Association for Behavior Analysis International

Attendees should be familiar with functional analysis and assessment.

In order to maintain ethical obligations, behavior analysts must ensure the treatment they provide to patients is effective. While research has demonstrated that applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy provided over telehealth modalities is effective for clinical supervision and caregiver consultation, there is limited research on the effectiveness of ABA over telehealth directly to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study utilized natural environment teaching and discrete trial training procedures provided over a videoconferencing platform to teach new skills directly to eight individuals, between 4 and 16 years old, with a primary diagnosis of ASD. Skills were taught directly to each individual solely over the videoconferencing platform in a multiple baseline research design. Skills taught were in the language, adaptive, and social domains. All eight individuals acquired mastery for all targets. Additionally, generalization was assessed to caregivers for some targets and findings are discussed. Results suggest that ABA provided over telehealth directly to the patient is a modality that is effective and can be considered for all patients when assessing the appropriate location of treatment.

As telehealth direct therapy is increasingly provided to individuals with autism spectrum disorder, it is critical to ensure that the intervention is provided with integrity. Not only is this central in ensuring services are of a high quality; measuring integrity is also a necessary part of meeting ethical practice requirements. The telehealth therapy treatment integrity measure (TTTIM) includes seven sections that address various aspects of a telehealth direct therapy session: 1) caregiver engagement and support, 2) planning, 3) patient engagement, 4) downtime, 5) behavior intervention plan, 6) skill acquisition, and 7) data collection. Each section includes items that specify critical behaviors the behavior technician (BT) should implement. Items specify behaviors that are telehealth specific as well as behaviors that require generalization of an existing BT skill set to the videoconferencing platform. A description of the TTTIM and strategies for implementation will be discussed. The TTTIM provides an initial definition of behaviors a BT should implement during a telehealth direct therapy session in order to ensure they are providing quality services within their scope of competence.

As variations of functional analysis (FA) continue to be studied and expanded, the feasibility and acceptability of implementing FAs in applied settings have increased. However, there remain gaps in the literature in terms of limitations in ecological validity, such as using natural settings, involving indigenous implementers, having normative comparisons, and maximizing the usefulness of FA results in guiding intervention selection. This symposium will present two single-case design studies on adaptations of FA procedures to address these issues and one systematic review that examined the ecological validity of function-based interventions (FBIs). The first paper identifies appropriate communication and play skills in typically developing children using a modified trial-based functional analysis and provides a normative sample for comparison with children who are targeting the acquisition of appropriate skills to replace problem behavior. The second paper examines potential sub-functions of automatically reinforced stereotypy in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) through a practitioner-implemented modified FA to determine if stereotypic behaviors are influenced by varying levels of environmental stimulation. The third paper examines existing FBIs for children with ASD in schools to identify strengths and weaknesses related to ecological validity. Recommendations for improving the ecological validity of FAs and FBIs will be discussed.

Researchers, BCBAs, graduate students in applied behavior analysis or special education. Prerequisite skills include knowledge or experience in implementing functional analyses and function-based interventions.

Prior research has established that automatic reinforcement is the most prevalent function of stereotypic behavior, which is typically determined through a functional analysis (FA). However, difficulty in accessing and manipulating the contingencies that automatically maintain stereotypic behaviors restricts the ability to determine potential sub-functions of automatic function (i.e., automatic positive reinforcement or automatic negative reinforcement), which may lead to limitations in designing function-based interventions that specifically address variables that maintain stereotypic behavior. Identifying potential sub-functions of automatically maintained stereotypic behavior may help practitioners determine if an individual engages in stereotypic behavior to access or escape stimulation. We conducted a modified functional assessment across three young children with ASD including a brief interview, a screener FA with an alone condition, and a pairwise FA consisting of high-stimulation alone and low-stimulation alone conditions. FA results show that one participant engaged in diminishing levels of stereotypic behavior across both high- and low-stimulation conditions, indicating that the behavior had a social function. Two participants engaged in higher levels of stereotypic behavior in the low-stimulation alone condition, indicating that their stereotypies were primarily maintained by automatic positive reinforcement. Our findings offer practical implications for environmental modification to address stereotypic behavior in children with ASD.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have deficits in imitation skills. Imitation skills are prerequisites to acquiring more complex behaviors. Often these deficits are debilitating as individuals move into adulthood and need to imitate the skills of peers, teachers, and colleagues. Baer et al. (1967) defined imitation as any behavior that temporally follows a behavior emitted by the model, and the imitative behavior’s topography is functionally controlled by the model’s behavior topography. Thus, the model becomes a critical aspect to teaching individuals to imitate. In this symposium, we discuss methods in which imitation skills were taught to children with ASD. In the first presentation, the presenter will describe a study in which modeling and prompting procedures were used to teach Syrian children with ASD imitation skills including eye contact. In the second presentation, the presenter will describe a study in which the effectiveness of two methods of prompting were compared. Based on the outcome, the most effective prompting procedure was used to teach imitation skills using a mirror to children with ASD. The symposium will conclude with remarks from a discussant.

The target audience includes practitioners delivering services to individuals with autism spectrum disorder and developmental disabilities. Attendees should have basic understanding of terminology related to imitation, generalization, and single-case research design.

In this presentation we will describe the effects of prompting and modeling on imitation skills and eye contact of three Arabic-speaking children with autism spectrum disorder. A multiple baseline design with a withdrawal component was used to evaluate the effects in a clinical setting and in follow up sessions conducted in the participants’ homes. All participants’ imitative responding increased when modeling and prompting was used. Additionally, participants’ percentages of the targeted imitation skills maintained at a high correct percentage at the two- and five-week follow-up. Finally, participants’ percentage of eye contact increased during the modeling and prompting conditions and maintained at follow-up will be discussed.

Up to two-thirds of youth with autism spectrum disorder develop challenging behaviors, which are the most common cause for referral to behavioral health services in this population. While progress in treatment in this area has been made, many youth remain treatment refractory or unresponsive to the work of a single discipline. Specialized acute inpatient psychiatry units can be utilized to bring together the strengths of applied behavior analysis and other disciplines to assess and treat complex challenging behaviors. The service landscape, approach, and treatment evidence for these settings will be reviewed, and emerging novel approaches utilizing detection of physiologic signals in relation to challenging behaviors will be presented.

Practicing behavior analysts, administrators of ABA programs, clinical researchers.

Dr. Siegel is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics of Tufts University School of Medicine, Vice President of Medical Affairs, Developmental Disorders Service of Maine Behavioral Healthcare, and Faculty Scientist II at Maine Medical Center Research Institute. He has developed a nationally recognized continuum of treatment and research for individuals with autism, intellectual disability and co-occurring mental illness and challenging behaviors.

Dr. Siegel attended Amherst College, Stanford Medical School and trained at Brown University in child psychiatry, psychiatry, and pediatrics. He is the Principal Investigator of the Autism and Developmental Disorders Inpatient Research Collaborative (ADDIRC), a network of specialized child psychiatry units performing studies of children severely affected by autism and intellectual disability. Dr. Siegel is nationally recognized for his expertise in inpatient care and the treatment of serious challenging behaviors. He served on the Autism and Intellectual Disability Committee of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry for a decade and is a co-author of the Academy’s Practice Parameter on the Assessment and Treatment of Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Parameter for the Assessment and Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders in Children and Adolescents with Intellectual Disability.

This talk will discuss how to induce observing responses for children who are pre-observers. These children typically don’t orient to other’s faces, listen to other’s voices, or attend to educational materials presented in pictures or objects. Without these foundational observing responses, everything else will fall short. It would be extremely challenging to teach them visual match-to-sample, conditional discrimination, let alone derived relations. Traditionally, these students rely heavily on prompts from their teachers and caregivers. They also require substantially more trials to reach their learning objectives. Our CABAS® research labs, which are affiliated with Teachers College Columbia University, have identified a sequence of verbal behavior cusps and developed the intervention protocols for those who are missing any of these cusps. This talk will focus on the recent advances in the study of observing responses and intervention protocols. These protocols are shown to be effective in establishing the conditioned reinforcement and increasing the children’s general awareness of their surroundings. In particular, children learn to select out people’s faces and voices as well as pictures and objects as discriminative stimuli from their environment. In consequence, they require fewer prompts during instruction and their learning rates also increase dramatically. Once these foundational cusps for verbal behavior are established, children will be ready to learn things they are not able to before (e.g., see-do, hear-do, bidirectional naming).

Board-certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students

Dr. Lin Du received her first MA in sociology from Nanjing University, China. She then earned her MA and Ph.D. in applied behavior analysis from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is a CABAS® senior behavior analyst, associate research scientist, New York State Licensed behavior analyst, and BCBA-D. Dr Du is a research scientist and program supervisor at the Fred S. Keller school (a R&D lab for master and doctoral candidates in ABA and school psychology programs at Teachers College, Columbia University). She is also an adjunct assistant professor of behavior analysis at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her primary research interests are verbal behavior development of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). She has published two books, several book chapters and many peer-reviewed papers in the behavior analytic journals, including the Psychological Record, Journal of Béhavioral and Brain Science, Behavior Development Bulletin, Behavior Analysis in Practice, European Journal of Behavior Analysis, The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, and International Journal of Behavior Analysis and Autism Disorder. 

Behavioral Safety is not only relevant to “classical” physical work in plants. It’s also important in social service organizations and other environments that are not typically in focus, when thinking about workplace safety. This symposium highlights several developments in behavioral safety. One is the application of the well-established procedures to work environments previously not being targeted much by behavior analysis. The first talk is about the use of the Performance-Diagnostic Checklist – Safety (PDC-S) to enhance safety in two social service institutions. The other presentations in this symposium describe the collaborative effort of machinery safety experts and behavior analysts to include the knowledge of behavior analysis into international standards of workplace safety like the International Standard Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Behavior analysis introduces it’s measurement and assessment strategies to machinery safety, to make the human factor – once thought of as a “soft” factor – more controllable and manageable. Perspecitves for future developments are discussed.

Employees in social service institutions, e.g. those providing day care for mentally and / or physically impaired adults or social work assistance for endangered youths face a variety of safety hazards. Those hazards origin not only from the physical environment but also from the behavior of the people taken care of. To analyze the contingencies influencing the safety of employees in organizations, Martinez-Onstott, Wilder, and Sigurdsson (2016) developed the Performance Diagnosis Checklist Safety (PDC-S). The PDC-HS (Human Services; Carr, Wilder, Majdalany, Mathisen & Strain, 2013) addresses performance problems including safety issues in human service organizations. We present two applications of these checklists to analyze the contingencies underlying safety issues in an intermediate home for children with various behavior problems and in a sheltered workshop for adults with multiple mental and physical disabilities. Results were used to develop safety checklists for behavioral self-monitoring of employees and safety observations of the work environment and the behavior of the people looked after.

This presentation will address the question of effective practices for the treatment of individuals with autism spectrum disorder, from both an epistemological and a therapeutic perspective, and suggest the importance of a synthesis of two paradigms—behavior analysis and general systems theory—as a means of optimizing our assessment of the needs and the services provided to people with disabilities. Despite the development and the use of a wide array of behavior analytic practices that help all children with ASD to reach their full potential, a question that remains under-researched has to do with the effort expected from the child and his/her family and whether this effort can be somehow lessened without compromising the benefits. The answer to that question led to investigating the properties of another epistemological paradigm—general systems theory—its merits, its compatibility, and its complementarity to the discipline of behavior analysis. This presentation aims to demonstrate that the two paradigms are compatible and complementary and that their combination may lead to optimizing the therapeutic and pedagogical outcomes of behavior analytic practices. If we are to adapt a systemic perspective, according to which the joining of two or more systems leads to an outcome that exceeds by far the additive effects of those systems, it will be interesting to assess the potential emergent benefits of the synthesis of two compatible and complementary epistemological paradigms and how those translate into therapeutic outcomes.

Researchers and therapists in the field of autism spectrum disorder.

Functional communication training (FCT) has strong empirical support for its use when treating socially reinforced problem behavior. However, treatment effects often deteriorate when FCT procedures are challenged, leading to the recurrence of problem behavior, decreased use of the functional communication response, or both. Recent prevalence estimates suggest that treatment relapse is common in the clinic. Researchers have accordingly described a number of strategies for improving the long-term effectiveness of differential-reinforcement-based procedures (e.g., FCT), and quantitative theories of relapse (i.e., Behavioral Momentum Theory, Resurgence as Choice) provide falsifiable predications regarding modifications for mitigating treatment relapse. In this presentation, I share recent research on the prevalence of treatment relapse during routine, clinical service delivery and discuss our work on applying quantitative models of relapse to improve treatment durability. Future steps for advancing promising relapse-mitigations strategies will also be discussed, as will clinical considerations that limit the practicality of otherwise effective mitigation procedures.

BCBAs, applied and basic researchers

One effective component that leads to better health and educational outcomes is Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPEC) (WHO, 2016) and another is developing culturally aware practices. This panel facilitates discussions regarding the initial establishment of interprofessional collaborations, ways to bridge cultures and create partnerships, challenges to collaboration from an international perspective, and the roles of cultural competencies and cultural humility in fostering effective collaborative and therapeutic relationships. Case examples will be presented from the United Arab Emirates, Europe, Canada and the United States, reflecting challenges and successes in fostering positive collaborative relationships with various stakeholders, including government. Panelists will also discuss suggestions for how to effectively resolve conflicts to improve health and education outcomes for all clients and raise a call to action for the field of behavior analysis to develop education and training systems/programs that foster building culturally aware practices and cultural humility, and promote the dissemination of the science of behavior analysis across international borders.

Behavior analysts and professionals from other disciplines that have more than 1 year practical working experience with individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. Students enrolled in an ABA master's program. University Professors of ABA programs. Clinical supervisor of ABA services. Parents who are members of ABA advocacy groups.

Over the past 10 years, as the prevalence rate of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) increased, applied behavior analysis (ABA) has become the topic of interest in Saudi Arabia. It has drawn the attention of medical professionals, teachers, clinicians, stakeholders, and legislators alike. ABA is increasingly being recognized as the leading evidence-based intervention for individuals with ASD, and with this rising recognition, there is a growing demand for accountability and provision of state-of-the-art services. To respond to this demand, we have established the first verified course sequences in the Middle East on both undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as provided collaborations with schools and clinics. In this presentation, I describe the dissemination efforts made through training behavior analysts, implementation of positive behavior support in schools, and advocating for services and the establishment of a local legislative body. Furthermore, the significant growth in the number of certificants, clinics using ABA, ABA training programs, as well as the current challenges and the future of ABA in Saudi Arabia are discussed.

Dr. Baowaidan is the department chair of the Master of Science Program in Applied Behavior Analysis and assistant professor of special education at Dar Al-Hekma University, Saudi Arabia. She launched the first graduate program in ABA in the Middle East.  In 2016, she became the first Saudi to hold a Ph.D. in Applied Behavior Analysis and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst with doctoral designation (BCBA-Dâ). She earned her MA and Ph.D. in Applied Behavior Analysis from Columbia University under the direction of professor R. Douglas Greer. She has extensive teaching experience with children with and without special needs under the CABAS® model of schooling at the Fred S Keller School, where she also acted as a program supervisor and served as a clinical professor to many graduate students.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may exhibit deficits in language and social communication; therefore, behavioral intervention needs to ameliorate deficits in verbal behavior and expand relevant repertoires. Continuous refinement of procedures to assess and teach these skills is needed to promote efficacious and efficient intervention strategies, which should produce meaningful outcomes for clients. This symposium will present empirical data from research projects aimed at identifying efficacious and efficient procedures to teach and expand the verbal repertoires of children with ASD. Jones et al. will report on a comparison of procedures to teach multiply-controlled verbal behavior, short story recall. Livingston et al. will present on a comparison of methods used to condition echoic behavior as reinforcers to increase vocalizations. Niland et al. will describe the results of a comparison of isolated and compound stimulus presentations to teach auditory tacts. Finally, Scott et al. will describe the results of a comparison of different antecedent verbal stimuli on the acquisition and emergence of bidirectional intraverbals. Presentations will be followed by a discussion of applied implications and future directions.

Reading comprehension is an important early academic skill that may pose challenges for some children with autism. Prior research (Valentino, Conine, Delfs, & Furlow 2015) has reported effective methods for teaching children with autism to retell short stories that were previously read to them, as a possible first step in establishing a reading comprehension repertoire. We replicated and extended this prior work with three school-aged children with autism using a multiple baseline across stories and a non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants. Participants were exposed to an initial baseline, a reading with reinforcement condition (treatment 1), and a backward chaining with textual prompts condition (treatment 2). All three participants emitted mastery-level recall of stories more rapidly and under less complex intervention procedures than in prior research. Improvements in story recall were associated with increases in correct answers to basic comprehension questions, and intervention also resulted in generalized improvements in recall across multiple stories. We also conducted standardized reading assessments with all participants before and after completion of the study. These data have important implications for behavior analysts and educators providing reading intervention to children with autism, and suggest several possible avenues for future research on reading comprehension and recall.

Tacts are verbal operants evoked by some object, event, or stimulus feature, and tacts should occur in the presence of stimuli across all five senses. An example of an auditory tact is saying “siren” upon hearing the high-pitched noise of an ambulance. We replicated and extended a study by Hanney, Carr, and LeBlanc (2019) by examining the efficacy and efficiency of three different stimulus-presentation conditions including: (a) isolated, (b) compound with known visual stimulus, and (c) compound with unknown visual stimulus. We evaluated the acquisition of auditory tacts with an adapted alternating treatments design embedded within a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline design across sets with two children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). All three conditions were efficacious with at least one set of stimuli for each participant. However, the compound conditions were more likely to lead to mastery in the least amount of time. In transfer probes, isolated stimuli were presented as compound stimuli and compound stimuli were presented in isolation; correct auditory tacts emitted during probes indicated appropriate control of auditory stimuli persisted. Implications for future applied research and application to practice will be discussed.

Behavior analytic interventions delivered via telehealth have undergone a number of experimental evaluations with evidence supporting the use of telehealth to reduce problem behavior and increase functional communication. This symposium presents the results of four studies, conducted across three different research labs, evaluating innovations in the assessment and treatment of problem behavior via telehealth with a focus on parent-implemented assessments and interventions. The symposium will begin with a brief literature review focused on the evidence supporting functional assessment and function-based treatment delivered via telehealth (Talk 1). Researchers will then present advances in assessment including results from a brief functional analysis delivered via telehealth (Talk 2) and telehealth-mediated functional communication training conducted internationally with families in Asia (Talk 3). Author(s) also demonstrate the generalizability of functional communication training beyond training contexts (Talk 4). Finally, as a leader in this area of behavior analysis, Dr. Jennifer McComas, will discuss the studies, findings, and implications for research and practice.

