes showed systematic acquisition as a function of specific skills taught. The other presentation discusses methods to evaluate placement stability, such as duration and rate of placement changes, and the implications of these measures on evaluating potential effectiveness of the training curriculum. In general, all presentations discuss models of extending applied behavior analysis in parent training; specifically in child welfare. Furthermore, all presentations show therapeutic effects of training with this unique population, with discussions on methodological issues, outcomes, and future directions for research.

Physically holding an individual and using confinement timeout are common procedures used with individuals who exhibit severe aggression and self injury to ensure that they do not hurt themselves or others. It is incumbent upon clinicians to make sure the intrusiveness of these procedures is minimized without compromizing safety. The presentations in this symposium involve emprical evaluations of decreasing the intrusiveness of protective procedures while taking into account the behavioral effects of these procedures.

Mistakes made during the implementation of treatments (frequently called "treatment integrity failures") can lead to decreases in treatment efficacy. The research presented in this symposium examines the impact of treatment integrity failures on common components of behavioral interventions for persons with disabilities. These interventions include both response-acquisition and response-reduction procedures. Weiss, Libby, and Paquette examine the effects of degradations in procedural integrity on acquisition of a novel, arbitrary response with 3 participants with autism. Two papers examine the effects of integrity failures on response-reduction procedures. Pabico, Roane, and Kelley examine the effects of a particular type of integrity failure, delay, in a punishment procedure. Finally, St. Peter Pipkin and Vollmer used a non-clinical population (college students) to determine possible effects of treatment integrity failures on DRA treatments. All three papers showed some detrimental impact of treatment integrity failures on intervention outcome. Results will be discussed in terms of the potential effects of treatment integrity failures on treatment outcome.

When children are struggling academically, it is not uncommon for their parents to be involved with assisting homework or providing extra tutoring. Effective tutoring requires time, resources, knowledge and skill in instructional techniques that many parents may not posses. In such cases, parents may benefit from training in individualized instructional strategies developed to improve their childs academic progress. This symposium presents information and research regarding training parents to implement academic interventions to improve childrens academic progress. Clinical and school-based cases will be presented detailing procedures for training parents to implement academic interventions. Data will be presented regarding the identification of effective instructional strategies for individual children using brief experimental analysis procedures. Data on parents implementation of academic interventions and childrens academic progress will be presented. Information in this symposium will link directly with research literature on parent training, brief experimental analysis of academic interventions, and effective instruction. Participants will acquire practical knowledge and ideas for future research on training parents to implement academic interventions and innovative strategies for using brief experimental analysis to identify effective academic interventions.

This symposium will present four studies involving attending, social responsiveness, and/or advanced language skills in children with autism. Methods for assessing and then addressing difficulties in acquiring advanced language response forms, responding to sophisticated mands by the speaker, as well as improving responsiveness to common environmental stimuli are discussed. Implications of these deficits and a rationale for these treatment protocols as they relate to improving the functioning for children with autism will be presented. This information may suggest methods which should assist BCBAs who are working with children and young adults in these skill areas.

In 1974, it occurred to us that if fingers could be taught to read Braille, they could be taught to detect breast lumps smaller than golf balls. For the next seven years, we conducted basic research that was a mixture of classical psychophysics and operant conditioning as we learned about the sensory system involved in pressure sensation and put that knowledge to use in building a more sensitive procedure for palpating breast tissue. In 1981, we formed the Mammatech Corporation for the purpose of disseminating the resulting technology with as little degradation as possible. The ensuing 25 years have taught us more than we really wanted to know about running a public company, interacting with large organizations like the American Cancer Society, and surviving in the hostile world of the medical marketplace. We have also learned that there is no substitute for precise measurement to maintain the integrity of any technology and that financial contingencies can be arranged to insure this outcome. Some highlights of this journey will be presented along with advice to budding behavioral entrepreneurs.

Feeding problems are common among children diagnosed with autism and developmental disabilities. The feeding difficulties of these children potentially stem from and are maintained by numerous biological and environmental factors. This presentation will begin by providing an overview of factors that may trigger feeding difficulties with a particular focus on common problems encountered in children with autism. The presentation will also address empirical evidence for the gut theory of autism and the potentially harmful implications of arranging dietary restrictions as treatment for autism. Feeding assessments for classifying feeding difficulties will be discussed and evidence will be presented suggesting that the most common feeding problem for children with autism is food selectivity. Behavioral interventions for selective intake will then be reviewed. Systematically presenting previously rejected and/or novel foods will be illustrated as an initial step in the treatment process. Then an antecedent manipulation, the simultaneous presentation of rejected/novel and preferred foods exposure, will be described. Two effective differential consequence procedures, reinforcing acceptance/ignoring refusal-related responses and escape prevention, will be reviewed.

The Multisite Young Autism Project (MYAP) was designed to evaluate early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) for children with autism who are under 3 years old at the onset of treatment. Two sites (Wisconsin Early Autism Project and Central Valley Young Autism Project) have published outcome reports from this project. Sallows and Amerine-Dickens will present long-term follow-up data as well as results from new cohorts at these sites. Larsson will present the results of an A-B-A reversal study at another site (Pittsburgh Young Autism Project) that compared the efficacy of 40 hours per week of treatment to 10 hours or 20 hours. Smith and Eldevik will summarize the full MYAP dataset and describe a meta-analysis of published EIBI studies.

In behavioral economics, reinforcement contingencies are viewed as transactions in which work is exchanged for a commodity (a reinforcer). Overall consumption of a commodity is determined as a function of its price (work or response requirements), often in relation to the availability and price of concurrently available commodities. Investigators have recently begun to explore behavioral economic relations in the response allocation of individuals with developmental disabilities, most notably with the aim of interpreting responding under various experimental constraints related to enhancing habilitation efforts. The present symposium will further examine ongoing research in translating behavioral economic theory into practical application for individuals with developmental disabilities. Among other things, the presentations will collectively examine: a) how increases in price can clarify differences in reinforcer value, b) the correspondence between steady-state performance on variable ratio schedules and progressive ratio schedules, c) how changes in consumption of a reinforcer are influenced by the manner in which that reinforcer is delivered in applied settings, and d) how environmental constraints related to access (i.e. open vs. closed economy) and stimulus similarity can interact to influence consumption.

These studies compare relative effectiveness of procedures to improve Verbal Behavior in children with autism. The first study compares the Effects of Mimetic-Tact versus Intraverbal-Tact training on the Acquisition of Sign Tacts in two Children with Autism. Similar to results obtained by Partington, Sundberg, Newhouse, & Spengler (1994), the subjects acquired more tacts via intraverbal-tact transfer while acquiring fewer via mimetic-tact transfer demonstrating the superiority of intraverbal-tact transfer. The second study, Increasing Vocal Behavior in a Young Adult With Autism via Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing adds to current literature on stimulus stimulus pairing procedures and assists in appropriate candidate selection for these procedures. The last study, Comparison of two errorless teaching procedures for promoting independent responding in children with autism: Transfer of stimulus control with and without a probe following a time delay compares the relative effectiveness of two nearly errorless procedures for developing independent responses. Results across twenty- five subjects are compared in regard to the literature on errorless teaching. (Touchette and Howard, 1984,, Touchette, P.E. 1968, Terrace, H. 1963)

This symposium includes presentations that focus on the practical applications of using the science of behavior for the educational needs of students with autism and other developmental disabilities. Practical issues and suggestions for an ABA Consultant is applicable to individuals who provide ABA consultation services, as well as owners of companies that provide ABA consultation services. Practical applications and examples of: token-based motivational systems will focus on using motivational systems to increase habilitative responses (academically, behaviorally, and socially). Practical applications and examples of behavior plans/contracts will focus on developing and implementing behavior plans/behavior contracts, based on the results of a functional analysis. Practical applications and examples of visual schedules will focus on using various schedules to promote independence, social interactions, communication skills, as an instructional tool, and to replace inappropriate behaviors with habilitative responses. Examples of specific token systems, behavior plans, and activity schedules, as well as visual representations of the corresponding data, will be shown during the presentation.

At the age of 98, Sidney Bijou continues to be an inspiration to generations of behavior analysts all over the world. For more than 60 years, Sidney W. Bijou helped found and foster two major movements in behavior analysis: a behavior analysis of child development, and applied behavior analysis with children with special needs. This symposium will chronicle the distinguished career of Bijou from his recruitment by Skinner to the Psychology Department at Indiana through his days at the University of Nevada Reno. Additionally, Bijous influence on the internationalization of behavior analysis will be described. As well as documenting the individuals influencing and influenced by Bijou, the speakers will also present many of the methodological, theoretical, and clinical contributions Sidney Bijou has made over his long and distinguished career.

