Association for Behavior Analysis International

For many years authority figures in the science of behaviour analysis have attempted to place a spotlight on the conspicuous factors that have acted as impediments to the dissemination and utility of the strategies and interventions drawn from basic and applied science findings in this field. A number of these impediments have been empirically investigated and some have been described in relation to a misrepresentation of the science to the general public. Ongoing research shows that these impediments continue to present a significant challenge to researchers and practitioners specifically in the application of behaviour change procedures to those with developmental and intellectual disabilities. More importantly, ongoing impediments to dissemination and implementation of effective practices may prevent numerous individuals who may truly benefit from science-based behavioural methods to improve in many areas of their lives. This presentation addresses why behaviour analysis may still be considered a generic science and provides an analytical framework of science communication to bridge the gap between behaviour analysis findings and the public including education, health and social care sectors as well as stakeholders themselves. It will be argued that one of the most important elements of such a framework should ensure that a diversity of perspectives about the applications of behaviour analysis held by different groups are considered when solutions to the dissemination of behaviour analytic strategies are pursued.

Students of Behaviour Analysis, practitioners in the field of Behaviour Analysis, professionals interested in behavior change, researchers within the field of developmental disabilities and behavior change.

Recently, there have been increases in telehealth usage for families with children with autism. The telehealth model can allow for cost-effective supports in areas where other applied behavior analysis (ABA) services might not be available. As a result, e-learning programs for parents of children with autism have become part of the telehealth paradigm. However, a standard model for effective caregiver e-learning has not been established. In the Czech Republic, one of the many places where there are limited ABA supports and no available ABA e-learning courses for families, the development of an e-learning course that is freely available, and linguistically and culturally appropriate, is needed. Nevertheless, without evidence on the best practices in e-learning for supporting caregivers, the best place to start is unknown. Therefore, a pilot study was developed to assess an ABA course for parents in the Czech Republic while also working to draw broader conclusions about best practices in the use of synchronous and asynchronous e-learning components. Results demonstrated that a total of 33 caregivers completed the course, making statistically significant gains in their ABA knowledge and rating the course highly. Interestingly, the addition of synchronous components did not appear to greatly impact any outcome measures. Suggestions for supporting caregivers in e-learning course completion and directions for future research are additionally explored.

This symposium will look at the potential for improving societal problems using applied behavior analysis across the globe. First, the two papers examine contextual and cultural concerns that should be pertinent to behavior analysts. Secondly, how do we use our technology and ethical values to improve society? Finally, both papers will review how our ethics code should influence this work. The first paper (Smilak & Putnam, under review) examines the colonization of African nations from a Skinnerian perspective and its impact on the current functioning of African populations. Next, a brief review of the research will be presented. Finally, suggestions will be outlined for behavior analysts interested in international dissemination, specifically looking at the role of participatory community development in alleviating colonial relations between these regions. The second paper will use a multi-tiered data-based decision-making framework to address community issues using applied behavior analytic principles. This type of framework has been used extensively in schools. A brief review of the literature will be presented of its use in community settings. Finally, suggestions will be outlined for behavior analysts interested in using this framework in addressing social problems.

Knowledge of cultural applied behavior analysis, multitiered system of support organizational behavior management

The multi-tiered framework is derived from behavior analytic theory. It is employed as a system-wide intervention system to effectively remediate behavioral, academic, and organizational problems on a large scale. With the advent of legislative reform in federal education policy in 1997, schools were required to ensure a continuance of evidence-based practices (EBP), firmly grounded on the principles of applied behavior analysis, to remediate school-related issues (Horner & Sugai, 2015). With this come challenges, such as employing a systematic framework that could adapt to each unique school culture. However, after 20 years of research and development, most schools today utilize MTSS, mainly because it aligns EBP standards with respect to each unique school environment (Hollenback, 2007). Similarly, public policy implementation has recently entered the same predicament with the advent of the Evidence-Based Policy Act of 2018 (Kane, 2019). Public policy implementation is now grappling with the conundrum of finding a universal fit for contextually diverse populations (Oliver et al., 2014). This paper describes the implication of the Evidence-Based Policy Act of 2018 on public policy implementation, the current need for universal applications of EPB, and how the multi-tiered framework can address these standards while simultaneously adapting to diverse community circles that are inherent in policy implementation.

The Early Learner Curriculum Achievement Record (ELCAR; Greer, Speckman, Dudek, Cahill, Weber, Du, & Longano, 2020) is a comprehensive criterion-referenced assessment and curriculum used to determine the presence or absence of repertoires and response classes across self-management, verbal foundations, listener, speaker, academic, and physical (fine/gross motor) domains, allowing for development of an individualized curriculum. The ELCAR also includes screenings for preferences/reinforcers, observing responses, verbal operants, and instructional readiness. Screenings can be used to guide instructional practices, determine when and if protocols to induce early learner cusps and capabilities are needed, whether cusps/capabilities have been acquired, and to measure progress and learning. Early foundational protocols have been found to condition: three-dimensional and/or two-dimensional stimuli, faces, and voices, resulting in increases in observing responses, instructional readiness repertoires, and newly learned operants. The ELCAR provides a means for an ongoing assessment of all repertoires, cusps, and capabilities. As the child continues to learn and acquire new reinforcers, teachers may also need to adjust and analyze the curricular objectives, method of instructional delivery, and graphic displays to provide the most effective and efficient instruction for each student. A curriculum analysis, which consists of a series of questions, can be conducted if the instructional programs being presented are aligned with what the child needs and are appropriate for that child.

Basic

Delay discounting, the decline in outcome value as its receipt in time increases, has been used to assess impulsive choice in humans and animals. Hypothetical delay discounting (using verbal questionnaires) with humans has gained traction in research as a way of evaluating impulsive choice in a cost-effective and efficient manner. These hypothetical questionnaires have been used to evaluate impulsivity among various maladaptive behaviors, including gambling, substance use, and sexual behaviors. Although many impulsive behaviors are related to commodities, the the vast majority of discounting studies with humans focus on monetary discounting.However, conducting research on commodity discounting is fraught with obstacles. The purpose of this presentation is to discuss the obstacles in commodity discounting (e.g. framing effects, the types of commodities and the procedure used, and marginal utility) and to discuss recent research related to these area. The presentations will address how these obstacles may be addressed and review data on commodity discounting in these areas.

Behavior skills training (BST) provides an effective technology for teaching novel skills. Previous studies of interventions that utilize BST to train parents, clinicians, and persons with disabilities have shown that BST facilitates skill acquisition for social skills, often referred to as “soft skills”, that are necessary for many applications in the workplace as well as in therapeutic contexts. Despite the recent increase of online education providers, there are relatively few courses that incorporate BST. Online courses often consist of slide-based technologies and video lectures that do not necessarily engage learners’ attention or interaction, with intermittent quizzes as the only interaction points. Currently, more advanced technology is available to incorporate BST into online courses in compelling ways. Virtual Reality (VR) provides a medium for experiential learning in which the learner interacts with the virtual environment, as an analogue to “real life” situations, to produce certain consequences. Each node of interaction in VR provides an opportunity for rehearsal, as the learner practices soft skills and receives immediate feedback. The current study examines the use of VR for BST and explores the potential costs and benefits of VR for various “soft skills” training applications for different populations.

This presentation will provide an overview of the elaborated account of metacontingency with the primary focus on ways this perspective offers points of entry to alter contextual factors influencing cultural practices. The elaborated account of culturo-behavior analytic concepts of metacontingency and macrocontingency will be discussed in the context of value-based approach toward the analysis of cultural change. Moreover, the role of cultural milieu as a mediating factor in this interaction will be highlighted. The discussion of cultural phenomena also acknowledges the behaviors of verbally sophisticated consumers interacting with the many aggregate products of cultural entities as well as the verbal contexts within which members of organized groups operate. The presentation will also highlight the recent experimental and conceptual analyses associated with the role of context in the selection of cooperation and resilience.

General

It is the responsibility of every ABA supervisor to provide efficacious supervision to current and prospective certificants (BACB, 2014). The ABA Supervision Handbook offers a systematic method for assessing and training professional behavior analysts to acquire clinical competency. Additionally, it allows for the identification of supervisees’ skills and needs, helps to structure the supervision experience, operationalizes the practice of supervision, provides competency-based measures, and helps fulfill the supervisor's duty to develop ethical decision-making systems. As a result, organizations will benefit from improved supervisory practices and competent staff.

Prerequisite include BCBA practicing for 1+ years with completion of 8-hour Supervision Course.

Despite stringent safety rules, the project-based construction sector still generates one of the highest work-related injury rates in Europe. The role of construction-site leadership is paramount for fostering safety-related work behaviours on construction sites. A fair amount of safety research on the sector addresses managerial training; however, context-specific longer-term effects remain under-researched. In-depth, open-ended interviews were carried out with 20 site-managers several months after they attended a tailor-made practice-based training intervention. Applying an interpretative approach and narrative analysis, the aim was to appraise actual and potential effects of the training on their mindset and safety behaviours. Focus was on the participants’ experiences of, learnings from and applications of the training. The results highlighted the crucial importance of context on the effects of the training. Whether and how well the site-managers had internalised and applied the insights and learning from the course largely depended on the phase of the construction project they were managing at the time of the course. This is an important insight for both safety-research and behavioural (re)training interventions where context is rarely problematised, but rather viewed as static backdrop.

Although functional behavioral assessment and behavior intervention plan (FBA-BIP) are a common practice for students with disabilities, the practice base is limited as most record reviews include less than 100 participants and most reviews were conducted between 2005-2010. This descriptive analysis examined the FBA-BIP records of 304 students with disabilities. No previous research has examined this large of a sample. The results, limitations, future research, and implications for professional development will be) discussed.

Risk management planning is essential to identifying potential problems before they occur that can have a negative impact on your clinical programs and/or business. Risks can include those impacting billing and collections, finance, the health and safety of staff and participants, clinical outcomes, and the reputation of your organization. This session will discuss important procedures that are vital for an organization to develop a risk management program. This panel of experts will include leaders from adult day programs, residential programs, and pediatric autism service providers who will review case studies that help identify key components of risk identification, analysis and intervention. Strategies, procedures and data collection tools will be reviewed that can help inform stakeholders of potential risks to your organization.

Autism Provider Leadership

This international panel will describe how a group of colleagues maintained and strengthened relationships, sustained mental health, and perpetuated optimism via scheduled zoom meetings during the pandemic. The panel will describe the specific strategies used, including the use of behavior analytic themed assignments, the discussion of empowering stories (incorporating the inclusion of current events), the establishment of systems supports, and the sharing of the individual impacts of the pandemic. Regular meetings were structured around affirming principles and positive supports related to the pandemic, with meetings scheduled to best accommodate the timetables of those participating. Among the assignments were discussions of seminal presentations and personally relevant articles that each participant felt were meaningful in shaping their careers, including stories of how important factors and/or mentors impacted lives and practices. Participants discussed how they coped with the of challenges posed by the restrictive isolation, significant and stressful changes in working conditions, as well as new requirements that dramatically altered the practice of behavior analysis during the Covid-19 crisis. The importance of collaborative self-care and relationship maintenance will be emphasized, along with the focus on the other ethical requirements related to one’s responsibility as a general professional, practitioner, supervisor, researcher, colleague etc.

All behavior analysts particularly those who provide or will be providing supervision.

The use of functional analysis and function-based interventions are considered best practice when treating challenging behavior exhibited by individuals with developmental disabilities. We have arranged a panel of top researchers, all of whom have experience conducting and evaluating different functional analysis methods. The panelists will discuss the evolution of these practices over time and provide commentary on future directions in this area of research. In addition, the panelists will frame the advancement of assessment and treatment in the historical context of these practices. Issues such as ethics and social validity will be discussed along with more recent considerations such as trauma-informed care and pragmatism. The panelists will also highlight research foundations and practical advancements in treating challenging behavior. Multiple perspectives on the treatment of challenging behavior will be presented including research and practice guidelines from various sources. The panel intends to provide a lively discussion that will motivate interests of clinicians and researchers to consider assessment and treatment procedures in light of a growing and changing field.

Audience should be interested in learning about functional analysis that includes both current practices and future directions.

Implicit testing within behavior analysis has been a rather radical development over the past 15 years. Much of the early work was theoretically informed by Relational Frame Theory and progressed using a mixture of top-down and hypothetico-deductive approaches. Many test features and behavioral quantification methods were borrowed directly from the eponymous Implicit Association Test, and involved questionable social cognitive stimulus presentation and scoring methods. The Function Acquisition Speed Test (FAST), in contrast, was designed from the ground up in a painstaking research programme intended to expunge all mentalism from implicit testing, draw on well understood behavioral phenomena such as resistance to change, and use learning rates, rather than response time measures as a key dependent measure. It aims to enhance stimulus control in implicit testing, and clarify behavioral process. The FAST has uses in the analysis of stimulus relatedness in both social research and education settings, and might be used as a proxy for social attitudes, if attitudes are understood fully in functional terms. This talk will outline the behavior-analytic development of the FAST method for quantifying the relatedness of stimuli and “class strength,” and illustrate how the method can be used in a variety of novel social research contexts.

Postgraduate students and early career researchers

Meta-analysis of single-case experimental designs are an opportunity to summarize research literature, identify evidence-based treatments, and consider moderators for theory building. There are an expanding number of examples in the research literature with variations in methods, analysis, and graphic representation of outcomes. The use of meta-analysis is not without controversy, however. This session will engage the participant in three learning objectives; a solid conceptual framework and the limitations of the practice, step-by-step how-to's and illustrations from published literature including an illustrated list of graphic representations of data.

Practitioners working in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), play a vital role in meeting the needs of individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other developmental disorders. Due to the lack of highly qualified practitioners required for providing Evidence-based Practices, particularly in rural areas, many individuals are not receiving adequate services. Practitioners should be trained to implement ABA-based interventions with high-fidelity. Online training utilising internet-based technology can provide staff training in a cost and time-effective way. The aim of this study was to systematically review the literature researching online ABA-based training. Intervention characteristics, outcomes, and research quality in 16 studies were analysed, and the gaps were explored. Results were favourable, with all studies reporting positive or mixed findings. Quality ratings were notably low, especially for the group design studies. Recommendations for future research are proposed in light of identified methodological flaws in online learning research.

