Association for Behavior Analysis International

Naturalistic teaching strategies involve incorporation of natural environments, natural change agents, and naturally occurring stimulus conditions and teaching contexts into instruction. One way to do this is to create instructional programs that are more game-like in design. These game-based programs can help to establish important social repertoires (e.g., taking turns, hiding eyes and waiting, being a good sport) as well as the primary skills that are targeted. This tutorial will review examples of game-based instruction and recommendations for modifying structured teaching to be more game-like and naturalistic.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Linda A. LeBlanc, Ph.D., BCBA-D, Licensed Psychologist is the President of LeBlanc Behavioral Consulting. She is the Editor in Chief of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and is a former Associated Editor of Behavior Analysis in Practice, The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, and Education and Treatment of Children. She previously served as a professor at Claremont McKenna College, Western Michigan University and Auburn University and as the Executive Director of Trumpet Behavioral Health, leading the creation of large-scale systems for clinical standards, quality assurance, and research. She has over 110 publications in the areas of behavioral treatment of autism, technology-based behavioral interventions, supervision and mentorship, leadership, and systems development in human services. She is the 2016 recipient of the American Psychological Association Nathan H. Azrin Award for Distinguished Contribution in Applied Behavior Analysis.

This presentation will argue that what might be called “The Nurture Consilience” provides a framework for guiding the further evolution of our societies. E. O. Wilson describes consilience as “the linking of facts and fact-based theory across disciplines to create a common groundwork of explanation.” I will prevent evidence from evolutionary biology, behavior analysis, development, clinical, and social psychology, and medicine about the nurturing conditions that humans need to thrive and the toxic conditions that undermine wellbeing and promote the development of a constellation of psychological, behavioral, and health problems. Research has identified programs, policies, and practices that replace toxic conditions with environments that limit opportunities and influences for problem behavior, richly reinforce diverse forms of prosocial behavior, and cultivate psychological flexibility. However, advocacy for free market economics has corrupted virtually every sector of society; practices in business, health care, education, criminal justice, media, and government have been selected by their contribution to the wealth of a small segment of the population; the majority of people have been harmed. I will describe how we can evolve societies that foster general wellbeing, by creating contingencies that select practices that minimize harm and contribute to the general wellbeing.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Many students with autism and other developmental disabilities have difficulty sequencing their own behavior during free-choice situations. Rather, they rely on adults to prompt them to engage in particular activities. Many do not interact appropriately with play materials or may select one activity and engage in it for an extended period of time. Photographic activity schedules have been shown to be an effective tool to teach children to sequence their own behavior and transition smoothly between multiple activities. Children learn to follow the visual cues in the activity schedule to make transitions instead of relying on adult-provided prompts. Activity schedules also provide a context for teaching basic and complex choice-making behavior. As children develop verbal behavior, social scripts can also be added and then later faded to promote social interaction. Activity schedules have been used successfully in a variety of settings with both children and adults with various disabilities. They are easy to use and can be adapted to most environments. In the present tutorial, participants will learn how to use activity schedules with clients/students as well as learn about recent research on using these techniques to promote complex social play.

Practitioners and applied researchers.

Dr. Thomas S. Higbee is a Professor and Interim Department Head in the Department of Special Education and Rehabilitation at Utah State University and Executive Director of the Autism Support Services: Education, Research, and Training (ASSERT) program, an early intensive behavioral intervention program for children with autism that he founded in 2003. He is a doctoral-level Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D) and a Licensed Behavior Analyst in the state of Utah. He is also chair of the Disability Disciplines doctoral program at Utah State University. His research focuses on the development of effective educational and behavioral interventions for children with autism spectrum disorders and related disabilities as well as the development of effective training strategies for teaching parents and professionals to implement effective interventions. He is a former associate editor for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) and the European Journal of Behavior Analysis. Dr. Higbee is committed to the dissemination of effective behavioral interventions and has helped to create intensive behavior analytic preschool and school programs for children with autism and related disorders in Brazil, Russia, Portugal, and throughout his home state of Utah. He is the past president of the Utah Association for Behavior Analysis (UtABA) and has served as a member of the Practice Board of the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) and the Psychologist Licensing Board of the state of Utah.

Within certain areas of healthcare, it has been documented that treating patients with compassion and empathy can have important benefits, such as increasing patient satisfaction, enhancing adherence to treatment, and improving clinical outcomes (e.g., Beach, et al., 2006; Hojat et al., 2011; Weiss et al., 2017). Treating oneself and others with compassion is also believed to promote individual wellbeing and improve mental health (e.g. McClelland, et al., 2018; Neff, 2011; Scarlet et al., 2017). While current empirical support for these outcomes is mixed (Kirby, Tellegen & Steindl, 2017), there is increasing scientific interest in the benefits of compassion. That broad-based interest notwithstanding, the data-driven field of behavior analysis has only recently begun to advocate for the importance of relationship variables that could positively impact our work (e.g., Taylor, LeBlanc & Nosik, 2018; Leblanc, Taylor & Marchese, 2019). This presentation reviews survey data documenting parent perception of compassionate care by behavior analysts, as well as behavior analysts’ impressions of training in this area. Behavioral responses that may comprise compassionate care will be presented, along with considerations for how compassionate care of our clients and ourselves can enhance our work as behavior analysts and potentially improve clinical outcomes.

BCBAs, BCBA-Ds, BCaBAs, supervisors and trainers of behavior analysts, autism specialists.

Dr. Bridget A. Taylor is co-founder and CEO of Alpine Learning Group and is Senior Clinical Advisor for Rethink. She holds a Doctorate of Psychology from Rutgers University, and received her Master’s degree in Early Childhood Special Education from Columbia University. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and a Licensed Psychologist. Dr. Taylor is President of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board and serves on the Autism Advisory Group for the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. She is past Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. She also serves on the editorial board of Behavioral Interventions. Active in the autism research community, Dr. Taylor has published numerous peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on effective interventions for autism. She is a national and international presenter and serves in an advisory capacity for autism education and treatment programs both locally and abroad. Dr. Taylor was recently recognized by the Association for Applied Behavior Analysis International for her outstanding contributions to behavior analysis and was given ABAI’s Fellow designation.

Cognitive loss and associated functional decline can reflect many different physiological processes, some of which are progressive and neurodegenerative, others stable or even reversible. Behavior analysts, through their measurement-based practice, are uniquely positioned to detect fluctuations in proficiencies and skill levels that are potentially indicative of decline, and to implement assessment and intervention. The goals of this tutorial are twofold: (1) to provide an overview of neurocognitive disorders, such as those from Alzheimer’s, Lewy body disease, or stroke, and prominent risk factors, such as age and an already compromised nervous system due to prior traumatic brain injury, chronic disease, lifestyle factors, or particular preexisting neurodevelopmental disorders; and (2) to offer a practical step-by-step guide to ruling out reversible conditions, ascertain the appropriate level of social and physical support, and address potential behavioral and emotional changes. Video and audio examples will be provided for training purposes, to illustrate the heterogeneity of individuals’ reactions to functional decline, the difficulties of family members to follow behavioral plans or adapt to their loved one’s loss of skills or repertoires, and the need for medical care navigation. The tutorial will introduce cognitive loss and functional decline as a high-need specialty practice area, amenable to workforce development in behavior analysis.

Students; behavior analysts interested in an introduction to the specialty area or in expanding their practice; behavior analysts encountering individuals with neurodevelopmental disorders and decline; and family care partners.