Three pilot studies using TAG showed promising outcomes. Floridas Behavior Analyses Services Program (BASP) conducted two types of follow-up trainings (video, video with TAG) for caregivers who completed a 30-hour parenting course. Two skill components were compared after having been retrained with the video or the video with TAG. Average improvement scores for both components after video training were 29%. Average improvement scores after TAG were 50% for both components. Twenty-two juvenile delinquent youth participated in eighteen sessions utilizing TAG for a task analyzed list of components such as fighting and fight negotiation. This study showed skill enhancement and participants viewed TAG as socially acceptable as measured by positive verbalizations. Five gymnasts were taught four skills using either conventional training (verbal praise, encouragement, verbal correction for errors) or TAG (a specific behavior marked with a click with no verbal correction). Baseline was measured via three trials of four skills per gymnast. Behaviors were scored as 1 or 0 with total scores averaged across groups over three trials. Conventional training scores increased over baseline from 7% to 25% while TAG scores increased over baseline from 61% to 67%. Additional data collection is in process to support these preliminary outcomes.

This panel first reviews the literature that demonstrates the efficacy of Positive ABA Behavior Supports in addressing the most severe and challenging behavior. Additional Type III case studies are then presented that add to this evidence base. The target behaviors addressed include severe physical aggression, self-injury, and property destruction. In each case, behavior problems were brought under control, both in terms of occurrence and episodic severity. Each person's quality of life was also measureably improved. These results were achieved through the implementation of positive, multi-element behavior support plans based on comprehensive functional assessments. Further, the results have been lasting, indicating the generalization of treatment effects over time. Finally, given the existing and growing evidence of PBS efficacy, a number of explanations are offered as to the challenges Positive Behavior Supports continue to face. An important perspective for Behavior Analysts is to recognize is that if a positive ABA approach is equally or more effective than an aversive approach, ethics require the use of the less restrictive alternative.

We frequently encounter difficulty in gaining acceptance for effective behaviorally-based interventions or educational practices; similar difficulty arises in gaining or maintaining a place for behavior analysis within academic curricula. Simply arguing the merits of the case by appealing to the practical effectiveness or the conceptual coherence and relevance of our approach often does not work. In the applied domain, a partial remedy is to improve the aesthetic characteristics of the strategies and techniques that we propose. In the domain of persuasion, we could better apply our own principles, as well as some techniques from other disciplines. For example, in place of confrontation, our principle of shaping suggests that we begin with a potential allys current repertoires and attempt gradual change. In the field of rhetoric and persuasion, a key strategy is to initially establish bases of agreement or commonality before attempting to persuade. Coupled with these should be a concern to discriminate which of the differences matter, between ones own and the position of others and especially to discriminate when those differences matter. My objective in all this is to address these issues in a principled way, thus understanding our own approach more effectively even while introducing it to others.

Proponents of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy and its theoretical foundation Relational Frame Theory have described this approach as the basis for a third wave of Behavior Therapy. Skeptical observers view the ACT/RFT third wave as only waving goodbye to the scientific basis of Behavior Analysis. In this Panel Discussion, Steven C. Hayes, a developer of the ACT/RFT model and Daniel J. Moran will present ACT as a necessary extension of behavior analysis. They see ACT as giving greater breadth to the clinical field and filling a gap in the behavioral account of complex behaviors. But some behavior analysts are not convinced that the cognitively oriented approach embodied in ACT and Mindfulness is the direction that the field should take. Kurt Salzinger will discuss the ACT/RFT model from the perspective of traditional behavior analysis. Richard M. OBrien will review some of the core concepts of ACT/RFT as positive additions to the behavioral model or digressions from it with the goal of bringing this approach solidly within applied behavior analysis.

Social interactions primarily consist of approach (i.e., initiations and response to initiations) or avoidance behavior between individuals. Social interactions involve complex nonverbal, verbal, and behavioral cues that typically influences an individuals behavior in some predictable ways. The hallmark deficit in children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is the social impairment, which involves a significant difficulty with social interactions. Measurement procedures for social interactions varies across studies in our field, with many research studies using parent or teacher reports as well as standardized assessments, to describe a childs social skills and interactions. The first paper in this symposium will present results from a study that conducted a parametric analysis of some of the variables involved in a social interaction in young children with ASD. In addition, a new behavioral assessment, the Social Interaction Inventory-Revised (SII-R) that was developed to quantify social interactions will be introduced. The second paper presented will share results from a study that included typically developing children for the purposes of providing normative data for the SII-R. The third paper will present results from a study that included children with ASD and a follow-up assessment to determine if the SII-R is sensitive to changes in social interactions in children with ASD.

The four papers included in this symposium discuss various extensions of functional analysis methodology that may facilitate clear outcomes. In the first paper, Jeffrey Tiger will describe a modified functional analysis that included the delivery of consequences by the participants sibling. In the second paper, Sacha Pence will present data showing that the inclusion of modified social positive test conditions facilitated clear determination of function for two participants. In the third paper, Tiffany Kodak will describe an assessment for identifying various forms of attention for inclusion in a functional analysis. In the forth paper, Lynlea Longworth will present data on an empirically-based method for identifying tasks for inclusion during the demand condition of a functional analysis.

Behavioral interventions have proven to be effective in reducing problem behaviors exhibited by individuals with developmental disabilities. Despite the efficacy of this technology, there continue to be barriers to long-term treatment success. One such barrier is treatment integrity, which is the extent to which an intervention is implemented as designed. The purpose of this symposium is to present research in treatment integrity. The goal is to facilitate a meaningful discussion of treatment follow through, which we hope will promote a growth of research in this area.

Headsprout Early Reading is a demonstrably effective program at teaching elementary school children how to read. Its eighty on-line lessons take a beginning reader from being a non-reader to a reader performing at about the mid second grade level in approximately thirty hours of instruction. Since its inception, however, creative educators have crafted implementation strategies, additional materials, and clever models of use to bring the benefits of Headsprout Early reading to an even broader audience. This symposium highlights applications and implementation support for users not typically well served with traditional educational approaches to the teaching of reading.

The proposed symposium is consisted of four papers that used behavioral techniques to teach parenting skills. The first study examined the effects of parent education training on their childrens learning achievements in school. Dependent variable included standardized assessment and the criterion-referenced assessment on thirty preschoolers. The independent variable consisted of parent education training package that included: (a) parent education workshop and (b) individual parent session. The second study evaluated the effect of a parent-training curriculum on parents positive teaching interactions. Specifically, the number of accurate tacts and positive responses to situations were measured. The third study investigated the effectiveness of a parent training package which emphasized teaching parents to identify appropriate skills of a target repertoire for their child to test for a) how many appropriate behaviors of particular target skill the parents could identify, (b) children's mastery of the appropriate behaviors within a particular target skill, and (c) parents generalization of identifying appropriate skills across other target behaviors. The fourth study examined specific skill such as increasing rates of childs compliance through the use of unflawed antecedent commands and contingent consequations. Results are discussed in terms of parents understanding of three-term-contingencies, observational learning, and effective parenting repertoires.

Choice responding refers to the manner in which individuals allocate their responding among available response options. In this symposium, a series of translational studies ranging from basic to applied are presented that show how variables that affect choice responding, such as reinforcement rate, immediacy, and quality, can be quantified and manipulated to improve our understanding of behavior and inform clinical assessments and interventions.

To date, there are few studies that report the long-term effects of applied behavior analysis treatment with children with autism ( e.g. Lovaas, 1987; Mceachin et al., 1993; Harris & Handleman, 2000; Sallows & Groupner, 2005).These studies have focused on variables such as classroom placement, IQ scores from standardized tests, and other such measures to infer treatment efficacy. There is little information on behavioral variables of treatment outcome for children with autism. In addition, few studies have provided a longitudinal analysis of treatment efficacy with follow-up many years after treatment completion. The present study presents preliminary findings of longitudinal evaluation of treatment outcome of 10 children with autism over a span of 15 years. Data were collected on behavioral measures, four appropriate behaviors and four inappropriate behaviors, during six month intervals on the waiting list for treatment at the Claremont Autism Center, during treatment, and after treatment for up to 15 years post-treatment. Thus, a multiple baseline design across children was used to assess the efficacy of the behavioral treatment at the Center, and the children who started their treatment at under 6 years of age were followed well into their 20s. In this symposium, we will present the importance of longitudinal analysis with children with autism, our methodology and treatment efficacy variables, and findings from our initial 10 children analyzed in terms of concrete behavioral measures.