As the world continues to navigate the COVID-19 health crisis, behavior analysts are considering how best to support families while maintaining services and ensuring the health and safety of everyone involved. Telehealth is one service delivery option that provides families with access to care in their own communities and homes. This presentation will review the findings of Schieltz and Wacker (2020) by providing a brief review of the behavior analytic telehealth literature in applied behavior analysis that provided coaching and training to families for individuals who displayed challenging behavior. These studies targeted functional assessment and function-based treatment for challenging behavior. Specifically, we will briefly summarize what is known relative to the assessment and treatment of challenging behavior via telehealth, place these results within a descriptive context of the decisions made by our research team, and discuss what we, as behavior analysts, should consider next to advance our understanding and practice of telehealth.

Interventions combining functional analysis (FA) and functional communication training (FCT) are effective in mitigating socially maintained problem behaviors. Recent studies evaluating the effectiveness of using telehealth to train caregivers across large geographical distances in the United States (Wacker et al., 2016) and internationally (Tsami & Lerman, 2019) indicate that this modality can increase families’ accessibility to evidence-based interventions for problem behavior, such as FCT. Additionally, the telehealth model reduces service costs while maintaining caregiver procedural integrity (Ferguson et al., 2018). Providing these services to international families might decrease barriers to effective treatment and promote parental well- being (e.g., reduce stress and depression; Frantz et al., 2018). In this study, practitioners and interpreters in the United States remotely coached six caregivers of children with autism residing in two countries in Asia (i.e., Pakistan and Vietnam) to implement FA and FCT. All children reached the 90% reduction of problem behavior criterion and acquired the communicative response. Additionally, all caregivers indicated that the procedures were acceptable. The impact of training on levels of parenting stress, psychological distress, and self- efficacy also will be discussed. Overall, our findings suggest telehealth is a feasible modality for service delivery in Asia.

Functional communication training (FCT) is a well-established treatment for problem behavior in young children with autism (National Autism Center, 2015; Wong et al., 2014). Parent-mediated FCT delivered in the home, but facilitated by therapists through telehealth is an effective approach that extends the treatment model into a natural context (Lindgren et al., 2016). Despite an extensive literature base supporting FCT, little is known about the generalized effects of FCT outside of the training context. In this study, generalization of treatment effects were evaluated as part of a large multi-site study on parent-delivered FCT for children with autism using telehealth. To meet this purpose, data were collected from pre- and post-treatment parent ratings of targeted and non-targeted problem behavior in settings and contexts outside of the training conditions. Results suggest that the effects of FCT may extend beyond the behaviors and contexts targeted for treatment. Possible reasons for successful generalization, implications for practice, and suggestions for future research will be discussed.

Students who fail to acquire foundational literacy skills during preschool are likely to read below grade level average in elementary school and beyond and are at a heightened risk for future school failure and poverty. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects, maintenance of, and preference for a combined kinesthetic movements and embedded pictures (CM) flashcard intervention and a single kinesthetic movements (KM) flashcard intervention on letter-sound correspondence with 3 preschoolers who were not in school at the time of the study. Another purpose was to evaluate the generalization of interventions to un-taught reading skills (e.g., nonsense word recognition). In 3 of 4 evaluations, participants mastered the KM set in substantially fewer intervention sessions than the CM set. In 1 of 4 evaluations, the participant mastered the KM and CM sets with little differentiation between the number of sessions. Maintenance data demonstrate a higher number of correct responses for the KM condition across all weeks, however, generalization effects were greatest for the CM condition. Preference varied across participants and was not always consistent with the more effective intervention. Findings demonstrate the utility of pairing kinesthetic movements with flashcard interventions to teach letter-sound correspondence to preschoolers.

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is an effective intervention used to change a variety of behaviors, across populations, and in various settings (see Tingstrom, Sterling-Turner, & Wilczynski, 2006, for a review). There is limited research on the intervention with preschoolers (Foley et al., 2019; Wiskow et al., 2019), the efficacy of the intervention when the GBG is faded or removed (Dadakhodjaeve et al, 2019; Ruiz-Olivares et al., 2010), and the potential side-effects associated with the GBG (Groves & Austin, 2019). We evaluated the efficacy of the GBG with preschoolers and determined whether effortful components of the GBG could be faded while maintaining treatment effects. Furthermore, we conducted a systematic analysis of peer interactions as a potential side effect of the GBG. Results suggest the GBG is an effective intervention for reducing the disruptive behavior of preschoolers and treatment effects maintained as we faded components. Finally, the side-effect analysis showed the GBG was associated with an increase in peer interactions and specific variables (e.g., delivery of reward) were associated with specific types of peer interactions.

Studies on interteaching have shown that it leads to higher exam scores, more positive course evaluations, and increased levels of student participation in class. Most interteaching research has been conducted in traditional face-to-face classes, thus there is a need to demonstrate the efficacy of this approach in online learning environments. The first presenter will acquaint the audience with interteaching and discuss results of a literature review summarizing the published research that has evaluated interteaching in an online environment. The second presenter will describe results of a study which evaluated the effect of adding cumulative exams to the interteaching method in an online asynchronous class. The third presenter will highlight the findings of a study on the effect of instructor presence on student engagement during online synchronous interteaching discussions. The final presenter will review the interteaching literature related to the effect of different components of interteaching on student outcome, and include a tutorial on how to implement components of interteaching in an online classroom. Together, these four presentations illustrate current online interteaching research and practice in higher education.

Academics, supervisors, and teachers.

The present study is an extension of the previous study presented at ABAI International in 2019. The investigators looked at the effects of instructor presence on student engagement in an online graduate behavior analysis class. Student engagement and instructor presence were evaluated in an interteaching environment. Interteaching is an approach which incorporates engagement between at least two students and/or student with faculty to improve learning and increase fluency of definitions and class material (Boyce & Hineline, 2002). In this study, participants were assigned to groups based on availability and given weekly preparation guides, composed by the instructor, to answer collaboratively and subsequently submit for further clarification. Student engagement and instructor presence were recorded using partial-interval recording and a modified alternating treatments design.

Interteaching is a behavioral instruction method that departs from the traditional lecture format in College settings (Boyce & Hineline, 2002). Though previous research has consistently supported its effectiveness (Querol et al., 2015; Saville et al., 2011; Sturmey et al., 2015), a recent meta-analysis (Hurtado-Parrado et al., under review) found that less than 5% of published studies reported implementation of interteaching in online settings (synchronous or asynchronous). The dramatic increase in remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic has required instructors to adjust their methods accordingly, including those implementing in-person interteaching. The experience of adapting interteaching to synchronous and asynchronous online instruction will be described. While doing so, data related to different components of interteaching and their relation to students’ performance will be discussed, with an emphasis on the relationship between Preparatory Guides (10-15 questions of varying complexity based on the course readings) and Discussions (students peer review the Preparatory Guides of other students). Preliminary data show that scores on Preparatory Guides and Discussions significantly predict 44% of the variance in Quiz scores. A related mediation analysis (Hayes, 2013 - Model 4) indicates that the relationship between Preparatory Guides and Quiz scores is significantly mediated by Discussions (95% CI [.1038, 1.3795]).

In recent years, the demands for behavior analysis to serve consumers with diverse cultural backgrounds have significantly increased. Though the field is in great need of culturally competent behavior analysts to support the needs of an increasingly diverse population, there are very few people of color represented. Especially African Americans. African Americans and other minorities within the field understand the feelings associated with walking into a large conference and finding it all but impossible to witness a black presenter, and seeing very few African American women or men attending.This panel is intended to explore the topic of increasing diversity and improving cultural sensitivity within the field through dissemination.

Access to low-cost, easily implemented behavioral treatments for a range of socially important health issues is severely limited in developing nations. As a case in point, most citizens in developing countries have no access to behavioral treatments for epilepsy. In behavior medicine, epilepsy is defined as the combination of a tendency to seize together with internal and external factors which increase the probability of reacting with a seizure reaction. In this model, epileptic seizures, like any behavior, is amenable to respondent and operant conditioning; thus, it is possible to effect and change the outcome of the seizure process using a behavior analysis and subsequent interventions. This paper aims to present a summary of the main points of clinical research in the behavioral treatment of epilepsy during the past 50 years and show the author's own recent studies done in South Africa and India. A presentation of two such RCT studies of behavioral treatment in the form of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy show promising results.

JoAnne is a native North American who has lived her whole adult life in Sweden. She has her clinical psychology degree, psychotherapy degree, Ph.D. och Docent from Uppsala University in Sweden where she also held a position of full professor of psychology prior to her retirement last year. JoAnne has specialized in behavior medicine and has focused on applying learning theory in practice for many chronic illnesses such as epilepsy, constipation, asthma, obesity, and chronic pain. She is the author and or coauthor of five professional books applying ACT and RFT to both chronic illness as well as Love relationships as well as publishing over 60 scientific studies in these areas. JoAnne is a peer reviewed ACT trainer and an ACBS fellow.

The likelihood of engaging in ethical behavior when confronted with a moral dilemma often involves the presence competing contingencies: behaving for the good of oneself versus the good of the commonwealth. The BACB Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts is a set of standards that serves as a guide for decision-making that impacts consumers, the practitioner, and other certificants. However, familiarity with these standards alone may not impact the behavior of a practitioner when confronted with an ethical problem. Phylogeny and ontogeny prepare individuals to act in their personal, short-term self-interest, but ethical matters require behaving with respect to the needs of the group. In ethically challenging scenarios, direct control exerted by the immediate contingencies is likely to be stronger than the control exerted by a person's history of rule-adherence, especially when doing so would disadvantage them. In this talk, we propose that influencing ethical behavior requires programing environmental contingencies at the cultural level of selection. Ethical conduct guidelines specify general precepts, but groups applying these precepts must actively and ongoingly discuss situations in which they are to be applied, scaled, abandoned, or synthesized. Additionally, we suggest that groups consider the cultural function of ethical conduct rules in adversely controlling the behavior of minority and intersectionally marginalized individuals within their ranks. In short, attention must be afforded to balancing the needs of the individual and those of several concentric levels of the collective in order to assure ethical behavior in any given instance. A comprehensive, naturalistic analysis of the conditions under which cooperative behaviors are selected may be crucial to the design of organizations and communities that produce reinforcement for behaving for the good of all.

BCBA, BCaBA

Intervening on a precursor to problem behavior (hereafter: precursor) appears to be a promising treatment strategy. However, the assessment of precursors is not routinely conducted in clinical practice. The relative inattention to precursors could be related to these behaviors being rare, the under identification of these behaviors, or both. However, there is good reason to believe that precursors are relatively common, but under identified. For example, Fritz et al. (2013) found that at least one antecedent behavior had a temporal relation with problem behavior for 16 individuals. Fritz et al. then conducted a subsequent analysis with 8 of those 16 individuals and determined that the antecedent behavior was a precursor in seven of eight cases. In the current study, a lag sequential analysis was conducted with 17 individuals who received assessment of problem behavior. Subsequent probability analysis indicated an antecedent behavior with a temporal relation to problem behavior was found for approximately 70% of individuals. Results suggest that antecedent behaviors commonly enter into temporal relations with problem behavior. Implications of this finding will be discussed.

One of the biggest challenges in education is the shift from learning to read (foundational reading) to reading to learn (reading for function). Students learn to read to understand information, read to follow instructions, and read to access reinforcement. How we arrange instruction is crucial for students to acquire the function of reading. This is most effectively taught through the arrangement of reading instruction that focuses on functional reading objectives. Writing instruction is also arranged to teach the functional effects of writing or writing to affect the behavior of a reader or a targeted audience. Teaching the function of reading and writing allows this to become a verbal repertoire, which in turn, creates a social exchange between the reader and writer. Research out of the Comprehensive Applied Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS®) Accelerated Independent Learner (AIL) classrooms have identified teaching procedures and how to arrange instruction to focus on teaching the function to students as educational objectives. In this paper, we will describe scientifically based procedures to teach the function of reading and writing within public schools.

The ECHO- Education: Autism model utilizes videoconferencing technology to simultaneously connect parents, caregivers, and family members (known as the ‘spokes’) to an inter-disciplinary panel of university-based specialists (known as the ‘hub’) in regularly scheduled sessions. These professional learning opportunities are grounded in the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and family support, seeking to provide families with the support necessary to decrease child engagement in challenging behavior, while increasing access to systems of care. This model seeks to increase collaboration and support among caregivers across the country, especially in areas that may have limited access to these resources. Measures of efficacy of the implementation of the ECHO model include positive child and caregiver outcomes, as well as development of a community of support for caregivers navigating similar experiences. This symposium will discuss three different ECHO networks focused on providing caregiver coaching and support for families of children with autism and other related disabilities. Further, implementation of this model at the University of Washington, the University of Virginia, and University of Wyoming will be presented and discussed.

Behavior Analysts providing parent coaching and caregiver/family support to families of children diagnosed with disabilities.

Companies are not effectively harnessing the tremendous power of human performance. Employees consistently report lacking the basic things needed to drive performance and feel good about their contributions (Gallup, 2020). According to Gallup, high performing, high engagement organizations put the focus on concrete, real-time performance management activities such as clarifying work expectations, collaboratively setting goals, getting people what they need to do their work, and providing ongoing, meaningful coaching conversations. The old-style command and control management style in companies is not working. The one-on-one OBM consultant approach is not scalable or sustainable. In today’s fast-paced modern workplace, a grassroots, digitally-enabled approach is needed to engage everyone real-time in addressing these needs to optimize human performance and help people succeed. This presentation will demonstrate how Performance Ally is addressing these issues and bringing OBM to the mainstream through the use of technology.

Anyone who works in an organization interested in OBM

This panel will be a discussion of Dr. Brian Greer’s SQAB Tutorial on using quantitative theories of relapse to improve FCT.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Reading and writing skills can be conceived as a network of equivalence relations between stimuli (e.g., printed words, dictated words, pictures, objects) and between stimuli and responses (e.g., picture naming, textual behavior, transcription, dictation-taking). We have been using this conceptual framework as a foundation for the development of assessment tools and teaching procedures. In this presentation I will describe an instrument for the assessment of basic repertoires involving S-S and R-S relations which characterize the skills of beginning readers. The instrument comprises 15 tasks, organized in blocks of 15 trials each. Some tasks measure identity matching-to-sample (picture identity, printed word identity), arbitrary auditory-visual MTS (picture recognition, printed word recognition), and visual-visual matching-to-sample MTS (picture <--> printed word correspondence). Other tasks measure discriminated operants for which the discriminative stimuli are pictures (picture naming), printed words (copying, textual behavior ["reading'']), and spoken words (dictation-taking). The child performance in these tasks allows the identification of basic perceptual skills (does the student see and hear?), vocal skills (does the student articulate the sounds with accuracy and in the correct sequence?), and the main discriminations required to read and write accurately. Failures in some of these tasks (or in all of them) provide important information about the student's current repertoire and the gaps that need to be developed. The instrument was applied to approximately 2300 students (6 to 12 years old). Individual results allowed the evaluation of selection-based responses (listening and seeing behavior) and topography-based responses (verbal operants in vocal or written modes) and to define a profile of the student's repertoire. Averaged data showed that the matching skills were significantly correlated with textual behavior and dictation-taking. An "integration" index taking into account all the scores showed that, as predicted by the stimulus equivalence paradigm, the interdependence of the operants increased as the entire repertoire developed. The integration index may be a useful tool for the prediction and evaluation of the effects of teaching programs for establishing the target repertoire in non-readers.

Behavior analysts interested in basic (initial) reading and writing repertoires: assessment and teaching procedures

Deisy de Souza is Full Professor at the Psychology Department, Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), Brazil, where she teaches behavior analysis in graduate and undergraduate courses in Psychology, and in Special Education. She obtained her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at Universidade de São Paulo (USP), under the direction of Carolina Bori, and held a post-doctoral position at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, working with Charlie Catania. She has published articles and book chapters on non-human and human relational learning, including studies applying the stimulus equivalence paradigm to investigate the acquisition of symbolic relations involved in reading and writing, and in developing curricula to teach those skills. She is past-Editor of the Brazilian Journal of Behavior Analysis (BJBA), past-Associate Editor of Acta Comportamentalia, and she is currently a member of the Board of Editors of JEAB. She received the 2015 Distinguished Contributions to the Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Award  from the Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Special Interest Group (EAHB SIG); she was elected ABAI Fellow (2018); and she is currently the International Representative in the ABAI Council.

Empirical evidence supports that pre-session pairing or rapport building, between a clinician and client, can increase clinical outcomes in ABA services. Kelly, Axe, Allen, and Maguire noted the effects of pre-session pairing on decreasing challenging behaviors in 2015 while Shillingsburg, Hansen, and Wright (2018) delineated 9 steps in the pairing process to best support children with Autism for in seat, at a table, discrete trial instruction. Furthermore, Lugo, King, Lamphere, and McArdle (2017) sought to operationally define the behaviors characteristic of pre-session pairing to then train staff to better implement these skills. This presentation explores the systematic approach to training BCBA supervisors and technicians in pre-session pairing and the addition of a “Rapport Building” curriculum to a client’s individualized learning program. The presenters will describe the training of clinicians across skills, review the development of a systematic pre-session pairing program, and compare clinical outcomes between clients whose programs include a systematic approach to pairing and those without. Finally, the presenters will examine the social validity from parents, payers, and technicians to support the pre-session pairing program.

The audience should be competent in basic principles of behavior analysis, running center or home-based programming, writing, running, and supervising behavior analytic programming.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a vigorous discussion on how to apply essential Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services (APBA, April 10, 2020) safely and effectively (Cox, Plavnick, & Broadhead, 2020; LeBlanc, et al. 2020). One possible format, telehealth, demonstrates promise as a means to continued care while reducing risks of infection across treatment modalities and treatment settings (Rodriguez, 2020). The current analysis represents an extension of essential service delivery model for ABA providers during a crisis described by Colombo, Wallace, and Taylor (2020). The decision model evaluates several factors (e.g. immediate needs, vulnerability of clients, and the competency of service providers) as a means of assessing the best means of mitigating the effects of the current crisis on the on the progress of ABA consumers. The current paper will describe the effects and outcomes of applying this delivery model across four individuals who receive ABA services to address severe challenging behavior. Data reflecting treatment effects on target problem behavior will be evaluated across initial baseline, pre-COVID, telehealth, and withdrawal (e.g., in-person, mixed, etc.). Results, barriers, and potential extensions will be discussed.

