Association for Behavior Analysis International

In the last decade, the applications of acceptance and commitment training (ACT) has exploded within behavior analysis practice. The scope of ACT investigations, however, has been somewhat limited to efforts within the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) population. To that end, the present symposium seeks to expand the empirical reach of ACT to populations outside that of ASD, and discuss the overarching implications of using ACT as a viable, behavior-analytically-rooted approach in a thoroughgoing fashion.

intermediate

Few studies have examined the effects of contextual behavior science interventions for adult athletes with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Those few, reviewed herein, show preliminary empirical support for treating behavioral deficits exhibited by young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder engaged in competitive sports. In the current study, we evaluated a novel iteration of Acceptance and Commitment Training called Watch Me Try and compared it to direct contingency management to facilitate athletic performance of young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder using a concurrent multiple baseline across participants design. The title and language used in establishing the intervention were geared specifically to the social development of the participants. All three athletes increased their attendance, heart rate, and length of falls during training to simulate desired performance during competitions and subsequently, their competition performances improved. One improved with direct contingency management alone; the other two required the Watch Me Try approach to bolster their performance.

There has recently been an increased interest in research on complex behavior such as imagining and problem solving. Problem solving is relevant to a variety of social, academic, and employment tasks, but we have little research to guide practices in these areas. In addition, behavior analytic researchers have only recently begun to evaluate the effects of prompting private events, such as imagining, on subsequent overt responding. The three papers in this symposium provide examples of how behavior analysts are pushing the boundaries in research on complex behavior. The authors of the first paper evaluated the effects of teaching skills to solve common social problems, the second sought to teach children with ASD how to imagine to answer complex questions, and the purpose of the third was to determine if there were any effects of instructing imagining on emergent relations.

Behavior analytic researchers or clinicians interested in learning more about recent advances in our understanding of private events and problem solving.

Intraverbals that children learn early in development (e.g., song fill-ins, chains) are often the result of simple stimulus control. As the intraverbal repertoire becomes more complex, it is rare that these responses are controlled by a single discriminative stimulus; rather they are under the control of multiple stimuli. The purpose of this study was to systematically replicate and extend the work of Kisamore, Carr, and LeBlanc (2011) by evaluating the effects of visual imagining training on multiply controlled intraverbals in children with ASD. We programmed for generalization by using multiple exemplars of stimuli and assessed across novel responses and a novel category. We included measures of external validity by including participant scores on several language assessments and we included measures of social validity of our stimuli, procedures, and outcomes. We predicted that there would be an increase in responding to the complex intraverbals following visual imagining training and that responding would generalize both within and across categories. Preliminary data suggest an increase in responding following training and some generalization across categories. However, generalization within categories is not as robust. Additional data collection is ongoing.

Typically, speech-generating device interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder have often involved discrete-trial approaches. Recently, there has been a trend towards using naturalistic developmental behavioral approaches for children with autism spectrum disorder. These approaches embed behavioral principles within natural contexts, routines, and social interactions. Natural communication partners (e.g., parents, peers) are also often involved in such approaches. There is a need for speech-generating device research that explores the utility of these more naturalistic approaches across a variety of device display formats. This symposium will explore how different speech-generating device display formats (including simple grid-based formats, dynamic navigational grids, and visual scene displays) can be incorporated into different natural routines (e.g., play, art activity, meal time, conversation) with natural communication partners (parents and peers). All three studies embedded a variety of behavioral techniques (e.g., prompting, time delay) into natural routines in order to encourage the use of speech-generating devices for communicative purposes. Results indicate that naturalistic interventions with behavioral components can be effective for teaching communication responses to individuals with ASD across a range of display formats.

The target audience for this event would be BCBAs and related practitioners with interests in behavioral approaches to speech-generating device interventions (e.g., special education teachers, speech-language pathologists).

This study evaluated the effectiveness of embedded naturalistic instruction for teaching multi-step speech-generating device (SGD) responses to three preschool-aged males with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Parents were taught to embed opportunities to request objects, request help, reject items, and make comments during every-day routines (e.g., play, meal time). During intervention, parents used time delay, prompting, reinforcement, and device proximity to encourage the use of two-step SGD responses on a grid-based display with category folders (e.g., vehicles, animals). The display format was selected based upon prior dynamic assessment to determine appropriate formats. Effects of intervention were evaluated using a multiple-probes across participants design. For object requesting, all three participants showed an immediate increase in responding that maintained at high levels. Other pragmatic functions also increased, but at a more gradual pace. All three participants showed generalized responding when new items were introduced, and when display pages with a larger array of folders and vocabulary items were assessed.