Three data-based research studies examining the use of self monitoring for improving health and safety related behaviors will be presented. The first two studies will each present data examining the parameters of self-monitoring as an intervention for improving postural safety. The last study will demonstrate the use of a self-monitoring program in an actual organization to improve the health and safety-related behaviors of long haul truck drivers. Finally, our discussant will discuss the potential behavioral mechanisms underlying self-monitoring from a relational frame theory perspective.

This symposium presents two empirical studies and two conceptual papers on issues related to Skinners analysis of verbal behavior. Results are presented for (1) an investigation of procedural modifications of the stimulus-stimulus pairing procedure and the role of automatic reinforcement in establishing speech as a conditioned reinforcer and (2) a study on generalization of mands for information across establishing operations. A third paper presents a behavioral interpretation of the etiology and intervention for aphasia by providing a taxonomy of the disorder based upon observed deficit relations. The final paper discusses transfer of stimulus control across verbal operants, reviews variables that increase procedural efficiency, and concludes with a discussion of stimulus blocking and multiple control.

Behavior Analyst Certification Board: New Developments & Requirements The meeting will address important developments within the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) relating to growth and changes in the BACB including: new continuing education and recertification requirements, new professional experience and supervisor requirements, university coursework approval and new university practica approval, new examination administration procedures, new ethics requirements for certificants, new specialty credentials, and disciplinary standards. The presentation also will focus on development of the BACB in the future, particularly as it relates to International development, and will explore the possible role of BACB certifications and certificants in the US and abroad.

This symposium will address how all aspects of the scientific study of behavior are utilized to build effective instructional programs. Though often thought of as applied work, designing effective instruction requires the application of experimentally derived principles from the laboratory, the application of useful techniques from applied settings, the direct experimental controlanalysis of behavior, and the interpretation and analysis of complex behavioral relations. Symposium participants will address a fundamental area important to Headsprout's success, and discuss the contribution of basic, applied, and conceptual analysis in each of the areas described.

This symposium will present three studies on behavioral applications for enhancing quality of life among people with severe disabilities and their support staff. The first study will describe a systematic procedure for using verbal reports of support staff to identify indices of happiness and unhappiness among nonvocal adults with autism, and then observational and choice procedures to validate the reports. Results indicated the procedures reliably identified happiness/unhappiness indicators among adults with autism who lacked conventional means of expressing their emotions. The second study will describe a means of assessing nonpreferred work tasks among support staff, and then altering the tasks by pairing them with preferred activities to make the tasks more desirable. Results indicated the behavioral pairing procedures enhanced the preferred nature of disliked tasks among all four participating staff. The third study will describe a means of maintaining desired work behavior among staff by focusing on enhancing the self-reinforcing nature of the staffs appropriate work performance. Overall, results of three studies indicate how behavioral procedures can be applied in socially important areas such as quality of life that are often considered to be outside of the realm of applied behavior analysis.

School psychology trainers rely on collaboration with community schools to provide authentic field experiences to promote meaningful outcomes for candidates. As education administrators consider the assessment practice alternatives offered in IDEA 2004, school psychology candidates also serve as a resource for training educators, developing and managing student assessment data, and providing micro and macro level evaluations of student achievement outcomes. The findings from student research collaborations between the Eastern Washington University School Psychology Masters Program and area schools are presented in this symposium. The three studies presented support the utility of CBM in educational decisions in a rural elementary and middle school and an assessment of the degree to which educators utilize these data in daily practice. Replication studies of CBM Reading, Math Computation, and Written Expression quarterly performance as predictors of statewide achievement test performance in Washington State were conducted for elementary and middle schools in the same rural district. Results indicate that CBM was a significant predictor of performance on the Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), with CBM Reading the most significant determinant of WASL success. The final study indicates that educators utilize CBM data regularly in screening and inclusion decisions and progress reporting situations.

Research presented in this symposium will illustrate methodological extensions of functional analysis procedures, including naturalistic (classroom) application and assessment of high-intensity and low-frequency problem behavior, as well as clinical extension to self-injurious behavior in a specific genetic disorder (Prader-Willi Syndrome).

This symposium provides an update, including demonstrations and data, on 18 of the most recent and exciting instructional design projects occurring in our field. Many areas of interest will be represented including higher education, staff development, instructional design for children, design methodology, and dissemination of good instructional design.

Behavior Analysts, Inc. (BAI) provides behavior analysis services to families and school districts in the San Francisco Bay areas. BAI uniquely utilizes B.F. Skinner's verbal behavior conceptualization to assist in the development of the verbal repertoires of individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. This symposium will describe the new procedural implementations and tracking systems at BAI and its STARS School, with exemplary data presented.

Outcome data from a several Early Intervention Programs for children with autism are presented: 1) Coyne et. al., discusses their ABA based in-home program serving children younger than three years old. Participants gained significantly more than controls; program duration (age when enrolled) was a better predictor of success than total service hours; 2) Weatherly and Mallot present their use of Organizational Behavior Management methods to analyze the effects of a pre-school ABA based autism program. They examined treatment at various levels affecting the children, the families, the staff at the autism school and the people involved with behavioral treatment. Areas of focus included: discrete trial teaching, maintenance of previously acquired skills, and family life; 3) Jonaitis presents 10 years of data from the Croyden Ave School Autistic Impaired Preschool serving children 2-6 years old. One goal was to prepare children for general education kindergarten using students from Western Michigan University; and 4) Youngbauer presents data from the North LA County Regional Center ABA intervention program. The program included an integrated process of parent information, parent education, use of several competent behavioral agencies, and monitoring of services.

Four papers on recent research in Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) will be presented. First, the effects of a process change, feedback, and a tiered incentive system on warehouse quality were examined. The next study examined the effects of individual daily feedback and the withdrawal of disincentives on delivery errors among transit drivers (n = 45) in a national furniture distribution company. The third study examined telephone customer service behaviors in a medical clinic setting. The fourth paper used a descriptive assessment to examine the variables responsible for poor employee performance in a restaurant.

The corporate university, a contemporary educational model designed to maintain an expert workforce, brings higher education opportunities into the workplace. In this model, on-site credit-bearing courses allow employees to acquire additional academic degrees and certifications. Increasingly, agencies offering behavioral services are developing programs of research and professional development that allow them to assume scholarly functions beyond housing courses. The three papers included in this symposium illustrate human service agency contributions to higher education. Topics addressed include (a) establishment of a laboratory to increase graduate students verbal fluency with behavioral principles and procedures, (b) development of a model for providing supervision required for certification that integrates classroom learning and work experiences, and (c) establishment and integration of a Ph.D. program in ABA in a human service agency.

This presentation will discuss the development of a team of Masters level behavior analysts within a large public special educational service agency. The behavioral team was designed to: 1) treat individuals with severe problem behaviors across a number of diagnostic categories; 2) build behavioral capacity within the agency by providing staff and parent training in behavior analysis; 3) work with the various school districts who had contracts with the agency; and 4) ensure that treatment gains were maintained once responsibility was transferred from the behavior analysts to the classroom personnel. This discussion will specifically focus on describing the behavior treatment team model and methods of effectively incorporating behavior analysis into a public educational agency. Several successful treatment cases also will be discussed.

Four papers will be presented to demonstrate the types of socially significant changes what may be made in a relatively brief peiod of time, 15 weeks, in community settings.

CLG, a Behavioral Based Consulting firm, supports corporate wide initiatives towards achiving desired business results through behavior change. The methodology is grounded in the Applied Behavioral Sciences, working with leaders to effectively manage and maintain high levels of performance. The symposium will present three different client experiences on three different types of coaching (executive coaching and two different performance coaching designs).

The current crisis in education recognized by a variety of reports, studies, and commentators could have serious long-term effects on children world wide. In response to this crisis a number of behavior analysts have targeted the empirical validation of curriculum for their research agenda. In particular, with recent advances in computer technology, there has been a strong interest in developing and evaluating internet curricula. Three examples are Headsprout, a program that teaches beginning reading, iLearn a middle school mathematics curriculum, and TeachTown, a program for autistic children. This symposium will present the current data and methods used to evaluate these programs. Emphasis will be given to descriptions of the how these programs have integrated single-subject methods with program evaluation methods, methods for evaluating teacher and other professional implementation, and more traditional random controlled studies to create a thorough method of empirical validation.

Morningside Academy teachers will present descriptions and data on a variety of development projects in our laboratory school. We will discuss assessment strategies for reading comprehension, oral reading fluency, and vocabulary; behavioral approaches to counseling; study skills; prompting question-generating; and improving number-writing fluency.