This symposium includes one empirical evaluation and two review papers that explore real-world applications of the behavioral science of language among diverse populations. First, Goodwyn, DeBar, Kisamore, Reeve, and Deshais will present a two-part study assessing blocking and overshadowing during the acquisition of compound auditory stimuli with typically developing adults. Next, Rasuratnam and Zonneveld will present a literature review examining the current status of the literature as it pertains to behavioral interventions (e.g., contingency management, systematic prompt fading) for the treatment of selective mutism. Finally, Vance, Kisamore, Bartasheva, Schnell, and Reeve will present a literature review of strategies to teach speaker and listener gestures to individuals with autism spectrum disorder. In doing so, the authors will propose a novel definition of gestures that is consistent with Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior. The results of each will be discussed within the context of limitations and implications for future research and clinical applications.

Behavior Analysts

Blocking and overshadowing may have implications on the development of stimulus control when teaching language, specifically intraverbals. Blocking and overshadowing were assessed during acquisition of compound auditory stimuli with typically developing adults across two studies. Study one evaluated whether trained components blocked stimulus control of untrained components and whether component length (i.e., 1-syllable, 5-syllable) affected the development of overshadowing. During the blocking evaluation, participants responded more accurately to trained components than untrained components, suggesting blocking occurred. During the overshadowing evaluation, participants responded more accurately to 1-syllable compared to 5-syllable components, suggesting overshadowing occurred. Study two evaluated whether component position (i.e., first, second) affected the development of overshadowing and whether history (i.e., prior-exposure components) with components blocked stimulus control of untrained components. During Study two, participants responded accurately to components depending on their position within the compound, but no consistent patterns were observed. In addition, some participants responded more accurately to prior-exposure components while others responded more accurately to untrained components. Overall, both studies demonstrated the development of restricted stimulus control while training intraverbals. Implications on how different component variables impact the development of blocking and overshadowing are discussed along with areas of future research.

Although gestures are essential in effective verbal behavior, they have received little attention in behavior-analytic research; specifically in interventions targeting acquisition of gestures by individuals with autism spectrum disorder. One likely reason for this is that there does not appear to be a clear behavior analytic conceptualization of gestures that is consistent with a behavior analytic account. To address this limitation, we propose a definition of gestures that is consistent with the science of behavior analysis. Using Skinner’s conceptual paradigm of verbal behavior, we also propose a definition of gestures as forms of non-vocal verbal behavior that are effective in (a) altering the behavior of and reinforced through the mediation of the listener, (b) culturally determined and indispensable for effective communication in a given verbal community, and (c) that can perform some of the same functions as vocal verbal operants (i.e., can serve as tacts, mands, intraverbals, and autoclitics). We further distinguish between speaker and listener gestures. Using these proposed definitions, we present an overview of research on teaching speaker and listener gestures to individuals with ASD with an emphasis on the methods used to teach these skills, procedures used to program for an assess generalization and maintenance, and strategies for assessing social validity of these interventions. We also suggest areas for future research.

What patients, their parents/guardians, insurance providers, and the community at large have in common with direct care and supervisory-level staff and ABA service organizations is that each stakeholder cares about quality services. To assure all stakeholders that quality services are being provided, a neutral entity must set standards to determine what is considered quality. Such standards are typically based on the scientific literature, and where research may fall short, subject matter experts provide guidance based on best practice. Then, to determine if services meet these standards, an objective entity conducts thorough evaluations using reliable assessment methods. In this symposium, we will share how Behavioral Health Center of Excellence (BHCOE) has developed a quality assurance system with a focus on our accumulated data collected over the past six years. The first presenter will discuss best practices in quality assurance systems for the field of ABA and how organizations perform when they are evaluated on BHCOE’s standards. The second presenter will discuss factors that can predict changes in VB-MAPP and Vineland scores for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The third and fourth presenters will share the results of evaluations with patients’ guardians and employees. All presenters will discuss the implications of their findings and future steps.

Employee satisfaction directly impacts organizational success. With the Great Resignation of 2021, many ABA service providers are prioritizing initiatives that directly address employee satisfaction and retention efforts. The purpose of this symposium is to demonstrate how those quality assurance systems might allow you to predict and improve organizational key performance indicators related to employee satisfaction and retention. Specifically, we discuss the results of analyses using a data set from over 500 organizations that: establish industry-average benchmarks for technician and supervisor-level employee satisfaction and turnover; and how prioritizing diversity, equity, & inclusion efforts, as well as retention, hiring, and recruitment efforts influence levels of employee satisfaction. We also discuss the results of analyses that evaluate the predictive relationships among employee satisfaction and turnover, patient satisfaction, and employee compensation to provide organizations with insight on what to prioritize for employee satisfaction initiatives. Finally, we close by discussing the limitations to our dataset as well as future directions for research.

We have initiated, replicated, and extended a programmatic line of behavior-analytic research to establish early pivotal social skills (e.g., visual regard, eye contact, vocalizations, echoics, joint attention, and social referencing). The first presenter will share results on the use of shaping technology to establish direct line of sight (i.e., visual regard) among three young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The second presenter will describe the behavioral indicators of at-risk infants, overview the infant eye contact research, and the application of a synchronized reinforcement procedures to establish eye contact with typically developing infants and infants at-risk of autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The third presenter will discuss the applications of a brief ABA-based parent treatment model for promoting early infant vocalizations and emerging echoic responses using contingent reinforcement in both single and dual-language speaking families. The fourth presenter will examine the acquisition of joint attention and social referencing repertoires via an operant-learning paradigm among infants and young children at-risk of ASD and Fragile X syndrome. The discussant will comment on these ongoing behavior-analytic programs of research on early social skills, highlight methodological challenges for basic and applied research, and suggest future directions and implications of this research.

It is recommended that audience members will at minimum have: (1) completed a Bachelor's Degree in Applied Behavior Analysis, Psychology, Speech and Language Pathology, Occupational Therapy, Special Education, or another relevant social science focusing on applications to neurotypical and neurodiverse infants and children, OR (2) currently work and practice in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis, Psychology, Speech and Language Pathology, Occupational Therapy, Special Education, or another field with applications to neurotypical and neurodiverse infants and children.

The purpose of the study was to demonstrate the application of shaping technology to establish direct line of sight, “visual regard,” of others and objects as a propaedeutic participant in the non-linear development of attending/observational cusps. The participants were three boys classified with autism with ages ranging between three and five years old. All three learners attended an ABA-based special needs school for children with autism. A multiple probe design across participants was used to document the impact efficacy of the procedure, which consisted of several systematically applied steps, with some variations, per learner. Visual regard was observed in different settings and at different times to determine maintenance and generalization of the skill.

Deficits in social engagement are among the main developmental problems observed among children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) Joint attention and social referencing skills are critical for the development of more complex communication and social interactions (Pelaez & Monlux, 2018) . The use of behavioral techniques and brief parent-infant or teacher-child engagement training has shown to be successful in promoting these social skills. We have explored different operant methodologies to teach joint attention and social referencing with particular attention to the contingent consequences maintaining the early learning of these skills (Monlux, et al., 2019). The current presentation reviews and extends previously published procedures for the training of joint attention and social referencing modeled after Pelaez and colleagues’ (2012) operant learning paradigm. Two different applications of the protocol are described, one in the natural environment using caregivers as therapists for children at risk of developing ASD and another using teachers and children with ASD in a classroom setting.

Visual schedules (e.g., picture activity books) have been widely used to teach individuals with autism how to independently engage in activities. However, few demonstrations exist involving visual schedules in treatment of challenging behavior, and to our knowledge, no examples exist in involving visual schedules in function-based reduction of challenging behavior. In this study researchers combined functional communication training (FCT) with visual activity schedules to reduce challenging behavior for two individuals with autism. For one participant, researchers used a visual schedule combined with FCT to address social-negatively maintained challenging behavior and, furthermore, trained his caregiver to also implement the intervention. For another participant, researchers conducted FCT to reduce social-positive maintained challenging behavior and used a picture activity schedule during tolerance training for periods when the functional communication response (FCR) was not available. For both participants, researchers found challenging behavior was reduced and acquisition of an FCR occurred at high levels.

A variety of factors influence the activities that transition-aged youth with disabilities participate in after exiting the public school system. One such factor is the expectation of their parents or caregivers, which has been cited as a significant predictor for students’ engagement in employment after leaving the high school setting. The impact of caregivers’ expectations may be even greater for youth with significant disabilities, especially because of the increased nature of their involvement in their children’s lives. Given the current body of research available about the relationship between caregivers’ expectations and employment outcomes, it is important to inquire a deeper understanding of where caregivers see their adolescents in terms of employment, following their departure from the school system. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to look at and understand caregivers’ expectations for their adolescent students with significant disabilities lives after secondary education, and their involvement in work.

Some students with Autism Spectrum Disorders and other Developmental Disabilities engage in intense and long-term challenging behaviors. Many of these student's challenging behaviors can be decreased or eliminated when a high-quality Behavior Intervention Plan is implemented with high rates of fidelity. Sometimes these plans need to be implemented over multiple school years, classrooms, case managers, teachers and paraprofessionals in order to fully support the student's reduction or elimination of challenging behaviors. This paper will present a description of a comprehensive framework that schools can use to insure a seamless transition and avoid a re-escalation of challenging behaviors. This framework was developed from clinical experiences in schools and will describe several case studies where the framework was successfully implemented as well as describe the components of the framework. The framework consists of planning on a long lead time, systematically building relationships with the student, providing direct instruction on Positive Behavior Supports and Interventions, providing direct instruction on the Behavior Intervention Plan, receiving staff practicing in the sending environment, the student frequently visiting the new environment, and updating the Behavior Intervention Plan based on data, the chronological and developmental age of the student and the new contingencies in the new environment as well as access to the sending staff after the transition has been made. Thus, this paper will help practitioners insure continued success rather than a regression and relearning period that often occurs when transitions are made.

Research with Socially Assistive Robots as therapy agents for individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is innovative and has the potential to add to the quality and quantity of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Therapy hours. The results and implications from nine research studies will be presented. Benefits to the clients with ASD, staff and parental perceptions, robot design and uses, and future directions will be discussed. Results show that robots are able to teach new skills to children with ASD, the children show positive affect when interacting with a robot, and staff are able to design behavioral interventions to be implemented by the robot. A study of parental perspectives indicated areas where parents have trust and do not have trust in the robot as a therapy agent for children with ASD. Future implications for the use of Socially Assistive Robots in therapy for children with ASD will conclude the presentation.

We face many societal challenges that require a group level response. Education and insight alone do not motivate behaviour change for individuals to support the group. Integrating techniques from Behaviour Analysis and Behavioural Economics has a lot to offer in terms of enhancing motivation towards behaviour for societal good. Behavioural Economics tells us that messages framed in terms of losses are more motivationally impactful than the equivalent messages framed in terms of gains. Adherence to guidelines that would be beneficial at the individual level (e.g., medication adherence) or societal level (e.g., climate change) can be low when people perceive the messaging as coercive, irrelevant or unfair resulting in counterproductive resistance. This is a common response to warning messages framed in terms of potential risks and costs. Fortunately, a wide range of evidence-based behavioural techniques are specifically designed to reduce counterproductive resistance. These techniques are designed to help individuals clarify their own motivators for behavioural change; and to teach psychological skills that can motivationally enhance messages. The current talk will provide insight into how to adopt behaviour analytic principles to support the development of more effective messaging to motivate effective behaviour change that will support individuals and groups.

Academics and practitioners interested in effective messaging to change behavior at individual or group levels.

This interactive symposium will provide an opportunity for the audience to explore peer-reviewed research that supports the implementation of self-monitoring systems to develop a variety of skills. A discussion of self-monitoring procedures incorporating a "match/accountability” component will be presented, with specific focus on the Self & Match System, a user-friendly, easy to implement, empirically-supported system. The Self & Match System has been used internationally. Self and Match can be incorporated into individualized behavior systems, class-wide, and school-wide management procedures as a part of SWPBIS and has been successfully implemented in a variety of settings. Next, a discussion of the development and implementation of self-monitoring as a tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 intervention within the schools will be explored, and also explore how self-monitoring with an accountability check can be an effective tool in teacher professional development implementation. Additionally, a review of a modified Self and Match, developed as part of The Framework for Learning Implementation & Professional Development (FLIPD) to support classroom based implementation of PBIS practices will be presented. Together, we will unpack the Who, What, When, Why, Where and How of effective self-management interventions in the schools.

Participants will engage in active learning to increase their knowledge of implementing self-monitoring tools within the educational setting. Symposium attendees will learn about the evidence-based benefits of self-monitoring interventions, learn about self-monitoring as a tier 1, tier 2, and tier 3 intervention within the schools, and also explore how self-monitoring with an accountability check can be an effective tool in teacher professional development. This workshop is designed for behavior analysts, consultants, school psychologists, autism specialists, special educators, teachers, administrators, parents, and/or others who support individuals from pre-K to 21 in school settings. Great workshop for individuals and/or teams!

By systematically teaching individuals how to engage in more pro-social behaviors they are able to better access their learning, their communities, and develop stronger relationships with family, friends, and colleagues -ultimately leading to a better quality of life. The National Autism Centers’ National Standards Project, The National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence and Practice, Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College: IRIS Center and the University of South Florida’s Center for Evidence-Based Practice: Young Children with Challenging Behavior have all identified evidenced based-treatments; one of which is self-monitoring. This symposium will explore peer-reviewed research that supports the implementation and development of self-monitoring systems to increase academic, behavioral, and social skills in a variety of settings for groups and individuals of various ages and developmental abilities. A detailed discussion of self-monitoring procedures incorporating a ”match” component will be presented, including information on the Self & Match System, a user-friendly, easy to implement, empirically-supported system.