Social interactions are a critical component of quality of life. These interactions are often complicated for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as they experience difficulty in participating in social interactions with their peers. The challenges of social interactions are further intensified for those adolescents with ASD who have difficulty with speech. Speech-generating device (SGD) interventions designed to support communication during social interactions with peers in natural environments are needed for these individuals. Video visual scene displays (video VSDs) capture dynamic routines that support communication. This study used a multiple-probe across participants design to assess the impact of an intervention using videos with integrated visual scene displays (video VSDs), presented on a tablet-based app, on the communication of four adolescents with ASD and complex communication needs and their peer partners. The automatic pausing of a video at key points served as a prompt for communication opportunities and provided the necessary vocabulary within the VSD. Following intervention, all four participants demonstrated an increase in communicative turns and in modes of communication used (including speech), suggesting that video VSDs may be an effective tool for supporting social communication.

Interteaching is a behavioral teaching method with growing empirical evidence supporting its efficacy. Over 30 published empirical studies have examined the effectiveness of interteaching in higher education. However, more research is still needed to examine the influence of different interteaching components and the methods used for instructional delivery. The first presenter will acquaint the audience with interteaching and describe results of a study which compared interteaching to standard lecture centered teaching with and without prep guides in an online asynchronous format. The second presenter will share results of a classroom study which compared two different methods of running the discussion component of interteaching. The third presenter will highlight the findings of a series of studies in which interteaching was first compared to another active learning strategy known as the Learning Pathway (LP), and then the addition of Say All Fast Everyday Shuffle (SAFMEDS) to interteaching was evaluated. The final presenter will discuss results of a meta-analytic review on the effectiveness of interteaching. Together, these four presentations illustrate current interteaching research in higher education.

Academics, supervisors, and teachers.

Interteaching is an evidence-based learning strategy that shifts the focus away from a passive learning model found in lecturing to a more active, student-centered learning methodology. It utilizes prep guides, small group discussions, clarifying lectures, and frequent testing. Several classroom studies have demonstrated that interteaching leads to better student comprehension and higher test scores. However, the specific strategy used in these studies vary slightly. The current study used a group design in one undergraduate course over two semesters to investigate how the removal of completed prep guides during the group discussion affected academic success. One group experienced the standard interteaching method, where students completed the prep guide prior to class and referred to their prep guide answers during the group discussion. The second group completed the prep guide prior to class, but then were asked to not refer to their answers during the in-class group discussion. Those in the second group had exam scores that were consistently lower and rated interteaching as less preferable than those who experienced standard interteaching. Results from this study should allow for more effective implementation of interteaching.

Experiential avoidance (EA), or attempts to escape unwanted internal experiences (e.g., thoughts, feelings) at the expense of long-term commitment to personal values, has wide-reaching effects for a variety of socially important problems. This symposium will explore EA in both its existing and potential forms of measurement. The first presentation will cover an analogue study which measures levels of EA by exposing adult participants to aversive sounds in the context of delayed reinforcement. The second presenter will discuss how an existing measure, the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire, was used to investigate avoidance as a moderation of sexual prejudice and political affiliation among a college student sample. Both studies found that EA could be measured reliably. The results of the first study prove useful to an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy model, as choices changed from smaller, sooner reinforcement to larger, later reinforcement - mapping on to valuing. The hypothesized moderating role of EA in the relationship between political affiliation and sexual prejudice investigated in the second study was found to be insignificant, and the authors will discuss potential reasons for this finding. Measurement limitations and future directions will be covered.

BCBA, Scientist-Practitioners, participants interested in Clinical Behavior Analysis

Experiential avoidance, which can be functionally defined as choosing short-term negative reinforcement over long-term values-oriented positive reinforcement, has been argued to be at the core of a large variety of socially important problems. Relatively little previous laboratory research has studied these functional relations and this study attempted to develop a laboratory preparation that pits shorter-term avoidance over longer-term positive reinforcement. Participants were exposed to choices between avoidance of an aversive sound (i.e., immediate, smaller negative reinforcement) or listening to an aversive sound for a period of time and accumulating money (i.e., delayed, larger positive reinforcement). Three experiments were conducted that evaluated varying magnitudes of delays to and the value of the positive reinforcer, in order to identify the point at which individual participants’ choices changed from the smaller, sooner reinforcer to the larger later reinforcer and vice versa. The potential applicability of this model is discussed as it relates to behavior problems that appear to involve experiential avoidance at their core. In addition, the implications for evaluating components of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) are discussed.