The experimental analysis of relational responding is one the oldest areas in psychological science. The examination of relational responding grew out of philosophical debates in the late nineteenth century to become a hot topic in the early twentieth century. More recently, relational responding, in particular derived and arbitrary relational responding, has attracted much interest among behavior analytic researchers interested in complex cognitive phenomena. The four papers in this symposium present new methods for the experimental analysis of relational responding. The first paper summarizes the literature on responding in accordance with temporal relations and presents a novel empirical approach to investigating such performances. The second paper examines the role of derived relational responding in the enjoyment of computer games by using a game constructed to provide different levels of such responding at different levels of the game. The third paper employs a novel procedure to isolate different sources of contextual control in derived relational responding. Finally, the fourth paper exploits the phonological and orthographic properties of natural language words to elucidate sources of control in tests for stimulus equivalence.

Teachers, instructors, and parents of children with autism seek to find the most effective instructional methodologies. This involves examining the smallest intricacies of the instructional session (e.g., prompting, reinforcement, pacing) as well as the many of the larger, broader issues, such as those involved in choosing the content of the instruction (e.g., language, social skills, play, community). In this symposium, the authors present examples of research that look at both of these aspects of educational programming for this population. The first two papers compare different prompting protocols within one-to-one instructional discrete trial training sessions. Weinkauf et al. built upon their past research to develop, and now examine, a prompting procedure that combines beneficial features from both a simultaneous and delayed prompting protocol. Leaf et al. compared the effects of a simultaneous prompt with another type of delayed prompt called a no-no-prompt. Finally, Alai-Rosales describes a methodology to help us determine what to teach during these instructional sessions. By identifying, and then incorporating, behavioral cusps into our choice of skills to teach to children, we may be more likely to maximize the benefit for children with autism. Sigrid Glenn will comment on the papers.

When working with children, we should always be looking for empirically supported strategies to enhance our effectiveness. Improving the accessibility of effective strategies is often the first hurdle. In the first two presentations, we will provide information on sharing the technology of functional behavior assessment found in the empirical literature, first to teachers and then to families. The third presentation will present information about empowering parents in effective intervention strategies to help . The first presentation will be a multiple baseline design across teachers at varying grade levels. This data-based presentation will address the effects of knowledge dissemination on effectiveness of behavior plans. The second data-based presentation will assess the effects of a curriculum to teach parents to develop intervention plans. The third presentation will present a review of parent education literature and summarize the parent education strategies utilized as part of an intervention program for young children with autism and its effects on their families.

Children with pervasive developmental disorders are often provided services in a specialized setting outside of a typical school district placement. This referral is most often related to significant behavioral concerns that cannot be treated appropriately in self-contained classrooms within the district. However, with the goal of a least restrictive environment, an out-of-district placement strives to reduce the inappropriate behavior to a stable level and when possible, provide a user-friendly behavior support plan that can be implemented by public school teachers. Three clinical cases will be presented illustrating various issues associated with a return to district. The first presentation will highlight the initial stage of stabilization of a myriad of highly disruptive behavior such as aggression, noncompliance, dropping to the ground, and screaming for a high functioning 11-year-old girl diagnosed with autism. The second presentation will focus on the next step of selecting and teaching specific skills required for a student with ADHD and PDD-NOS to function effectively in middle school. Finally, the third presentation will address coordination with a school district regarding selecting goals to address the unique needs of a four-year-old boy diagnosed with PDD who exhibits high rates of vocal stereotypy in an integrated preschool classroom.

Fifty years ago B. F. Skinner published the book Verbal Behavior. The book contains behavioral analyses of the most complex aspects of human behavior such as language, private events, thinking, epistemology, memory, and logical and scientific verbal behavior. In many respects, the core of Skinners radical behaviorism is presented in this book. The members of this panel will discuss the significance of Verbal Behavior in terms of past contributions and controversies, its current usage, and its potential for the field of behavior analysis.

Like contemporary psychology, behavior analysis developed with the framework of nineteenth-century associationism, which ignored evolution. With minor exceptions, behavior analysis has failed to re-orient itself in the light of modern evolutionary theory. Instead, behavior analysts have adopted an oversimplified view of the dependence of behavior on evolution in which some behavior is set aside as given and other behavior is regarded as modifiable. The result has been a paucity of concepts and over-reliance on conditioning and reinforcement. To grasp the true significance of evolution, one must understand that all behavior depends on genetic inheritance. The reason is that, whether we are talking about cockroaches or humans, behavior exists to promote fitness. It is modifiable by environmental factors only in ways and by means that genes permit or encourage. The explanation and modification of behavioral phenotypes depends on illuminating the effects of natural selection and the effects of environmental factors in development. Genes that promote and constrain development often allow phenotypic flexibility, but within limits imposed by the mechanisms resulting from natural selection. This point may be illustrated by a series of examples. One conclusion is that the events called reinforcers may be understood in the light of natural selection, as phylogenetically important events that do much more than reinforce.

Settings for normally developing preschool children often serve some children who are not prepared to participate in all learning activities. The Competent Learner Model can prepare educators in these settings to arrange their environments to engage these naive learners. The CLM Course of Study integrates the best practices of Applied Behavior Analysis, Direct Instruction, and Precision Teaching. It coaches educators to mastery of applying these practices with their naive learners. Formative evaluation data from two such settings will be presented and discussed. These data will include Competent Learner Repertoire Assessments, Developmental Work Samples, and teacher decision making.

Behavior analysis, once a promising and widely used approach in the understanding and treatment of severe behavior disorders, has been obscured by the rise of biological psychiatry and its biomedical model of mental illness that prioritizes psychotropic drugs as the treatment of choice. The current hegemony of biological psychiatry stems less from reliable empirical data and much more from ideological, political, economic, and disciplinary sources of social and fiscal control. The panelists will discuss this thesis, analyze the ramifications of it, and offer suggestions for increasing the visibility and impact of behavior analysis in the social response to severe behavior disorders. The panelists are drawn from the contributors to a forthcoming issue of Behavior and Social Issues devoted to a discussion of the relative obscurity of behavior analysis in the treatment of severe behavior disorders.

Stimulus preference assessments have been demonstrated to effectively predict reinforcers for individuals with and without disabilities. Most of the research in this area, however, has focussed on the assessment of edible and tangible (e.g., toys, leisure materials) stimuli. Papers in this symposium will address the use of this technology to assess preferences for various types of social interactions, auditory stimulation, and community-based activities.

A pediatric feeding disorder is diagnosed when a child consumes an insufficient volume or variety of foods to grow. In the treatment of these disorders, a number of procedures have been shown to be effective (e.g., escape extinction). However, like other behavior disorders, the emergence and treatment of pediatric feeding disorders are often affected by idiosyncratic variables. This symposium will present data that exemplifies variables that influence the assessment and treatment of feeding disorders. The first investigation involves the application of functional analysis methods to the assessment of inappropriate mealtime behavior. In many cases, different outcomes were obtained depending on who conducted the assessment (i.e., primary caregivers or clinical staff). In the second investigation, a shaping procedure was evaluated to increase food consumption. Results showed that shaping was not effective at increasing oral intake in the absence of a negative reinforcement-based treatment. Study 3 evaluated the extent to which the response effort associated with either self feeding or non-self feeding influenced response allocation across concurrently available treatments. As predicted, response allocation varied according to manipulations in response effort. These studies will be discussed in terms of variables that influence the development of empirically derived treatments for pediatric feeding disorders.

The theme of this symposium is that our appreciation of even the most well-established and widely-known facts and doctrines of a science is often meaningfully enhanced and enriched when obscure historical details are placed in modern context. Three presentations giving specific examples of this for behavior analysis are followed by a discussion that expands upon that general theme. John Malone provides a biographical portrait of E. B. Delabarre, who contributed substantively to James' Principles of Psychology, worked with Munsterberg and Thorndike, supplied a son to assist Skinner, and founded the psychological laboratory at Brown. Ed Morris describes the origin and fate of third variables, a notion Skinner developed in his earliest writings, but subsequently dropped, that relates to the modern concept of establishing operations and has implications for how Skinner's systematic position has been perceived and understood by psychology at large. Gail Peterson analyzes rarely seen photos from a 1952 story in LOOK magazine featuring B. F. Skinner and Charles Ferster responding to a challenge to demonstrate the power of shaping, the first such public demonstration. Details of the photos are relevant to later empirical and conceptual developments.