One of many benefits of self-management/self-monitoring interventions is that evidence supports these tools being implemented as Tier 1 through 3 interventions in the educational setting. This presentation will take a deep-dive visual walk through the steps employed throughout the first 18 months of the virtual development and in-person implementation of a school-wide self-monitoring procedure incorporating The Self and Match System. This presentation will guide the audience through the process of: 1) Relationship development with stakeholders and learning of current school-wide values, systems and tools. 2) Understanding of current practices and school culture to ensure continued implementation of successful practices; 3) Systematic planning to ensure integrity and validity of implementation of self-monitoring interventions,; 4) Development and enhancement of school-wide expectations to align with PBIS team’s visions; 5) Data-based decision making in initial implementation and progress monitoring; 6) Building capacity of on-site staff and systematic fading of consultative support; 7) Ongoing consideration of long-term scaling-up opportunities, coaching around tier 3 implementation of the intervention. Practical tips & tools to scale-up school-wide self-monitoring interventions & research supporting its implementation will be discussed.

Past research has shown that individuals with autism and other diagnoses could benefit from ABA intervention. Although ABA services are often provided in the individual’s home, individuals with profound autism and other diagnoses might require more than traditional in-home ABA intervention. Profound autism is a relatively new term not yet adopted by most clinicians and researchers nor defined by diagnostic manuals or tools; however, it is a term that is being used to describe individuals with autism who require 24-hour support throughout their lives. The current presentation includes three participants with various referral concerns, such as, self-injurious behavior, property destruction, aggression, and encopresis. Prior to starting treatment, an intensive case management team collaborated with other professionals to address barriers to access ABA treatment (e.g., housing, transportation, legal matters, and access to other health professionals). These results highlight the importance of intensive case management as a vessel to address environmental and ecological barriers for ABA treatment.

Intermediate. Participants should have prior experience with experimental analysis of behavior and conducting functional analysis assessments.

In this currently presentation, a 20-year-old participant diagnosed with Encopresis, Autism, and five other diagnoses received 10 hours per week of in-home ABA treatment. However, the treatment was not successful for three main reasons: first, treatment goals were focused on following instructions and communication only. Second, the home environment did not support ABA treatment, and third, the participant was not legally conserved and refused treatment on the daily basis. A different clinical team conducted a functional behavior assessment which identify the legal, housing, medical needs of the participant. The clinical team spent three months addressing these needs prior to the re-initiation of ABA treatment in a group home setting. The result showed that ABA treatment is successful in addressing chronic encopresis only when issues relating to legal, housing, and medical needs were addressed.

Individualized assessment and treatment is a hallmark of applied behavior analysis. In this presentation, we conducted functional analyses (Iwata et al., 1994/1982) of severe problem behavior displayed by two participants with profound autism. Few more subsequent analyses were added to guide focused in-clinic ABA treatments for these participants. However, other factors such as transportation had prohibited in-clinic ABA treatments. Additional functional analyses were conducted with the participant in the family's car. The result showed that in-clinic ABA treatment was necessary to decrease severe problem behaviors. Furthermore, the result of the functional analyses in the car allowed the clinical team to address problem behaviors prior and post in-clinic ABA treatment, and generalized the effect of the treatment across settings.

Documenting treatment outcomes in health care professions has become increasingly critical to both patients and stakeholders (e.g., third-party payors). With an everchanging landscape, a shortage of qualified practitioners, and varying viewspoints, we are in danger of having our practice defined for us. Specifically, practitioners must demonstrate that their treatments are effective and weigh adverse effects to outcomes. Practitioners and stakeholders, such as third-party payors, agree that accountability is important, but the challenge lies in agreeing how to achieve this. Over the past year, there have been meaningful progressions in tackling this topic for our field. Most recently BHCOE released their ABA Outcomes Framework and ICHOM released their ASD Standard Set. This panel will discuss the development, methodology and implementation of these two approaches to measuring ABA/(ASD?) treatment outcomes and provide practical considerations about integrating these resources into daily behavioral practice.

this presentation targets clinicians and practitioners working with individuals with ASD and looking to aggregate big data to determine impact at the individual and systems level

Automatically reinforced behavior presents substantial challenges to clinicians when developing behavioral interventions. This presentation will examine that questions of how, when, and whether automatically reinforced behavior should be treated. Self-injury is problem behavior that is sometimes maintained by automatic reinforcement and can pose the risk of significant and, in some cases, life threatening harm. On the other hand, stereotypy is nearly always automatically maintained but rarely leads to injury. Ethical considerations for clinicians will be discussed and the risks and benefits of both treating and not treating self-injury and stereotypy be explored. Some applied research on evaluating and treating stereotypic behavior will be reviewed with a focus on effective interventions for building core adaptive living and social skills.

Applied Behavior Analysts

Food selectivity is a problem often associated with autism spectrum disorder (Bandini et al., 2017). It tends to manifest itself with various change-resistant behaviors (Fisher et al., 2019), leading to inappropriate diets and nutritional deficits that negatively affect the life of the individuals and their families (Tiger, Hanley & Hernandez 2006). The aim of the research is to implement the food repertoire of a child diagnosed with autism. In particular, the goal is to make children accept solid foods instead of those with a liquid consistency. Furthermore, it is proposed to analyze how some kind of environment could influence food selectivity more than others. The results show an increasing collaboration of the child in the consumption of alternative foods. The intervention appears to be effective in the treatment of Food Selectivity. We used a “multiple baseline across setting” to analyze data.

Various forms of escape extinction are frequently used to treat food selectivity, which is common in autism. However, although effective in expanding food repertoire, this strategy may result in increased problem behaviors, such as aggression, self-injury, retching or vomiting. Here, we used a modified version of the Skill-Based Treatment (SBT, Hanley et al., 2014) to treat food selectivity and mealtime problem behaviors. Three non/minimally verbal ASD children (mean age=5.67) with severe food selectivity were recruited for the study. Each child underwent an assessment process including a food preference assessment and a mealtime problem behavior analysis using the Practical Functional Assessment (Hanley et al., 2014). An adapted version of the SBT protocol was used based on shaping response topographies with partial extinction procedures. Social validity was assessed using a 7-point scale. After the treatment, participants’ food repertoire increased, whereas the number of mealtime problem behaviors decreased. In addition, the rate of acceptance of subsequent foods increased faster, and treatment effects were successfully transferred to other settings and persons. Finally, caregivers recognized the social validity of the protocol, by reporting high levels of satisfaction and usability and lower stress levels after the treatment.

Humans at birth are endowed with 2 efficient sphincter reflexes that provide an effective system of discharging bodily waste. When sufficient water or faecal matter accumulates the muscles relax and waste is expelled. The process is a natural part of human functions. However, it is socially expected that children control their bladder before entering kindergarten. Urinary continence in typical children is achieved with little parental effort before the fourth birthday. Typical children in the USA may have less than 4 urination daytime accidents per week just before the third birthday. The definition of this criterion implies that a child is on their way to becoming competent in this critical self-care skill. Underdeveloped continence may lead to inadequate hygiene, stigmatization, and impoverished quality of life. In a clinic setting, I implemented an intensive toilet training protocol based on the principles of Applied Behaviour Analysis for 4 kindergarten learners with a diagnosis of Autism who were wearing diapers 24/7. Parents' attempts to toilet train their children had been unsuccessful. The protocol involved hydration to ensure an increased number of opportunities for urinations and scheduled trips to the toilet. Three students achieved mastery criteria and one student completed their training at home. Parents received training and the skill generalized to home and into community settings

This presentation provides insight into the recent movement in opposition of Applied Behavior Analysis treatment, especially for individuals with autism and related disorders and their caregivers. Common arguments that oppose Applied Behavior Analysis service delivery, including the assertion that Applied Behavior Analysis is abusive to its recipients, are presented (Leaf et al., 2021). Examples of ineffective responses to concerns about Applied Behavior Analysis, which are often delivered by behavior-analytic professionals (e.g., Registered Behavior Technicians®, Board Certified Behavior Analysts®), are evaluated according to their functions. Additionally, examples of effective, functional responses to common concerns about Applied Behavior Analysis are presented along with important considerations to respond effectively. The implications of non-exemplar responses to concerns about Applied Behavior Analysis (e.g., poor public perception) are presented with regard for the future, macro-level social validity of behavior-analytic practice. Finally, critical strategies in practice, including strategies related to consent and assent, are discussed to improve the perception of Applied Behavior Analysis, especially from consumers of behavior-analytic services and their caregivers.

Recent developments in the application and philosophy of behavior analysis have emphasized compassionate care (LeBlanc, Taylor, & Marchese, 2020; Rohrer et al., 2021; Taylor, LeBlanc, & Nosik, 2019; ). The implications of such a service delivery have broader implications for not only client outcome, but also with respect to public perception and criticism. In light of these criticisms of behavior analytic practices in clinical treatment, the purpose of this presentation is to review shortcomings in the traditional delivery of behavior analytic services and to identify future directions for our science to pursue. We begin with a discussion of ableism and provide arguments as to how to avoid implementing ableist programs or language into behavior analytic plans. From there, a review will be provided of recent advancements in compassionate behavior analysis to emphasize important developments in our science. We will then conclude with a broader discussion about why making some of these changes needs to be a priority for both the application and training of future behavior analysts.

Studies on the contribution of behavioral variation to the learning of difficult behaviors have obtained discrepant results. The goal of the present study was twofold: (a) to evaluate whether such discrepancies are related to methodological issues, and (b) to evaluate the effects of variability requirements on learning difficult target sequences. Twenty university students emitted five-response sequences. For the experimental groups, nontarget sequences were reinforced with 3 points according to the Lag-10 variation criterion or the Lag-3 repetition criterion. For the control groups, reinforcement probability for nontarget sequences was yoked to that obtained by the experimental groups. For both groups, difficult target sequences were continuously reinforced with 12 points. U values were higher with the Lag-10 criterion than with the Lag-3 criterion for the experimental groups and were unsystematic for the control groups. Higher levels of variability, regardless of whether they were produced by reinforcement of variation or were contingency induced, facilitated learning of target sequences. When comparing the present results with those in the literature, it is observed that a long exposure to experimental contingencies makes the use of different magnitudes of reinforcers irrelevant. With a short exposure, the use of different magnitudes contributes to target-sequence learning, regardless of species.

The effect of presenting groups of positions in four different conditions of spatial and temporal contiguity was evaluated by analyzing its effect on the learning of sequences. For this, two sequences of 16 and 25 positions were used, presented in two 4x4 and 5x5 matrices respectively. Within each matrix, a group of positions was presented contiguously in space and time, varying the place in the sequence in which it occurred. Thus, the conditions evaluated were, spatiotemporal contiguity at the beginning of the sequence (Group 1), in the middle part (Group 2), at the end of the sequence (Group 3) or without spatial contiguity (Group 4). Twenty eight undergraduate students participated. The results showed that the condition that most facilitated the learning of the sequences was the one in which the spatiotemporal contiguity was presented at the beginning. Results are discussed in terms of a possible additive effect of contiguity and space primacy. Additionally, it is argued that these types of tasks involve some type of verbal or linguistic behavior for their resolution and that they are also linked to the study of relational behavior.

When developing interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders, skill transference to the natural environment is a key component to ensure continued success. Parent training interventions are a key process in transferring learned skills to a child's natural environment. The current symposium explores four applied parent training studies across a variety of topics. Presentation 1 describes findings of a general-case parent training study for infants at risk for autism spectrum disorder via telehealth. Two concurrent multiple baseline designs were implemented to assess parent teaching accuracy and child performance accuracy. Presentation 2 describes the results of a telehealth program designed to train parents to implement their child’s behaviour-analytic sleep intervention. A concurrent multiple baseline design was used to evaluate whether parents could accurately implement their child’s behavior-analytic sleep intervention. Presentation 3 describes the results of a brief, telehealth Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS®; Bondy & Frost, 1994) parent training. A multi-baseline design across behaviors was used to explore the impact of the training on parents’ PECS teaching accuracy. Presentation 4 describes a telehealth/in-person hybrid training model teaching parents to implement PECS with their children. A repeated measures design was used to evaluate parent PECS implementation accuracy at five different time points.

The attendees must have completed or be in completion of a master's degree in or related to the field of applied behaviour analysis.

Many children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) experience sleep problems (e.g., delayed sleep onset, frequent night wakings). Research supports parent-implemented, behaviour-analytic sleep interventions to address sleep problems in children with ASD (e.g., Jin et al., 2013; Linnehan et al., 2021). However, more research is needed to determine how accurately parents implement behavioural sleep interventions and the effectiveness of parent training delivered via telehealth. The current study used a concurrent multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate parents’ ability to implement their child’s behavior-analytic sleep intervention. Child sleep-related outcomes were also monitored. Four parents and their children with ASD participated. The parent training program included behavior skills training and nighttime coaching. Secure text chat software (VSee Messenger) was used to provide nightly coaching. D-Link® sound and motion detection cameras were placed in each child’s bedroom to enable data collection on parent behavior (i.e., treatment fidelity) and child behavior (i.e., sleep onset delay, sleep-interfering behaviour, total sleep duration). Parent treatment fidelity increased for all participants. Preliminary analyses of child outcomes indicate that total sleep duration increased for the majority of participants; however, sleep onset delay and occurrences of sleep-interfering behaviours remained variable. Implications for practice will be discussed.

The Picture Exchange Communication System (PECS®; Bondy & Frost, 1994) is an augmentative and alternative communication system designed to teach functional communication. Research indicates that PECS is an evidence-based communication approach for children and youth with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Despite substantial PECS research, little is known about how to train natural mediators such as parents, to teach and support their child’s PECS use. Without parental involvement, system abandonment is likely; reducing the opportunity for socially valid child communication outcomes. This study explored the results of a brief (i.e., two week) telehealth PECS parent training involving group didactic training (i.e., PECS Level 1 Training) and individual behavioral skills training (BST) sessions. Six parents of children with ASD participated. A multi-baseline design across behaviors was used to explore the impact of BST on parents’ PECS teaching accuracy for Phases 1, 2, 3a, and 3b. Results indicate that all parents’ PECS teaching accuracy improved, and outcomes generally maintained at follow-up. Overall, results indicate that a relatively brief telehealth training, using BST, may enhance parent PECS teaching skills. An analysis of common errors, phase accuracy, and rate of mastery will be presented. Limitations, future research directions, and clinical implications will be shared.

