Association for Behavior Analysis International

Are you tired of working in Autism? Are you looking to expand your scope of practice, challenge your clinical skills or try your hand at working on an interdisciplinary team? If so, this is the event for you! Historically brain injury rehabilitation teams have worked to integrate programming efforts across disciplines, overcome issues associated with problem behaviors and demonstrate the efficacy of programming efforts. However, until recently the utilization of behavior analytic concepts and principles uniquely suited towards these same goals has been misunderstood, underutilized or simply excluded within brain injury rehabilitation settings. This panel of experts will discuss the growing role of the behavior analyst within brain injury rehabilitation. They will discuss present and future of opportunities for behavior analysts to integrate themselves into this dynamic and growing field. Academic and clinical training opportunities will be reviewed as well as tips for getting started and opportunities to get involved.

BCBAs looking to expand their scope of practice.

The 21st century is said to be the century of interdisciplinarity. With a plethora of social and cultural issues in dire need of reform, it is critical that we recognize the call for interprofessional collaboration. While a number of academics and professionals talk about interdisciplinary work, few effectively practice what they preach in terms of training and application. Skinner viewed behavior analysis as a science with far-reaching potential. He claimed that behavior scientists could extend our application of behavior science to broader social issues (e.g., climate change, overpopulation, obesity, etc.), but even his ideas have yet to come to fruition. While various suggestions can be put forth as to why, most can agree that we as behavior scientists have a great potential to disseminate our science. As a way to foster a discussion about interdisciplinary work, this panel will focus on collaborations that have the ability to achieve remarkable scientific, cultural, and societal progress. Panelists will use several examples and nonexamples to guide our discussion so that attendees are better equipped to work collaboratively with researchers or practitioners in other disciplines.

Practitioners, Researchers, and Student Members

According to the American Psychological Association (APA), women made up 20% of Ph.D. recipients in psychology in 1970. Since then, the gender gap has reversed, with the APA reporting that over 68% of psychologists in the workforce in 2013 were female. Compare these statistics to the fact that only 6.4% of Fortune 500 companies had female CEOs in 2017 (fortune.com), women-owned businesses accounted for 19.4% of US operations in 2015 (Census Bureau), and women comprise only 12% of senior management at the top 200 power and utility companies worldwide (Price, 2015). Thus, female behavior scientists who work in Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) are likely to be working in male-dominated industries. Despite this discrepancy, the three women making up this panel are examples of behavior scientists who are thriving in the field of OBM. The esteemed members of this panel will describe their experiences early in their OBM careers, breaking into the field of OBM academia and practice, sustaining and innovating in their careers, and challenges that have arisen along the way.

Technology is a tool that can be used to provide access to or improve behavior analytic services. As advancements in technology occur, the technological resources for behavior analysts improve and open new doors. Teleconsultation, electronic data collection, and simulations are just a few of the technological avenues that are available to behavior analysts. While this growth is exciting, there are occasionally growing pains when implementing new technologies. Clinicians beginning or looking to begin the use of new technology to assist in behavior analytic services often encounter unplanned issues such as connectivity problems, privacy concerns, low-quality resources, and many more. Although difficulties in technology can sometimes be discouraging for clinicians trying to provide high quality services, planning for these difficulties can drastically minimize the setbacks. The purpose of this panel is to discuss issues encountered when beginning to use technology and the remedies for resolving them. The presenters will specifically discuss their experiences with telecommunication, electronic data collection, and Teachlive simulation technologies.

BCBAs