The current study analyzed the effects of two frames for durations of time – calendar unit and calendar date – on measures of compliance to hypothetical social-distancing policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants reported the extent to which they would comply with hypothetical social-distancing polices lasting different durations of time. Durations of time were framed as calendar units (e.g., days, weeks, months, years) and calendar dates (i.e., specific dates the policies would extent to). Levels of compliance across durations of time were used to calculate the area under curve (AuC) for each condition. Social-distancing policies framed in calendar dates yielded significantly greater AuC values compared to social-distancing policies framed in calendar units. Participants’ self-reported political party affiliation yielded a significant main effect: Conservative participants’ AuC values were significantly lower than liberal participants’ AuC values. The framing of the duration of time was a significant variable in controlling rates of compliance to hypothetical social-distancing policies.

Audience members should be able to: (a) Define delay discounting, (b) Identify and describe mechanisms controlling measures of delay discounting; (c) Interpret area under curve (AuC) as a measure of delay discounting; (d) Comprehend the use of a delay-discounting framework to explain a variety of behavioral phenomena

For the past thirty years Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) has been implemented in Norway and other European countries. In most countries it has been a challenge to deliver EIBI according to suggested minimum standards. The most common challenges have been to have properly trained staff implement the intervention, to get parents involved, and to provide intensive intervention (a minimum of 20 hours per week). As a result of this, outcomes have generally been moderate. However, outcomes of EIBI have been much better than “treatment as usual”. We will present two-year outcome data from a group of 30 children that were provided 10 hours a week and a group of 30 children that were provided 20 hours a week. We will also present data from another site were user satisfaction was evaluated in a reversal design across seven cases that received video-based supervision.

BCBAs, supervisors in EIBI programs.

We have developed a quality standard based on the logic of the Periodic Service Review to evaluate and improve quality of individual EIBI programs. The programs are provided through in the two largest cities in Norway, Bergen and Oslo. Based on the core elements of EIBI we have made a 36-item checklist that we consider to represent an optimal EIBI program. Some of the items are given a higher weight (such as intensity of intervention and therapist training). The standards have measurable targets (done/not done) for all involved parties (supervisors, therapists, parents, community staff). We report quality data from 60 individual programs collected over a two year period and discuss what we have found to be the most common challenges we face in providing EIBI of high quality.

We compared the use videoconference with on site supervision of EIBI cases in a reversal design. Supervision was provided either on site or using video conference every second week. Questionnaires were developed to evaluate to what degree videoconference influenced the perceived quality of supervision. The questionnaires consisted of 12 items that were scored on Likert scales and measured program supervision, registrations/data collection, preparedness, and technical quality. Both the supervisor and the supervisees evaluated their experiences across the supervision modes. We discuss our findings in terms of the perceived quality of supervision, potential for saving travel time saved and implications for caseload capacity.

This symposium features three studies on training undergraduate students and service providers to implement behavior analytic assessments and interventions. First, Karie John will present on the use of video modeling to teach undergraduate students to conduct trial-based functional analyses, and the results suggest the use of video models produced high treatment fidelity and social validity ratings. Second, James Maraventano will present on a pyramidal training model to teach job skills to staff supporting adults with autism in a community setting, and the results suggest improved performance observed during behavioral skills training generalized to in situ probes with clients. Finally, Kerri Peters will present on teaching behavior analysts and occupational therapists to conduct a structured mealtime assessment using behavioral skills training, and the results suggest improved protocol integrity posttraining across all participants. All three studies improve our understanding of efficient and efficacious training procedures that maximize impact.

Basic understanding of behavior analytic principles and components of behavioral skills training

The training of human services staff in behavior change methods is often a labor-intensive function of the supervising behavior analyst. The pyramidal application of behavioral skills training (BST) has been demonstrated an effective means for promoting the acquisition of skills related to behavior analytic treatment, while increasing the efficiency of the individual behavior analyst’s training efforts. As BST has potential for broad application, we extended a pyramidal BST approach toward job skills training for service recipients enrolled in a program providing support for adults with autism in the community setting. During pre-training assessments, 10 staff members were instructed to role-play BST using given task analyses. Following BST-based instruction in the application of BST (a pyramidal paradigm), participants demonstrated improved performance of BST component skills in the role-play setting, relative to baseline levels. High performance levels were also observed during subsequent on-the-job assessments of staff conducting BST with service recipients in the generalization setting.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display feeding problems such as consumption of a limited variety of foods (Schreck, Williams, & Smith, 2004). It is also common for these children to be enrolled in early and intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) services for comprehensive treatment (Roane, Fisher, & Carr, 2016). Combined, these factors make it possible that behavior analysts will have a role in a child’s clinical care related to feeding. In addition, children with ASD are often attending regular appointments for occupational therapy (OT) and on occasion those providers are targeting feeding problems. However, given that the etiology of pediatric feeding disorders is complex and multifactorial (Peterson & Ibanez, 2018), OT providers and BCBAs should ensure they have sufficient training and a setting that is appropriate for assessment and treatment. Therefore, we evaluated the effects of a training package, including instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback, for training BCBAs in an EIBI setting and OT providers to conduct a structured mealtime assessment. Training resulted in increases in their integrity of protocol implementation, and we observed replication of these effects for all participants

Behavior analysts know that getting children with ASD enrolled into ABA treatment at the earliest possible age is important to achieving the best outcome. To resolve barriers that both parents and providers encounter and reduce delays to ABA service, Behavior Analysts need to collaborate with other providers in this service system. Parents typically start by talking to their pediatrician, then their insurance provider, a diagnostician, then get referred to ABA and other therapeutic/educational services. This complex process is difficult to navigate for all stakeholders, resulting in delays to service. Because other stakeholders within the system of care have earlier contacts with families, it is important for Behavior Analysts to collaborate with these stakeholders to develop ways to reduce delays in starting ABA. This presentation provides a review of barriers identified, including targeting marginalized populations, and proposed solutions created by a community-based research team made up of parents, providers at each access point, payors, community group leaders, and governmental leaders, who are currently targeting this issue. Barriers identified and discussed will include parent engagement, the referral process, coordination of care, provider and family education, equitability of services, and simplification of workflow for providers distributing resources and educational materials to families.

Intermediate - Audience members should have a basic understanding of ABA principles and procedures related to the care of individuals with ASD and their family. Audience members should also have the ability to complete a basic cost benefit analysis assessing variables associate with successful outcomes and the ability to evaluate individual client and family barriers that might impact treatment outcome.

In order to enable more equitable access to care for underserved families, providers must work to identify barriers to access behavioral services. A team of stakeholders participated in the development of products and strategies targeting access, using a collaborative community-based approach to evaluate experiences of providers and families within the Wayne County Michigan Medicaid state funded system. Both parents and providers expressed concerns about the complex processes to gain access to ABA treatment. Additional concerns were identified by the group related to ensuring equity in access for underserved families. Barriers identified included limited resources for families and providers designed to understand the system of care, knowledge on the steps to gain access to behavioral services, and what choices amongst service providers are available for families. Permanent product solutions were developed to address equitability and inclusion barriers for families and providers. A variety of surveys, media, and documents were developed through this process for use by service providers, both within and outside of the ABA community, to achieve equitable access to behavioral services. This presentation will also review recommendations about ways to facilitate collaborative work within a local healthcare system to increase awareness of barriers and urge more intervention research to explore the means for removing them.

Individuality of treatment has always been a primary focus in the field of ASD and ABA. Factors such as trauma, age, and family barriers have guided Behavior Analyst’s individualization of portions of treatment including teaching procedures, reinforcers, goals, and behavior intervention plans. However, in order to ensure true individuality of care for all clients, all stakeholders involved should be culturally competent. Cultural competence involves learning and understanding the views and practices of different cultures. Our cultural beliefs and traditions influence our thoughts and actions, and therefore, should be considered as early as screening and diagnosis. Parents have interactions with a variety of stakeholders including pediatricians, diagnosticians, schools, ABA and other therapeutic services. Starting at screening and ending at treatment implementation, each client’s cultural beliefs should be a consideration in the way stakeholders communicate with families regarding diagnosis, what assessment is chosen, what goals are chosen, what materials are used in programming, and much more. This presentation will include discussions and recommendations for how to modify treatment when encountering language barriers, stigma involving diagnosis, lack of support and understanding from support communities, and differing beliefs on the roles for men and women coming from different back grounds.

Individuals with developmental disabilities often struggle to learn independent daily living skills requiring complex behavior chains. Applied behavior analysis has identified both chaining and video-modeling as effective training procedures for teaching such complex behaviors. The present study compared the effects of chaining, video-modeling, and video-modeling plus chaining to examine the most effective teaching method for twin boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder. We created a task analysis for three skills of equal difficulty level and randomly assigned each twenty-step chain to a teaching procedure. We examined both the percentage of steps completed in the correct order during probes and the number of steps completed independently regardless of order. For both participants, the combined video-modeling plus chaining procedure was most effective under both variables. The video modeling-alone conditions were the least effective for both participants under the total number of steps completed variable. The chaining-alone condition was the least effective for the first participant under the percentage of steps completed independently variable, and the video-modeling alone was the least effective for the other participant under the same variable.

Teaching independence with shaving can provide individuals with privacy and comfort, increase quality of life, and reduce effort of caregivers. Unfortunately, no previous studies have provided clinicians with procedures for teaching leg shaving. The current study evaluated the effects of a video prompting teaching package on leg shaving skills using a concurrent multiple baseline design across participants. Participants included three women ages 22 to 56, each with a different diagnosis (i.e., paraplegia, Down Syndrome, and cognitive impairment with Schizoaffective Disorder). The Finishing Touch Flawless Legs™ shaver was selected because a) it can be used without water or shaving cream, b) individuals with fine motor deficits can handle the device, c) the device will not cut or knick the user, and d) it is rechargeable and does not require batteries. Participants learned to shave their legs at the mastery criterion of 100% independent, correct steps within a mean of 7.3 teaching sessions. These levels were maintained at 2-week probes and during generalization probes. On the Treatment Acceptability Rating Form - Revised, scores indicated high social validity of the procedures of this treatment package.

The rapid growth in computer technology means that nearly anything imaginable is either possible or will soon become possible. Behavior analysts, as specialists in learning and behavior, are uniquely trained to become strong collaborators on multidisciplinary teams focusing on projects to advance machine learning, simulation-based experiences, and much more. In this tutorial, I will discuss how we currently leverage such technology in my lab and integrate robotics, virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI) in our behavior analytic research. I will share the outcomes of some of our current research projects as well as my collaborative efforts on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) grants.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Designing skill acquisition programs requires careful consideration of variables that can affect the speed of learning. For example, the number and type of stimuli to include in an instructional set, sequencing of stimuli during instruction, the number of practice opportunities to arrange, and the selection of mastery criteria are important considerations when designing programs for learners. In this presentation, Dr. Kodak will synthesize research on these topics and provide recommendations for practitioners who are responsible for designing instructional programs. In addition, areas of additional research that can help improve the design and outcomes of skill-acquisition programs will be discussed.

Dr. Kodak is an Associate Professor in the Behavior Analysis program at Marquette University. She is a licensed psychologist, licensed behavior analyst, and Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She has worked with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder more than 25 years. Dr. Kodak obtained her Ph.D. in School Psychology from Louisiana State University. She formerly served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and Learning and Motivation. She currently serves on several editorial boards including the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, Behavior Analysis in Practice, and Learning and Motivation. Her research interests in the area of early intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder include increasing the efficiency of skill acquisition, treatment integrity, assessment-based instruction, verbal behavior, conditional discriminations, parent training, and computer-assisted instruction.

Though the principles of behavior are universal, the specific behaviors, stimuli, and social contingencies impacting our clients are rooted in the cultures in which they live. As behavior analysis grows around the world, the inherent biases and assumptions of our technology becomes more apparent. Assessment instruments need translation, revision, and validation; interventions need to be adapted to ensure social validity and relevance; and the ways in which behavior analysts provide services need to expand to ensure that they are accessible to all clients in need. This symposium will present strategies for behavior analysts to identify biases in their professional practices, minimize such biases when they arise, and learn to practice cultural humility.

Practitioners and researchers. 

The cultural and linguistic diversity that characterizes the world remains a seminal barrier for the global uptake of applied behavior analysis (ABA). Although North America accounts for only 4.7% of the world’s population, more than 95% of BCBAs live in the United States and Canada. While behavioral principles may be universally applicable, this talk will argue for why understanding cultural diversity and avoiding prejudice is important. We will discuss specific challenges for the global dissemination of ABA, with India as an example, and suggest potential training strategies with which to overcome such barriers. Our training protocol may serve as an initial framework for practitioners and researchers to achieve buy-in and positive outcomes internationally. In addition, we will highlight existing frameworks to define and describe cultural adaptations and list previously used adaptations in ABA-based treatments for individuals outside of North America. Finally, we will advocate for a behavior analytic perspective for organizing and reporting potentially relevant variables for the global success of ABA services.

Since the rise of the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements, and especially since the murder of George Floyd, the field of behavior analysis is experiencing tremendous growth in action toward social justice. This growth of action and activism within our field is exciting but many have concerns over how much of this change is actually structural, versus performative, and therefore whether or not it will persist over time. From the perspective of a white man in a position of substantial privilege and power within the field of behavior analysis, I will stand next to and amplify the voices of behavior analysts of color who have offered powerful and practical resources to all of us to create and sustain our roles as accomplices in furthering social justice. This presentation will amplify recent publications by behavior analysts of color on practical strategies for enacting social justice within our own personal lives, within the service provision agencies where we work, and within our graduate programs, among others. In particular, practical strategies from behavioral approaches to self-management, including acceptance and commitment training, will be shared.

Dr. Jonathan Tarbox is the Program Director of the Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis program at the University of Southern California, as well as Director of Research at FirstSteps for Kids. Dr. Tarbox is the past Editor-in-Chief of the journal Behavior Analysis in Practice, a Board Member of the ABA Task Force to Eradicate Social Injustice, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Women in Behavior Analysis (WIBA) conference. He has published five books on applied behavior analysis and autism treatment, is the Series Editor of the Elsevier book series Critical Specialties in Treating Autism and Other Behavioral Challenges, and an author of over 90 peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters in scientific texts.  His research focuses on behavioral interventions for teaching complex skills to individuals with autism, Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), and applications of applied behavior analysis to issues of diversity and social justice. 

The pressing need to engage in compassionate, culturally humble behavior as a field became apparent following the needless deaths of those such as Mr. George Floyd; the world at large recognized the importance of social justice and, as behavior analysts, we are uniquely poised to engage in systems change and create levels of institutional accountability throughout all aspects of our work. This dialogue will discuss culture as a dynamic metacontingency and will focus on understanding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as related to all cultures. We will analyze our own self-bias and will describe ethical problem-solving frameworks designed to increase DEI through the engagement of culturally humble behaviors as practitioners and researchers. Finally, we will review ways to implement measures of institutional accountability to assess whether we are meeting our goals of DEI. We will end by inviting questions from the audience to promote thoughtful considerations intended to further our understanding of the topography of culturally humble behaviors and how we can begin immediately to engage in social justice change.

Nasiah is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, with a Doctorate degree in Education from Loyola University of Chicago. She holds a Master’s degree in Special Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Master's degree in Educational Leadership from the American College of Education. She is a graduate of the Infant Studies Specialist program at Erikson Institute of Chicago. In addition to her BCBA credential, she is an Illinois licensed special education teacher and an Illinois Early Intervention provider and State evaluator. Professionally, she has served as a special educator, clinician, educational administrator, and professor of special education. Her clinical experience spans infancy through adulthood. Currently, she is the CEO & Founder of ULEZI, LLC, Co-Founder of Pivot 2 Inclusion and serves as a court appointed special advocate, for children in the Illinois foster care system. She is also an Advisory Board member for Black Applied Behavior Analysts and a Board member for the Illinois Association for Behavior Analysis. She has assisted school districts in the State of Illinois in developing meaningful educational programs to meet the needs of students with autism. Her research interests include supervision, mentoring, leadership, and culturally humble practice within the field of ABA. She is a champion for diversity, equity and inclusion and is deeply committed to using her skills and experiences, paired with the science of applied behavior analysis, to empower the lives of the people she supports and serves, in positive and meaningful ways.

Noor Syed, Ph.D., BCBA-D, LBA/LBS, (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Applied Behavior Analysis, Clinical Coordinator, and founding Director of the Center for Autism Inclusivity (Research, Education, and Services) with SUNY Empire State College. She is also a Senior International Program Director with Anderson Center International, an Adjunct Professor Advisor in ABA with Endicott College, and Research Coordinator for the Global Autism Project.  She is a certified general and special education teacher in New York, U.S., birth through grade six. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Syed has worked with individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and developmental disabilities from early intervention through adulthood in school and center-based settings as a teacher, therapist, consultant, and administrator. Dr. Syed has consulted for autism clinics around the world, including in Uganda, Antigua and Barbuda, and the Czech Republic, and currently serves as the international and school-based expert on ABAEthicsHotline.com with Dr. Jon Bailey. She assisted in building Lehigh University Autism Services and its corresponding practicum, which is an insurance and university-based program offering services in the home, community, and clinic. Dr. Syed’s interests lie in compassionate care, cultural humility, ethical practices, supervision, the practice of school-based BCBAs, and diversity. She received her undergraduate degree in ABA under Dr. Raymond G. Romanczyk in the Institute of Child Development at Binghamton University and completed her PhD in ABA with Dr. R. Douglas Greer at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Being confined with inadequacy to explore may cause animals housed in managed-care facilities to engage in stereotypic behaviors. Stereotypic behaviors often include pacing, random motor behaviors, or any repetitive behavior without any apparent goal. Enrichment devices prove to be one solution that may help increase the quality of life for animals in managed care. Environmental enrichment provides non-human organisms opportunities to engage in adaptive behaviors and may improve their well-being, however the exposure and enrichment animals receive in the wild can be difficult to replicate. In the current study, we used the results of food and color preference assessments to create individualized enrichment devices. Researchers used highly preferred food in enrichment devices based on the most and least preferred colors of the loggerhead seat turtle. An alternating treatment design was used to assess the effects of each device on stereotypic and adaptive behaviors. Results and implications for practice will be discussed.

Programming for generalization is a critical component of applied behavior analysis. Previous research has evaluated several procedures for achieving stimulus generalization in the context of tact training with children with autism spectrum disorder, including serial multiple exemplar training (S-MET), concurrent multiple exemplar training (C-MET), and instructive feedback (IF). Although previous research has compared some or all of these procedures, results have been mixed. In the present study, we used an adapted alternating treatments design to directly compare the efficacy and efficiency of S-MET, C-MET, and IF for producing generalization of tacts of various types of stimuli (e.g., color photographs, black and white outlines, colored drawings) with four males with autism spectrum disorder. For most participants, C-MET led to generalization in the fewest training sessions, followed by IF. These results suggest that S-MET is unlikely to lead to generalization more efficiently than other conditions, but that the ideal training arrangement may be idiosyncratic.