Targeting change in proximal dependent measures is necessary but insufficient for the greater goal of promoting successful outcomes for people with disabilities. Arguably, distal variables including autonomy and self-determination should also be aims for behavior analysts who provide supports for people with disabilities. From a behavior analytic perspective, self-determination can be operationally defined as responses related to choice, self-control, and self-management. Thus, by using these measurable responses, behavior analysts can develop services for persons with disabilities to teach self-determination skills. This symposium will explore these concepts and illustrate how behavior analysts can align behavior-change objectives, like mand training and skill acquisition, with essential outcomes such as autonomy and self-determination. Presenters will discuss their single-case design data on proximal dependent measures in the context of autonomy and self-determination and the discussant will elaborate on these concepts and this direction for researchers and practitioners.

Intermediate. Should have basic understanding of behavior principles and familiarity with behavior interventions and supports.

Choice is an essential element for one’s autonomy. In this investigation, we conducted a mand modality preference assessment with three individuals who have Rett syndrome. Three females, ages 4-21, who were non-vocal and who had motor impairments consistent with Rett syndrome participated. Prior to this investigation, we taught all three female participants to use both low- and high-tech augmentative alternative communication (AAC). Then we assessed whether each demonstrated a preference for one or the other communication modality. During the mand modality preference assessment, both low-tech and high-tech AAC systems were presented simultaneously and the coach instructed the participant to “tell me what you want to do.” Sessions were comprised of five trials each. The AAC system the participant used to request a preferred activity was recorded during each of the five trials. At least five sessions were conducted with each participant. Results indicated that all three participants chose the high-tech modality to the near exclusion of the low-tech modality in the training setting (in the family home). We will discuss results in the context of autonomous communication and considerations for future directions for research and instructional support.

The treatment of escape-maintained interfering behavior is important given it interferes with crucial skill development that impacts an individual with disabilities’ long-term autonomy. Although there are many evidence-based treatments available, many of them have limitations when used in applied settings (Geiger, et al. 2010). One limitation is the use of extinction, which may be difficult to implement. In these situations, there are competing reinforcement schedules available for different responses—or concurrent operants. Interventions using concurrent operants have a developing literature base supporting their use in applied settings (e.g., Davis et al. 2018). However, these studies have often used progressive schedules of reinforcement. The current study evaluated the utility of random schedules of reinforcement within concurrent operant treatments in applied settings for children with developmental disabilities who displayed interfering behavior maintained by negative reinforcement. Treatments involved either two concurrent operants (interfering behavior and task completion) or three concurrent operants (interfering behavior, break requests, and task completion). For two participants, treatment that included break requests was more effective and for two, both were equally effective. The results suggest random schedules within concurrent operants treatment may be an effective alternative that increases task engagement and reduces interfering behavior without use of extinction.  

Across subgroups of individuals with disabilities, studies on preference have shown that choice presentations result in more robust identification of preference than single-item presentations. As we transition our research to other subgroups and target behaviors, demonstrations of how to best assess preference is warranted. In this presentation, we discuss one approach for evaluating the preferences, across academic tasks, of an 8-year-old boy with learning disabilities who displayed frustration and task disengagement when instructed to read. The goal of this evaluation was to identify the conditions under which this child’s choices shifted; that is, how and what choices were made, as well as why those choices were selected. A three-phase analysis was conducted within a combination multielement and reversal design. Phase 1 evaluated the effects of contingent positive reinforcement. Phase 2 evaluated the combined effects of positive reinforcement and instructional strategies. Phase 3 evaluated the preference for the arrangement of academic strategies. Results showed that task engagement shifted towards reading with contingent positive reinforcement, frustration reduced with instructional strategies, and the combination of positive reinforcement and instructional strategies was most preferred. However, choices for the academic strategy arrangement were variable, suggesting that preferences for academic behavior may be highly individualistic.

Meaningful skill development is expected to be a central goal for behavior analysts working with individuals with diverse abilities and challenges. Yet, for the most part, behavior analysts have little, if any, training in how to actually do this. This symposium will focus on ways to identify meaningful skills across domains and populations (i.e., ASD, ID, ABI). This includes the presentation of the results of a treatment package designed to teach practitioners and students of behavior analysis how to write meaningful goals to improve outcomes in adulthood; a sample of the current state of sex education, including what skills are being taught and in what settings; the results of a comprehensive set of interviews with safety experts to better identify priorities instructional priorities; and finally, the role of ABA in reducing bullying in school settings.Throughout the symposium, the themes of social validity and meaningful curriculum will be highlighted. Recommendations for future research will be provided.

Intermediate - This presentation is intended for behavior analysts and related professionals with experience and/or interest in programming and intervention in support of improved outcomes for adults with ASD and ID.

While the field of applied behavior analysis is in a position to affect meaningful change in the outcomes of clients on the autism spectrum, it is currently coming short of doing so. This presentation will provide a brief overview of currently available tools that may be used to guide the development of skill acquisition goals and curricula and a discussion on why these tools alone are insufficient. Initial data will be presented from a treatment package aimed at guiding the goal writing of practitioners and students of behavior analysis to help increase the inclusion of goals that are meaningful, socially valid, and highly individualized in order to positively impact the trajectory of a client with autism.

Sexuality is an important part of all education and comprehensive sex education is especially important for individuals on the autism spectrum. This presentation will provide a sample of the current state of sex education by reviewing survey results from questions regarding how often sex education is taught in both school and Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) settings, what types of sex education goals are targeted, and from what curricula these goals are drawn. The second part of this study analyzed data provided by educators and behaviour analysts, for inclusion of sex ed goals in teaching plans for students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). Finally, existing curricula for sex education for persons with autism are analyzed and reviewed for representation of comprehensive domains. Recommendations for clinicians, researchers, and families are included.

There is a growing body of evidence supporting the use of telehealth to provide parent training in behaviour analytical interventions and researchers have begun to focus on international demonstrations of this model. Given the recent changes to the Behavior Analysts Certification Board (BACB) international credentialing and lockdowns imposed during the Covid-19 pandemic this is a very pertinent area of research. This presentation will discuss our study, which trained parents of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in naturalistic teaching strategies, designed to provide them with methods to increase social communication behaviour across verbal operants. Two parent-child dyads were taught to increase mand, tact and intraverbal behaviour during play. Parents displayed increases in fidelity for each strategy and viewed training favourable. Both children showed gains across verbal operants, as captured by a multiple baseline across behaviour design.

Collaboration in the practice of ABA is often focused on collaboration among professionals who provide services to a specific client. For example, a BCBA and a Speech pathologist may work together to develop and implement interventions to support language acquisition goals. In this presentation, a broader university-community collaborative approach will be described as a model for creating positive impacts on a variety of community support services to improve availability and , quality of services and supports for individuals with autism and their families on a much broader scale. Initiatives at Utah Valley University's Melisa Nellesen Center for Autism and M Ed in ABA program will serve as examples of the utilization of stakeholder input to drive ABA-based training initiatives resulting in improvements in focused service availability, public school programs, community awareness, safety, and healthcare for autistic individuals. Collaboration at this level requires ongoing feedback from community stakeholders to identify service gaps, and resources to support community-level change. This broader conceptualization of collaboration has the potential to positively impact entire communities by leveraging the resources and expertise of relevant University departments to address socially significant service issues.

While Patient and Public Involvement (PPI) is common in health research, its use in behaviour analysis is limited. PPI is the active partnership between researchers and stakeholders in intervention development, enabling the identification of environmental barriers to participation, thereby establishing interventions that maximise contact with reinforcing consequences. We used PPI to develop an online Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) programme for parents of children with cancer. Firstly, semi-structured interviews were conducted with stakeholders (n=19) in paediatric oncology to determine the needs and challenges experienced by families. Following this, PPI panels were conducted to identify socially significant behaviours which could be meaningfully targeted in an intervention. In collaboration with this panel, the aims, design, and implementation plan for the ACT programme were determined. This process resulted in a 6-week online self-directed ACT programme for parents of children with cancer, seeking to support psychological flexibility, parenting burden and wellbeing. Discussion/Conclusion: Challenges encountered in the PPI approach, as well as methods to circumnavigate these challenges are presented, including relationship-building, balancing patient perspectives with clinical knowledge and conducting PPI remotely. This study demonstrates how the stakeholder voice can be embedded in the design of behavioural interventions, which may increase the likelihood of positive outcomes.

Behavior Skills Training (BST) is an efficacious training methodology that has been used to teach a variety of skills from safety skills (e.g., Johnson et al., 2013) to interviewing skills (e.g., Stocco et al., 2017) to animal training (e.g., Lewon et al., 2019). The current symposium shares applications of BST to teach meaningful skills to caregivers and professionals across several settings and contexts. The first presentation (Wahdain et al.) will detail a study that evaluated the effects using of BST via telehealth to teach six caregivers of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to implement discrete trial training. The second presentation (Sweetman et al.) will describe an application of BST to teach safety intervention skills, found to contribute to staff-related injuries, to twelve staff members working at a school for children with ASD. Finally, the third presentation (Cervantes et al.) will describe an application of BST to train four staff members working in a residential facility for individuals with high behavioral support needs; staff members were taught how to correctly select and implement behavioral interventions. The current symposium provides further evidence of the effectiveness and generality of BST.

Intermediate – Given that this symposium will cover effective methods for training caregivers to implement skills and procedures, attendees should have mastered the skills and procedures themselves prior to training others.

To maximize the efficacy of behavioral interventions for consumers of clinical behavior analytic services, the interventions must be implemented with a decent degree of procedural fidelity (Fryling et al., 2012). Numerous studies have demonstrated that behavioral skills training (BST) is an effective method for training staff and caregivers to implement such interventions (Maffei-Almodovar & Sturmey, 2018). However, what is less certain is whether trained caregivers can also select the correct intervention to implement under the correct circumstances (e.g., Van Camp et al., 2008). For example, should attention be delivered or withheld after the occurrence of a specific behavior? The present study was conducted at a residential facility for individuals with high behavioral support needs. The procedures evaluated the effects of BST on four direct support professionals' correct selection and implementation of indicated interventions via a multiple baseline design. Skills were assessed using varied role-play scenarios. BST effectively increased correct selection and implementation to a mastery level for three participants and increased correct responding above baseline levels for a fourth participant.

The rapid transition from in-person instruction to virtual classrooms and the abrupt pivot to working remotely has resulted in challenges for provider agencies, teachers, students, and families and communities all around the world. The unique language, learning, and behavioral characteristics of individuals with autism has taken these challenges to a whole new level. This panel will outline best practices in the elements of effective instruction in remote and hybrid environments. The role of employer and community partners will be described. Specifically, creating balance between corporate entities and non-profit provider agencies. The collaboration between and across agencies was critical in developing safety protocols, curriculum and training that impacted internal and external stakeholder groups. Panelists will share strategies that helped their agencies cope with pandemic fatigue, physical illness and loss in the workplace. Lessons learned about being more efficient and productive will be highlighted in the context of planning for the future health of our communities, our organizations, our staff, families and the people we serve.

Basic

Hospital visits can be challenging for some autistic patients due to unmet communication, sensory, and behavioral needs. We launched three studies to analyze the healthcare experiences of autistic individuals and to the efficacy of a new hospital-wide intervention for autistic patients. First, a Delphi study involving three rounds of survey was conducted to identify components of an Autism Friendly healthcare practice according to autistic individuals, family members, and professionals in the field. Themes that emerged from highly ranked survey items include environmental/operational modifications and autism-focused staff training. Following the Delphi study, we conducted focus groups with seven autistic youth to gather in-depth qualitative details of their healthcare experiences. Findings aligned with the initial Delphi study, whereby the type and level of specific support that autistic patients need vary across individuals. To provide individualized support, our program launched a behavioral support service for autistic patients during medical encounters. We are in the process of conducting single subject research across participants using a multiple baseline design to evaluate the efficacy of evidence-based behavioral interventions to decrease challenging behaviors and increase compliance during medical appointments. Findings will inform the barriers and facilitators to implementation of behavior analytic interventions in an applied medical setting.

Behavior analysts, medical providers/medical staff, practitioners

One of the most complicated and worrisome issues facing families and service providers of individuals with autism is securing long-term living opportunities. While it’s difficult to determine the exact numbers of individuals nationally and internationally that will need some form of residential services each year, based on the prevalence of autism (1 in 54), we can predict the number will be in the tens of thousands. Developing strategies for assuring the quality of these programs presents a unique set of challenges. Issues related to evidence-based treatment practices as well as staff recruitment, training and retention combined with insufficient funding sources takes these challenges to a whole new level. This panel will discuss person centered and community focused strategies that have been used to promote positive quality of life in residential settings. Objective data and social validity measures used to evaluate the effectiveness of evidence-based practices will be described.

Autism Providers, BCBAs

Early Intervention is an essential need for young children to close the achievement gaps of their chronologically aged peers. In the United States, the Individuals with Disabilities Improvement Act (IDEA, 2004) requires that special education services are received in the least restrictive environment. For young children, this is either their home or a childcare setting. Characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD), present challenges for the young children to remain successfully involved in the classroom activities. The purpose of this literature review is to gather research conducted from 1992 to 2020, on center-based early intervention for children with ASD from birth to five years old. The information gathered will provide researchers with quality information to guide future research and practice on the topic.

Behavior analysts seek to identify factors that influence behavior, which enables them to predict future responses and develop therapeutic plans by which maladaptive behaviors can change. Usually behavioral science concentrates on environmental factors, but with the implicit understanding that the biology of the organism is critical for determining an individual’s responses to environmental events and the efficacy of consequences to reinforce or punish those responses. This presentation will provide an overview and examples of how genotype influences brain structure and function, thereby providing the canvas on which environmental conditions and outcomes can yield general behavioral effects, as well as providing the source of individual differences. Correlational and experimental techniques by which conclusions linking genes to behavior will be described and critically evaluated.

Behavior Analysts

Over the past few decades, there has been dramatic changes in work and educational systems. More and more companies are allowing employees to work remotely, schools are providing remote learning options, and learners enrolled in homeschool has increased substantially in the recent years. Although these changes often come with benefits, they also come with many challenges. One such challenge t is designing and delivering instruction to ensure individuals are learning, retaining, and effectively using necessary knowledge to succeed. This purpose of this panel is to discuss how to overcome common obstacles in teaching in current work and educational environments, how to effectively design instruction to meet the needs of your learners, and to discuss current obstacles that the audience are facing throughout the learning process.