In Iceland, teachers have had a strong preference for teaching methods based on construcitivist beliefs, over methods based on direct transmission beliefs (e.g. OECD, 2009). Also, Icelandic teachers consider discipline and students with behavior problems to be one of the most challenging aspect of their jobs. In this symposium we will present recent research regarding the implementation of evidence-based practices to improve the behavior and academic functioning of students in Iceland. Harpa Oskarsdottir and Zuilma Gabriela Sigurdardottir will present a group comparison study assessing the effects of Direct Instruction and fluency building on the reading performance of students in special education. Gudrun Björg Ragnarsdottir will discuss 25 case studies conducted by graduate students receiving training in implementing explicit instruction and fluency building to improve the reading performance of their elementary students. Anna-Lind Petursdottir and Margret Sigmarsdottir will end the symposium by presenting data on changes in students persistent behavior problems and academic engagement following function-based interventions implemented by graduate students as part of training in an university course. Each presentation will include a discussion of the implications of the data and considerations for implementation of evidence-based strategies in collaboration with teachers who have limited knowledge in the area.

Preparing a manuscript for publication starts before you have actually engaged in the behavior of writing. You must determine whether your research has contributed something new and interesting as well as what audience might be interested in learning about it. Putting our hypotheses, methodology, and results on paper in a carefully constructed way is not an easy task and requires adequate training. Those who are new to this process—and anyone else for that matter—often find publishing to be an intimidating and daunting task. Thus, the publication process is approached with apprehension and wariness. Our goal is to reduce apprehension and build confidence by providing tips and advice on how to write and submit a manuscript for publication. A panel of experts will cover topics that range from the type of manuscript to submit and how to structure that manuscript to preparing a cover sheet for submission. Topics and questions will be solicited from ABAI members in advance, and time will be allocated for in-person questions.

Practitioners serving individuals who have interfering behaviors that impact learning and quality of life have an ethical and a legal obligation to assess maintaining variables and to develop a function-based intervention. Conducting a functional analysis has long been considered the gold standard in assessment and treatment of problem behavior. This symposium will present four papers addressing procedural variations of the traditional functional analysis or evaluations of staff training procedures. The first paper will examine the correlation between trial-based and traditional models of functional analysis for adults with autism in community settings. The second paper will present upon the comparative outcomes and social validity measures of trial-based functional analyses (TBFA) to a descriptive data collection method. The third paper will discuss training functional analysis skills with video modeling and video self-monitoring. The final paper evaluated the efficacy of computer-based instruction (CBI) on teaching how to conduct a TBFA with practitioners and evaluated the effects on implementing a TBFA with a confederate. Results are promising that CBI can lead to effective staff training. Collectively, these studies highlight advances in both procedural variations or staff training procedures of functional analyses.

BCBA

Challenging behavior is an often-cited barrier to long-term employment and community-based opportunities for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While functional analysis (FA) procedures are essential for developing treatment plans to address challenging behaviors, FAs are typically conducted under controlled environmental conditions which do not closely resemble the natural environment. Further, it is possible the function of challenging behavior in controlled environments are different from more naturalistic settings, thus emphasizing the importance of assessing challenging behaviors in the natural environment. Trial-based functional analysis (TBFA) procedures (Sigafoos & Saggers, 1995) may be a more viable method for assessing challenging behaviors in more naturalistic settings where more traditional FA methods may not be feasible. For the present study, TBFAs were conducted for three adults diagnosed with ASD who engage in challenging behaviors (e.g. self-injury, aggression) at their community work and exercise sites. The results from the TBFAs were compared to results of brief (5-minute) FA sessions to determine if the TBFA results align with the more traditional FA methodologies. Further, latency to respond data were collected during TBFAs to further discern behavioral function for unclear results. Results of the TBFAs were then utilized to develop function-based treatments for addressing the challenging behaviors presented by the participants.

Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) displaying problem behavior face the additional challenges of limited funding and access to effective treatment, along with increased severity of problem behavior, when compared to children. Consequently, questionably effective descriptive assessment methods, such as ABC data, are frequently used. In a broader study evaluating effective treatment of severe problem behavior displayed by adults with ASD, trial-based functional analyses (TBFAs) were conducted to identify the reinforcing variables of problem behavior and guided effective functional communication treatments. Results and social validity of the TBFA were compared to the more common assessment approach used in settings providing treatment to adults engaging in problem behavior, ABC data collection, which many presume to be as effective and efficient, or more, than functional analyses. The two assessment approaches yielded inconsistent functions. Social validity questionnaires resulted in mixed overall preference; however, ABC data scored higher in ease/practicality and TBFA scored higher in objectivity/ effectiveness. These results support the use of TBFA, compared to ABC data, to effectively and efficiently assess problem behavior in adult settings.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts have an ethical obligation to first conduct a functional assessment (PECC, 2014, 3.01a) to identify the controlling variables for reducing challenging behaviors. The Functional Analysis (FA) yields more accurate results than other types of functional assessment (Iwata & Dozier, 2008), making this type of assessment an important practitioner skill to acquire. Despite being considered a gold standard for training a variety of skills, behavioral skills training (BST) is often very time intensive on the part of the trainer (Iwata et al., 2000). Video self-monitoring (VSMN) may be an alternative, effective way to train students to implement FAs (Field et al., 2015). This study evaluated the efficacy of several training strategies on student implementation of FA skills, including interventions featuring instruction plus video modeling (IVM), and VSMN, with and without feedback. Results revealed that IVM produced a notable, but insufficient, improvement in performance. All participants showed further performance improvement with the addition of VSMN and VSMN plus feedback.

Clinical behavior analysis is amongst the only approaches to understanding talk therapy that has direct implications for understanding and intervening on in-session behavior in such a way as to change behavior out of session. How it is that this occurs has been discussed in terms of nonlinear contingencies, verbal behavior, rule governed behavior, derived relational responding, and other conceptualizations of complex human behavior. The development of clinical behavior analysis as a subdiscipline, however, has been limited by the branding of specific treatment packages that move away from common behavioral terms. This panel will include clinical behavior analysts with expertise in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP, Interpersonal Behavior Therapy (IBT), and Nonlinear Contingency Analysis (NCA). Panelists will analyze sample video recordings of a talk therapy session in terms of behavioral principles that comprise a common ground for clinical behavior analytic approaches. Implications for comparing and contrasting clinical behavior analytic interventions will be discussed, along with questions from the audience.

Behavior analysts, clinicians, higher education instructors, service providers

Training caregivers to apply evidence-based Applied Behavior Analysis is an essential component of professional work and a key component of effective services. Research over the last 30 years has demonstrated the effectiveness, efficiency and acceptability of Behavioral Skills Training (BST) to teach skills, promote generalization of teaching skills and sometimes produce important changes in child behavior. As research in this area becomes more differentiated, one important aspect has been the application of BST to young children, including training family members and staff in integrated settings. This workshop will present three papers on applying BST to train parents of a child at risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders via telehealth, training parents to teach joint attention skills to their children, and training special education teachers to improve the integrity of function-based interventions to increase child classroom engagement. These studies demonstrate that BST can readily be extended to working with caregivers of young children with disabilities, improve caregiver behavior and produce socially important changes in child behavior.

Masters and doctoral level practitioners; advanced graduate students; psychologists; service supervisors;

Children with developmental disabilities are at increased risk for social communication deficits, including early and pivotal social communication skills. One such skill, response to joint attention, is a behavioral cusp for later developing social communication and play. Joint attention is coordinated shared attention between two individuals and an object or event. The current study investigated the effects of a train-the-trainer approach where parents were trained to teach siblings to be proficient interventionists on the response to joint attention behavior of their siblings with developmental disabilities. Results indicate an increase in parent task fidelity following a modified behavior skills training procedure during home visits, as well as an increase in sibling task fidelity following parent training using a social narrative and prompting procedure. Target child data indicate an increase in level of response to joint attention behavior following parent training and parent training of sibling. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Special education teachers are often implementers of behavior intervention plans; however, a shortage of teachers in any field is only magnified in special education. Studies have looked at the use of behavior skills training (BST) in training teachers and caregivers in the intervention techniques prescribed for individuals and groups. This study extends research on teacher training using the BST model. This study was also designed to evaluate the relation between teacher integrity to a functional assessment-based interventions (FABI) suite of strategies and the effect on student on-task performance. The participants were a special education teacher and two elementary-aged students, each classified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The students engaged in off-task, often disruptive behavior while receiving special education services in a general education classroom. This study was conducted in three phases. Each phase consisted of BST to teach a subset of interventions. A single-subject changing criterion design was used to evaluate the effect of BST on teacher integrity and student performance. Results showed that BST improved teacher integrity through each phase and teacher integrity improved student on-task behavior. Limitations to this study will be discussed as well as directions for future research.