The current study examined the efficacy and efficiency of incorporating the use of instructive feedback within matrix training to teach children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to label common objects and adjectives. The study was conducted in a private school providing educational services to students with ASD based on the principles of applied behavior analysis. We taught one set of responses using a non-overlapping matrix, a second set of responses using an overlapping matrix, and a third set of responses using a non-overlapping matrix along with secondary targets to three individuals with ASD. The results demonstrated that all teaching methods were effective and all trained and untrained responses were acquired. Additionally, results will be discussed across different measures of efficiency, including training sessions and training time to mastery. Our findings will be discussed in light of the extant matrix training and instructive feedback literatures. Additionally, we will provide directions for future research.

Pediatric feeding disorders (also termed avoidant/restrictive food intake disorders) are characterized by food refusal or extreme food selectivity by type, texture, brand, shape, or color. Some children develop feeding problems due to a medical condition such as reflux or a severe illness. Some have poor oral motor skills and have difficulty chewing and swallowing, which impacts their diet. This symposium will explore issues related to the assessment and treatment of feeding disorders and provide overviews of recent advances in the area of behavioral interventions for children who engage in food refusal, food selectivity, or inappropriate mealtime behavior. Topics such as treating liquid expulsion, interpreting functional assessment results, multidisciplinary approaches to feeding tube dependence, and indices of child happiness and unhappiness during treatment will be explored. This symposium will be suitable for researchers and practitioners alike and will be valuable for those new to the area of pediatric feeding disorders as well as experts in the field.

Beginner

Caregivers may discount the clinical benefits of an effective intervention if it does not appear to lead to positive changes in their child’s affective behavior (Dillon & Carr, 2007). Some researchers suggest that when children appear to enjoy teaching procedures, caregivers may be more likely to seek out the treatment for their child and adhere to implementing the procedures (Green et al., 2005; Kazdin, 1980). Escape extinction, an empirically supported intervention for the treatment of pediatric feeding disorders, is often necessary to improve consumption of healthy, targeted foods for children with feeding disorders. However, extinction may occasionally be associated with undesirable side effects (e.g., bursts, increased emotional responding) (Bachmeyer, 2009; Woods & Borrerro, 2019). In the current study, we evaluated the effects of environmental enrichment (i.e., noncontingent reinforcement) combined with escape and attention extinction procedures on treatment effectiveness and behavioral indices of happiness and unhappiness in the treatment of pediatric feeding disorders. We will discuss these findings and address future directions of the study in terms of intervening on child happiness or unhappiness during treatment.

The extant literature on pediatric feeding disorders indicates intensive, multidisciplinary treatment holds benefits for children with severe feeding difficulties, such as patients relying on enteral nutrition (e.g., gastrostomy tube). The most common methodology documenting outcomes for these programs are Nonrandomized Studies (NRS). Although NRS represents a valuable tool for providing insight to intervention, prior research utilizing NRS included potential bias concerning data abstraction. Additionally, there is a lack of standardization across studies regarding uniformity of outcome measures, and description of patient characteristics and treatment protocols. The purpose of the present study was to examine the clinical presentations, intervention characteristics, and treatment outcomes in a sample of children receiving intensive, multidisciplinary intervention for feeding tube dependence. This study followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) criteria to plan the study, guide data abstraction and structure the study’s methodology. We conducted a retrospective electronic medical review to gather outcome data for patients admitted to an intensive day treatment feeding program. The review included 81 individuals dependent on enteral nutrition. We will describe treatment setting and protocols and outcome measures including demographics, anthropometrics, meal-time behaviors, oral/enteral intake and caregiver satisfaction at admission, discharge and follow-up.

This symposium will address three questions through four presentations related to race, culture, and behavior analysis. The first presentation will address the question of how preferences for behavior-analytic treatment strategies align across caregivers and providers of different races, and then address the implications misalignments across racial groups might have for best practice. The second and third presentations will conceptually address the question of how behavior analysts can assess for and build multicultural and antiracist education, practice, and research. Examples of an assessment tool for research and recommendations for graduate training programs in behavior analysis will be provided. The final presentation will conceptually address the question of how behavior analysis can be applied to larger cultural and race-based issues by reviewing police use-of-force reform. A discussion of these presentations will follow and focus on how behavior analysts can contribute to improvements in cultural humility and competence.

The target audience for this workshop includes college students, early-career researchers, BACB certificants in-training (e.g., RBTs), behavior analysts (BCaBAs, BCBAs, BCBA-Ds), and behavioral health aides or direct care workers with a working knowledge of the principles of behavior and basic behavior analytic procedures (e.g., antecedent strategies, differential reinforcement, etc.).

Culturally competent practices are materializing in the clinical work of behavior analysts. This growth may be the result of added components to coursework, continuing education training, and client-focused curricular materials. However, applied behavior analysis (ABA) research has been slower to see these changes. With ABA research guiding the work of new and seasoned practitioners, it is imperative that it strongly reinforces components of cultural responsiveness. Researchers outside the field of ABA, Dr. Bal and Dr. Trainor, have recognized the importance of research demonstrating cultural competence. Resultantly, they developed the Culturally Responsive Research Rubric for evaluating studies. The 15-item rubric is built upon existing tools for assessing research quality, but is not aimed at commonly accepted indicators (e.g., experimental design). Rather, the focus is on a set of culturally responsive criteria (e.g., how culture guided design). To bridge gaps in ABA research and cultural competence, two behavior analysts aim to introduce the rubric, discuss its applicability to the field of ABA, give examples of rubric components that align with the work of behavior analysts, and present a review of the behavioral research on pyramidal parent training through the lens of the rubric.

Racist policies and inequity are prevalent in society; this includes higher education institutions. Many behavior analytic training programs have been complicit in omitting cultural humility and antiracist ideas in their curricula and institutional practices. As societal demands for allyship and transformational change increase, programs must rise to the challenge and act as agents of change in our clinical, professional, and personal communities. The current paper offers a multitude of strategies for institutions to develop an antiracist and multicultural approach. These recommendations encompass policies that may be promoted on the following levels: (a) organizational infrastructure and leadership, (b) curriculum and pedagogy, (c) research, and (d) with faculty, students, and staff.

Structural racism is rooted in American social systems that were supposedly designed to promote our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Social systems like policing, for example, are built on a foundation of discriminatory practices designed to disenfranchise Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). One of the most recent visible examples of racially-biased policing is the excessive use-of-force by officers toward BIPOC. In response, advocates, policy makers, and researchers have sought solutions. Police use-of-force reforms such as Body-Worn Cameras (BWCs) and Implicit Bias Training (IBT) have become popular and are currently being applied in many police departments across the country. However, evidence supporting the effectiveness of these reform strategies to reduce use-of-force is mixed, and further evaluations are needed to understand why these strategies are purported to be an effective solution. The purpose of the current review is to ignite future empirical evaluations of use-of-force reform. Following a summary of the research conducted to date on BWCs and IBT, we will conclude with a brief discussion of how behavior analysts might improve and foster strategies that are efficacious.

Since first published (Iwata et al., 1982), the process of Functional Analysis (FA) has profoundly changed the process and effectiveness of Applied Behavior Analytical (ABA) treatment for individuals with challenging behaviors. Across ages and diagnoses, ABA has provided empirically validated evidence based treatment for behaviors maintained by attention, escape from demand, or tangibles. Yet in the years that have followed, the identification of automatic (assumed to be sensory) or undifferentiated findings has not kept pace, and this has left Behavior Analysts without a clear approach to treatment. This often results in needing to rely on default technologies that are often controversial, and less effective. In this symposium, we will discuss the potential significance of medical issues on understanding the individual’s idiosyncratic function(s) of behavior; Looking at neuro-biological variables as potential motivating operations in further clarification of the function(s) of behavior; and working toward awareness of environmentally mediated variables informed by fine grained analysis of automatic reinforcement maintaining the behavior. Practical suggestions regarding more effective practice and research to address challenging behavior will be included.

This symposium is intended for intermediate behavior analysts engaged in research and application of applied behavior analysis in treatment of challenging behaviors.

Nearly 40% of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have at least one comorbid anxiety disorder (van Steensel, 2011). Behaviors associated with anxiety have shown greater differences in heart rate range (Chock & Koesler, 2013). Additionally, some individuals with ASD manifest hyper- or hypo-reactivity to sensory input (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition [DSM-V], 2013). Due to this, physiological measures that require contact with the skin may present problems for individuals with atypical responses to tactile stimulation. In order to address this concern, a habituation protocol was used to assess participants’ tolerance to wearing a vest for the collection of physiological measures. Specifically, a repeated presentation procedure was conducted to decrease possible sensitivity to a vest (Thompson & Spencer, 1966). The results indicated that all six participants in this study successfully completed the habituation protocol and none required a lengthy fade in protocol for wearing the vest. Based on these results, apparatus using these types of physiological measures are feasible for conducting research. These findings should encourage other researchers interested in assessing physiological responses in individuals with possible sensory sensitivities.

The diagnostic severity of ASD is partly based on restrictive and repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, and activities (APA, 2013). Automatic reinforcement function accounts for 16.9% of restrictive and repetitive behaviors and 25% of self-injurious behaviors (SIB) based on functional analyses (Beavers, Iwata, and Lerman, 2013; Hagopian, 2015). The types of behaviors within this category include 1) stereotyped or restrictive motor movements or vocalizations, 2) insistence in sameness, inflexibilities with routines, ritualized vocal or non-vocal behavior, 3) highly restricted/fixated interests, and 4) hyper-/hypo- reactivity to sensory factors (APA, 2013; CDC, 2013). Due to the nature of automatically reinforced behaviors, it is recommended that physiological assessments be used to determine relationships between physiological events and behavior (Romanczyk and Gillis, 2006). Tools that are sensitive to biological activity may help to discern sources of automatic reinforcement. The current investigation is a continuation of the utilization of functional analysis, treatment analysis, and physiological measures to investigate the role that positive and negative automatic reinforcement play in the treatment of problem behaviors. The results show an association between non-socially mediated behaviors and physiological events and adds to the empirical basis for differentiating operant psychology principles for operant and respondent conditioning.

Although behavior-analytic treatments are often effective in achieving initial reductions in a target behavior, target behavior may relapse due to changes in reinforcement or stimulus conditions. Renewal occurs when changes in the stimulus context following treatment produce relapse of extinguished behavior. Researchers typically examine renewal using a three-phase arrangement. After reinforcement of target behavior in Context A followed by extinction in Context B, the organism transitions to Context A (ABA renewal) or a new context (ABC renewal), and extinction continues. This symposium presents four basic and translational renewal studies that demonstrate the varied applications of the renewal paradigm. Our first presenter will present a study conducted with rats that compared ABA renewal after extinction or omission training in Phase B. The second presenter will describe two studies conducted with rats: the first using an ABC renewal preparation, and the second examining the effects of discriminative training on ABC renewal. The third presentation details a series of translational studies modeling renewal of problem behavior in dual-language homes and by multilingual individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. The final presenter will speak about a translational renewal study conducted in an analog organizational setting.

Researchers interested in the experimental analysis of behavior, translational research, and relapse research will be an appropriate target audience. Practitioners interested in understanding the behavioral mechanisms of relapse of undesirable behavior may also be appropriate.

Insights from extinction research have been useful to researchers and clinicians in the domain of applied behavior analysis. Behavioral treatments are effective for producing initial reductions in problem behavior; however, relapse after treatment is common and a major barrier to treatment efficacy. It is possible that relapse might be influenced by the specific response elimination technique and that different treatments for problem behavior might be differentially susceptible to relapse. The present study compared ABA renewal after responding was eliminated by extinction or omission training in rats. In this experiment, lever pressing was reinforced with food pellets in Context A and then eliminated with either extinction or omission training in Context B. The response was then tested in Contexts A and B in either the presence or absence of free food pellets delivered on a random time schedule. All rats showed higher responding when tested in Context A than Context B, and there was little evidence that omission training attenuated this ABA renewal effect. Also, noncontingent pellets increased responding after extinction but not after omission training. The results provide new information about factors creating relapse after omission training.

Relapse may be a particularly relevant framework for understanding the ways in which stimuli influence employee responding, given that organizational settings are replete with changing stimulus contexts and contingencies. The purpose of this use-inspired basic study was to develop a translational model to evaluate workplace contexts within a renewal framework that focused on the renewal of desirable employee behavior. Adults without a diagnosiscompleted a computerized check processing task in a simulated workplace environment in which color-correlated stimuli served as contextual changes across phases. Findings demonstrated renewal of desirable behavior across all six participants. The current study and its findings extend the human operant literature on renewal by demonstrating one type of translational model that may bring together operant renewal and organizational behavior management. Implications of these findings as they apply to performance management of staff and future research will be presented.

A central component of the Morningside Model of Generative Instruction is teaching students specific repertoires, called “learning skills”, that allow them to more effective and more confident learners in the classroom. Online learning created many challenges for teachers and students, particularly in the area of learning skills instruction. Morningside teachers had to assess, then teach, not only the specific skills needed to effectively learn in the remote setting, but also those that would be necessary for in-person setting. This presentation will focus on that assessment, instruction, and measurement process. With the students working at home, amidst several distractions, online learning created a unique opportunity to teach the students to advocate for themselves and to take control of their own learning. To develop these independent learning repertoires, students were taught to identify when they were confused, what part of the instruction confused them, and how to ask specific questions to get the information necessary to be successful. Students were then coached to track these behaviors using Morningside’s Daily Support Card and the Standard Celeration Chart, to set goals to decrease the amount of time between activities and the number of prompts given in each instructional period.

As the world of remote learning unfolds, old habits and patterns must be adjusted for technological advances. Markle describes good instructional design as having meaningful active responding, errorless learning, and immediate feedback. Donald Cook observed, “...the principles of active response and low error rate were widely cited, but they were often misunderstood and misapplied.” Often overlooked is the word meaningful; being active is not enough. Responding that is a function of prompting, copying, or echoing, are all active, yet all should be avoided when teaching cognitive tasks. When Morningside Academy moved to online learning, faculty had to stay true to the model. The author will provide examples of response requests that require active responding, how a mathetics approach limits errors and facilitates an error analysis, and new ways to to provide immediate feedback.

Learning at the Judge Rotenberg Center shifted from the school buildings to individual residences. Dining rooms and living areas became classrooms and teachers were tasked with instructing a new group of students organized by residential assignment to accommodate the school health and safety plan. High rate responding activities during ELA instruction occurred at the school daily before moving to in-person instruction from the residences. From March-June, students continued to engage in high rate responding activities during ELA instruction, from their residence opposed to the structure of the classroom. This presentation aims to share data from one classroom/residential group of students diagnosed with severe disabilities and between the ages of 15-19, before, during, and after initial pandemic response adaptations to learning environments within the Judge Rotenberg Center. This Presentation will also detail steps taken to deliver in-person instruction from the residential environment. Data presented was collected using the IReady Assessment tool for both Reading and Math for each student.

Behavior analysis offers a variety of instructional technologies to teach all types of students a variety of skills. Many college-level instructors have incorporated behavior analytic techniques to the college classroom successfully to improve learning outcomes across subject areas. While there are a plethora of data available on the effectiveness of these techniques in face-to-face classroom, several issues arise regarding the practicality of these techniques in an online classroom. The current presentation highlights the literature on instructional design and evidence-based instructional strategies as it applies to virtual learning. Additionally, the presenters offer practical recommendations with associated examples on how to extend additional strategies to meet the demand of virtual learning.

The ABAI International Task Force on Education was formed in 2020. It includes representatives from ten countries. The goal of the task force is to develop a model of education that can meet the needs of constituents around the world. The task force generated a model of education that has been reviewed and supported by the ABAI Accreditation and VCS Boards, and the ABAI Executive Council. Constituents from India, Japan, and Norway will provide an update on the on the task force’s progress. We welcome attendance of all those interested in this effort.

In order for behavior-analytic treatments to be maximally effective, caregiver training (e.g., parents, teachers) is necessary. This symposium will describe four studies examining methods for assessing variables related to poor caregiver performance and strategies for training caregivers to implement behavioral interventions. The first study describes an evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services, designed to assess the environmental determinants of poor staff performance. The second study will present data examining the utility of a self-instructional manual for training special-education teachers and graduate students in behavior analysis to select appropriate prompting strategies. The third presentation describes a study evaluating methods for training staff to implement task analyses with high levels of fidelity. Finally, the fourth presentation will describe a randomized controlled trial assessing the effects of a manualized parent-training program targeting high-frequency challenging behaviors displayed by children with autism spectrum disorder. Training caregivers to become effective treatment agents is an integral part of behavior-analytic service delivery and each presentation will provide thoughtful insights on the topic. To end, the discussant will review the collective findings and provide directions for future research.

The target audience for this symposium will be students, researchers, and practitioners that are interested in caregiver training.

Manualized parent-training protocols (e.g., the Incredible Years) are available to parents whose children engage in problematic behaviors. These protocols typically utilize an eclectic range of therapeutic strategies. To date, however, there has not been a manualized parent-training protocol that exclusively utilizes behavior analytic-based techniques to address problematic behaviors common among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We examined the efficacy of a 6-week, focused parent training intervention across 38 parents of children with ASD. Parents were randomized into either a behavioral parent training or an active control intervention. A variety of outcome measures were used to examine the effects of the intervention at baseline, the conclusion of treatment, and at a 6-month follow-up. The primary outcome measure was the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I) scale administered by an Independent Evaluator (IE) who was unaware of treatment assignment. The CGI-I scale score reflected the IE’s assessment of overall improvement from baseline to endpoint. Differences in improvement were found between groups. In the control group, 22.2% of families improved significantly, compared to the treatment group, of which 62% of families improved significantly. Results will be discussed in relation to other manualized parent-training protocols, and directions for future research will be presented.

People with intellectual disabilities/developmental disabilities in the United States are living longer in recent decades. People 65 and older are in better health than previous decades due to more awareness of the beneficial effects of a healthy diet, preventative medical care, and physical exercise. Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities are living longer as well. However, this presents challenges in meeting the needs of this population. This paper details the results of a survey developed to assess several areas of services, including social engagement, health-related services, group home environment, and staff training and development, were evaluated to identify areas in need of improvement. Participants consisted of 95 direct care staff working for a not-for-profit agency providing residential services to adults with intellectual disabilities/developmental disabilities. The results of the survey indicate that need for improving social engagement opportunities for older adults residing in the community and more training on working with older adults with intellectual disabilities/developmental disabilities for direct care staff in a residential setting. The goal of the current study was to examine residential services through the eyes of direct care staff to see if the increasing needs of older adults with intellectual disabilities/developmental disabilities are being met.