This panel is for those who have a strong understanding of basic processes of learning and behavior. It will be helpful for the audience to understand basics of instructional design.

Join us for a night of Celtic dance and networking at the Forum Hall, on the ground level of the Dublin Convention Center. Plentiful hors d'oeuvres, cash bar, and culturally rich entertainment will be featured. Doors will open at 5:15pm. Cocktail attire is requested. Please let us know if you are attending the reception and poster session here.

Research shows that older adults diagnosed with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) have the ability to learn and retain new information, and that rehabilitative interventions can help those with AD to increase their functional independence and goal attainment. This single subject, multiple baseline design (MBD) research investigated the clinical efficacy of an 8-week individualised intervention for people with early-stage AD. Three participants were recruited to participate. The intervention consisted of eight sessions of 60–90 minutes of cognitive rehabilitation. Outcomes included goal performance and satisfaction, quality of life (QoL), cognitive and everyday functioning, mood, and memory self-efficacy for participants with AD. Visual analysis of MBD data demonstrated a functional relationship between the intervention and improvements in goal performance. Subjective ratings of goal performance and satisfaction increased from baseline to post-test for all participants and were maintained at follow-up for two. Baseline to post-test QoL scores improved for all, whereas cognitive function and memory self-efficacy scores improved for two. A behavioural brain-health intervention can improve goal attainment for people with AD. This study represents a promising first step towards filling a practice gap in this area. Additional research and randomised-controlled trials are required.

Background: Rule-Governed Behavior (RGB) is a closely related topic to clinical study. Persistence to a rule increases psychological sufferings and gets in a way of behavior which moves toward to well-being or QOL. Pliance, which is one of the subclasses of RGB, plays critical roles for psychological sufferings. However, the experimental study of RGB is limited. Kissi et al., (2017) and Harte & Barnes-Homes (2021) reviewed studies of RGB. Purposes: The current study reviews studies, which are not included in Kissi’s and Harte’s reviews and conducted in Japan. Methods: The similar key words are used to select the papers. Japanese databases (CiNii and J-stage) are used. After searching a paper, the same criterion as Kissi's study is utilized to select the experimental study. Results: The 1965 papers were found. However, there was no study satisfying with Kissi’s criterion. Finally, while these were not satisfied with Kissi’s criterions, 10 studies (six experimental, two clinical and two review) were selected as the related study. Conclusions: 1) No study of RGB investigating the subclasses of RGB (Pliance, etc.). 2) In the six experimental studies, authors investigated which factors affected rule following behaviors. 3) No experimental study treating RGBs as relational responses.

The identity matching procedure with compound stimuli is an alternative to standard matching-to-sample procedure to establish emergent relations between abstract stimuli. The present study is the first to investigate whether this procedure would be effective to produce emergent relations among some stimuli that are important to provide financial education considering the high population indebtedness. Stimuli were the following printed word: debt (A1), buy with credit card (B1), pay in installments (C1), acquittance (A2), buy with debit card (B2), cash payment (C2), investment (A3), buy credit bills (B3), and buy treasury bonds (C3). Seven adults were exposed to nine phases: (1) Pretests, (2) AB-AB Training, (3) A-B Posttest, (4) B-A Posttest, (5) AC-B Posttest, (6) A-C Posttest, (7) B-C Posttest, (8) C-A Posttest, and (9) C-B Posttest. The results showed that all participants achieved the learning criteria and five of them showed the emergence of all the tested relations only after training. These results suggest that the identity matching procedure with compound stimuli is efficient to rapidly establish derived relations that may be important to produce financial education.

In recent years, a large amount of basic research on Relational Frame Theory has been undertaken. The present study used fictitious names of Japanese and Russian martial artists and explored whether trained comparative responding between pairs of fighters' names would generate ranking responding within and between the two nationalities. Sixteen Japanese undergraduates participated as test subjects. In the training, they were asked to guess who between the two names presented on the screen is the stronger/heavier fighter. Half of the participants worked on determining the “stronger” fighters, while the other half worked on the “heavier” fighters. Feedbacks showing the correctness of their responses followed each training. Comparative responding was trained under two conditions, namely the “within-nationality training” (WNT) where each set of choices showed two fighters from the same country, and the “between-nationalities training” (BNT) where the choices showed one Japanese and one Russian. One participant's data was excluded from the analysis due to a procedural error. In the result, regardless of the comparative condition (i.e., stronger or heavier), all the 15 participants showed correct ranking responses after the WNT, and 14 participants showed correct ranking responses after the BNT, particularly when they operated with the assumption that the strongest and heaviest Japanese fighters are inferior to their weakest and lightest Russian counterparts. This demonstrated that among adults with enough verbal repertoire, establishing minimal comparative relational responding within and between stimulus classes generates ranking responding within and among those stimulus class members even without direct training.

This study investigated whether using abstract or meaningful stimuli would interfere with equivalence class formation and reorganization. Experimental sessions were conducted using remote access software. Undergraduates were divided into two groups. For the Faces Group (N=10), set A stimuli were faces expressing happiness (A1) and anger (A2). All stimuli were abstract pictures for the Abstract Group (N=11). Both groups trained AB (A1B1; A2B2) and AC (A1C1; A2C2) relations and tested the formation of equivalence classes (A1B1C1; A2B2C2). All participants from Faces Group and eight from Abstract Group completed the training and formed the classes. When the choice speed of these participants was compared, Faces Group responded significantly faster than ABS Group in the formation tests. They were then submitted to AC reversals (A1C2; A2C1) followed by tests that assessed class reorganization (A1B1C2; A2B2C1). Three (out of 10) participants from Faces Group and five (out of eight) from ABS Group completed the reversal training and reorganized the classes. Logistic regression showed reduced odds of reversing AC relations for the Faces Group. Speed in reorganization tests was higher for the ABS Group. These results indicate that meaningful stimuli not only enhance class formation but also increase class resistance to changes.

When people are physically or economically unable to obtain or consume a nutritious and plentiful diet there are many various consequences, two of them being poor mental well-being and substance use. Despite this fact, it becomes complicated when you look at the bi-products of substance use or poor mental health. They are all interchangeable, giving this issue bi-directional properties. By using a financial management treatment, like Advisor Teller Money Management Therapy (ATM), patients would be able to create a personalized functional plan that could fit their specific needs and change behavior. Because it is usually implemented on a large time scale, 30-50 weeks, this experiment explores what aspects of the treatment can be pulled and implemented in smaller periods of time. By using a modified version of ATM in the context of delay discounting and behavioral economics, this experiment could decrease impulsive behaviors associated with alcohol-related expenses and encourage expenses being allocated to reduce a food-insecure state. The results in longer-term studies have been highly effective, which can potentially be reflected in the results of this study. With more participants, this experiment is hoped to yield successful results on a shorter timeline.

In order to evaluate the effect of the duration of events and their interval between occurrences on learning and recall of sequences of positions, an experiment was carried out using a recall task. Twenty four undergraduate students participated. The task consisted of the presentation of a 4x4 and 5x5 matrix of squares. Different sequences of lighting of squares were presented and participants had to recall that sequence. They were divided into two groups. The first group was exposed to a condition in which the duration of events (square illuminated) increased while the interval between occurrences was kept constant. The second group was exposed to the inverse condition by increasing the interval between occurrences and keeping the event duration constant. No substantial differences between groups were identified in the results. However, in both conditions, participants required fewer trials to learn and recall sequences compared to a previous study in which the same recall serial task and procedure was used. This suggests a facilitating effect of increasing the durations which can, in turn, favor the establishment of attentional processes.

Systematic Literature Reviews (SLR) are important in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in order to synthesize information on particular topics to evaluate if the strategy meets criteria for evidence-based practice. SLRs can be used for summarizing literature on a particular topic, and suggesting potential future directions of research; thus providing readers an overview of a particular topic. However, topics of research may be culture-specific, targeting topics that impact the author’s population more significantly. The results of the SLR may then be only applicable to that specific culture or region and not as easily applicable to the rest of the world. This poster will present a SLR of published behavior analytic SLRs with shared insights to the research trends of the following geographical regions: North America, South America, Asia, Africa, Europe and Australia. The findings of the SLR will provide direction and support to increase culturally diverse research within the field of ABA.

Paraphrasing is a skill that which is fundamental in academic training, especially at a university level. This ability is considered as a study strategy. Starting from the fact that paraphrasing is a skill that can be trained, the objective of the present study is to evaluate a program to reinforce this skill. The program was developed through the Moodle platform, consisting of the phases of: Welcome, Instructions, Pretest, Intervention and Posttest and Acknowledgment. Both in the pretest and the posttest, an instrument was presented to evaluate with closed response options. In the Intervention phase, a phrase was shown to the participant and they had to press a key to continue, later the same phrase and three response options were shown, which alluded to different types of paraphrasing. The phrases could be from methodology, biology or psychology. Once the student selected the phrase, he could earn 1 or 5 points depending on the type of paraphrase. The program recorded both the selection and the latency in the responses. A non-probabilistic sample was used, made up of 90 students belonging to the online Psychology career. The design was Pretest-Posttest. The results were analyzed descriptively, the main measure was the selection by the participants of the type of paraphrase and the correct answers. The main finding is correct execution in training. A change was also observed in the selection of paraphrases, from basic to complex. It is concluded that the educational platform is a good tool for learning the skill of paraphrasing.

Teacher training and performance are closely linked in the fulfillment of the curricular objectives set out in the proposed curriculum, so it is necessary to consider their influence during its implementation, however, there is almost no research in this regard. Objective: to evaluate the opinion of the students regarding the teaching practice in the two curricula (1976 and 2015), of the psychology career of a public university at the time when both plans were in force. Method: The COPDE (Student Opinion Questionnaire on Teaching Practice ) was applied in its digital version in three different academic periods. In total, 2651 were collected questionnaires. Results: Almost 50% of the teaching staff were evaluated. A factorial analysis of variance measuring the individual and joint effect of curricula (1976 and 2015) and application periods (2018-1, 2018-2 and 2019-2), on the dependent variable was performed. The data indicate significant interaction effects between the plan and the application of 2018-1 and 2018-2 (Sig. = 0.004) and between the plan and the application of 2018-1 and 2019 (Sig. = 0.001). Discussion: The performance evaluation allowed us to assess the impact of the process transition between both plans.

In this contribution, we aim to talk about Positive Behavior Support (PBS) in the context of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). We will introduce the workshop and its content, show examples of activities, and used tools for an assessment, and we will discuss the evaluation of the workshop. The evaluation will focus on the competencies of our participants, particularly problem definition, and functional behavioral assessment. Next, we will talk about the need for continual education in teachers and non-teaching employees in the field of PBS. We will start a discussion on possible next steps, focus on our future education and upcoming research.

The present study explored mainstream primary teachers, teaching in the Republic of Ireland, causal perspectives of disruptive behaviour in the classroom. It also explored teacher stress, self-efficacy, and years of experience and how these variables relate to causal perspectives of disruptive behaviour. A total of 109 mainstream primary teachers rated the likelihood of four causes (1. parental, family, home factors, 2. access to something in the immediate environment, 3. student difficulty, 4. developmental phase) to be the cause of nine disruptive classroom behaviours. The results found that teachers in the Irish primary education system believed that student difficulty such as “student disability, student personality, health issues or emotional issues” was the most likely cause of disruptive behaviour and developmental phase was the least likely cause of the disruptive behaviour. There were no significant differences on stress, self-efficacy and years of experience between teachers when they were grouped by primary causal perspective. There were however significant relationships between causal perspectives and self-efficacy and causal perspectives and years’ experience. These relationships, implications for practice and future research will be discussed.

Ludic activities can promote learning in different contexts and ages. To evaluate the impact of ludic activities on content learning in a psychology course in high school, a didactic planning centered in ludic activities was implemented. One hundred and fifty-three students (83 women and 70 men) between 15 and 17 years of age from a public high school in the north of the State of Jalisco in Mexico participated. This area is characterized by the presence of an important population of indigenous inhabitants. A quasi-experiment was carried out with 2 experimental groups and 2 control groups. Content learning was evaluated through a traditional exam administered at the beginning and at the end of the course. Results showed high performances in the experimental groups and in a control group. Only the control group where there were more students of indigenous origin did not show high performances in all the test items. It is suggested to evaluate in a subsequent experiment the effect of a didactics focused on ludic activities in school contexts with a high degree of cultural diversity.

Teaching with acoustical guidance (TAG) is a behavioural intervention that involved the delivery of an audible stimulus contingent on the performance of the desired response (Stokes et al., 2010), and may also be used in intervention packages, such as TAGteach (TAGteach International, 2004). TAG, TAGteach, or both, have been evaluated in a variety of domains including sports (e.g., Ennett et al., 2020; Harrison & Pyles, 2013; Quinn et al., 2015), gait rehabilitation (Baram & Miller; 2007; Cassamassima et al., 2014), and daily living skills (Wertalik et al., 2018); however, the terms TAG and TAGteach have been used somewhat inconsistently in the literature. The purpose of this poster is to discuss the findings of our scoping review on TAG and TAGteach interventions, and to explicitly differentiate these two interventions. This scoping review followed the systematic methodology guidelines outlined in PRISMA-SR. In doing so, we searched MEDLINE, PsychINFO, and ERIC to locate peer reviewed articles written in English that incorporated an audible stimulus to provide feedback during skill acquisition. Two independent reviewers screened the articles and extracted and synthesized the data. The results will be discussed within the context of practical implications and suggestions for future research.

The educational outcomes and quality of life of students with moderate-to-severe disabilities (MSD) are often dependent on the implementation of evidence-based practices (EBPs), such as systematic instruction (SI). However, paraeducators are often tasked with serving students with MSD despite prior knowledge or training in instructional strategies. Furthermore, special education teachers are often unprepared to train paraeducators’ to deliver instructional practices with a high degree of fidelity. ParaImpact, a coaching intervention package, seeks to address this need by training teachers to implement practice-based coaching (PBC), a model grounded in adult learning, to provide on-the-job training for paraeducators. Two multiple-baseline designs across skills were conducted with two teacher-paraeducator dyads to determine if there is a functional relation between implementation of ParaImpact and increases in fidelity of implementation of the components of SI for paraeducators. The four SI components included: environmental arrangement, prompting, error correction, and reinforcement. Results of both studies including social validity will be reviewed. Additionally, implications for future research and practice will be discussed.