Alarmingly, nearly half of children with autism elope or bolt, and more than half of these children go missing for a concerning duration of time and/or enter into dangerous situations. Caregivers often do not feel prepared to address these serious concerns. This study evaluated the effectiveness of behavioural skills training (BST) for teaching caregivers how to also use BST in conjunction with a tactile prompt to teach their children with autism help-seeking behaviour. Participants included a total of six dyads, caregivers and their children with autism ages 5-10. We used a concurrent multiple baseline design across two dyads with three replications. The children’s safety responses were measured using a point system: (1) calling out for their caregiver in a louder than conversational voice, (2) locating a store employee, and (3) informing the employee that he/she was lost. Results indicate that four children met mastery criteria (a safety score of 3 across two consecutive trials), and the caregivers were able to successfully fade the tactile prompting device. Data collection with the final two dyads is currently in progress. This study contributes to the limited empirical research on caregiver training using BST to teach help-seeking behaviour to children with autism.

Humans are a eusocial species, especially sensitive to social contingencies. This sensitivity is observed at the earliest stages of development and persists throughout the lifespan, even in the presence of late-life neurodegenerative impairments. While social reinforcers are the most common reinforcers utilized in clinical applications, the behavior analytic literature is relatively sparse in its analysis of the quality of these reinforcers as they naturally occur and vary in a wide variety of interactions. This symposium will address social reinforcers from multiple vantage points: a review of the experimental analysis of social behavior, thought-provoking observations of parent-child interactions during acquisition of verbal skills, social histories as confounds within applied work in behavioral gerontology, and the challenge to measure interpersonal repertoires and the effects of social contingencies in clinical behavior analysis. The goal of the symposium is to draw attention to the ubiquitous nature of social reinforcers and social histories, identify gaps in knowledge, and discuss areas of future exploration for experimental, applied, and clinical research.

Scientist practitioners, BCBA-Ds, BCBAs, BCaBAs

Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities often engage in challenging (e.g., self-injury, aggression, disruption) and repetitive behaviors. For a subset of these individuals, the behavior is maintained by automatic reinforcement. Behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement presents several challenges in assessment and treatment. The current symposium includes three studies that address some of these challenges. The first study presents data from assessments and treatments of repetitive behaviors maintained by automatic reinforcement, with an emphasis on predictions made by classification following assessment based on the three subtypes of automatically maintained behavior that have been previously studied with self-injury. Second, we will present outcomes from extended alone and ignore assessments, a common evaluation conducted to determine whether behavior is automatically-maintained. Specifically, this study will present on differences in the rate and variability of behavior when conducting alone compared to ignore assessments and differences across topography of behavior. The last study highlights potential safety concerns associated with the assessment of automatically maintained self-injury. An evaluation of solutions to decrease safety risks associated with assessing these behaviors is discussed.

Target audience includes practitioners and applied researchers with a BCBA or BCBA-D. It is also appropriate for psychologists who conduct behavioral assessments and treatments. This should also qualify as psychology CEUs, but I did not see this option listed above.

Hagopian and colleagues (2015/2017) have suggested that self-injurious behavior (SIB) that is automatically reinforced presents as three subtypes. Subtype 1 consists of differentiation between the alone/no interaction and the play control conditions. This form of SIB is generally responsive to alternative reinforcement alone. Subtype 2 SIB consists of a lack of differentiation between those FA conditions and is not generally responsive to alternative reinforcement. Subtype 3 is Subtype 2 SIB that presents with self-restraint. This study aimed to prospectively identify, from standard functional analyses (FA), whether similar subtypes present with stereotypic behavior. Two types of treatment evaluations followed the FAs of stereotypy. In one, an Augmented Competing Stimulus Assessment (A-CSA), which assessed competing stimuli to stereotypy. In the other, the effects of prompting and reinforcement for appropriate behavior was examined in four classroom contexts where stereotypy was observed to occur. There are currently 12 participants across the two experiments. Subtypes have emerged and treatment effects have and have not been obtained with alternative reinforcement. Treatment results will be discussed with the Subtyping obtained in the FA as context. Interobserver agreement data were collected in all experimental conditions and mean IOA was consistently above 85% for all dependent measures.