Attendees should have basic understanding of algebraic slope, angles of inclination, and ratios.

At the conclusion of the presentation, participants will be able to (1) describe the difference between algebraic and geometric slope, and (2) describe how altering the new equation of graphic induced variability (i.e., the Graphic Variability Quotient [GVQ]) measurably alters the appearance of slope and variability on any time-series graph. 

Video modeling has been used widely in behavior analysis. The literature has cited its use as a consumer teaching procedure (e.g., teaching children with Autisms perspective-taking skills, play skills, etc), as well as a method of staff training (e.g., preference assessments, functional analysis, discrete trial training). Video models afford learners access to a well-produced model, which may increase the over quality of the model, as well as provide opportunities to display and highlight specific features of the modeled behavior. This symposium will discuss several applied studies that attempt to extend the current literature. The reviewed studies will discuss advances in digital technology for the delivery of video models, and conceptual extensions of commonly used procedures which may provide clarity on best practices.

Behavior Analyst, Licensed Psychologist, Graduate Students

A concurrent multiple baseline design, across participants, was implemented to investigate the effects of behavioral skills training (BST) on the identification of interest and disinterest of a conversational listener. In addition to BST, pre-recorded video exemplars were created and used to model the target behaviors in tandem with lag reinforcement schedules. During baseline, all participants were shown three video-exemplars with no feedback. The mean accuracy score for all participants during baseline was 12.2%. During the training condition, BST, multiple-video exemplar training and lag reinforcement was used to teach participants how to identify if a conversational listener is either interested or disinterested in what the speaker is saying. All participants researched a 100% mastery criterion with an average maintenance criterion of 98.7%. From baseline to training, all participants had a non-overlapping data score of 96.7%, acquiring the skills needed to identify the interest and disinterest of a conversational listener. Additionally, all participants generalized skills with family and friends’ post-study, with all families observing participants attempts to re-engage the disinterested conversational partner.

High procedural integrity is essential for the implementation of behavior analytic procedures. Procedural integrity can vary across staff; however, evidence-based training procedures can increase the likelihood interventions are implemented in the manner they were designed. Despite the availability of evidence-based training procedures, organizations continue to rely on didactic based trainings. This may be because many training procedures require a trainer to provide feedback. Video modeling is a training procedure that can be used without the use of performance feedback. The literature is mixed regarding the success of video model trainings without the use of feedback. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate the use of a video model training procedure, in which participants viewed content through a head mounted device to eliminate the need for performance feedback. The data for three participants were evaluated using a multiple-probe design across target skills. By the end of intervention, all participants met mastery criteria for each target behavior without the need of performance feedback. One participant required video models with voiceover instructions to master each target skill. Two participants met mastery criteria for a portion of targets skills with video models alone. The results of this study suggest that video models delivered through a head-mounted device, also known as immersive video modeling, can train direct care staff in common behavior analytic procedures without the need for performance feedback.

Previous studies indicate that video-modeling is a more effective intervention method to teach children on the autism spectrum how to imitate actions or activities. However, McDowell, Gutierrez, and Bennett (2015) conducted an alternating treatment design in which they compared live-modeling with prompts to video-modeling without prompts and found that live-modeling was a more effective intervention method. The purpose of the current study was to compare whether video-modeling without prompts and live-modeling without prompts is a more effective intervention for increasing imitation in children diagnosed with autism. The results were inconclusive, however the results of one participant suggest that video-modeling without prompts is a more effective intervention treatment for children on the autism spectrum with some prerequisite imitative skills. Implications related to this finding are discussed.

This study used independent ABAB withdrawal designs to determine whether BPT increased parent fidelity of implementation of function-based intervention which then resulted in decreasing rates of child challenging behavior while increasing rates of appropriate replacement behavior. Four participants aged 8-17 were included in the study with their parents serving as interventionists. The routines of concern were mealtime, toothbrushing, and room cleaning with various topographies of challenging behavior impacting the quality of these family routines. Each parent achieved high treatment fidelity with one session of BPT and bug-in-ear coaching. Three participants had an immediate decrease in challenging behavior upon the introduction of the intervention. Three participants showed reliable reversals to their challenging behavior with the withdrawal of the intervention and corresponding decreases in challenging behavior when the intervention was reintroduced. All parents reported high acceptability, ease of use, and contextual fit pre- and post-intervention. Results and implications for practice and future research were discussed.

Staff turnover can pose a significant problem for human service organizations. For Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) service providers, turnover may be particularly problematic due to the resources required for training. Accreditation organizations such as the Behavioral Health Center for Excellence® (BHCOE®) collect large amounts of organizational data that can point to trends in ABA organizations and provide a basis for problem identification and intervention. In this study, we evaluated BHCOE® data to examine potential predictors of staff turnover as well as staff and caregiver satisfaction in ABA organizations. Results of multiple regression analyses suggest that high rates of turnover among job classes (i.e., technicians and supervisors) correlate with each other’s turnover. Behavior Technicians are also more likely to turnover when wages are lower and caregiver satisfaction wanes. Staff satisfaction was not a significant turnover predictor but was generally predicted by caregiver satisfaction. These findings suggest that turnover and satisfaction are multi-faceted processes worthy of examination; we provide broad recommendations for improvement and avenues for further study.

Automatically reinforced problem behavior may be difficult to treat due to practitioners’ inability to manipulate the establishing operations or functional reinforcers. Noncontingent reinforcement is one of the common interventions used to treat automatically maintained self-injury because the noncontingent delivery of the stimuli competes with engaging in the problem behavior. Although this intervention is effective, it might be difficult to implement in settings in which individuals are expected to engage in functional activities (e.g., schoolwork, daily living tasks) without engaging in problem behavior. Thus, the purpose of this study was to further evaluate the effects of noncontingent delivery of competing stimuli on automatically maintained self-injury and compliance for mastered tasks. Two children with developmental disabilities who engaged in severe self-injurious behavior participated in this study.

Elopement is a dangerous behavior exhibited by some individuals with autism, and accurately identifying the function of elopement is important to develop successful treatments. Functional analyses for elopement have been developed to mimic contingencies appearing in the natural environment; however, some of these analyses are limited by the required retrieval component. The current study replicated previous research which used a latency-based functional analysis that eliminates the retrieval component in order to safely and more precisely identify the function of elopement. In addition, we extended previous latency-based research by evaluating a treatment to reduce elopement. Specifically, we evaluated latency-based functional analyses to assess elopement exhibited by three children with autism. We then implemented function-based treatment packages for both children. Results showed that the treatment packages were effective to reduce elopement.

The application of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in the juvenile justice settings is a fairly new area of research for ABA. Recently Adapt & Transform Behavior, LLC behavior analysts have trained detention center administrators, supervisors and staff to become credentialed as registered behavior technicians (RBTs). The introduction of RBTs to this setting was hypothesized to increase the effectiveness of facility wide interventions put in place by the Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and aid in the fidelity of staff compliance with mandated facility operating procedures. The purpose of the case studies to be presented were to evaluate the effects of evidence-based interventions in the implementation and proficiency of daily detention roles and responsibilities. Pyramidal training (BCBA ? RBT? Detention staff) was used to train detention officers using behavior skills training on conducting effective and proficient searches on youth. Secondarily, a multicomponent intervention was implemented by RBTs to increase level card proficiencies.

As research shows, high intensity Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) for individualized interventions is a successful approach. However, in many cases the density of services is minimized by institutions in the name of cost savings. This presentation will review a case study demonstrating the ability of highly effective FW-PBIS systems to be put in place at a quicker pace with high fidelity when high intensity Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) interventions are implemented by Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs). Prior to the introduction of high doses of ABA, the facility was experiencing high rates of self injury, property destruction, fighting and noncompliance that resulted in multiple escapes, arrests and hospitalizations of youth alongside high rates of staff turnover and terminations. These issues resulted in financial consequences (in the form of fines, hospitalizations, freezes and on boarding) for the program that outweighed the cost of attempting to bypass the use of BCBAs. The results of this case study show that both facility wide and individualized interventions were effectively put in place within three months and services were systematically faded and maintained at a lower level over the next year.

The climate crisis challenges all of us to step up our sustainability efforts as soon as possible: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that global greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by nearly 50% by 2030. How can we help accomplish the necessary changes using behavior-analytic principles? A high-profile study by the American Psychological Association found that two of the major behavioral barriers to more individual climate action are a sense of futility, and the difficulty of transitioning to new green habits (see the 2009 report from the APA Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change). Both of these - motivation and habits - are areas where behavior analysis offers major contributions. How can we build on what we have already accomplished in climate action? How can we transfer what has worked in our related areas of strength? Each of the panelists is experienced in behavioral sustainability, and will offer a few suggestions. Opening the floor to the audience, we will attempt to put together a plan of action.

All behavior analysts concerned about climate change and environmental sustainability

Behavior analysis is expanding and diversifying to include analysts from multiple and diverse backgrounds, from Western and non-Western countries, and who speak many different languages. Fostering internationalization and diversity in our field is not only necessary to achieve optimal growth as a field but represents a strategy of turning science inward to improve the way that we operate behavior analysis as a unified and diverse field. The first talk will explore potential advantages that bilingual behavior analysts may have in areas of derived relational responding and psychological flexibility that can translate to work with clients. The second talk will discuss several barriers that international students face when completing graduate training and work within the United States. Addressing these barriers may ultimately confer several advantages not only to practitioners, but this work can also serve to improve the overall quality and scope of our evolving field.

BCBAs

There are over 38 thousand BCBAs worldwide with roughly 2 thousand residing outside of North America (BACB, n.d.). With behavior analytic work being highly sought after and needed (Carr and Nosik, 2017), the 103 institutions outside of north America that have a verified course sequences (VCS; ABAI, n.d.) serve as the educational hubs abroad before the BACB decisions to pull back certification to only USA and Canadian certificants. Many students, however, come from around the world to the USA in order to complete these courses sequences in hopes of becoming a BCBA. There is a surprising lack of data regarding international students engaged in this coursework in addition to outcomes of individuals who have graduated from USA-based institutions. International students also experience more barriers and hurdles to overcome during their time than local students (Mallinckrodt, et al. 1992; Sawir, 2005; Lian & Wallace, 2020) making the education/learning experience received, as well as future job prospects, inequitable. Given this lack of data and concerns regarding access to resources, this manuscript will be addressing the various barriers that inhibit the training experience and overall comfort of these students while completing their graduate education in behavior analytic programs. These barriers will be broken down into administrative, structural, and cultural barriers being behaviorally defined, identification of what is included within that barrier, and author lived experiences with each. Suggestions for policy change as well as future research will be suggested in order to create a more equitable model of support for international students.

This symposium presents three papers that evaluate procedures to increase skill acquisition or independence for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) across the life span. The first paper by Mandel et al. evaluated the effect of different stimulus modalities on the efficacy and efficiency of tact of actions acquisition in young participants diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The second paper by Braren et al. evaluated the predictive validity of a brief error-correction assessment when using Discrete Trial Instruction to teach adult participants with IDD to build LEGO® structures. The third paper by Budge et al. evaluated the effects of staff proximity on the performance of adults with ASD in completing vocational tasks at job sites. Audiences can expect to learn more about current research targeting the improved efficacy and efficiency of skill acquisition procedures, as well as research on procedures to increase skill acquisition or independence in adults with IDD.

Attendees should have experience with DTT methodology; experience in implementing multi-component procedures with fidelity (e.g., model, error correction); experience with using multiple baseline, alternating treatments, multi-element designs; experience with verbal behavior.

As school-age students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) transition into adult services, resources can diminish significantly. Adults with ASD may still require substantial supports and supervision to achieve successful outcomes. However, drastic reductions in financial resources upon turning 21 can have significant adverse effects on the ability to provide adequate staffing. While employment in the competitive workforce is the preferred outcome, lower levels of staff oversight may hinder the ability to procure employment for adults on the spectrum with significant support needs. Perceptions of potential employers on adult workers with ASD include a lack of productivity and the higher level of supervision that may be required (Morgan & Alexander, 2005). In order to be successful in an integrated work setting, adults with ASD must display the ability to perform work tasks thoroughly and independently. The purpose of the present study was to assess the role of staff proximity on the quality of vocational tasks in adults on the spectrum. Permanent products of completed tasks were measured at the employment setting of two participants. Assessment results indicated a negative correlation between staff proximity and task completion. The quality of work decreased as the instructor’s proximity from the participant increased. After achieving this outcome, intervention options will be examined to improve the quality of work performed in the absence of an instructor. Further, implications will be discussed for the importance of fading behavioral intervention plans as children age out of school-based placements.

Behavior analysts need to understand the process of child development in order to understand the development of atypical behavior. Behavior analysis has increasingly focused on treatment of problem behavior but seldom examines the process of development itself. Behavioral systems theory (BST) is a fundamentally behavioral approach to understanding the developmental process. BST combines dynamic systems and developmental systems theories with the principles of behavior analysis. This symposium identifies recent developments in the field of behavioral development since the publication of Child and Adolescent Development: A Behavioral Systems Approach by Novak and Pelaez. The talks will review the principles of behavioral systems theory and identify new trends in behavior analysis that have emerged in recent years. The first paper will outline BST’s principles. It will present some new concepts that have emerged in both behavior analysis and developmental psychology relevant to BST. The second paper will examine basic areas of research in child development, including cognitive, social learning, communication and language development and present relevant new research in these areas. The final paper will present a behavioral systems application to problem behaviors such as Autism Spectrum Disorder and ADHD. A review of research literature relevant to these areas will be covered.

Educators, practitioners, and researchers interested in the area of child development.

This paper examines the emerging areas of application in child development and the critical role of a behavioral systems theory approach toward the comprehensive treatment of childhood behavior disorders. From this standpoint, behavior disorders are the result of the same developmental process as other behaviors, where genetic-constitutional, historical, physiological, environmental, and behavior dynamical interactions must be considered. In particular, common childhood behavior disorders including Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder will be discussed, with emphasis on the importance of initial diagnosis and early behavioral interventions in preventing further maladaptive behavior patterns. The relationship between the person-environment interactions and efficacy of treatment will be outlined. A review of relevant research in these areas will be covered, highlighting the critical role of certain treatments such as social skills training and early language interventions. Further, implications and opportunities to incorporate behavioral systems theory within areas of applied child development will be discussed.

This panel will be a discussion of Dr. Ellie Kazemi’s SQAB Tutorial on the utility of computer technologies in behavior analysis.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Experimental behavior analysis has produced a robust literature on the role of bias in matching and choice. Despite its beginnings in the laboratory, this work has extended far beyond simple choice models and operant responses to address how bias impacts social responding. This symposium will present contemporary research on the assessment of implicit bias, translational models of choice, and the ways in which bias can impact the choices researchers make within the laboratory.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students. 

The study of implicit bias in behavior analysis has been dominated by one particular method, the implicit relational assessment procedure (IRAP). The IRAP could be considered quite unusual as a method for studying implicit bias because it targets verbal relations as defined within relational frame theory (RFT). In contrast, implicit bias in the non-behavior-analytic “mainstream” literature is often interpreted as reflecting the strength of associative links in a mental realm (e.g., a memory store). Despite this conceptual difference, research on implicit bias using the IRAP could be seen as relatively successful, at least in terms of number of published studies and the results of a meta-analysis of IRAP studies. On balance, until relatively recently IRAP research tended to focus on the method as a measure of implicit bias without conducting experimental analyses of the multiple variables, from an RFT perspective, that are brought into play when participants complete an IRAP. Conducting these more recent experimental analyses has served to produce an increasingly sophisticated and complex understanding of exactly what so called “implicit bias” involves from an RFT and a behavior-analytic perspective. The current paper will provide an overview of this research story.

Delay discounting measures a facet of impulsivity and is related to various socially significant behaviors. Researchers suggest that altruism and impulsivity arise from the same underlying mechanism; thus, individuals are less altruistic towards people that are different from themselves (e.g., a different race or ethnicity). However, researchers have yet to analyze the relation between delay discounting and implicit and explicit racial bias. In the present study, participants will complete a delay discounting procedure and several Likert scale surveys: the Implicit Relational Assessment Procedure (IRAP), the Color-Blind Racial Attitudes Scale (CoBRAS), and the Scale of Ethnocultural Empathy (SEE). The delay discounting task will assess discounting for two delayed magnitudes (i.e., $100 & $1000) using an adjusting amount procedure. The IRAP measures implicit racial bias by having participants categorize stimuli based on either pro-Latino stereotypes or pro-White stereotypes; the difference in the length of time required to categorize stimuli that are consistent or inconsistent with the stereotypes measures bias. To examine explicit racial bias, we will use the total scores on the CoBRAS and the SEE. We expect participants who steeply discount delayed rewards will be more implicitly and explicitly racially biased toward members of a different race or ethnicity.

Historically, women have experienced bias in science. This bias has affected women as participants in research, as well as women as conductors of research. Although little recognized, another form of bias extends to female laboratory animals. Female laboratory animals, particularly rodents, have long been regarded as more variable in their behavior and other dependent measures and therefore were excluded from experiments. I will describe the inclusion of female laboratory animals in the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. I will describe trends over time in the inclusion of female laboratory animals for different types of animals (e.g., pigeons and rats). For studies involving both sexes and in which animals are identified by sex, I will examine the level of variability in the behavior of male and female animals. Finally, I will review published data describing the variability in a wide variety of dependent measures for both male and female laboratory animals. These data show that female laboratory animals have been excluded from research based on bias rather than fact. The exclusion of female laboratory animals precludes learning about genuine sex differences with important health implications and is no longer allowed in NIH-funded research.

Over the past decade, animal welfare has become a focal point for laboratory, equine, companion, and zoological animals. This presents a unique expansion opportunity for the behavior analytic community. In 2001, the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis published its first applied animal behavior (AAB) article. Since then, AAB research has continued to gain momentum and demonstrated effectiveness with species ranging from rats, dogs, horses, birds, big cats, non-human primates, and killer whales. Previous research has improved animal welfare by utilizing discrete trial training, functional analysis, extinction, noncontingent reinforcement, and differential reinforcement procedures. This symposium highlights efforts being made to continue the reach of AAB by furthering research to puppy guide dogs, domestic cats, penguins, Asian elephants, and birds of prey. Attendees can expect to learn about descriptive functional behavioral assessments, behavior skills training, procedural fidelity, and how effective data-based decisions have been used with animals, their caretakers, and successfully improved animal welfare. The symposium will shed light the challenges practitioners face with zoological research, the necessity of collaborative diverse teams and innovative approaches, along with the impact and adaptations zoological research required due to Covid-19.