Virtual reality is one of the fastest growing areas of accessible technology in the world. Educators have begun to explore the use of virtual reality in classrooms and the early findings are extremely promising. This paper reports on a pilot project where 35 pre-service behaviour analyst graduate students in higher education taught clients from a community partner agency in a synchronous, networked, multi-player virtual environment. Qualitative data were collected in the form of reflective journal entries and survey responses from the students. Some survey responses were quantified and analyzed using basic statistical analyses. The remaining qualitative data were analyzed from both the perspective of Relational Frame Theory (RFT) and Verbal Behavior Developmental Theory (VBDT), using an analysis of the verbal behavior reports in both journal and short answer form from the students. The value that this type of analysis can bring to our understanding of verbal behaviour is explored. Findings showed the emergence of several themes suggesting that there may be benefits from using the virtual medium for teaching and that training in these situations should be further explored.

Children with Autism often engage in less complex and fewer spontaneous pretend play behaviors. Although research has highlighted the value of providing parents with sustained support to promote positive child outcomes, parents rarely receive coaching around play skills. This study examined the effects of a multi-component remote coaching package on parents’ implementation of a systematic, multi-step modeling procedure with fidelity, to engage in pretend play with their children. A multiple-baseline design across pretend play behaviors was replicated across two triads. Each triad consisted of a parent, a preschool-age focal child with Autism and a sibling. The coaching package included three virtual trainings and email performance feedback. Caregivers were trained on using the modeling procedure to teach three pretend play behaviors. During intervention, email feedback was provided to caregivers on each video submitted. There was a functional relation between the coaching package and caregivers’ fidelity to the modeling procedure. Nonoverlap (NAP) indicated that the change from baseline to intervention condition was statistically significant for caregivers’ modeling procedure fidelity. Caregivers found the coaching to be beneficial and expressed strong interest in continuing to use the strategies. This study expands applied behavior analytic ways to support caregivers of children with autism around play.

Treatment fidelity is the extent to which essential intervention components are implemented accurately and consistently. This is an important component to implementing evidence-based practices for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, as higher levels of treatment fidelity are directly related to improved outcomes and strength of the intervention. Therefore, it is important to identify methods to promote and maintain high levels of treatment fidelity among practitioners implementing behavior analytic interventions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the relative effectiveness of immediate and delayed performance feedback on the implementation of interventions incorporating compound schedules of reinforcement (i.e., multiple and chain schedules). Specifically, we provided immediate feedback for implementation of one of the compound schedules and delayed feedback for the implementation of the other compound schedule. We randomly assigned feedback to compound schedules ensuring an equal number of pairings across the participants. Participants were graduate students enrolled in a verified course sequence and completing supervised field experience. The results indicate that both immediate and delayed performance feedback effectively increased the fidelity of implementation, however participants did report a preference for immediate performance feedback.

Self-monitoring is a process that involves recording data on one’s own behavior. This intervention has shown to be effective in the organizational behavior management research as a behavior change agent for staff performance. This review paper evaluates the research and the trends in the self-monitoring literature that has been published in The Journal of Organizational Behavior Management (JOBM) from 1977-2021. This is the first review of the self-monitoring literature since 2008 (Olson & Winchester) and the first to look solely at the research in JOBM. An initial search of the self-monitoring literature yielded 148 results. Only 10 of those articles met the inclusion criteria outlined in this paper. For each of the included articles, the authors evaluated the following variables: the environment where the study took place, additional interventions used with self-monitoring, the dependent variable(s), training provided on self-monitoring procedures, reliability measures, experimental design, social validity measures, and effectiveness. While all of the articles reviewed demonstrated that self-monitoring was effective, the trends identified for the other variables this paper evaluated provide a guide for future areas of research.

Healthcare must provide safe and effective treatment while being cost effective and ethical in its delivery. Anaesthesia is particularly prone to production pressure, which can lead to compromises in patient safety through risky decision making. Anaesthetists (N = 192) completed an electronic survey asking whether they would proceed with surgery in 11 scenarios involving a violation of a standard or practice guideline. The percentage of anaesthetists who would have proceeded ranged from less than 10% to more than 90% across the scenarios. Likelihood to proceed and confidence was influenced by gender, age and level of expertise. Although not originally designed to investigate rule-governed behaviour, evidence for the influence of pliance and tracking was found in the explanations which participants provided for their decisions. For example, tracking was evident when participants noted that they previously had no problems despite the absence of a “critical” piece of equipment. Pliance was evident, for example, in the importance participants placed on the professional regard with which they were held by other anaesthetists. These data provide insight regarding educative processes that might be most likely to increase adherence to standards and guidelines, thus improving the safety and effectiveness of anaesthetics and healthcare delivery more widely.

Occupational accidents worldwide cause approximately 300 000 fatalities annually (1). One of the economic sectors most affected by occupational accidents is the construction industry, accounting for more than 20% of all occupational fatalities in Europe (2). Randomized controlled studies in naturalistic settings are warranted to understand how safety-leadership practices can be advanced within the construction industry (3). A randomized controlled study was undertaken to assess how construction site managers can advance their safety-leadership behaviors through an individually tailored leadership training program grounded on operant behavioral learning. Construction site managers (n=68) were recruited and randomly assigned to control group or intervention group. The manager’s leadership behaviors were assessed pre- and post-training by their subordinate foremen (n=92) and workers (n=109) using questionnaire scales measuring feedback, safety-specific feedback, antecedent listening, and consequential listening. To evaluate the effect of the training on leadership behaviors, multilevel modeling (MLM) is currently being performed. The main fixed effects for measurement time (pre- and post-training), experimental condition (experimental and control group), and interaction between time and experimental condition will be estimated for each dependent variable. The results will be reported in Table 1 (attached). This study expands our knowledge of how to train managers in operant safety-leadership behaviors.

Biological interventions by medical professionals are often warranted for specific diagnoses, particularly when direct etiology is identified. However, with certain psychiatric disorders, etiology is not easily assessed or includes a combination of biological and behavioral variables. For example, children diagnosed with Pediatric Autoimmune Neuropsychiatric Disorder Associated with Streptococcal infection (PANDAS) might have underlying infectious and inflammatory processes where simultaneous treatment of biological and behavioral symptoms are recommended (Thienemann, et al., 2017). Accurate treatment data are crucial to ensure adherence to medical and behavioral interventions to improve functioning and decrease suffering. However, due to the simultaneous treatment of bio-behavioral symptoms, accurate treatment data from medical and behavioral interventions are often difficult to progress monitor. In this presentation, we demonstrate ways to track changes in symptomatology in children diagnosed with PANDAS in response to biological and behavioral treatment strategies by a multidisciplinary team of professionals (e.g., behavior analysis, psychiatry, pediatrics, immunology). ABA-based data collection methods including scatterplot, multi-element designs, and function-based narratives were used to track intervention variables as well as changes in symptoms over time for 2 children diagnosed with PANDAS.

The relationship between sleep deprivation, irregularity of bedtime and waking time, and length of sleep onset latency and health risks has been shown in several studies (e.g., Luyster et al., 2012). In addition, sleep problems are widely recognized among Japanese university students (e.g., Steptoe et al., 2006). However, there are few intervention studies on sleep in non-clinical university students and few online intervention studies. In this study, we conducted an online workshop based on CBT-I and an intervention using graphical feedback of sleep in four university students and examined the effects using sleep diaries and questionnaires. The results showed that the sleep onset latency decreased in one participant during intervention and follow-up, but there were no effects of the intervention on bedtime/wake time, sleep onset/wake time, sleep duration, mid-wake, or subjective sleep quality in all participants, and the PSQI-J scores of two participants decreased before and after the study period. These results suggest that the intervention package in this study may improve sleep onset latency and insomnia tendency. In future studies, it will be necessary to individualize the intervention procedures, provide incentives for implementing the procedures, examine the effects of each intervention technique alone, and quantitatively measure sleep.

The Children Psychiatry Department at the Sheba Health Center offers a pioneering model of collaboration between Psychiatry and Applied Behavior Analysis. The health center also includes an Applied Behavior Analysis certification program. Patients are six to twelve years old children experiencing complex behavioral challenges requiring intensive and professional care. Among the challenges are self-injury, social and school difficulties, psychotic and medical issues. Children reside at the department for a few weeks up to three months. Staff include Psychiatrists, Nurses, Psychologists, Social Workers, Teachers, Speech Therapists, Behavior Analysts, Dieticians. The department hosts a school supervised by the Ministry of Education. It also enables students from the certification program to experience practicum within the department, beneficiary to both. The Behavioral program includes a “growth ladder” for each patient, based on a Token Economy system supporting target behaviors defined by the Psychiatrists. It also includes individual interventions such as functional communication training, differential reinforcement, and gradual exposure to frustrating triggers. The Behavioral model will be presented followed by key challenges related to its implementation.

Teaching receptive language is often overlooked in applied studies in speech pathology. This multiple baseline, single case experimental design (SCED) study attempted to address this concern by teaching receptive vocabulary using a matching to sample (MtS) procedure (matching objects to pictures) to three preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and/or developmental disability (DD). An additional purpose of the study was to investigate if teaching using MtS generalized to receptive identification of non-identical pictures. Social validity was increased by completing the study at a preschool, with vocabulary taught by the local speech pathologist. Results indicate that all children learned to match the objects. At the time of submission, one child had learned to match identical and non-identical pictures, and identify the objects in the absence of pictures. He also began to label the objects, without direct teaching. The other participants are continuing in the study and data collection is not yet complete.

Temporal relational responding involves responding to how events are related in time (e.g., if A comes before B, then B comes after A). This skill is important to performance in everyday life situations (e.g. sequencing events, planning, talking about the past or future). The present research assessed and trained temporal relational responding in children. Study 1 was a correlational study in which twenty-five 3-8-year-old typically developing children were assessed on temporal relational responding tasks of increasing levels of complexity. Results showed (i) a correlation between temporal relational responding and age and (ii) that arbitrary “after” trials were more difficult than arbitrary “before” trials. Study 2 was a non-concurrent multiple baseline study, focused on training temporal relational framing in two 6-year-olds using multiple exemplar training (MET). Both participants demonstrated temporal relational responding during training and passed generalization tests. This research provides initial data on acquisition of temporal relations in young children and suggests that MET can be used to train this skill.

Having a clearer understanding of what qualities and corresponding behaviors contribute to exceptional service delivery may allow practitioners to strengthen their behavioral repertoire and, by extension, improve client well-being. Initial data utilizing the Exemplary Behavior Analyst Checklist (EBAC) indicates that U.S.-based behavior analysts believe being ethical, data-driven, analytical, client-centered, and applied are the most important characteristics to being an outstanding practitioner (Zayac et al., 2021). The current study expanded this research by asking Board Certified Behavior Analysts located outside of the United States to identify the characteristics and corresponding behaviors of individuals they consider to be exemplary in the profession. Seventy participants from 22 countries rated the extent to which exemplary behavior analysts display each quality and corresponding behaviors on the EBAC using a 1 (never exhibits this quality) to 5 (always exhibits this quality) Likert-type scale. Participants also ranked their top ten qualities in order of importance. The results showed agreement between the international and U.S.-based behavior analysts on eight out of the top ten characteristics, with the top five selections being the same (but in different order). These findings suggest there are a set of core characteristics and behaviors displayed by exemplary behavior analysts.

Research indicates that staff knowledge and perceived confidence to manage behaviours that challenge is positively impacted by staff training. Following the recent increase of remote working, this study investigates whether online training in key areas of applied behaviour analysis improves an understanding of behaviours that challenge. Staff supporting individuals with behaviours that challenge at four different care homes were invited to complete online training videos. Participants (N=18) completed pre and post questionnaires to measure knowledge at four points: before viewing, during the video, upon completion and one month after. Participants were provided with fictional scenarios and correctly identified the function of a behaviour 38.9% of the time at baseline, 83.1% after training and 100% at 1-month follow up. Overall, scores in most knowledge domains increased, however on average were high (79%) at baseline. Fourteen participants described what they will do differently following the training, of which 10 described how they have changed their practice one month later. Results suggest that training can be an effective tool for increasing an understanding of behaviours that challenge. Further evaluation of training in combination with individualised input to reduce behaviours that challenge should be considered.

Transition-aged youth with intellectual disability (ID) often experience barriers to community integration due to limited transportation. One method to overcome this barrier is to teach youth with ID to use a ridesharing application (app), such as Lyft or Uber. Four youth with ID, ages 18-22, used a ridesharing app to access community locations as part of their transition program on a university campus. A single case multiple baseline across participants design was used to evaluate the efficacy of classroom and community direct instruction. Social validity of the teaching procedures was assessed via participant satisfaction surveys and exit interviews. Results indicated a functional relation between the classroom and community instruction and number of steps completed independently to request and use a ridesharing app for two of the four participants. Two participants demonstrated an ascending trend line during baseline which diminished the confidence in a functional relation for these participants. Implications for teaching transportation skills to enhance quality of life for transition-age youth with ID is discussed.

This study investiaged whether an iPad-based speech-generating device (SGD) and systematic insruction were effective in child acquisition of question answering. The study was conducted with two children with autism using a multiple probe across behaviors design. Results demonstrated that the iPad-based SGD and systematic instruction resulted in acquisition of answering all questions. Follow-up data were collected one, three, and five weeks after instruction ended. For all participants, skills maintained during follow-up and generalized to novel settings and skills. Social validity data were also collected and indicated that teachers without experience using SGDs found them to be effective and feasible for teaching communication skills.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have communication support needs and many rely on augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems to communicate. Previous research suggests that AAC use does not preclude the acquisition of spoken language and, in some cases, may facilitate improvements in spoken communication in children with ASD. This study systematically applied echoic prompting and manipulated reinforcer magnitude in an effort to increase the spoken requests of three children with ASD ages 10–12 years who used iPad-based Speech Generating Devices (SGD). The spoken language (vocal requests) of all three participants increased in frequency and one participant began using spoken language exclusively, even when the SGD was an option. In this poster, we will present the results and discuss the implications for practitioners and provide directions for future research.