The aim of this symposium is to present further analysis, discuss current methodological developments and applications in the area of imitation and observational learning. A paper by Goyos analyzes the behavior of the observer during a matching-to-sample task taking into account the necessary simple and conditional discriminations, antecedent stimuli, motivational operations, observing and touching responses, and consequences. Brown and Poulson will review the concept of observational learning and the operant research on generalized imitation with the goal of identifying procedures to teach learners with autism to imitate in ordinary environments. A stimulus-control account of imitation in ordinary environments is included in this paper with the goal of the development of effective teaching procedures. As the stimulus equivalence technology develops and becomes more powerful, the need to teach a larger number of learners increases, and learning by imitation or observation may be a powerful tool to accomplish this. The objectives of the paper by Goyos & Dias are to develop a control procedure for the observing responses during a matching-to-sample (MTS) task. Secondly, the study investigated whether a model could function as a conditioned reinforcer for the observing response, and third, whether learning a first conditional relation via observational learning would transfer to new conditional relations.

Behavior-analytic research into derived stimulus relations has laid the foundation for powerful and easily administered tests for implicit behavioral histories. These tests allow the behavioral researcher to gather information about an individuals behavioral history without the individuals awareness. While popular implicit tests such as the Implicit Association Test (I.A.T) claim to do precisely this, the processes involved in these tests are poorly understood. This symposium outlines a behavioral research program into the development of implicit behavioral tests, and in particular tests for sexual history and attitudes. The first paper provides an overview of behavior-analytic research into derived stimulus relations that has laid the foundation for the development of behavior-analytic implicit tests. The second paper reports on an experiment designed to assess the utility of a derived relations-based implicit test in detecting a history of inappropriate internet use. The third paper outlines a study that employed a derived relations-based implicit test to assess differences in the attitudes of men and women towards children and sexuality. This issue is also pursued in the fourth paper, which reports on a study employing an I.A.T-type test to examine gender differences in the categorization of children and sexual terms. Together these papers constitute a behavioral research program into the development of behavioral implicit tests that may have a wide variety of uses in research, clinical and forensic settings.

Autism is a complex disorder that affects an individuals language and communication, social skills as well as other aspects of learning. Applied behavior analysis has been widely documented as being the most effective treatment methodology to address the behavioral excesses and deficits associated with autism. Unfortunately, even with excellent behavioral treatment, many individuals with autism continue to demonstrate significant deficits in language, communication, and social skills. It appears that existing interventions are insufficient to address the complex learning deficits of all learners with autism. One strategy to address this problem is to broaden the scope of treatment outside of the behavior analysis field to other disciplines and areas of research. This panel will present a set of case studies that demonstrate the integration of other disciplines with applied behavior analysis in the treatment of learners with autism. Specifically, programs derived from the research in speech-language pathology, psycholinguistics, and cognitive psychology will be discussed.

Language for Learning is a Direct Instruction program designed to teach pre-academic skills as well as skills in areas such as problem solving, classification, description of objects, and actions. . The curriculum is comprised of presentation books and workbooks that cover a variety of domains essential for language development and academic success. Information will be presented on what programs are currently using Language for Learning, how Language for Learning can be incorporated into a discrete trial teaching program with children with autism and data on skills mastered as well as an error analysis. In addition, a paper will be presented linking the concepts of relational frame theory to effective instructional practices in language development. Information will be included as to how Language for Learning addresses the teaching of relational frames throughout the content. In this program, relational frames are taught for the purpose of increasing communication skills to transmit and receive information, solve problems, and engage in higher order thinking tasks, all of which are skills necessary for academic success.

There have been recent revisions to the requirements for completing supervised fieldwork that will fulfill the national standards of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB). There are an ever-growing number of BACB approved training programs at both the graduate and undergraduate levels that offer the coursework component but do not offer the supervised experience component. Undergraduate programs at universities that do not have an approved graduate program face unique challenges in locating, contacting, and supervising these placements. A sample of undergraduate programs that offer the supervised undergraduate experience in preparation for certification in behavior analysis at the associate level will answer questions about how they meet these challenges to open discussion about possible solutions for other programs.

Research presented in this symposium illustrates a range of applications in which varied reinforcement schedules (progressive ratio, concurrent, conjugate, momentary DRO) played a prominent role in the context of either assessment or treatment.

This symposium will focus on the importance of determining performance standards (aims) for instructional programs. Specifically, panelists will discuss methods for determining aims for learners on the autism spectrum, generic speaking rate as a tool for predicting speaking aims, and the clinical relevance of issues related to rate, particilarly in the realm of progress on educational programs.

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A 2x2 factorial design tested the effects of signal schedule (extinction or VI 6-min) and visual field and signal context (DIAL with needle deflections or BAGGAGE with knives) on the rate of observing responses in a visual screening task. During 30-minute sessions, participants (n=24) pressed the spacebar to briefly view a BAGGAGE or DIAL image (two seconds) and pressed a hit key when a signal was present. Cumulative records of spacebar presses were approximately 30% steeper during VI 6-min conditions. Statistical analyses showed a main effect for target schedule [F (1,20)=12.4, p<.05], no main effect for visual context (F<1), and no interaction (F<1). The results highlight the importance of signal schedules in maintaining vigilant performance during visual screening tasks.

In a post-9/11 world, airport security has become a national priority. In 2005, the Department of Homeland Securitys (DHS) budget set aside $5.2 billion for the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) and $851 million to improve aviation security. The current study was carried out within the operations division of a regional airport. The operations division is responsible for the airports communication center, safety, security, oversight of general aviation, ground transportation, compliance with FAA regulations, and coordination with police and fire services. We defined and measured vigilance behaviors in the communications center and evaluated the effects of naturally-occurring and specially designed behavioral intervention.

This presentation will give participants an overview of the Pennsylvania Verbal Behavior Project and will highlight research initiatives completed and in progress. During the first presentation, an overview of the PA Verbal Behavior Project will be given and a summary of outcomes over the past 4 years will be presented. Following the overview, Behavior Analysts will share two controlled studies done through the Project which evaluated different transfer procedures to teach tacts to children with autism. The final presentation within this symposium will highlight selected case studies completed through the PA Verbal Behavior Project.

This session is a continuation of the earlier Invited Panel Discussion entitled "Behavior and Social Issues: Behavior Analysis, Biological Psychiatry, and the Treatment of Severe Behavior Disorders" and includes additional contributors to the special issue of Behavior and Social Issues that was recently devoted to a discussion of the modest impact that behavior analysis has made in the treatment of severe behavior disorders. The panelists will focus of the economic, industrial, and institutional factors that supersede scientific data to limit the use of behavior analysis and favor psychotropic medication in the treatment of severe behavior disorders.

This symposium will present 4 studies demonstrating innovative models to improve staff performance in a residential setting. The first paper will discuss the effectiveness of a training program incorporating a video model of correct skill performance, but no feedback provided on performance. The second paper assessed the level of protocol compliance in new staff following a training package comprised of didactic training and structured performance-based training with a competency component. In addition, ongoing system-wide data of performance and competency-based staff training using feedback tools will be presented. The third paper assesses and compares the accuracy of the descriptive data collected by direct-care staff under the two conditions: on-shift with students or independent observer. The fourth paper employs the same procedures as Parsons and Reid (1995) to train 5 supervisors in a residential facility and 5 supervisors in a school facility to provide effective feedback to direct service staff in both the group home and school setting.

Lovaas et al. (1987) convincingly demonstrated that early intensive applied behavioral interventions can dramatically improve the lifetime prospects for children with autism, and there have been several additional comparative studies validating that specific approach along with the more general term applied behavior analysis as an intervention strategy. But the array of behaviorally based strategies has expanded and evolved over the past two decades. Distinctive labels have been given to innovations, some of which are advocated upon on the basis of conceptual rationales rather than supporting research. Furthermore, services for children with autism have moved beyond the research setting and into public schools and homes, with the interventions implemented by teaching staff, paraprofessionals and parents. There is clearly a need for researchers to step beyond traditional within-subject research designs and begin the process of delineating the similarities and differences between alternative approaches while also evaluating intervention effectiveness. A multi-systemic approach will be presented for evaluating early, intensive ABA-based interventions within public school settings. The methodology for this multi-site study extends beyond the single-subject design to address which techniques and strategies are most effective for which children within the autism spectrum and with what resources of staffing and expertise.

Treatments based on applied behavior analysis (ABA) have been scientifically demonstrated to be the most effective option for young children with autism. However, more research is needed in order to identify the most effective procedures, both for the assessment and reduction of challenging behavior, as well as teaching adaptive behavior. This symposium includes three presentations on empirical research on a variety of topics in the assessment and treatment of the behavior of individuals with autism, covering topics such as toilet training, data collection of aquisition skills, and functional assessment. The symposium will be concluded with a discussion of the presentations.