Animal welfare has become a leading discussion within the zoological community. Several accrediting organizations require zoos to have management positions that oversee animal training/behavior, enrichment, and animal welfare. The Five Freedoms, Five Domains Model, and the Opportunities to Thrive are animal welfare models that zoos adapt to assess animals in their care. In many cases, the skill of the animal trainer (trainer), animal-trainer dynamic, and the frequency or quality of animal-trainer interactions are not considered in these models. At SeaWorld Orlando, we assessed the frequency of off-perch trainer interactions (OPTI) with four rescued birds of prey (BOP). Behavior Skills Training (BST) was implemented to teach five critical BOP-trainer interaction skills across four novice dyads. BST criteria was set at five consecutive trials at 100% fidelity, one test trial per day. Trial-by-trial interobserver agreement was 98% across 50% of BST intervention and 97% across 33% of maintenance trials. Results demonstrated a total increase of OPTI at 128% from baseline to maintenance phases. This presentation will discuss our method and results, how we addressed an instructional limitation from our killer whale study, suggestions for future zoological welfare research, and will address the challenges and adaptations the study encountered due to Covid-19.

Applied animal behavior is a fast-growing area of behavior analysis. Many of its practitioners operate in captive animal environments such as animal shelters, sanctuaries, zoos, and aquariums. These environments provide considerable challenges for research. For example, staff often have limited time to collect behavioral data and require significant study to understand each species’ natural histories. Moreover, staff must carefully consider the widely different physical and mental capabilities of the species being studied. To address these challenges, practitioners must look outside our field to identify creative solutions. This presentation will discuss four studies now being conducted at The Cincinnati Zoo & Botanical Garden. The subjects include Asian elephants, little blue penguins, African penguins, and domestic cats. Each study seeks to better understand these animals’ behavior and enhance their welfare. In addition, the presentation will examine each study’s unique challenges and setbacks. Finally, the presentation will explain the development of these studies and describe the diverse team needed to conduct this research. The unique data presented here illustrate the need for novel approaches when studying captive animal welfare as well as the immense benefits of a diverse collaborative team.

As of 2019, all 50 states in the continental United States have taken action to require state-regulated health plans to provide meaningful coverage for the treatment of autism. Although the need for insurance-funded applied behavior analysis services is exponentially growing, Board Certified Behavior Analysts and related support teams often have little to no formal training in working with these payers. Simultaneously, insurance companies are establishing increasingly complex internal review processes that may or may not be informed by members of our field, resulting in increased opportunities for denials based on medical necessity. The current panel serves to provide both the conceptualization and implementation of an internal framework that organizations could adopt to assist with clinicians and administrative support teams in decreasing the likelihood of preauthorization and claims denials, as well as to equip clinicians to effectively advocate for appropriate levels of care when services are denied. The panel will also discuss how internal metadata can be developed and maintained cross-functionally to pinpoint areas for needed training, updating resources, or engaging in dialogues with payers.

Introductory understanding of working with health plans. Awareness of prior authorization processes. Working knowledge of CPT codes.

The profound effects of social injustice have been become undeniable and the systemic challenges affect the work of behavior analysts. For many, including culture in behavior analytic work may feel completely incompatible with our science. For those seeking to learn more, it can be overwhelming to dive into this area and it may clash with a lifetime of personal learning history. Behavior analysts unsure how to incorporate multiculturalism, diversity, and antiracism into their behavior analytic work, how to reconcile this with our science, and where to begin to learn about this topic are invited to this panel discussion. In this event, panelists with varying perspectives and levels of expertise will discuss existing resources within and outside the field of behavior analysis, how we can understand antiracism from a behavioral perspective, how to utilize behavioral tools to support culturally competent practice and supervision, and make recommendations for the training of culturally competent behavior analysts.

Target audience include graduate students, practitioners, and faculty.

The concept of freedom is analyzed in reference to the negative consequences of a capitalist system. Specifically, the contingencies that interfere with clinical and educational quality will be addressed. These contingencies include the exploitation of the labor force by private equity firms and universities, as well as the restrictions of for-profit health insurance. Each contingency highlighted may seem like a system in which we are free to behave as clinicians or educators. However, we hope to point out the restrictive and arguably unethical contingencies that capitalism produces, as these contingencies interfere with our ability to provide high-quality services. Furthermore, we provide solutions to these issues as well as the challenges we will likely encounter in pursuit of changing the system.

This content is intermediate to advanced. The prerequisite skills should include knowing the BCBA codes of ethics as well as an understanding of meta-contingencies.

In this symposium, we introduce instructional strategies developed based on the relational frame theory, stimulus equivalence, and the naming theory. In the first study, we taught relational responding of symbolic play, tacting pretend stimulus properties, in the play context to three children with autism. The second study used an equivalence-based instruction to facilitate the emergence of untaught relations of Chinese words for two elementary-aged students with intellectual disability. The third study involved using intensive tact instruction to establish naming for young children with autism who lacked this important capacity for advanced learning. The implications of the results will be discussed.

The audience needs to have a basic understanding of the relational frame theory, stimulus equivalence, and naming theory.

Symbolic play is important in child development. Children with autism spectrum disorder often lack symbolic play skills. Attribution of pretend properties (APP) is one type of symbolic play in which a child tacts pretend properties of an object (e.g., smelling a toy flower and saying, “It smells like a rose!”) in the play context. The purpose of the study was to increase APP in children who lacked such play skills. The intervention involved having the child experience and tact sensory properties (see, hear, smell, taste, touch) of actual objects (e.g., an actual apple). The test objects, including mock objects (e.g., a toy apple) and arbitrary objects (e.g., a ping pong ball), were used to evaluate whether tact response for sensory properties were transferred to non-actual objects. Three Chinese boys (5-6 years of age) with ASD served as participants. A multiple probe across five objects design was used. Results indicated that the intervention effectively increased APP for mock and arbitrary objects and maintained for 7 or 10 weeks. Non-target properties for test objects also occurred for two children.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of equivalence-based instruction on symmetry and transitivity of Chinese vocabulary. Two elementary-aged students with intellectual disability participated in the study. A multiple probe across behaviors design was used. Three types of stimuli included textual words (A), pictures (B), and utterances of object names (C). The participants had acquired tacting the pictures (B = C) before the study. The results indicated that when the equivalence relation of textual words and corresponding pictures (A = B) were taught, the symmetrical relation (B = A) and the transitive relations (A = C and C = A) emerged without direct training.

Human behavioral pharmacology methods have been used to rigorously evaluate the effects of a range of centrally acting drugs in human beings under controlled conditions. Methods like drug self-administration and drug-discrimination have been adapted from non-human laboratory animal models. Because humans have the capacity to communicate verbally, self-report methods are also commonly used to understand drug effects. This presentation will provide an overview of these traditional human behavioral pharmacology methods, as well as more novel measures that have been introduced to the field. Representative data will be shared and the benefits, challenges and translational relevance of each method will be discussed. This session will cover guiding principles in the design of human behavioral pharmacology studies (e.g., using placebo controls, testing multiple doses) along with ethical (e.g., avoiding enrollment of individuals seeking treatment, determining capacity to consent) and safety (e.g., dose selection, pre-screening of participants for exclusionary health problems) that must be addressed when conducting these types of studies.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

The peer-review process may seem mystifying and frightening to students who have not had experience in publishing and reviewing papers. After a brief overview of the peer review process in general and ethical concerns in peer review, Editors of ABAI journals Behavior & Social Issues, Behavior Analysis in Practice, Education & Treatment of Children and The Analysis of Verbal Behavior will discuss how peer review operates in their respective journals, what an author should expect in the peer review process, and how to respond to reviewers. Each editors’ presentation will be brief to allow for questions and discussion with the audience.

The target audience is graduate students in the field who are interested in or actively submitting manuscripts for peer-review.

Researchers in the field of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) have made significant progress in assessment of social-communication and other ASD-related impairments. However, there is still a great deal to be learned about profiles of ability and disability characteristic of individuals with different neurodevelopmental disorders (NDDs), and about the ways in which particular abnormalities manifest at different points in development. Dr. Bishop will present information about behavioral dimensions that are most relevant to assessment and differential diagnosis of ASD and other NDDs. She will also discuss the importance of considering individual factors such as age, sex, IQ, and language level when interpreting scores from standardized measures for diagnostic or other purposes. Integrated assessment across multiple behavioral domains is not only needed to ensure valid diagnostic practices, but more importantly, to generate individualized and meaningful treatment plans. Improved coordination between diagnostic and treatment providers is essential for increasing efficiency and utility of current assessment practices. Additionally, there is a need for increased coordination of measurement strategies across disciplines, in order to ensure appropriate selection of short-and long-term goals and corresponding measures of change. Ultimately, we must toward more coordinated and goal-directed assessment practices that do not place such a premium on diagnostic labels, but instead focus on generating information that directly facilitates treatment for a given individual at a particular moment in time.

We often solve problems by engaging in mediating strategies such as talking to ourselves. In order to accurately use and respond to these strategies, we must understand what we are saying. The term bidirectional naming (BiN) has been used to describe the integration of both listener and speaker behaviors that leads to speaking with understanding. In this talk, I will describe a series of studies showing that in the absence of either speaker or listener behaviors, participants often fail to solve problems in the form of matching-to-sample and categorization tasks. These results suggest that to solve complex tasks participants must be verbal. Thus, I will propose that the BiN repertoire is one of the most important skills learned during language development and must be prioritized in early intensive behavioral intervention.

Basic and applied researchers, clinicians.

The purpose of the present symposium is to provide an overview of research advances on variables that impact the efficiency of language acquisition interventions. Two presentations will discuss the role of stimulus disparity within conditional discrimination training and two presentations will evaluate the efficiency of instructional sequences on acquisition of targets. In the first study, Halbur and colleagues compared the acquisition of high-disparate sounds, low-disparate sounds, and words as sample stimuli during conditional discrimination training for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). In the second study, Wu and colleagues manipulated stimulus disparity of color saturation and conducted analyses to identify error patterns during conditional discrimination training. In the third study, Martin, Lechago, and Romo investigated acquisition of listener skills when the instructional sequences (i.e., English-Spanish, Spanish-English, mixed language) were varied for bilingual children with ASD. In the fourth study, Devine, Cox, and Petursdottir conducted multiple experiments that evaluated the impact of tact instruction on the establishment of bidirectional intraverbals and other relations. Following the four presentations, our discussant will summarize, provide clinical recommendations for efficient teaching procedures, and suggest areas for future research.

behavior analysts, graduate students, researchers

Conditional discrimination skills are foundational in teaching many functional skills in children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Antecedent- and consequence-based intervention are commonly used without the understanding of patterns comprising these errors. A framework based in behavioral-choice and signal-detection theory can quantify error patterns due to (1) biases for certain stimuli or locations and (2) discriminability of stimuli within the conditional discrimination. Three children diagnosed with ASD responded in delayed matching-to-sample procedure. We manipulated sample disparity through changes in relative color saturation between samples on a touchscreen across four experimental conditions. Sample-disparity differences were high, low, zero, and a return to high disparity. Decreases in sample disparity primarily produced corresponding decreases in discriminability without systematic changes in stimulus or location biases. These findings demonstrate the use of these analyses to identify error patterns during conditional-discrimination performance in a clinically relevant population under laboratory conditions. Further development of this framework could result in the development of technologies for categorizing errors during clinically relevant conditional-discrimination performance with the goal of individualizing interventions to match learner-specific error patterns.

Two experiments were conducted with typically developing children (5-9 years) as participants to evaluate the effects of tact instruction on the establishment of intraverbal relations between the names of U.S. states and their respective state birds and jowers. In Experiment 1 (4 participants) we compared the eMciency of two instructional sequences; tact-before-intraverbal and listenerbefore- intraverbal, using an adapted alternating-treatments design combined with a multiple-baseline design across participants. After tact instruction, all participants performed at mastery in probes for bidirectional intraverbals and other derived relations, so intraverbal instruction was not necessary. By contrast, only one participant demonstrated intraverbals at mastery after listener instruction. The remaining three went on to receive intraverbal instruction, but the listener-before-intraverbal sequence resulted in a greater number of trials before intraverbals were established than did tact instruction alone. In Experiment 2 (3 participants), tact-only instruction was compared with intraverbal-only instruction without a preliminary step. Tact instruction established bidirectional intraverbals for all participants, whereas unidirectional intraverbal instruction did so for 2 of 3 participants. Tact instruction took fewer trials than intraverbal instruction for 2 participants, whereas intraverbal instruction took fewer trials for 1 participant. The process of building intraverbal repertoires may be achieved most efficiently through tact instruction.

The majority of evidence-based practices for students with autism are based in the concepts and principles of behavior analysis. Furthermore, research indicates that access to evidence-based practices has a positive effect on educational outcomes of students with autism. Most children with autism receive the majority of their education in public school settings; however, many barriers to accurate and sustained implementation of evidence-based practices in schools exist. To ensure more children with autism benefit from access to evidence-based practices, it is critical to evaluate and address barriers to implementation in school settings. This symposium consists of the presentation of four projects addressing implementation of evidence-based practices in school setting. The first presentation will report findings on special educators’ use of a variety of evidence-based practices. The second presentation will report an evaluation of a collaborative framework to facilitate school professionals to implement evidence-based practices. Next, an evaluation of a technology-based self-management intervention in school settings will be presented. Finally, the results of a systematic literature review of functional analyses conducted in school settings will be shared. The final discussion will summarize these studies, highlight the applied value of the results, and discuss future research.

The target audience is "basic" and includes graduate students, practicing BCBAs, and researchers. The target audience would have a specific interest in working in school settings.

The educational progress of students with autism is dependent on frequent, intense exposure to evidence based practices delivered with a high degree of fidelity. In 2020, the National Clearinghouse on Autism Evidence & Practice identified 28 evidence-based practices for children with autism, many of which are based on the concepts and principles of applied behavior analysis (Steinbrenner et al., 2020). The majority of students with autism receive educational services in public schools; therefore, it is critical that evidence-based practices are implemented in this context. We surveyed 84 special educators who work with students with autism in public schools about their implementation of these 28 evidence-based practices. Results indicated variability in the frequency with which educators report implementing each of the 28 practices. We evaluated potential moderating variables such as grade level taught, instructional setting, and years of experience. The results of this study further indicate that additional efforts are required to promote consistent implementation of evidence-based practices in public education. Practical implications and recommendations for future research will be discussed.

Distinguishing it from other service-delivery fields, behavior analysis places strong emphasis on accountability through ongoing data collection and objective progress monitoring. As part of this model, behavior analysts are expected to use data to guide their clinical decision-making. However, these decisions are only meaningful when the data they are based on are reliable and valid. In this symposium, we address issues related to data collection in the practice of behavior analysis. In the first presentation, Dr. Morris will review data collection practices reported by Board Certified Behavior Analysts and their relation to data integrity. In the second, Ms. Snyder will discuss barriers to reliable and accurate data collection by group home staff. In the third, Dr. Becraft will present data on the validity of parent report of severe problem behavior. In the fourth, Dr. Edelstein will discuss the validity of parent report via telehealth. Collectively, these studies further our understanding of factors impacting data collection in behavior analytic practice, which is critical to evaluating and improving outcomes for recipients of behavioral services.

Behavior analysts, licensed psychologists, clinicians

The current symposium includes four papers broadly focused on teaching safety skills. The first paper will present on the use of interactive computerized training to teach educators how to respond during an active shooter event. They found that after the interactive computerized training, all participants met treatment fidelity criterion, which maintained after a 2-week follow up. The second paper will present comparing in-person behavior skills training, computer-based training, and video modeling to teach safety skills to sidewalkers at equine-assisted therapies. They found participants in the in-vivo BST and interactive computer training conditions completed more steps correctly in a post-training role-play than the participants in the video model condition. The third paper will present using behavior skills training to teach generalized responding of safe sleeping positions of infants to adults. They found behavior skills training significantly improved appropriate arrangement of a safe sleep environment for infants. The final paper will present using behavior skills training to teach swim skills to children with autism. They found behavior skills training showed some improvements in learning swim skills.

BCBA's, BCBA-D's

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention state that there are approximately 3,607 sleep related infant deaths each year in the United States. Attempts to teach medical personnel and parents safe infant sleep practices in the infant sleep training literature have demonstrated mixed results. Thus, strategies to teach arrangements of safe infant sleep environments warrants further investigation. Behavioral skills training is an evidenced-based teaching strategy shown to successfully teach various safety skills to children and adults. Additionally, the use of behavioral skills training in training practices have also shown more robust outcomes compared to traditional educational approaches. The current study evaluated the effectiveness of behavioral skills training to teach safe infant sleep practices to adults of typical development. Specifically, differential responding was assessed across multiple environmental arrangements typical to contexts parents may be exposed to when putting an infant to sleep. Results demonstrated behavioral skills training to significantly improve appropriate arrangement of a safe sleep environment for infants for all eight participants.

Drowning is a leading cause of death in individuals with autism (Guan & Li, 2017a, Guan & Li, 2017b). In this study, swim instructors were instructed in behavioral skills training as a method for teaching water safety to children with autism. Targeted skills were a) safely exiting a body of water; b) rolling from front to back while in water; and c) floating while yelling for help. This study is an extension of Tucker & Ingvarsson (2017), in which three children with autism were taught the same skills by a swim instructor who also had background in behavior analysis. We aimed to evaluate whether swim instructors with no background in behavior analysis could be trained to effectively teach water safety to children to a larger sample. Data from our first three participants (males, ages 6, 8, 10) showed variable improvement in skills in the behavioral skills training phase for all skills. We will present the model of training, outcome data across participants, and data from generalization and maintenance probes. Conclusions regarding the utility of this training protocol, the social acceptability to parents, and recommendations for future water safety training programs will be shared.

Educators are in a unique position during active shooter events as they must decide to prioritize actions that will protect their students. Depending on the situation, the educator should engage in a Run, Hide, or Fight response. Issues related to a student’s disability may create barriers to these already challenging emergency situations. Interactive computerized training is a successful training method to teach educators to implement instruction to individuals with autism spectrum disorder. The purpose of this study was to extend the literature on interactive computerized training by investigating its effects on teaching educators how to respond during an active shooter event. After completing the interactive computerized training, all participants met criterion of 90% fidelity within the Run and Hide checklists. Participants met criterion at a 2-week follow up. Furthermore, all participants indicated that they enjoyed the interactive computerized training materials. Potential limitations and future directions related to interactive computerized training and safety skills training are discussed.