Play is critical for healthy development of children (Lifter, Foster-Sanda, Arzmarski, Briesch, & McClure, 2011). Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often do not engage in appropriate play and tend to display stereotypic behaviors (Cunningham & Schreibman, 2008; Lang et al., 2009). In this study, we examined the effects of lag schedules of reinforcement on play and stereotypy of three children with ASD (ages 9 to 12 years old) on a playground during recess in a summer camp. During intervention, children were reminded to engage in a variety of play behaviors and received praise that emphasized change in play behavior. All children remained in a Lag 1 schedule throughout intervention. Using a multiple baseline across participants design, the results indicated an increase of the frequency and variability of appropriate play using the playground equipment and a concurrent decrease of stereotypy of all three children. However, no increases of opportunities for social interaction between the participants and their peers were observed which warrants further research. We will discuss the results and provide recommendations for future research and practice.

Despite inclusion efforts in higher education in recent years a growing commitment to educational equity among historically underserved students is required. There is limited support for persistence and graduation of college students with learning disability. These groups of students come from a diverse racial and ethnic backgrounds such as historically Black, Latinx and other subgroups that identify as non-white. Herbert et. al (2014) suggested that learning disability such Autism as one group that should be supported. A more systematic, culturally sensitive approach is essential to connect the educational gaps. There is limited research on successful interventions for underrepresented college students with Autism. Behavior Skills Training (BST) is a method to teach students, staff, parents, and anyone else you are teaching a new skill. BST as “a procedure consisting of instruction, modeling, behavioral rehearsal, and feedback that is used to teach new behaviors or skills” (2004, p. 558). This Project utilized a workshop training using behavior skills training, modeling, rehearsing, feedback to teach college students with disability selected skills including time management, self-advocacy, job interview skills and other daily living. Early data suggest that there’s a significant difference in the success of students early in the semester, compared to past graduations rates. 5 out of 8 students showed an increase of overall GPA. 3 students reported increased in social skills. Although this project is currently underway, promising significant outcomes are anticipated.

Severe problem behaviors are highly prevalent in autistic children (Schreibman, 2005). Relaxation exercises have been successful at decreasing problem behaviors (Charlop & Kelso, 1997; Loomis, 2013) but using such procedures with precursor behaviors has not been explored. Research demonstrates treating precursor behaviors, or mild problem behaviors that precede those that are more severe, may be effective in reducing severe problem behaviors (Dracolby & Smith, 2012). The present study used a multiple baseline design across four autistic children (aged 7-11 years) to assess the efficacy of a relaxation intervention on reducing precursor and problem behavior. During an observational functional analysis, researchers identified precursor behaviors and antecedents of problem behaviors. In baseline, participants worked on their typical therapeutic tasks. If problem behaviors occurred, researchers implemented the participant’s behavior plan. During separate relaxation training sessions, children were taught deep breathing relaxation exercises. Following this relaxation training, researchers cued relaxation exercises when precursor behaviors occurred during the children’s typical therapy sessions. Frequency of precursor, problem, and on-task behavior were recorded. Results indicated that problem behaviors decreased for all participants following intervention. Precursor behaviors decreased and on-task behaviors increased for 3 of 4 participants. Results suggest future research is needed on precursor behavior.

The prevalence of autism spectrum disorders (ASD) in children has significantly increased since it was first identified. To address this increase, many behaviorally-based treatments have emerged, including video self-modeling (VSM). VSM has demonstrated efficacy as an intervention in treating a variety of ASD symptoms, ranging from communication deficits to maladaptive behaviors. VSM uses edited video clips that allow a child to watch him or herself successfully performing the targeted skill. To classify VSM as evidence-based practice, research is generally recognized as the most valid source of evidence for determining efficacy especially when synthesized across multiple, high-quality, experimental studies. This meta-analysis focused on the available literature to determine the efficacy of VSM as an intervention to increase prosocial behaviors in children diagnosed with ASD.. This meta-analysis used Cohen’s d and percentage of nonoverlapping data as metrics of effect size. Cohen’s d results (Intervention d = 1.0; Maintenance d =1.5), supports VSM as an effective intervention for children and adolescents diagnosed with ASD. While analysis of PNDs failed to provide equally robust findings this can be accounted for by variability of baseline data is some studies. Results are discussed in terms of implications for ABA practice.

Self-control occurs when it is chosen a larger delayed reinforcer instead of a smaller immediate one. Individuals who exhibit low self-control are commonly referred to as “impulsive” and are at increased risk for behavioural problems (e.g.: poor academic performance; addiction; excessive risk-taking; etc.). Concurrent schedules force the “impulsive” person to allocate a disproportionate number of responses to the smaller reinforcer immediately delivered. In this study we conducted a conventional delay tolerance assessment to evaluate: waiting time; magnitude sensitivity; sensitivity to delay; and impulsivity assessment. We then applied an intervention based on: rule, forced choice, concurrent activities, delay fading. The participant is a 12-year-old boy with autism, he follows an ABA treatment of 15 hours a week in a therapy center. In the baseline, the participant always chose the smaller immediate reinforcer and showed a waiting time of 0 seconds; after training he started choosing the larger delayed reinforcer and in 22 days, he reached a waiting time of 85 seconds. We used a changing criterion design to show internal validity.

Autism Spectrum Disorder shows deficit in social skills (SINPIA, 2011). Barale et al (2003) argue that more than 90% of children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder remain with those deficit all life long. The aim of this studies is to improve social reciprocity evaluating a treatments to improve the quality of life of children with autism. Recent evidence (Jonsson et al., 2019; Otero et al., 2015) validates Social Skills Training as an effective treatment for social skills. However, the lack of literature supporting this training persists only in children and teenagers (Hotton & Coles, 2016). This study involves four people with autism aged between 19 and 27, who attend an Italian Social Promotion Association called "Il Tortellante”. We evaluated their conversation skills acquired through an online Social Skills Training. The data analysis shows a significant statistically improvement in interpersonal skills. Social and Communication skills improved in both subjects of the treatment couple. The obtained results validate the use of Social Skills Training with young adults with autism. Telehealth service, used to support the entire procedural package, produced results that are comparable to in-presence training.

Differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) is a widely recognized reinforcement schedule used in behavior analytic procedures aimed at decreasing challenging behavior. DRO commonly includes a programmed reinforcer delivered on an interval-based schedule dependent on the omission of a target behavior, and the reinforcer is withheld following the occurrence of the target behavior (i.e., extinction). Although interventions employing DRO can be an effective, procedures that include extinction can, at times, be impractical or potentially lead to undesirable side effects. A DRO schedule can be implemented without extinction, but previous research has shown limited utility of this tactic. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate an asymmetrical DRO arrangement in which meeting the omission requirement resulted in a greater magnitude of reinforcement than the target behavior that continued to produce a lesser magnitude reinforcer. We examined DRO with and without asymmetrical magnitude of reinforcement for the omission and emission of the target response in a human-operant arrangement with nine adult college students. None of the participant’s exhibited a greater reduction in responding reliably during the higher magnitude DRO condition in comparison to the equal magnitude DRO condition.

The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of Discrete-Trial Training (DTT) combined with prompt-fading, shaping, and chaining procedures on acquisition of social communicative skills of young children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Four participants with previous diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Pervasive Developmental Disorder (PDD) were selected from the list of children receiving services from the Korean Institute for Applied Behavior Analysis (KIABA). Target behaviors of this study were: ? eye contact when his name is called, ? gaze shift following simple direction, such as "look here" or "look there", ? pointing the item related when the usage or function is explained, ? imitating vowels "Ah, Eoh, Oh, Uh, Eeh", ? telling a story after arranging a set of three serial picture cards in order. According to the ME book written by Lovaas (1981), the first three targets were assigned to early language, and remaining two targets were assigned to intermediate and advanced language respectively. Five DTT programs were developed to teach each of the target behaviors on the basis of prompt-fading, shaping, and chaining procedures, and tested the effectiveness through the experimental intervention. The multiple-probe design across training steps was conducted with 4 participants receiving discrete trial training (DTT). The results showed that all of the five discrete trial training (DTT) programs designed on the basis of prompt fading, shaping, and chaining procedures were highly effective to teach social communication skills to children with ASD and PDD. Furthermore, the maintaining effects over relatively short period of time were observed. For the long lasting effects, the author suggested that future research on participation of parent and significant others should be conducted by teaching them how to implement the discrete-trial training programs.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effects of an individualized positive behavior support on challenging behavior(self-injurious/aggressive behaviors and transition refusal behaviors) and alterative requesting and transition-related obedient behaviors of a middle school student with autism spectrum disorder in South Korea. The subject of this study was a student with autism spectrum disorder in 9th grade who was enrolled in a special school in South Korea. The individualized positive behavior support intervention was implemented utilizing multiple baseline design across behaviors. The collected data were analyzed to examine the effects of PBS intervention through visual analysis(the mean and range of behavioral performence, the trends of data using the split-middle line and percentage of non-overlapping data points; PND). The results of this study were as follows: First, individualized positive behavior support was effective reducing the self-injurious/aggressive behaviors and transition refusal behaviors of the target student. Second, the individualized positive behavior support was effective increasing the requesting and transition-related obedient behaviors. The results of the study were discussed in terms of PBS intervention based on functional behavior analysis, assessment and multi-element intervention strategies.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often experience skill deficits that can impede independent living, social interactions, and employment. Caregiver-implemented interventions based on applied behavior analysis (ABA) lead to improvements in targeted skills. The purpose of this study was to expand on current research that evaluated the efficacy of a caregiver training program, delivered via telehealth technology. A sample of 30 children with ASD and their caregivers (e.g., parents, grandparents) participated in all phases of the study. The effect sizes based on time series data indicated large or very large improvement for more than half of the goals addressed. Caregivers typically implemented the program with higher than 90% fidelity on average, indicating the coaching resulted in caregivers’ accurate implementation of the interventions. Caregivers reported high levels of acceptability for the telehealth coaching model. These results, along with the results of previous studies, provide preliminary support for the feasibility and social validity of using telehealth to provide ABA services.

Autism is often associated with repetitive and ritualistic behaviors, which may include adhering to a sequence to perform tasks and activities, arranging objects in a specific way, persisting in a special interest. In some cases, such behaviors can be a challenging, if blocking the access to the rituals evokes problem behavior. Only a few studies have conducted a functional analysis on this idiosyncratic function of behavior and carried out a treatment consistent with its function. This work involved three autistic children, who emitted problem behaviors maintained by accessing to rituals. A standard and two precursors functional analysis were conducted to identify the function of problem behaviors. The results of the assessment identified that for all three participants, access to the ritual was the main function for problem behaviors. An intervention coherent with behavioral function was implemented. Namely, treatment consisted in functional communication training (i.e., manding for the access to the specific ritualistic behavior) and progressive delay to reinforcement (i.e., postponing reinforcement on the occurrence of the communicative response). The results indicate that this approach can be effective in reducing problem behaviors maintained by access to rituals.

Functional communication training (FCT) is one of the most common and effective interventions for the treatment of severe behavioral problems. FCT is a differential reinforcement (DR) procedure in which an individual is taught an alternative response that results in the same reinforcement class identified as maintaining the problem behavior. This study introduced FCT as a procedure to reduce problem behaviors of a 15-year-old girl with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The participant started an ABA intervention at the therapy center less than a year ago. The problem behaviors were high in frequency and magnitude. The behaviors consist of self and hetero-aggression and destruction of the environment. In the baseline whenever we asked to return a reinforcer or we interrupted an activity or we proposed a dif-ferent activity rather than the one she asked, she engaged in aggressive behaviors. We selected a recognizable and easy-to-learn functional response (i.e. “I do not want to”) to teach her how to ask appropriately instead of engaging in challenging behaviors. We arranged multiple learning opportuni-ties with prompting, extinction, and reinforcement procedures. The functional response was taught using a direct vocal prompt with prompt fading. After training the participant demonstrates to engage the functional response with mastery, recording a drastic decrease in problem behaviors.

Parents of children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have significantly more stress and depression than parents of children without ASD (Cohrs & Leslie, 2007). Additionally, parenting stress correlates with and exacerbates future child behavior problems (Lecavalier, Leone, & Wiltz, 2006). Although limit setting for parents of children with ASD can reduce parental stress, their limit setting tends to be lower than the population mean (Osborne & Reed, 2010). Involving parents in their child’s ABA program may be one strategy to address these issues. This study examines whether completion of Incredible Years for Autism parent-training program (IYA-P; Webster-Stratton, 2014) improves parenting, parents’ mental health, and child behavior. Fifteen parents of children with ASD (ages 2-10) attended the 12-week IYA-P group, employing video-based discussions and practice. A pre- and post-test within-group design was used. Self-report measures assessed parental depression, stress and parenting skills. The IYA-P assessed children’s behavior. Parents reported improvements in supporting positive child behavior and limit setting, and less problems in parenting (see Figure 1). Parents reported decreased depression but increased parenting stress upon completion of IYP-A (see Figures 2 & 3). Results indicate that IYA-P may be a promising new parent-training program for parents and their children with ASD.

Challenging behaviors (CB) are among the comorbidities that have repercussions on individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD; McGill et al., 2018), and have been shown to affect parents’ well-being (Lindsey et al., 2020). Moreover, community-based professionals have expressed a need for a CB program involving the parents (Rivard et al., 2015b). The Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children (PTR-YC; Dunlap et al., 2013) was developed specifically for early childhood settings and could very well meet parents’ needs and demands. Part of a larger study that assesses the implementation of PTR-YC among community-based services in Québec, this communication aims to present the main barriers and facilitating factors to implementation according to the parents who used the program with their children with ASD. Twenty parents’ interviews were analyzed qualitatively using Chen’s (2015) program evaluation logical model. This model categorizes barriers and facilitating factors by six components: 1) the organization, 2) the facilitators, 3) the intervention, 4) the targeted population, 5) the partners, and 6) the ecological context. Content and thematic analysis allowed for an inductive approach to categorize recurrent sub-themes and summarize qualitative data into an insightful parental view of the strengths and challenges regarding the implementation of a behavioral program at home.