As the field of Applied Behavior Analysis expands, critical issues relative to the protection of those we serve become more important to both the consumers as well as the longevity of the profession. The presenters will discuss a number of these issues, providing recommendations that will address both needs. Among these very critical issues is the current lack of direct oversight of individuals who are either members of ABA and/or certified by the Behavior Analysis Certification Board. The goal of this symposium will be to develop potential solutions to this issue and work to advocate for changes in the systems necessary to promote such needs.

Early behavioral intervention has well demonstrated the ability to instill or increase basic social and interpersonal skills in children with autism. However, there remain many areas where programming is less well developed. This symposium presents data-based procedures for addressing problems in pedestrian safety, non-food ingestion, and joint attention skills. These areas are often more challenging to treat than basic language, academic, and self-help deficits. As behavioral interventions become more widespread and effective, increased numbers of children need assistance with the more subtle skills. The first presentation reports on a program designed to improve childrens ability to be safe in high risk situations in the community. Automobile awareness and safety while walking are important safety skills for all children to have. The second presentation describes an ABA intervention to help a child with severe Pica. Many children with autism have additional diagnoses, and Pica not only constitutes a serious threat to the childs well-being, but is notoriously difficult to treat in a natural environment. The third presentation describes a 3-phase behavioral intervention to increase joint attention in children with autism, thus allowing the shared awareness and experience that makes social interaction so rewarding.

Joint attention, a synchronizing of the attention of two or more persons, has been an increasing focus of research in cognitive developmental psychology. In particular, it appears that children diagnosed with autism may display a syndrome-specific deficit in joint attention skills. Over the last few years, phenomena treated under the heading of joint attention have also come into focus of behavior-analytic research and theory. The purposes of the present symposium are to present (1) an operant perspective on joint attention phenomena and (2) empirical results which show that joint attention skills can be established in children with autism through specific, step-wise operant procedures.

Preference Assessments have become an essential tool in the assessment and treatment of problem behavior. Over the past 20 years, the effectiveness and utility of multiple methods has been evaluated. Included in these studies are investigations into the validity of the various assessments. However, important questions remain. The three studies presented in this symposium address questions pertaining to the validity of different types of preference assessments, consistency of choices across assessments, and the accuracy of choice making behavior. In the first study, the efficacy of discrimination training to teach individuals with developmental disabilities to make auditory discriminations during symbolic preference assessments was evaluated. Results indicated that choice making improved for all three participants following discrimination training. In the second study, high preference items from full- and partial-array preference assessments were compared in a reinforcer assessment in order to assess the relative reinforcement value. Results indicated that although both full- and partial-array items initially functioned as reinforcers, the participants allocated more responding the full-array items when presented concurrently. In the final study, reinforcer assessments were used to validate the outcome of several preference assessment methods (single-stimulus, paired stimulus, and multiple stimulus without replacement). Results indicated discrepancies in rankings across the three methods and reinforcer assessments validated the results of only one or two of the preference assessment methods for 2 of the 3 participants. The results of these studies suggest that although preference assessments are vital tools in the assessment and treatment of problem behavior particular attention should be given to issues related to the validity of these procedures.

Four papers on the assessment and / or treatment of noncompliance will be presented. In the first paper, two case examples that demonstrate the effectiveness of nontraditional treatment strategies for increasing compliance will be presented. In the second paper, an extension of an EO analysis of compliance was done by applying the procedures to a classroom setting serving typically developing children with behavioral disorders. In the third paper, three antecedent and two consequent strategies for improving compliance were examined in young children. In the fourth paper, previous research on child compliance is extended by describing compliance levels of 16 preschool-aged children, and then elucidating the importance of antecedent and consequence-based strategies via parametric analyses.

Behavior analysts have a long-standing presence in education; however the corporate arena offers a relatively untapped education facet: corporate learning. Large companies typically spend over $100 million yearly on learning and training programs but what, if any, is the return on this investment? Corporate learning solutions generally are not built upon sound behavioral principles. They are, however, built upon Instructional Systems Design & Development (ISDD) methodologies. The most popular methodologythe ADDIE modelprovides a systematic process for creating corporate learning. It is through this model that behavior analysts have the opportunity to drive results. Behavior analysts have the capability to turn learning solutions into behavioral learning solutions and produce a return far greater than a monetary investment. Not only do behavior analysts have the power to influence corporate learning, but corporate learning also has the capability to impact behavior analysis. A variety of learning modalities are delivered in the corporate arena, many of which can enhance current behavioral solutions. A showcase of learning solutions will be demonstrated in an effort to highlight Whats out there? and where, as behavior analysts, we can make a difference.

Applied behavior analysiss (ABA) pragmatic, natural science approach to discovering environmental variables that reliably influence socially significant behavior and to developing a technology that takes practical advantage of those discoveries offers humankind our best hope for solving many of our problems. Unfortunately, ABA has had limited impact on society. Using public education as the exemplar, this presentation will explore the question, If ABA is so wonderful, why dont we (society) make greater use of it? Improving the effectiveness of education is one of societys most important problems, and for more than four decades applied behavior analysis has provided powerful demonstrations of how it can promote learning in the classroom. In spite of this evidence, behavior analysis is, at best, a bit player in efforts to reform education. Dr. Heward will identify a dozen reasons why ABA is ideally suited to help improve education, review a somewhat longer list of reasons that work against the widespread adoption of behavioral approaches in education, and suggest some actions that practitioners and researchers can take to enhance and further ABAs contributions to effective education.

Although ABA has the data showing effectiveness, parents continue to pursue fad and controversial treatments. Behavior analysts need to behave in a way that will result in increased acceptance of ABA and a scientific skepticism of all therapies. Attendees of this symposium are asked to bring materials - phamplets, flyers, brochures, videoclips, etc. - that can be disseminated to other members of the audience. These materials will hopefully be customized and given to pediatricians, parent groups, and other professional agencies, to begin developing a more positive attitude about ABA and a more objective evaluation of therapies being proposed for children with autism.

"Affect" refers to a persons facial expression, gestures, and verbalizations that are emitted in response to a complex set of discriminative stimuli that evoke the observers use of terms that draw inferences about a persons emotional state. People with autism have deficits in social interaction that are apparent in nonverbal behavior. Such deficits have been addressed using applied-behavior-analytic methods that successfully promote social interaction. Based on the reviewed literature, however, only two studies (Gena, Couloura, & Kymissis, 2005; Gena, Krantz, McClannahan, & Poulson, 1996) used behavioral principles to increase appropriate affective responding in individuals with autism. This symposium presents a review of the literature on affective behavior and two studies that add to that literature. The study by DeQuinzio, Townsend, Sturmey, and Poulson emphasized the role imitation and modeling play in displaying facial expressions. The study by Najjar, Vener, and Poulson used a behavioral intervention package, consisting of modeling, shaping, and script-fading to increase appropriate verbalizations, vocal intonation, and facial expressions. Both studies were conducted with children with autism.

The label "high risk" in the past denoted dangerous areas to avoid/was predictive of a problem that might not be readily resolved. Currently, the "high risk" label is being applied to students with behavioral deficits--and children who have been so labeled are placed into special education classrooms along with those diagnosed as persons with mental retardation, autism, developmental delay. Behavioral Assessment & Technology Support Systems (BATSS) has been successful in training classroom staff to remediate these behavioral deficits and, thereby, enable these children to function more appropriately and effectively in public school classrooms. Our discipline does not encourage us to recognize boundaries established by descriptive assessments. The papers presented in this symposium describe how master's-level graduate students are demonstrating to educators and classroom staff how to bypass some of the problem type behaviors being exhibited in these classrooms. Following the presentations the audience will be included in a discussion of problems, problem-solving strategies, and directed to literature that will acquaint them with behavioral technology. The speakers and the chair will generate discussion by asking questions of the audience.

Behavior analysts are frequently part of an interdisciplinary treatment team; quality programming for students requires that behavior analysts work effectively with other disciplines, which are likely to present vastly different approaches. This symposium presents data on interventions combining behavior analytic principles and strategies employed by speech and occupational therapists. The first study uses multi-element designs to assess the effects of various sensory stimulation protocols on two students challenging behaviors. The second study, conducted by a behavior analyst and speech therapist, uses a multiple baseline across settings to assess the effects of functional communication training on the aggressive and self-injurious behaviors of an 11-year-old boy. The effects of this intervention on his overall language acquisition rate will also be discussed. The final study will present data to be collected on the food refusal and selectivity of a young man with autism. Interventions from behavior analytic and speech pathology literature were combined; data on the effects of two phases of the intervention will be collected and evaluated in a changing criterion design. Collaborating with other disciplines can result in empirical and creative interventions.