Automatically maintained self-injurious behavior (ASIB) has been shown to be generally more resistant to treatment and to produce more injuries relative to socially maintained self-injury. Assessing, treating, and conducting research on severe ASIB poses many practical and ethical challenges. Among them is the necessity to observe the behavior in order to assess it and to evaluate treatment outcomes, while also maintaining the safety of the client or research participant. The current study describes a systematic approach for identifying the optimal level, type, and combination of protective procedures that allows some self-injury to occur, but minimizes the potential for injury. Protective procedures can include mechanical devices that limit the occurrence of the behavior, protective equipment that protect areas of the body from injury, response blocking to prevent the completion of the response, and abbreviated session durations that limit exposure to situations in which the behavior is occurring. The potential utility of this approach and the need for additional research to further develop these methods are discussed.

Extended alone or ignore assessments are often conducted to determine whether challenging behavior is maintained by automatic reinforcement. The current study conducted a consecutive case series analysis of over 60 children and young adults who completed extended alone or ignore assessments as part of their admission to an intensive treatment center for challenging behavior. We evaluated the variability and average level of targeted behavior across topographies of challenging behavior and assessment types (alone or ignore). Minimal differences were identified when comparing variability in alone vs. ignore assessments. Across topographies, some behaviors were associated with less variability across sessions compared to others (e.g., pica was generally exhibited with very little variability across sessions). Results are presented in the context of guidelines for what clinicians should expect when conducting extended alone or ignore assessments as well as future research directions for identifying aspects of reinforcement history that might contribute to differing patterns of responding in these types of assessments.

This panel will present a model for conducting functional analysis of proximal direct-acting and generative effects of taught and emergent operant and higher-order operant competencies and capabilities extending over developmental and habilitative timeframes.

Practitioners and researchers interested in the design and management of complex curriculum based paths of treatment for the verbal behavior/cognitive habilitation or advancement of individuals presenting with learning challenges and deficits

This symposium involves three presentations, each of which pertain to Kantor’s interbehavioral field construct and its relevance to behavior analysis. The first of these presentations pertains to the field construct itself. The presentation will describe the fundamental features of the field construct and address potential misunderstandings related to various aspects of it. The second presentation builds upon the first, and focuses on the implications of the field construct for both research and application. Indeed, the implications of the field construct for the research and practice areas of behavior analysis are often less clear, and therefore specific attention is given to these areas. Examples of contemporary research and popular areas of practice are provided and considered in field perspective, and implications for future field-based research and practice are provided. Finally, the third presentation focuses on Relational Frame Theory, and especially on recent conceptual developments within this area of research. Current models of conceptualizing derived relational responding are described, and the relationship between these models and the interbehavioral field construct are highlighted. Taken together, these presentations build upon each other and highlight how the field construct may be relevant to the ongoing development of behavior analysis.

This presentation is an intermediate/advanced level and appropriate for BCBA's interested in learning about conceptual advances/development in the field - including both researchers and clinicians. Graduate students may also be interested in the presentation as it pertains to their educational development, research interests, etc.

With the current high demand for BCBAs, we have also seen an increase in university programs offering applied behavior analysis (ABA) programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. To ensure quality education and preparation for clinical services, program curriculums should be aligned with the theoretical background of ABA as well as best practices for training essential skills. This symposium will explore important aspects that should be considered when teaching and supervising undergraduate- and graduate-level students in ABA programs. First, Isvânia Alves will present the conclusions of a project that identified controversies and disagreements related to basic principles and concepts among behavior analytical textbooks and field experts. In addition, Isvânia a will present a decision-making model to assist in selecting objectives when teaching and providing supervision to undergraduate students. Next, Maegan Pisman will discuss potential strategies and guidelines for effective and ethical remote supervision for students in university practicum courses. Maegan will conclude with possible areas for research related to online teaching and supervision. Darlene Crone-Todd will serve as the discussant.

Instructors, BCBAs providing remote supervision, VCS of ABA programs

One of the roles a supervisor might have within applied behavior analysis regards the assurance that the decision-making process for interventions is conceptually sound. In the past few years our group has developed, implemented, evaluated, analyzed and redesigned a decision-making model aimed at content and behavioral objectives selection for teaching undergraduate students. In our last analysis-redesign iteration, we found inconsistencies, controversies or disagreements in regard to what defines some basic behavioral concepts and principles, such as environment, behavior, operant behavior, respondent behavior, antecedent, among others. Additionally, when we submitted these concepts and principles analysis to be reviewed by behavior analysts (i.e., content experts), the conceptual controversies appeared in some of the suggestions they made. The purpose of this paper is to present our decision-making model in its latest form, present and discuss a few of the controversies we found during our analysis, and highlight the importance of performing a concept or principle analysis when selecting content in areas in which conceptual disagreements might hinder or decelerate student learning and affect the decision-making process for interventions, if these disagreements are not explicit or discussed.