No study has documented the impact of Early Intensive Behaviour Intervention (EIBI) interruption due to the pandemic of COVID-19 which led children and their families to miss out on intervention at a critical timeframe for child's development and prognosis. Thirty-six families with children aged between five and six years old with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) living in a metropolitan area of the province of Quebec were recruited in a larger study evaluating the quality of the transition from EIBI to kindergarten. Families completed a socio-demographic questionnaire and a questionnaire evaluating their trajectory (ETAP 2*COVID) in which they answered four open questions discussing the impacts of EIBI interruption for their child and family. This poster aims to present quantitative and qualitative data documenting perceived quality of EIBI before and after the onset of the pandemic and the impact of EIBI interruption on the child development and the family adaptation. Results indicate a drop in EIBI intensity, an impact on children development (e.g. social and communication skills, challenging behaviours, etc.) and emotional difficulties for parents (e.g. stress, sadness, tiredness, guilt, worries, etc.).

This study demonstrates the benefits and impact of a novel teleservice delivery model engaging Part C early intervention (EI) providers as facilitators of early identification and intervention services for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Through this ongoing partnership in our state, our early assessment and mentorship team supported 52 EI providers across 5 EI resource agencies. Training was provided via virtual learning communities focused on applied behavior analysis (ABA) and other evidence-based strategies. Targeting continuity of care, EI providers also received training around early identification of ASD and participated in telediagnostic evaluations for over 100 of their families. Results show high levels of caregiver fidelity in use of strategies introduced by EI providers (Figure 1), positive outcomes for children across several domains of child functioning as recorded by EI providers and caregivers (Figure 2), high levels of caregiver satisfaction with tele-services (Tables 1 and 2), and increased caregiver confidence and competence using ABA strategies to address the needs of their child (Table 3). Overall, data suggest that leveraging existing service systems can improve access to ASD services for families, especially those in under-resourced communities where specialty care (e.g., tertiary evaluations and intensive ABA therapy) can be difficult to obtain.

In this study, we conducted Brief Parent Training, which consisted of short-term intensive comprehensive support (2 months, about once per week) for five parents with children aged 1;8 to 5;1 years old who had autism spectrum disorder. The training consisted of on-job training, video feedback via an iPad, a record of family care at home, and video recording. The on-job training and video feedback were supported by a specialized agency. The record of family care at home and video recording were overseen by experts at specialized agencies, and the parents provided support at home. After the training, the parents’ skills related to interacting with their children improved greatly. This was generalized not only to interactions at the special institution but also to family care at home. In addition, the time devoted to such interactions at home also increased significantly before the start of support. These two improvements were maintained even after the Brief Parent Training was over. The results suggested that effective support can be provided to parents with children on the autism spectrum by comprehensively combining training at professional organizations and within family care.

Inappropriate contact with others, whether in the form of aggression or sexualised behaviour can have a significant negative impact on an individual’s social opportunities and academic placement. As such the development of effective interventions to address these behaviours is of huge social significance. The current study examined the use of Differential Reinforcement of Other Behaviours (DRO) to reduce inappropriate contact with others. The participant was a nine-year-old male with a diagnosis of autism. An AB design was implemented. Prior to the experiment, the participant was emitting high levels of inappropriate contact in the form of pressing his groin area against and hugging other people. Initially, the DRO was implemented in order to address the aforementioned topographies, resulting in an immediate decrease in frequency to near zero levels even with reinforcement being delivered every 1.5 hours. When an additional topography of biting emerged, this was also successfully addressed with DRO. As the DRO does not teach alternative behaviours itself, the functional components of the inappropriate contact were also addressed during the course of the study, though with less success than the DRO.

Students with autism who attend public school are expected to cooperate with a wide range of difficult instructions throughout the day. Students who engage in severe problem behavior might require physical management and physical restraint of those instructions lead to episodes of dangerous behavior. Rajaraman et al. (2021) suggested that physical restraint should be considered potentially traumatizing for the student and that clients in ABA programs might regularly experience such trauma. We evaluated the extent to which trauma-informed ABA practices could minimize the need for restraint in a public school ABA program. Data suggest that the adoption of a universal protocol for new students, the practical functional assessment process, and skill-based treatments lead to fewer physical restraints.

Students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display academic challenges. Numerous variables, including the COVID-19 pandemic, present behaviors to families accessing high-quality reading intervention. The present study aimed to improve reading comprehension for a 12-year-old boy with ASD using an adapted shared reading intervention delivered via telehealth in the participant's home. Effects of the adapted shared reading intervention were evaluated using a multiple baseline design across reading content areas (i.e., science, social studies, and English Language Arts). Additionally, generalization data were collected with the participant's mother. Data on challenging behavior were also collected as a secondary dependent variable. The results showed that the adapted shared reading intervention resulted in increases in reading comprehension across all content areas. Challenging behavior data remained consistently variable in the intervention phase. Major findings, limitations, and implications for practice are discussed.

People with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) and other developmental disabilities has found a higher prevalence of nocturnal enuresis (also referred to as bedwetting). However, there have been relatively little research on behaviorally based interventions for nocturnal enuresis in children. The purpose of this study is to investigate and examine the effects of behavioral approaches to the treatment of nighttime incontinence for a 11 years old boy with ASD. A treatment package included (a) controlling the environment (an antecedent manipulation), (b) rewarding morning dryness with verbal praise and (c) using a reward chart with preferred tangibles. A component analysis was attempted to determine which part of an independent variable or component is responsible for behavior change and the result documented a clear pattern of decrease in frequency of nocturnal enuresis episodes following the implementation of a reward chart with preferred tangibles. This study shows that effective treatment of nighttime incontinence should be adapted and modified to the specific needs of child.

Young adults with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often engage in challenging behavior that requires individualized intervention. However, access to high-quality services is limited for adults, and caregivers often assume primary responsibility for behavior management. This study addressed the needs of a 22-year-old man with ASD and intellectual disability (ID) who lived with his grandmother and engaged in tangibly maintained challenging behavior. The interventionist coached his grandmother via telehealth in the implementation of two behavior analytic interventions: signaled multiple schedule arrangement and a modified contingency contract. The effects of the interventions were evaluated using an alternating treatments design with baseline. While both interventions were effective at decreasing challenging behavior when compared to baseline, the signaled multiple schedule arrangement resulted in zero instances of challenging behavior. Both the participant and the grandparent completed post-intervention social validity assessments and reported overall positive satisfaction with the interventions. Practice recommendations are presented.

Background: Little is known about the maintenance of long-term change and generalization outside of ASD interventions. Utilizing an online group platform for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), we investigates the improvements of social communication via social skill practice. Objectives: 1. Organize personalized online peer social groups for individuals with ASD to implement and exercise social skills acquired from ASD interventions. 2. Offer new methods for assessing alterations in social communication skills at an individual and group level. Methods: 40 participants with ASD completed 5-8 sessions of social groups over an 8 week period. Each participant was pre-screened by parent-child interview, and grouped with others, based on similar communication level. Participants joined their 60-minute online peer group of neurotypical and ASD youths (3-5 youth/group), led by a trained facilitator. They freely engaged in conversations and activities. Sessions were recorded and individually analyzed to evaluate social engagement and emotional health. Results: Youth (median age = 15.2 years, IQR 8-22; 82% male) took part in the groups. 80% of participants exhibited significant improvement in social communication, as measured by equity of speech production. Conclusions: These results with novel objective measurements show that our online peer groups provide an opportunity for individuals with ASD to effectively practice and apply social skills acquired in interventions. Long-term follow-up is planned to determine the stability and persistence of acquired skills.

Introduction. The few studies that have described parental involvement in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), a key factor to the success of the interventions, do not seem to investigate the family context. Moreover, the existing literature shows limited data discriminating maternal contributions in ABA intervention and the family, from paternal ones. While taking into account systemic factors, our study describes and compares the type and frequency of paternal and maternal involvement in ABA. Method. Twenty-one mother-father dyads (42 parents) of a child with ASD participated to the study. The families received on average, 13 hours of ABA for 13 months. We measured and analyzed: (1) sociodemographic information, (2) parental involvement in ABA (PIQ), (3) the parent’s satisfaction of the ABA services (CSQ-8), and (4) the family’s quality of life (FQoL). An interview on paternal and maternal involvement in the family during the ABA services was also conducted with each parent. Results. The quantitative results of the study demonstrate associations between paternal and maternal involvement in structured ABA sessions and correlations between paternal PIQ and both ABA satisfaction and family QoL. Qualitative data brings precision on the direction and interpretation of those results.

In attending children with ASD, the application of procedures to decrease the frequency of inappropriate behavior must be necessary, besides strategies to increase appropriate behavior. The present paper describes the application of Non Contingent Reinforcement (NCR), Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior (DRO) and the use of biker’s gloves procedures with a 12 years old boy with ASD. The objective was to reduce stereotyped responses (flapping), which produced disturbance in child’s control by the relevant stimulus, as well as being precursor of tantrums. Stimulus control of appropriate and inappropriate behavior (cards with red thumbs down and green thumbs up) were also presented. In NCR, during blocks of 10 minutes, the child was engaged in a free activity, without demand. Every 30 seconds on average (VI30 seconds) a tray with high magnitude reinforcers was presented to him and he could pick up one of the items. Also, contingent upon proper behavior, a green card was also presented (DRO). If he emitted inappropriate behavior, the green card was replaced by the red one and the reinforcement tray was removed, until the inappropriate behavior stopped for 3 seconds. Results showed an immediate reduction in stereotyped responses with gloves, as well as without it.

Introduction: Examining pain in individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is largely un-explored. Due to the communication difficulties that exist within this population, most often pain goes unrecognised and untreated. Aim of Investigation: The aim of this study was to examine the impact of pain among individuals with ASD with or without Intellectual Disability(ID).This study examined 7 key areas on the impact of pain; demographic information, presentation and frequency of pain, challenging behaviour and pain, locations of pain, health problems, daily functioning and health related decision making. Methods: This research consisted of a cross sectional study (caregiver report) that examined the impact of pain in individuals with ASD and ID from children aged 5 years and above and adults aged 18 years and above who required caregiver support in Ireland. Results: Abdomen pain was reported the most common location of pain. Challenging behaviour increased significantly during painful episodes. The results also reported that 68% never reported pain independently and over 74% was not involved in treatment received. Conclusions: The results from this study demonstrate that pain has a significant impact on individuals with ASD/ID who experience pain. It is critical that individuals with ASD/ID who experience pain must be taught the communicate pain in order for pain to be recognised and treated.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder includes repetitive behaviours such as compulsions and rituals that can inhibit a persons daily life. Interventions to decrease repetitive behaviours for a comorbid diagnosis obsessive compulsive disorder and autism mainly focus on a persons thought process such as using cognitive behavioural therapy. Research incorporating both inner thoughts and manipulating environmental variables has not been researched as an intervention to decrease repetitive behaviours. Differential Reinforcement is an environmental strategy used in in this case to decrease inappropriate behaviours and increase socially significant behaviours determined by the function of the behaviour. The participant for this case has a diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder and autism. The individual was discharged from a psychiatric inpatient unit after 9 months of being non responsive to treatment to a natural non-restrictive environment to facilitate transition to home setting. The purpose of this poster is to provide evidence that environmental strategies such a differential reinforcement should be implemented alongside cognitive behavioural therapy for persons with a comorbid diagnosis of obsessive compulsive disorder and autism to decrease ritualistic behaviours. Data collection is still occurring, therefore, no conclusion have been discussed.

Interventions to support individuals with developmental disabilities have been effectively taught to caregivers via telehealth. Enhanced Milieu Teaching (EMT) is a naturalistic communication intervention that focuses on arranging the environment, following the child’s lead, and imitating and modeling language use during naturally occurring play routines. The present study utilized a non-concurrent multiple baseline design across dyads to train caregivers to implement EMT via online modules and weekly coaching sessions. The study adapted methods to fit the needs of families with children newly diagnosed with autism and related disabilities, including immediate data collection following recruitment, flexible scheduling of sessions, and little time commitment. Results indicate that low-intensity naturalistic communication interventions may increase caregiver strategy use and child communication during play routines, but that families require different levels of support, particularly if they do not have experience navigating special the education and early intervention systems. Future implications of caregiver-implemented naturalistic communication interventions for families of newly diagnosed children are discussed.

Some adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) develop inappropriate sexual behaviors such as public masturbation, disrobing, and touching others in an unwanted manner. Such problematic behaviors have significant negative consequences such as restricted community access, decrease opportunities for appropriate social interaction and legal ramifications. Purpose of this study was to evaluate behavioral treatment to reduce inappropriate sexual behavior in adolescent with ASD. Participant was 15-year-old boy with ASD and target behavior was pulling down pants and touching his own penis in public. Following a functional analysis of his target behavior, we identified he wanted to check his underwear and get an attention from others at the same time. During the intervention, we taught him alternative behavior, which was to ask to use washroom or find an empty room to check his underwear. When he did the alternative behavior instead of disrobing, he was reinforced by tokens which could be exchanged to the preferred items later. During Non Contingent Reinforcement (NCR), he received positive attention from practitioners every 10 minutes. NCR reversal design was conducted for the component analysis. The results showed that it was the most effective when NCR and token system were both applied.

This study used a technology-based self-monitoring application and visual supports to improve conversation skills of three males with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), ages 19 to 26. The conversations were audio recorded to accurately measure the dependent variable which was number of questions asked during structured conversations with same age peers. The technology-based self-monitoring application was I-Connect (Wills & Mason, 2014). I-Connect uses customizable prompts, intervals, and alerts to assist users to self-monitor on handheld devices (e.g., smart phones, tablets). The visual supports were graphic organizers in which participants generated a list of topics and questions to ask their partner prior to the structured conversation. A single case multiple baseline across participants design was used to evaluate the efficacy of the self-monitoring intervention alone versus self-monitoring plus visual supports. All three participants demonstrated an immediacy of change upon introduction of the self-monitoring intervention. There was little difference between the self-monitoring alone versus self-monitoring plus visual support conditions, which indicates evidence-based practices may be combined to best meet the needs of learners with ASD. Confidence in a functional relation is high given visual analysis of the graphed data. Implications related to improving the social and communication skills of young adults with ASD is discussed.