Ongoing research on behavioral momentum and behavioral economics continues to examine the generality of the momentum metaphor and the utility of behavioral economic analyses. The first study examined the effects of differing types of disrupter stimuli. The second evaluated momentum effects in a natural education environment. The third examined the effects of response effort manipulations on responding maintained by qualitatively different reinforcers on progressive-ratio schedules. The fourth evaluated a method to determine reinforcer value based on a unit-price analysis.

This symposium will present recent research promoting behavioral safety. In the first study, Mackner and colleagues will discuss procedures for teaching parents to provide safety skills training for preventing gun play to their children. In the second study Tarasenko and colleagues will describe peer tutoring for teaching abduction prevention skills to children. In the third study, Knudson and colleagues will describe behavioral skills training to promote fire safety skills with individuals with severe and profound mental retardation. Finally, Van Houten and malenfant will discuss procedures for promoting safety belt use among drivers.

Various tactics used at the Jigsaw CABAS School are described and data are provided to show their effectiveness in expanding the academic and communication repertoires of children on the Autistic Spectrum. The effect of multiple exemplar instruction was tested on the transfer of stimulus function for unfamiliar pictures across listener and speaker responses. Conditioning procedures were used to increase time spent playing appropriately with various activities, increasing the number of learn units presented was used to decrease out-of-seat behaviour and items were targeted to a rate criterion for fluency. Writer immersion is used to increase the number of written autoclitics and to decrease the number of written errors. Textual prompts are also being tested in this classroom as a tactic to increase the use of descriptive autoclitics. Data will be presented on the effectiveness of all these tactics.

Joint attention involves the coordinated attention between a social partner and an object in the environment and has been identified as one of the earliest emerging social behaviors in typically developing children. Deficits in joint attention for children with autism have been well documented in the literature. These children fail to orient to speech sounds or social stimuli, show deficits in the ability to follow the gaze of another person and often to use gaze shifts and gestures to initiate joint attention. Interventions based on behavioral teaching approaches have shown the most promise for ameliorating joint attention deficits in young children. A variety of instructional procedures including systematic prompting, shaping and reinforcement have been shown to be effective in teaching responding to joint attention and initiating joint attention. A limitation of this research to date is in the generalization and maintenance of the acquired skills. The purpose of this symposium is to describe several research projects in which the authors are using behavioral interventions to teach joint attention to preschool age children. The implications of these findings will be discussed as they relate to the integration of these skills into the general behavioral repertoires of these children.

Scientific communities rarely embrace new formulations of their subject matters or theories concerning them with enthusiasm. On the contrary, new theories are frequently and sometimes forcefully resisted, the latter peculiar to those touching upon issues of so fundamental a sort as to threaten venerable scientific traditions. Historians note that the eventual adoption of new formulations of events in the sciences is typically preceded by their having first suffered through successive stages of being ignored, dismissed, reviled, ridiculed, distorted, and exploited. Such has been the fate of interbehavioral psychology in the most powerful sector of the behavior analytic community. While it is the case that certain aspects of the behavior analytic position are incompatible with Kantors formulation of psychological events, the threat posed by the adoption of the latter is not as great as might be imagined. Indeed, it is only the most ill-formed and incoherent aspects of the former that are threatened by interbehavioral logic. More importantly, unless behavior analysis strives toward greater scientific systemization, problems of this sort will inevitably resurge, putting the validity and significance of this enterprise at continued risk. Adequate systemization is exemplified in interbehavioral psychology. For these and related reasons, certain assurances and clarifications pertaining to Kantors views are warranted. In addition, many members of the behavior analytic community are wholly unaware of Kantors enormous contribution to the development of a natural philosophy and science of behavior. My aim in this address, thereby, is also to provide an overview of interbehavioral psychology and the philosophy of interbehaviorism for this audience.

Scott Geller coined the term behavior-based safety (BBS) in 1979 when consulting with Ford Motor Company on applications of behavior analysis to increase the use of vehicle safety belts. He subsequently taught BBS principles and relevant intervention strategies for on-the-job safety, first at several Ford manufacturing plants and then at various other companies nationwide. Over the next decade, BBS gained substantial popularity as the leading-edge approach to addressing the human dynamics of industrial safety. Annual conferences have been dedicated to BBS, and consulting firms purporting to implement BBS continue to spring up worldwide. Indeed, BBS likely represents the largest-scale application of behavior analysis beyond educational and rehabilitation institutions. The presenter has authored several books and training programs on BBS, including participant workbooks, audiotapes, videotapes, CDs and DVDs. However, Gellers most recent books and training materials (e.g., People-Based Safety and The Anatomy of Medical Error) advocate people-based safety (PBS) over BBS. This presentation will explain the evolution of PBS from BBS, with particular reference to applications in industrial and hospital settings. Learn the principles of BBS and PBS as presented to industries worldwide and most recently to healthcare workers, as well as distinctions between BBS and PBS.

The incidence of autism has increased considerably during the past decade. A corresponding development of programs serving individuals with autism has occurred. While these programs are essential to meet the needs of the autism community, attracting, training and retaining a qualified workforce becomes very difficult. In addition to the competition among programs serving individuals with autism, these agencies must also compete with employment opportunities that are less stressful and less demanding than working with individuals with autism. Despite the widespread use of empirically-based teaching techniques in the field of special education, few providers apply these same principles to address staff behavior change. Organizational behavior management (OBM), also referred to as Performance Management (PM), is the application of applied behavior analysis to organizational improvement. The purpose of this panel is to address common issues within the field of human services and more specifically, to programs serving individuals with autism. Topics to be addressed include issues of staff retention and turnover, staff development as well as issues of quality assurance and improvement.

Efficient training of staff is a high priority for agencies serving people with severe developmental disabilities. This symposium examines a complete makeover of staff training in two agencies supporting people with severe developmental disabilities. Community Living Opportunities, Inc. (CLO), located in Eastern Kansas, provides residential services for 185 adults and features the Family Teaching Model (FTM), where 1 to 3 people live with a family who provides care, teaching, and a preferred lifestyle. California Community Opportunities, Inc. (CCO), located in San Jose, provides FTM services to people moving from Agnews Developmental Center. The first paper examines the effects of shortened workshop and in-home training on Family Teacher performance on tests and observations after workshop sessions, after 90 days, and after six months. The second study is a replication (at CCO) of the training and testing model, but focuses on in-home coaching lessons and ongoing assessment of primary outcome areas including safety, rights, supervision, and teaching skills. The third paper focuses on Social validity of the training model. Parents and frequent visitors of individuals are queried regarding satisfaction with training and outcomes. Preliminary data suggest that in situ training focused on the most important staff skills results in the best outcomes.

This tutorial will focus on trichotillomania and other repetitive behavior disorders in children and adults with an emphasis on functional assessment and intervention strategies. Following a discussion of the different repetitive behaviors, functional characteristics, and diagnostic categories, the tutorial will discuss assessment procedures, describe functional analysis research with these behaviors, and present recent research on habit reversal and other treatment of these disorders.

This symposium will present innovations in procedures for treating feeding problems and teaching pill swallowing. The first presentation will present data of efforts to treat food selectivity by texture using antecedent manipulations and reinforcement-based procedures. The second presentation will present data demonstrating that stimulus fading can be used in the absence of escape extinction to teach pill swallowing to children. The third presentation will present data of a component analysis of a treatment package used to treat food selectivity by type.

Children, persons with intellectual disabilities, their caretakers, and the general population are at increasing risk for illness and premature death because of their unhealthy eating and exercise habits. Since eating and exercising are behaviors, this problem provides an opportunity for behavior analysis to contribute to its solution. This symposium will present data on the effectiveness of behavior-analytic technologies that provide resources, training, and/or performance management interventions (such as goal-setting, feedback and incentives) to help persons at risk for illness and premature death to acquire and maintain healthier eating and exercise habits.

Behavior consultation can involve a behavior analyst working on behalf of a public school to address a wide range of issues requiring behavioral services. Commonly, referrals are for training, skill acquisition, or behavior reduction with individual or small groups of students. This symposium will present 3 data-based papers representing this range of behavioral referrals. One paper will present data on skill acquisition in social skills training to a group of middle school students receiving special education services. Specifically, data will be presented on several childrens acquisition of social skills during a systematic training process. The second paper will present data on reducing prompt dependency and increasing spontaneous manding in a child with autism. The third paper will present data-based decision making procedures derived from an analysis of how much data is required for making informed decisions during discrete trials training. Using both contrived and real data sets, decision making strategies were applied to daily data collection, and data taken during 80%, 60%, 40%, and 20% of days.