Few studies have investigated effective and efficient volunteer training methods, despite the importance of volunteers in many human-service organizations. Effective training procedures are particularly critical for organizations whose volunteers are responsible for safety. For example, sidewalker volunteers at equine-assisted activities and therapies facilities help to maintain the safety of mounted riders with disabilities. It is thus imperative that sidewalkers acquire safety skills and perform them proficiently. The current practice of using in-person behavioral skills training, although effective, limits the number of sidewalkers who can be trained because of constraints on trainer time and resources. Therefore, we compared two efficient training methods, a standard video model (in which participants watched a video without responding to questions) and interactive computer training (in which participants watched the same videos in modules, with embedded active responding questions), to in-person training (behavioral skills training) in the context of training new volunteers at an equine-assisted activities and therapies facility.

Orderly, precise data invite models, such as Mathematical Principles of Reinforcement (MPR). From first principles, MPR derives equations describing how biophysical properties of responding, the retroactive actions of reinforcement contingencies, and reinforcer quality can predict response rate under many schedules. The memory-as-discrimination model places forgetting in a framework of temporal generalization and makes surprising predictions about “forgetting” at short intervals. Presenters will examine theory and its utility in understanding otherwise incomprehensible results. A tutorial on MPR will be provided by its originator, Peter Killeen. Federico Sanabria will describe an extension that incorporates probabilistic, response-by-response modeling. Chris Newland will show that MPR’s parameters are independent and reveal important information about such interventions as chemical exposure or genetic differences. Forgetting and attending are shown by Dalisa Kendricks to comprise separable processes, including temporal generalization and choice. Finally, Lewis Bizo will discuss the how and why of the insights that quantitative models provide into hidden structures and forces on behavior in ways that purely descriptive and inductive methodologies cannot, and their realized and potential applications. Together, these presentations will show the importance of theory in understanding behavior and how it responds to powerful interventions.

The target audiences are basic researchers interested in quantitative theories of behavior and all investigators in how these theories can be extended to understand disparate phenomena. In goth cases, the target audience is advanced.

Drugs and environmental contaminants can have long-lasting, sometimes irreversible, behavioral effects and mouse strains are well-known for their behavior profiles. Characterizing these in ways that are behaviorally meaningful, that is, linking them to behavioral mechanisms and neural corelates often proves challenging. Mathematical Principles of Reinforcement (MPR), a theoretical framework built from first principles, claims that three independent parameters are uniquely linked to specific behavioral mechanisms. To be useful, these parameters should reveal specific and independent information about chemical interventions or genetic differences in behavioral profiles. Here, I summarize how MPR has been used to characterize the impact of cocaine, d-amphetamine, and methylmercury during adolescence in rodent models as well as how these parameters differ across three mouse strains. Adolescent exposure to methylmercury is related to an increased in the saturation rate in two studies and minimum response time in one. Adolescent cocaine exposure increased saturation rate and steepened discounting in the same animals. In a comparison of different mouse strains, higher saturation rates in BALB/c mice, as compared with C57Bl/6 mice, as well as higher discounting rates were observed. The MPR parameters are sensitive to a variety of interventions and unmask the determinants of differing behavioral profiles.

Scientific progress is an upward spiral that cycles between problem identification, hypothesis formulation, model specification, and empirical evaluation. This process is partially self-contained (empirical failures lead to new problems, and so on) and partially feeds from external factors (new empirical and analytical techniques). An example of upward-spiral progress in behavior analysis is the Mathematical Principles of Reinforcement (MPR): It originates with the problem of schedule control over aggregated performance, it formulates principles that govern such performance, and it specifies the mathematical properties of those principles, motivating empirical research on those properties. Self-contained progress is reflected on refinements in model specification. Developments in the microstructure of motivated behavior constitute external factors that may contribute to the evolution of MPR. These developments suggest new problems (e.g., how does the organization of behavior in bouts emerge?) and new data (e.g., response-by-response changes in inter-response times) that may be incorporated into the scope and models of MPR 2.0. For MPR 2.0 to address these new problems and leverage these new data, it must specify not only the central tendency of model parameters but also their distribution and sequential dependency. Examples and simulations of such specifications are presented and contrasted against extant behavioral data.

White’s quantitative model of remembering holds that delay-related errors are due to both forgetting and temporal generalization deficits, and that this becomes noticeable when training is conducted with delays longer than 0s. Accuracy is theorized to peak close to the trained delay and decrease at longer and, remarkably, shorter delays. The construct of sustained attention may also emerge from processes like forgetting, generalization, and choice. Can these processes be isolated? In rodent (mouse and rat) models, both attending and forgetting were assessed simultaneously in a single preparation. Forgetting (errors after long delays) and temporal generalization (errors after short delays) were uniquely affected by changing testing and training delays, interventions that did not affect detection at a 0 sec delay (termed sustained attention). Attending was uniquely affected by concurrently available reinforcers and changing the duration of the stimulus to be detected but not by adding visual distractors. What is referred to as sustained attention may emerge from behavioral processes of generalization and choice and can be distinguished from forgetting and temporal generalization. Understanding the determinants of these phenomena is important in interpreting drug and neurotoxicant effects.

Behavior analysts have an ethical responsibility to use evidence-based procedures for the purpose of training staff to implement programming. Behavioral skills training (BST) is a well-established procedure used by behavior analysts for the purpose of training parents and staff members. While BST has strong empirical support and is commonly used in applied settings, the COVID-19 pandemic has presented unique challenges to the provision of effective training. These training challenges can have detrimental effects on parents, staff, and the individuals they are trying to help. The purpose of the current symposium is to share some recent advances in the delivery of behavioral skills training. Symposium topics will include: using computer-based training to train teachers to develop token-based reinforcement systems, using remote training to teach staff to write skill acquisition programs, using virtual platforms to train staff to implement functional analyses, and to train staff to select appropriate data collection procedures. The symposium will conclude with a discussion about best practices regarding training.

intermediate

Abstract: Behavioral skills training (BST) is a well-established procedure often used to train individuals how to perform a variety of complex skills. Previous research has used BST to train parents, teachers, and clinicians how to conduct a variety of clinical procedures, including functional analysis (FA) of problem behavior. Although this procedure has been demonstrated to be very effective, it can be time consuming and resource intensive. In the present study, 13 behavior analysts were trained to conduct functional analyses of problem behavior and 6 behavior analysts were trained to disseminate the training throughout the company (i.e., how to train others). All participants were employees of a multi-state early intervention clinic. The training was conducted 100% remotely, and trainers acted as child role-play partners. Participants experienced baseline, an instruction/discussion component, a post-instruction probe, group BST, and a post-BST probe. For some participants, in-situ probes were also conducted. All participants achieved mastery, and in-situ errors were low.

According to the Behavior Analyst Certification Board, services commonly provided by behavior analysts include writing and revising protocols for teaching new skills. Such protocols are often based on in-house or commercially available templates or pre-existing protocols, sometimes lacking individualization or recent research considerations. To our knowledge, there are currently no published, peer-reviewed articles on developing skill acquisition protocols. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of computer-based instruction (CBI) and on acquisition of skills related to writing an individualized protocol based on a research article. Fourteen students enrolled in a university behavior analysis program participated in a matched-subjects group experimental design. The training was separated into three modules on protocol components, identifying important information in a research article, and individualizing the protocol for a learner. Following training, the mean score for the CBI group increased by 40%, and the mean score for the manual group increased by 16%, a statistically significant difference in group means. This study contributes to the literature by applying CBI training procedures to a complex skill, as well as evaluating training in the absence of a trainer, and provides a technology for clinicians to effectively and efficiently learn to write a technological, individualized, and empirically-based protocol.

Publication bias is the disproportionate representation of studies with certain characteristics, such as strong experimental effect, in the published research literature. Publication bias skews the body of scientific knowledge by overrepresenting studies with specific methodologies, analytic techniques, and data, which distorts the scientific literature and, ultimately, foments public distrust in science. Scholars in psychology and education have documented the presence of publication bias within these broad bodies of research. However, to date, behavior analysts have focused little attention on the possibility of publication bias in basic and applied behavior analysis research. Participants in this panel will reflect on their experiences as researchers, journal editors, and manuscript reviewers regarding issues of publication bias in behavior analysis. Their discussion will explore whether publication bias is a problem in behavior analysis research; how publication bias might manifest uniquely in our work; the potential impact of publication bias on the corpus of scientific knowledge in basic behavior analysis, applied behavior analysis, and on consumers of behavior analytic interventions; and potential strategies for reducing publication bias.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students. 

Dr. Galizio received his BA from Kent State University and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee where he worked with Dr. Alan Baron.  In 1976, he joined the faculty at the University of North Carolina Wilmington where he is currently Professor of Psychology. His research interests include behavioral pharmacology,  stimulus control/concept learning, aversive control, and human operant behavior.  He has published two books, more than 100 articles and his research has been supported by NIDA, NSF and NICHD. He is a Fellow of ABAI and four APA divisions and is a past-president of APA Division 25 (Behavior Analysis) and of the Southeastern Association for Behavior Analysis and served as an At-Large member of the ABAI Executive Council. He has served on numerous NIH study sections and chaired two of them. He is currently Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. 

Functional analyses have long been the standard for identifying the environmental variables maintaining problematic behavior. Furthermore, there have been many modifications to the original functional analyses procedures described by Iwata et al. (1982/1994). This symposium will discuss three recent advances in the assessment of problem behavior. The first presentation will discuss the use of a no-interaction condition to predict behavioral function and to inform a subsequent treatment analysis. The second presentation will discuss an assessment procedure for determining if response blocking serves as a reinforcer for problem behavior. The final talk will discuss the use of a preference assessment as a potential screening tool for problem behavior maintained by access to tangible items.

Understanding of functional analysis procedures

We draw artificial boundaries between our lives at home and at work, and between our waking and sleeping hours. Each person is living a whole life where all of their environments, relationships, behaviors, and physiological states interact. The body we take with us to work is the one we had with us at home, and both work and home environments (resources, physical environment, psychosocial environment, responsibilities/demands) impact our physical health.

Total Worker Health® (TWH) is an approach initiated by the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH) in 2003 developed to address such interactions, and to advance science and practice for protecting workers’ safety, health, and well-being. The TWH approach represents an expansion of traditional occupational safety and health research and practice, with strong safety protections for workers as its foundation. NIOSH defines TWH as “…policies, programs, and practices that integrate protection from work-related safety and health hazards with promotion of injury and illness prevention efforts to advance worker well-being” (Tamers et al., 2019). TWH recognizes that work is a social determinant of health and therefore takes a holistic approach to worker safety, health, and well-being by acknowledging the interdependence between worker well-being and their success at work. As an extension of traditional occupational safety and controls, the TWH approach prioritizes addressing and removing occupational exposures that threaten the safety and well-being of workers, and prescribes that such hazard reduction is accompanied by efforts to improve the overall health status of workers as well.

This is a very exciting time for occupational science and practice. From a TWH perspective, the “action is in the interactions” between safety, health, and well-being. This includes interactions between work and life exposures and each person’s genes, biology, and daily behaviors. This reciprocol and interactive perspective is highly consistent with Skinnerian and other approaches to behavioral science, as well as organizational systems analysis approaches. Skinner (1957) wrote that “[People] act upon the world, and change it, and are changed in turn by the consequences of their action” (p. 1). Similarly, Bandura (1978) proposed a triadic form of reciprocal determinism, focused on interactions among a person’s environment, traits, and behaviors. At both individual and organizational levels of analysis, systems approaches (Brethower, 1982; Rummler & Brache, 2012) highlight the adaptive importance of reciprocal internal and external feedback processes, as well as sustaining and interactive relationships between each system (person, organization) and its host environment (organization, economy). With its Skinnerian and systems analysis roots, and associated historical emphasis on environmental conditions and interventions, the Organizational Behavior Management community can make great and important contributions in the TWH domain.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Success in academia is measured by accomplishments in three domains: research, teaching, and service. Theoretically, doctoral programs are designed to prepare students to succeed in all three domains; however, the prevailing contingencies of the doctoral graduation requirements may not always reflect this goal. Often, the emphasis in student development is on research. Students are typically required to successfully propose and defend a dissertation, present research at conferences, and publish in peer reviewed journals. In contrast, teaching and service requirements may be considered less stringent. Students might only be required to be the instructor of record for one course or be the primary instructor for a few instructional sessions to meet teaching requirements. As for service, requirements are virtually nonexistent. Therefore, students may need to seek additional opportunities to ensure they are prepared to succeed in teaching and service. This professional development series event brings together three leaders in teaching and service to discuss ways in which students can prepare themselves to be master teachers and engage in meaningful service. Panelists will share methods they use to ensure their teaching is effective, discuss service opportunities, provide their perspectives on ways research, teaching, and service can be integrated, and answer audience questions.

Graduate students

Early intervention for young children with autism spectrum disorder is historically rooted within two distinct theoretical foundations: behavioral and developmental sciences. Proponents of each discipline have traditionally held opposing views toward treatment, with little collaboration. A recent shift in autism intervention has led to the emergence of a group of interventions that incorporate elements from both developmental and behavioral science. These naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBI) have been used effectively in a variety of settings. This symposium includes a series of presentations describing the application of NDBI across a range of settings, with a focus on describing the integration of developmental and behavioral science. The first presentation will provide a broad overview of NDBI, including a description of its core components. The second will describe the implementation of NDBI in a hospital-based clinic setting, including data related to the characteristics of children enrolled in the program. The third will describe outcomes from a group-based delivery of NDBI for preschool-aged children. The final presentation will shed light on the actual use of NDBI strategies by describing the self-reported utilization of developmental and behavioral strategies from a large sample of applied behavior analysis providers.

basic

A recent trend in early intervention for young children with autism spectrum disorder is the development of interventions that bridge both developmental and behavioral sciences. This new breed of interventions, Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBI), merge best practices in these two previously opposing approaches to intervention. NDBI integrate behavioral learning theory and developmentally-focused strategies within natural environments. Several efficacious NDBI treatment models have been successfully implemented across a variety of settings with improved child and family outcomes. Yet, this approach has yet to be disseminated widely among behavior analysts. This presentation will provide an in-depth overview of Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions, with an emphasis on how this approach can be incorporated into existing applied behavior analysis programs for young children with autism spectrum disorders. The presentation will include: a description of the theoretical background underlying the approach, the core components of NDBI, and examples illustrating its application. A summary of the evidence supporting the effectiveness of NDBI and recommendations for incorporating NDBI strategies into existing programs will be provided.

This presentation describes the clinical implementation of Naturalistic Developmental Behavioral Interventions (NDBIs; Schreibman et al., 2015) in a hospital-based autism center. Parents of young children recently diagnosed with autism are coached on strategies to promote social communication. Different service delivery models (e.g., telehealth) and the strategies comprising the parent-mediated NDBIs will be discussed. Data will be presented about characteristics of the parents and children referred for, enrolled in, and who have completed one of the center’s NDBI programs. As enrollment in NDBIs is ongoing, we anticipate including additional data related to child social communication and other behaviors over time, and other factors potentially related to enrollment and completion of NDBI programs. Important considerations for implementation of parent-mediated NDBIs in a hospital-based clinic setting will be discussed, including advantages, possible barriers, need for modifications, and future directions for research and practice.

Group-learning models for young children with autism provide environments rich with opportunities for teaching social communication and interaction skills. Comprehensive preschool programs that incorporate naturalistic developmental behavioral intervention (NDBI) strategies have produced improvements in children’s social communication skills, social engagement, and core ASD symptoms (Stahmer & Ingersoll, 2004; Strain & Bovey, 2011). This presentation will provide an overview of an NDBI treatment model delivered within a group program for preschool-aged children with autism. A description of the treatment model and subsequent changes in children’s social communication skills for 20 preschool-aged children enrolled in the program will be discussed. Staff fidelity was measured using a direct observation fidelity tool designed to measure the core components of a group-based NDBI model. Fidelity was high and averaged over 87% accuracy across all NDBI components. Changes in children’s social communication were measured at baseline and following six months of intervention using the Social Communication Checklist, a curriculum-based measure of social communication. Improvements were observed across all domains, with significant improvements in the group’s overall social communication score (p < .05), social engagement (p <.01), and play skills (p <.05). Implications for research and practice incorporating NDBI into group-based treatment programs will be discussed.

Naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBIs; Schreibman et al., 2015) are a class of early interventions for autism spectrum disorder with growing empirical support, however, their similarity to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) as delivered in the community is unknown. This online survey-based study characterized the self-reported utilization of developmental and behavioral intervention techniques in a large sample of ABA providers (n=368) and explored what aspects of provider background predict utilization. Respondents rated the extent to which they used each of a number of intervention techniques in a recent session with a specific child. ABA providers self-reported less use of developmental techniques than behavioral techniques, t(356)=-26.35, p<0.001. Providers with greater self-reported competency in NDBIs reported more frequent use of developmental techniques (Table 1); NDBI competency was not related to use of behavioral techniques, which were reported at high levels across providers. Point-biserial correlations indicated some trending relationships with training background such that providers with a background in psychology reported greater use of developmental techniques and those with backgrounds in ABA and special education reported less use (Table 1). Results suggest that further research on the similarities and differences between NDBIs and ABA delivered in the community is warranted.

The impact of the pandemic caused by Coronavirus (COVID-19) cannot be overstated. One of the only reliable defenses against COVID-19 transmission is the use of facial coverings and masks (CDC, 2020). Unfortunately for many individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or other intellectual disabilities (ID), donning a mask may be difficult or occasion refusal and other challenging behaviors. On an individual level, refusal to wear a mask can restrict an individual’s access to community supports, and more globally can contribute to an ever-worsening public health crisis. This symposium explores several different approaches to increase the appropriate donning of masks across a number of residential and community settings.

This symposium targets BCBA's and other professionals working with individuals with developmental disabilities across a wide-range of settings.

Concerns related to a dearth of opportunities for community access for adults diagnosed with developmental disabilities has increased exponentially amidst restrictions related to Coronavirus. This population is less likely to tolerate mask-wearing, and subsequently less likely to be able to access the community in the age of social distancing. It is important that these individuals are supported through increasing their tolerance to mask-wearing, such that they can engage in functional and enjoyable community activities. In addition, some basic services require mask-wearing without exception, such as some doctors’ offices, so increased mask tolerance is important to overall health and well-being. The present study utilized a non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants design to examine the effectiveness of the use of edible reinforcement to increase mask tolerance across participants. All participants resided in a campus-based residential center for adults, which primarily supports individuals diagnosed with Autism. Analyses of data indicated that participants were likely to tolerate increasing durations of mask-wearing when preferred edible items were delivered contingent upon meeting predetermined criteria. For all four participants, the treatment reliably increased tolerance over time.