Too many students graduate without being fully prepared to handle their professional responsibilities. Instead of focusing on meaningful and transcendent topics (i.e., archetypal themes, conflicts, and resolutions), we tend to focus on immediate requirements and measurements (i.e., rubrics, grade points, credits, etc.). We read our books, write our papers, and take our tests to satisfy rubric requirements, pass our classes, and ultimately graduate; but we don’t normally transcend the material and focus on the conflicts we will face in the future. This Professional Development Series asks those questions, engages these topics, and focuses on the most important conflicts within the field of ABA from three professional perspectives – an ABA practitioner, researcher, and professor – to better prepare students for professional responsibilities. Please, join the conversation!

Different models of intervention and their effectiveness and efficacy have been studied a lot in USA. Most of them focused on the intensity measured by the numbers of hours of service children with disabilities received. In this symposium we will look at several different packages and intensity of ABA interventions across different settings and countries. Europe has different systems of health, education and social care compared to USA so in some countries the systems and services like early intervention may be completely missing for children with ASD and other developmental disorders. In addition to those differences, even when existent, eclectic models compared to evidence-based and specifically ABA programs, are prevalent. These papers will talk about evidence-based possible models, comparing different intensity and application across various settings. In addition, we will talk about the process and the time a child with developmental disorder needs to go from detection to reach intervention, and provide some research- based insight on how to improve that and then, what type of intervention is the most effective.

Service providers, supervisors, academics

Obtaining a reliable and timely diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a large problem in most Low-and-Mid Income Countries (LMIC). The problem lies mostly in the lack of trained professionals and access to reliable screening/diagnostic tools which are often to expensive and culturally inappropriate for those countries. Bosnia and Hercegovina (B&H) is such a county, where children with ASD often stay undetected and without appropriate intervention. We analyzed medical documentation and tested 126 children ages 23 to 94 months, with detected severe developmental delays. Although parents reported developmental problems in their children on average at the age of 17 months, it took 812 visits to professionals (>6 per child) over several months (mean 16.8, range 2-52) to get the diagnosis. Only 8 children (6.3%) of our sample received a diagnosis referring to autism. However, when these children were tested with the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (Second Edition), 68 of them (54%) were rated in the severe autistic range. In order to solve such high rates of undetected and undiagnosed children with ASD in B&H we developed the EDUS Protocol for Autism Screening which is a functional behavioral screening tool created by following the DSM-V diagnostic criteria and aimed to help professionals in diagnosing autism in B&H. We will discuss the barriers to an early childhood diagnosis of ASD in B&H and the development of the EDUS Protocol for Autism Screening as the first step forward to an early diagnosis of ASD enabling access to early intervention programs.

Several years of research in the Accelerated Independent Learner Model (AIL) have resulted in the identification of key verbal behavior development cusps that are critical for success in the inclusive educational setting. The first paper addresses Bidirectional Naming (BiN), or the joining of the listener and speaker across students in grades K-5 with and without disabilities. In the second paper, the authors outline different assessment procedures associated with best practice to determine the presence of observational learning. In the final paper, the authors present research on both the assessment and corresponding protocol to induce joint stimulus control across saying and writing. Collectively, the authors will address the importance of the establishment of theses cusps in the general education setting and how it relates to effective teaching practices and student outcomes.

Teachers and professionals

Delivering effective ABA services requires caregivers to deliver interventions with sufficient integrity to result in socially meaningful changes in client behavior. Yet, many services often struggle to maintain the integrity of applied behavior analytic interventions in applied settings. Thus, practitioners must have behavioral technologies available to them to assess, and increase treatment integrity and evaluate interventions to do so. This symposium presents three papers addressing this important issue. These papers include a systematic review of training natural change agents implementing functional analytic procedures, a telehealth intervention error analysis and identify to remedy the implementation errors and an intervention study to improve treatment integrity during functional communication training

Advanced graduate students, Masters and Doctoral practitioners, research students, instructors and professors teaching ABA classes, and psychologists including school psychologists.