Children who have experienced abuse, neglect and/or separation from parents often exhibit severe behavioral difficulties that can result in expulsion from homes, schools and various community programs. With the structure, consistency and positive reinforcement provided by behavioral treatment programs, the behavior of these children often improves, they can frequently be maintained in these settings, and they are sometimes found to have been misdiagnosed. However, they often have continued dependency on the external structure provided by the behavioral treatment program. This is manifested by a failure to generalize positive behaviors in alternate settings and/or to internalize the values and motivation provided by the external structure. These children tend to show no indication of experiencing the emotions of joy, pride, shame, guilt, anxiety or fear. Their behavior appears to be strictly influenced by external stimuli and does not seem to be modulated by emotions. They tend to exhibit what appears to be a false sense of high self-esteem, show no indication of having a conscience, and seem to lack any genuine emotional expressiveness other than anger. A theoretical interpretation based on behavioral principles of the issues discussed above will be provided with specific behavioral treatment strategies to address these issues.

Four papers on augmentative communication device and autism will be presented. Paper topics include: Modifying Existing Curricula for Use with Augmentative Communication Devices; Producing Generative Language on Augmentative Communication Devices using Precision Teaching: Quasi-Experimental Designs; Pre-Skills to support Augmentative Communication Devices; Modifying the Layout of an Augmentative Communication Device to Measure the Affects on a Child with Autisms Vocabulary Acquisition and Spontaneous Device Use

This symposium includes four studies concerning functional assessments, analysis and function based interventions in school settings.

As children with autism move into general educational classrooms, there is a need to develop effective and contextually-practical interventions. There is little evidence that placement of children with autism in a general education classroom setting by itself, will produce significant gains in their academic or social skills. This symposium will present a number of techniques associated with the success of supported inclusion for children with autism. One paper will present data on the use of embedded instruction to teach children with autism within a general education setting. A second study will describe a study of training paraprofessionals to support adolescents with autism in secondary schools. The third paper will present data on generalization across tasks of teaching children with autism to answer why questions. The fourth paper will discuss the use of a transitional classroom to prepare children with autism for supported inclusion and z method of evaluating the match between the expectations of a potential receiving classroom and the needs of a child with autism.

Theory and philosophy have important roles in the development and advancement of behavioral science. This symposium will include four papers related to theory and philosophy. The first paper discusses the extension of behavior analytic theory to the important area of adherence, particularly as it relates to health. The second paper addresses the role of classical conditioning in the evolution of behavioral science. The third paper describes the relationship between philosophy and behavioral science. Lastly, the fourth paper addresses the concept of probability in behavioral science.

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) has contributed greatly to the treatment of behaviors related to a diagnosis of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) since the inception of the field. Early ABA studies still provide the foundation for now routine recommendations such as the token economy and behavioral parent training. However, recently these early treatments have become much more refined and systematized. The application of functional analysis principles and procedures as well as the development of sophisticated concurrent operant assessment procedures have also led to new and innovative behavioral treatments for ADHD. The purpose of this presentation is to present recent functional analysis and concurrent operant assessment research related to the treatment of ADHD in the context of the past, the present, and our future.

Floridas Behavior Analysis Services Program (BASP) is a statewide program for dependent children and their caregivers. Over 60 board certified behavior analysts from the University of South Florida and the University of Florida work with parents and staff to improve their interactions with previously abused and neglected children. Caregivers receive training in the Tools for Positive Behavior Change Curriculum and learn how to implement individualized behavior plans when necessary. Three presentations within the current symposium discuss outcome results with both caregivers and children. The results of these studies indicated that the training and/or individual assessments were effective in producing positive outcomes (i.e., decreasing teen runaway behavior and increasing the positive interactions of caregivers). The final presentation applied the same curriculum, which is typically only taught to those affiliated with child welfare, to volunteers in the community who were interested in taking a parenting class. This study indicated positive outcomes on child behavior and also showed that additional measures of caregiver stress and depression can improve after training. In summary, the results of the current studies indicate that the BASP program can be effective in making positive changes in both child and caregiver behavior.

There are many challenges with training staff and teachers in Humans service agencies and schools with limited time and resources Administrator and supervisory must find way to quickly and accurately train staff to be able to perform with students and individuals in school day program and residential setting. This symposium provide several example of multiple training interventions, using video Feedback to train educational assessment and interaction skills to teachers parents and direct care staff The first presentation describes a method for training parents and staff to implement functional analysis using performance feedback and Video Feedback to increase accuracy of implementation of consequence during conditions. The second presentation describes a performance management intervention that used Video observation to increase effective interaction skills increasing clinical interaction skills for teachers in a school and residential programs. The third presentation describes a training program to teach discrete trial training to staff in a residential school for children with Autism. All presentation represents interventions used across multiple staff in education and therapeutic environments.

This symposium includes three papers with recent research on the treatment of binge eating and purging associated with bulimia, and smoking. In the first study, Bosch and colleagues describe a study in which extinction was used to treat binge eating maintained by automatic negative reinforcement. In the second study, Azrin and Kellen describe research in which a slowed eating rate resulted in a decreased level of purging behavior associated with bulimia. In the final paper, Anderson and Gaynor describe a multifaceted behavioral intervention for smoking. David Reitman will serve as discussant and comment on the papers.

Este simposio presentara estudios que han sido realizados ya sea en paises de habla hispana, or por investigadores de habla hispana. Todas las presentaciones seran en espaol.

Research has shown positive reinforcement to be an effective strategy for increasing food consumption in children with developmental disabilities who display food selectivity/refusal. Three papers will review background, incidence, significance, assessment, intervention, outcomes, and limitations with three different students diagnosed with pervasive developmental disorders who display food selectivity and/or refusal across home and school environments. Each paper will discuss systematic intervention, including a variety of antecedent and consequence strategies used to promote increased food consumption across home and/or school environments. Papers will also present individualized programs tailored to the child and team and that using one or more types of interventions concurrently or with multiple baseline approaches may generate outcomes quickly to create team confidence. The impact of several variables will be presented; including, developing technically sound protocols, identifying functional reinforcers, promoting comprehensive team involvement and communication, treatment integrity, data collection, and limitations of interventions. Results presented will show significant improvements in meal times and increased food consumption for all three children, with results sustained over time with maintenance procedures in place.

Since 1979 Project 12-Ways has served families with a history of child abuse and neglect. The Project has operated under the auspices of the Behavior Analysis & Therapy Program at SIU and, therefore, adopts an experimental-clinical approach to rendering service. Recent innovations will be described including the first attempt at an international replication in Ontario, Candada.

The use of functional assessment prior to treatment selection is considered best practice in a range of settings, including schools. However, promoting quality school-based functional assessments is often a challenging endeavor. This symposium will explore some of the issues surrounding functional assessments in schools, including the relative value of function-based interventions for typically developing children, challenges to the quality of school-based functional assessments, and models for improving functional assessment practices within school districts.

ABA-based treatment and education programs for children with autism frequently require staff to conduct highly structured, 1:1 intervention sessions. The staff that fill these positions are typically psychology undergraduates or B.A. level graduates, and many have not had formal training or coursework in behavior analysis or behavioral intervention techniques. Consequently, most ABA-based service providers develop and implement their own training protocols and performance-based evaluations to facilitate the acquisition of intervention skills in these entry-level, front-line staff. This symposium will discuss this critical issue of staff training and performance in ABA-based programs in home, school, and center-based settings. The presenters will emphasize performance-based criteria to assess skills in the areas of discrete-trial teaching; incidental teaching; mand training; teaching in dyads; fluency; and problem-solving via functional analyses. Training procedures will be described in detail, data on staff performance will be presented, and the implications of staff training and performance on the efficacy of intensive behavioral intervention will be discussed.

Autism is a complex and heterogeneous disability that is associated with a myriad of serious problems that affect the lives of the diagnosed child as well as family members and others who are close to the child. Such problems include challenging behaviors, family disintegration, isolation, and highly restricted learning opportunities. A number of interventions have been implemented in efforts to prevent or remediate these problems. This presentation will describe several of the most conspicuous problems associated with autism, along with selected prevention strategies that have been validated with experimental data or that seem particularly promising as a result of quasi-experimental findings and clinical experience.

This symposium will critically examine the biomedical model of mental disorders and its underlying assumptions, diagnostic system, empirical evidence, clinical outcomes, professional and corporate sponsors, and wide spread promotion through educational and media campaigns. Ways in which the biomedical approach suppresses research and practice of behavior analysis with persons with mental disorders will also be discussed.