The Covid-19 Pandemic has escalated the priority of children with autisms ability to tolerate various medical procedures. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention recommendations that any child over the age of 2 wear a mask to limit the spread of Covid-19. The inability to tolerate wearing a mask can limit the child’s ability to go into a public place and have a negative impact on family life. The present study evaluated the use of tolerating programming using shaping of the duration of mask exposure and pairing of preferred stimuli on two children diagnosed with autism. The use of systematic increases in the duration of time that the mask was in place paired with preferred activities resulted in the children wearing masks without the occurrence of challenging behavior for up to an 8-hour therapy day with built in breaks for one child and 15 minute time intervals for the second child. The tolerating behavior was shaped within a 30-day time frame and shown to generalize outside of the therapeutic setting.

The current COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on the daily behavior of people across the globe. In an effort to limit the proliferation of this global pandemic, the World Health Organization and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have recommended the use of masks or facial coverings when in public settings. Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) may be less likely than others to tolerate personal protective equipment (PPE). Challenges with compliance with mask-wearing could limit individuals with ASD and/or ID’s access to education, medical and other community-based resources. This study investigates the effectiveness of treatment components including non-contingent reinforcement, response blocking and response cost to increase compliance with mask-wearing and decrease refusal behavior in 9 individuals with IDD living in a residential treatment facility. The results of this study indicate that NCR effectively increased mask wearing for 3 participants. Response cost was needed to increase mask wearing for 4 participants while the remaining 2 participants required the addition of response blocking. These findings extend the research reporting the effectiveness of these treatment components in increasing the wearing of medically-necessary prostheses (Deleon et al., 2008; Nipe et al., 2018; Richling et al., 2011) to medically-necessary PPE.

Behavioral treatments are significantly effective in reducing problem behavior in individuals with developmental disabilities (Campbell, 2003). Common treatment components following a functional assessment such as a functional analysis include: extinction, functional communication training, differential reinforcement or noncontingent reinforcement. These components are well studied and empirically supported. However, some problem behavior is maintained by idiosyncratic functions or require variations to common treatment components. This symposium will present recent research on variations to treatments for problem behavior. Extinction, while common, may present an ethical dilemma or may not be feasible depending on a variety of factors. Some treatment components may be included that increase the feasibility of the intervention such as a variable momentary differential reinforcement procedure of other behavior procedure. Finally, treatments for idiosyncratic functions such as social avoidance may require variations in order to successfully reduce problem behavior. Taken together, the results of these studies present important variations for idiosyncratic presentations of problem behavior that may increase success of the intervention and fidelity of implementation.

RBTs, BCBAs, BCBA-Ds

Individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often engage in problem behavior (Horner, Carr, Strain et al., 2002) that may limit access to traditional social and education settings, impact their health, and pose a risk to their safety and the safety of others. One of the most common interventions used to treat problem behavior is differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA), which is often used in combination with extinction (Shirley, Iwata, Kahng, Mazaleski, & Lerman, 1997). Implementation of extinction may pose an ethical dilemma and may not be feasible depending on the setting, topography of problem behavior, and/or size of the client. Therefore, we identified participant’s relative sensitivities to reinforcer parameters (i.e., quality, magnitude, delay) and used results to inform a functional communication training (FCT) intervention to treat problem behavior for four individuals with ASD. Results showed that both FCT conditions were effective at decreasing problem behavior and increasing communicative responses, but treatment effects were more robust when the most sensitive reinforcer parameter was manipulated.

Functional communication training with extinction is a common intervention to treat problem behavior. However, there are some instances when an extinction component may not be recommended (e.g. intensity of behavior, safety of program staff, etc.). The purpose of this study was to evaluate an FCT intervention without an extinction component for a child who engaged in stereotype behavior and self-injurious behavior. Researchers conducted a functional analysis that identified the child’s stereotypical behavior was automatically maintained (subtype 1). A second functional analysis identified the self-injurious behavior was evoked when access to the stereotype behavior was not available. Researchers then implemented FCT with manipulation of the parameters of reinforcement (e.g. immediacy and quantity) to favor the functional communitive responses verses the self-injurious behavior. Researchers then implemented schedule thinning and manipulated parameters of reinforcement to favor engagement in competing activities during the FCT schedule thinning. Results suggest that FCT with parameters manipulation can be utilized to decrease challenging behavior and increase appropriate behavior without the use of extinction.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) present with deficits in social interactions (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). These deficits could manifest in the individuals finding social interactions to be aversive and therefore engaging in problem behavior to avoid them. Social avoidance is a specific type of escape maintained problem behavior where the individual engages in problem behavior in order to avoid social interaction (Harper, Iwata, & Camp, 2013). We conducted a consecutive case series analysis targeting individuals who engaged in problem behavior to avoid social interaction. We discuss the various strategies for assessing this function as well as treatment strategies. Multiple treatment components were used across individuals, including proximity fading, differential reinforcement of other behavior, pairing, a multiple schedule of reinforcement, functional communication training, and extinction. Overall, we identified three individuals who showed significant reduction in problem behavior and one individual with no reduction in problem behavior.

In this symposium, the author will evaluate behavior reduction and maintenance results, as well as discuss future research areas utilizing a variable momentary differential reinforcement of other behavior (VM DRO) procedure. In the present study, two individuals who had been diagnosed with developmental disabilities and autism spectrum disorder participated. Results of functional analyses indicated that problem behavior for both participants was maintained by social-positive reinforcement. VM DRO was effective at reducing one participant’s problem behavior. Fixed interval differential reinforcement of other behavior (FI DRO) was effective at reducing the other participant’s problem behavior. Furthermore, VM DRO failed to maintain the results previously produced by the FI DRO procedure. These findings suggest that VM DRO may not be effective at reducing problem behavior for all individuals and that outcomes may be idiosyncratic. Future research is needed to determine the effects of VM DRO as a maintenance procedure for other DRO procedures.

This symposium will focus on the relationship between recent work on naming and recent developments in Relational Frame Theory (RFT). The authors of Study 1 provide an overview of RFT and Verbal Behavior Development Theory (VBDT), and explore points of contact that have been highlighted by conceptual developments in both fields. The authors will argue for the concept of mutually entailed orienting. Study 2 will review existing evidence on the role of early social behaviors on learning names of words. The authors will highlight mutually entailed orienting as a possible predictor for success in listener and speaker trials during word-learning in 24-month old infants. The authors of Study 3 will present a verbal behavioral analysis of five forms of joint attention, including mands, orienting, responding, initiating, and referencing. Implications for teaching will be discussed. The authors of Study 4 will present data on the relationship between bidirectional naming and other derived relations in 20- to 40-month old toddlers. The authors will discuss their findings within the context of the stimulus control for these relations. Finally, Martha Pelaez will discuss these studies in relation to the interaction between early social behaviors and language development.

Behavior analysts and students of behavior analysis

Relational frame theory (RFT) and verbal behavior development theory (VBDT) are two behavior analytic perspectives on human language and development. Despite sharing common ground, the theories have largely been developed independently. The overarching aim of the current study is to provide an overview of both theories, and explore points of contact that have been highlighted by conceptual developments in both fields. Recent developments in RFT have focused on cooperation as the driver for arbitrarily applicable relational responding (AARR), and outlined the dynamical variables involved across the levels and dimensions of AARR. In addition, we argue for the concept of mutually entailed orienting as an act of human cooperation. These developments link closely with VBDT research which has underlined the critical role of evolution, and the emergence of bidirectional naming in language development. We present broad similarities between the two approaches in the types of functional-analyses they generate, and discuss areas for future research.

Coordinated attention between parents, children, and objects is thought to play a critical role in early word learning. However, behaviors that involve coordinated attention, often described as joint attention (JA), social referencing (SR), and gaze following (GF) have largely been defined topographically. Mutually entailed orienting, arguably unique to humans, occurs when the infant orients back and forth between the speaker and the stimulus, rather than simply attending to the stimulus. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the role of JA, SR, and mutually entailed orienting on an infant’s listening and speaking repertoire. Participants were forty infants at 24-months of age who belonged to either the elevated likelihood of autism group or the typical likelihood of autism group. We evaluated listener and speaker responses to novel word learning trials and compared the outcomes with mutually entailed orienting, and JA and SR skills. Results showed that children in both groups were more likely to respond correctly when they looked back at the researcher during an exposure to a novel word. We argue that mutually entailed orienting serves to establish the Relating, Orienting, and Evoking (ROE) unit, and offer a behavior analytic perspective on the pre-requisites for early word learning.

Joint attention has conventionally been defined by its topography. As a result, behavioral definitions of joint attention in the literature vary, and attempts to teach joint attention often lack socially significant outcomes. More recently, our attention has shifted to the function of joint attention, leading to questions about our intervention methods. An experiment is presented in which the emergence of responding (RJA) and initiating joint attention (IJA) skills occurred as the result of conditioning adult attention as a reinforcer. Expanding on Dube, et al. (2004) and Holth’s (2005) behavioral analyses of joint attention, we present a verbal behavioral analysis of five forms of joint attention, including mands, orienting, responding, initiating, and referencing. Drawing on Skinner (1957) and the Verbal Behavior Developmental Theory (VBDT), we posit that only responding and initiating joint attention are socially motivated exchanges, whereas mands, orienting, and referencing are maintained by tangibles or negative reinforcement. We also discuss implications for teaching joint attention using a functionally-based approach.

Skinner (1957) differentiated the roles of the speaker and the listener in a verbal encounter. Although not extensively emphasized, Skinner suggested an individual often behaves verbally even when responding as a listener. Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and other language impairments often display the absence of important, and basic verbal repertoires that limit their ability to engage in a variety of social skills or problem- solving skills. Joint control suggests that multiply controlled verbal responding involves functional control of two 2 or more stimuli or verbal operants. This systematic literature review an introduction to the conceptual basis of the analysis of joint control, as well as provide a summary of publications specifying the relation and implications of the analysis of joint control and joint control training in the acquisition of multiply controlled, non-speaker behaviors (e.g., selection-based behavior; , se- quencing behavior). The synthesis suggests that joint control training presents as a promising analytic tool in guiding interventions to teach complex, multiply controlled verbal and non-verbal repertoires to children diagnosed with autism ASD and/or other developmental disabilities. Recommendations for future research in joint control, as well as the implementation of joint control training, are provided.

The purpose of this study was to conduct a systematic replication and extension of Causin et al. (2013) to assess the efficacy of a self-rehearsal procedure to teach five individuals with autism to follow multiple-step selection of stimuli. Within a multiple probe design across participants, participants were taught to echo and self-echo and then select multiple pictorial stimuli, in the order in which they were requested, from an array of directly-trained and untrained sets of stimuli. The self-rehearsal and accurate selection did not generalize to direction-following related to activities of daily living in the natural environment, so we taught it directly. Probes of novel multiple-step tasks were conducted. Implications for the role of joint control in developing skills sequences to teach generative responding, conceptual analyses of covert verbal behavior, and designing instructional goals related to transition from formal education settings are discussed.

In this first part of a two-part tutorial, basic component skills involved in establishing jointly controlled responding will be specified including echoic responding for vocal responders, imitative responding for sign-language responders, and critical tact repertoires. Included will be a discussion of strategies to specify sources of control for component responses and methods to establish response strength for rehearsal strategies. Joint control is one example of responding that is multiply controlled. One source of multiple control is the responders own verbal behavior. Implied in this analysis is the emission of previously acquired verbal responses that come to strength in certain stimulus conditions external to the responder, such as an antecedent mand for a selection response. Such previously acquired verbal responses may be covert and as such present ongoing challenges related to response documentation and in certain arrangements, response blocking. The tutorial will include demonstrations of teaching procedures to establish skill sets involved in paradigms to study joint control in applied settings.

In this second part of a two-part tutorial, various protocols relevant to sequences of skills that may involve jointly controlled responding will be described. Examples of forms documenting skill tracking within a hierarchy of listener responding sequences will be provided. Protocols and demonstrations of multiple item listener responding (manded-stimulus selection) will be iterated. The tutorial will also include considerations for establishing jointly controlled listener responding for practical life skills, academic performance, and employment skills. Considerations relevant to the necessary concepts involved in practical applications of jointly controlled responding including prepositional relations and tacts of actions will be presented. Joint control procedures may have a role in establishing yes-no responses relevant to antecedent conditions involving mands to discriminate motivation or the accuracy of an emitted tact as an antecedent stimulus. This session will review a protocol (Carbone, 2014, conference presentation) that identifies a procedure to teach tacting the presence of joint control by saying yes or no.

Attendees should have basic knowledge of Precision Teaching and basic knowledge of goal-setting procedures used in behaviour analysis and education.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a lifelong disorder that affects children and families in several ways. A growing body of research has documented the ways in which racial disparities affect the rate of identification, access and use of services, and relationship with professionals making the diagnoses. In general, Latino children are diagnosed with ASD later in life; usually with more severe symptoms, lower IQs, and more health conditions, compared with non-Latino children. Furthermore, cultural factors can shape how the signs of ASD are conceptualized and how families accept a positive diagnosis, especially how they are affected by stigma. Diminished access to diagnostic services as well as having a caregiver with a non-English primary language can act as barriers to identifying children with ASD, in particular Latino children. This lecture will review current research in health disparities in both early identification and access to services of Latino children with ASD. Research with this underserved population contributes to enhancing diagnosis and identification methods for Latino children with ASD and assessing the unidentified risk factors and barriers to accessing services, hence improving their outcomes.

researchers, allied health professionals, educators

Within the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), it is widely accepted that evidence-based practice (EBP), or the integration of the best available evidence with clinical expertise, client values, and context (Slocum et al., 2014) should be guiding principle in clinical decision making. However, there continues to be a research-to-practice gap in which practitioners are not readily implementing the most up to date evidence-based practices. In order to promote evidence-based practices within clinical settings, clinicians should have readily available access to literature and should be exposed and encouraged to participate in research opportunities. The current panel aims to discuss the conceptualization and implementation of a research framework developed within an organization, with the aim of working collaboratively with internal and external stakeholders to move the field of ABA forward by reviewing, conducting, and publishing innovated research. The panel will review the evolution of a steering and sub-committees (i.e., manuscript, conference, literature, proposal, and research review), and the development of a research manual, workflows, and related forms.

Introductory understanding on the systematic application of ABA principles to conduct research. Introductory understanding on processes (e.g., literature reviews, proposals, Internal Review Boards) related to conducting ABA-based research and treatment evaluations.

This symposium includes three papers describing treatments effective at reducing stereotypy for individuals with autism. The first paper evaluated the impacted of matching stimulation, a commonly used intervention for vocal stereotypy, on levels of stereotypy and acquisition of receptive skills. Although both the second and third papers included discrimination training, procedures differed across the studies. The second paper employed a multiple-schedule arrangement to bring stereotypy under stimulus control of a sleeve worn on the arm. The third paper directly compared the use of a multiple-schedule and a chained-schedule arrangement during discrimination training. In addition, in this paper colored cards were used to signal the components of each schedule. Stereotypy decreased across all three papers. Results of the first paper indicated that continuous access to music did not hinder skill acquisition and results of the second and third papers indicated that the use of multiple-schedules and chained-schedules may led to stimulus control over stereotypy.

BCBAs, BCaBA, clinicians and/or teachers with some background in ABA

Research has identified a variety of effective interventions for treating motor and vocal stereotypy, including noncontingent reinforcement (NCR), differential reinforcement of other behaviors (DRO), and positive punishment. In the current study, a multiple schedule was used to bring motor and/or vocal stereotypy under stimulus control of a sleeve worn on the arm. In the “no stereotypy” component, the sleeve was worn, and stereotypy resulted in response interruption and redirection (RIRD). During the “free access” component, the sleeve was not worn, and free access to stereotypy was provided. Following discrimination training, the no stereotypy component was systematically increased, and the free access component gradually decreased. Generalization was programmed for by conducting sessions during two within-category activities; generalization was assessed by probing a novel activity. Maintenance was programmed for via systematic fading of the sleeve to a bracelet and assessed during a follow-up probe for one participant. Results showed a decrease in stereotypy across all participants. RIRD frequency remained high for Kevin, variable for Joe, and low for Nick. Generalization showed decreases in stereotypy from baseline sessions across all participants. Two week follow up probes were conducted for Kevin and low levels of stereotypy were observed. Social validity results showed high social acceptability of the goals, procedures, and outcomes.

Multiple-schedule (MS) and chained-schedule (CS) arrangements were used in a multielement and reversal design to compare baseline measures of stereotypy to treatment levels in a 17-year-old boy diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Both schedules contained one component with contingencies to decrease stereotypy (S-), and another component with contingencies that allowed for the occurrence of stereotypy (S+). Specific colored cards were associated with each component of each schedule. Interobserver agreement and procedural integrity data, collected in at least 33% of all sessions, exceeded 95%. The results showed differential latencies to first response and levels of stereotypy in the S+ and S- components of both schedules, indicative of stimulus control over stereotypy. Whereas previous researchers have suggested that CS is more effective than MS (e.g., Slaton & Hanley, 2016), this study was a direct comparison of the two schedules and did not show evidence of one schedule being more effective than the other. Generality probes were conducted in a new context (completing academic work) and with the use of a DRO and differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) procedure and showed that the colored cards continued to exert control over stereotypy, to a degree similar to treatment.

Converging evidence pinpoints the basic conditions that people need to thrive—minimal amounts of coercion or threat, high levels of positive reinforcement for prosocial behavior, psychological flexibility, and environments that have minimal influences or opportunities for problem behavior. There is, however, a substantial gap between what we know about human thriving and the quality of social environments for millions of people. This symposium describes the creation of the Coalition of Behavioral Science Organizations, which ABAI helped to create. It is designed to foster the translation of behavioral science knowledge into widespread implementation of programs and policies that. By working in cooperation with other behavioral science organizations we can increase our influence on public policies advance the use of our knowledge. This symposium will describe the rationale and development for the Coalition of Behavioral Science Organizations and will then describe the progress that the coalition is made in promoting a long-term effort to improve individual and family well-being in neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage.

The attendees should have training in any area of behavior science, including not just behavior analysis, but also behavioral medicine, education, and prevention.

Error-correction procedures are ubiquitous in instructional programs. A number of unique error-correction strategies have been shown to be efficacious and subsequent research suggests that a single procedure may not be optimal under all conditions. Complicating this line of research are the numerous strategies that include seemingly minor procedural differences or use unique terms to describe similar conditions. Further, few systematic evaluations of common error-correction procedures can be found in the extant literature, which limits the generalizability of findings in this area. This symposium includes three studies examining the potential variables underlying the effectiveness of error-correction procedures previously described in this literature. Participants include children and adolescents with and without developmental disabilities receiving specialized intervention in educational or clinical settings. The findings of these studies may contribute to the broader understanding of the effects of error-correction procedures and to the refinement of instructional methods by increasing the effectiveness, efficiency, or acceptability of these procedures. Future research and implications for applied practice are discussed.