Interactions between caregivers and individuals with disabilities may have far-reaching effects, including impacting caregiver-client relationships, caregiver stress levels, and client outcomes. Research has shown, however, that caregiver interactions are not consistently optimal. As such, caregiver training on interaction skills may improve quality of services and quality of life. A systematic literature review of empirical peer-reviewed published studies from 2000 to 2018 was conducted to examine the impact of training interaction skills to caregivers of individuals with disabilities. Thirty-four papers met inclusion criteria. Training methods varied, most including some combination of didactic instruction, role play, demonstration, video modeling, coaching, and performance feedback. Caregivers participating in training included parents, teachers, and direct-support staff. Client participants included children and adults with various disabilities, including intellectual/developmental disabilities, autism spectrum disorder, and emotional behavioral disorders. Behavior-specific praise was a training focus in more than half of the papers, while the focus of the remaining papers was broader, including positive parenting, responsive interaction, and positive interactions. Findings suggest that training can improve interactions between caregivers and clients with disabilities and positively affect client outcomes. Papers will be discussed in terms of demographic and methodological features, including results, generalization, maintenance, limitations, implications and future directions.

Procedures used to assess and treat challenging behavior in research do not always translate to practice because they do not address the idiosyncratic variables typically found in applied settings. This symposium reviews variables related to assessment and treatment of challenging behavior as well as byproducts that result from these challenges. The first study describes an evaluation of data collection integrity of caregivers who were tasked with collecting data for assessment purposes and provides recommendations for behavior analysts relying on others to collect data. The second study describes an evaluation of a method for assessing elopement during transitions. The third study describes an evaluation of alternative treatments, specifically programs based on concurrent operants, for escape-maintained challenging behavior in applied settings. Finally, the last presentation focuses on issues related to the use of restrictive procedures and describes a method for evaluating and reducing their use in applied settings. Taken together, the information provided in these presentations will give practitioners of behavior analysis tools to increase the ecological validity of their practice.

Practitioners of behavior analysis who work in applied settings.

Negative reinforcement is a common function of challenging behavior for individuals with developmental disabilities (DD; Beavers, Iwata, & Lerman, 2013). The treatment of escape-maintained problem behavior is important, as it interferes with crucial skill development. While there are a variety of evidence-based treatments available, many utilize extinction, which may be difficult to implement in some situations (Geiger, Carr, & LeBlanc, 2010). In these situations, there are competing reinforcement schedules available for different response options—or concurrent operants. Interventions based on concurrent operants have a developing literature base that supports their use in applied settings (e.g., Peterson et al., 2009; Davis et al., 2018). The current study evaluated the utility of random schedules of reinforcement within concurrent operant treatments in clinic and classroom settings for children with DD who displayed escape-maintained challenging behavior. Treatment effects were analyzed to evaluate the effectiveness of random schedules in increasing task engagement and reducing challenging behavior using an alternating treatment with embedded reversal designs. All participants showed increases in task engagement and decreases in challenging behavior. Results suggest random schedules within concurrent operants treatment may be an effective treatment alternative, even though challenging behavior continues to receive reinforcement.

The purpose of the present symposium is to present research which is going enlighten about emergent relations and equivalence classes in particular. In the first paper by Arntzen and Mensah present an experiment on observing matching-to-sample performance and stimulus sorting. The authors present two experiments to study how observing an MTS task performance will influence the formation of experimenter-defined classes in sorting tests, as well as the formation of equivalence classes in an MTS-based test for emergent relations. In the second paper, Aggio, Kruger, Nunes, and de Rose present an experiment on punishment of incorrect recognitions increased equivalence-based false memories. Aggio et al. have studied the effect of programmed consequences for incorrect responses in memory tests. The third paper by Vaidya presents on the relation between the definition and measurement of equivalence. The paper will discuss how the phenomenon of equivalence is defined influence a change in the way the phenomenon is measured. The last paper by Fields presents an experiment on how the neural correlates of decision making by various relations in equivalence classes. The paper shows that event related potentials recorded during the comparison stimuli measured neural correlates of decision making for each type of relation.

Graduate, researchers, etc,

Recent experimental studies attempted to provide an equivalence-based account of the phenomenon of false memories. In all these studies participants studied a list of stimuli. A later memory test later memory test presented stimuli from the list (targets), stimuli equivalent to targets (critical distracters) or unrelated to them (non-related distracters). Higher recall and/or recognition of critical than unrelated distracters documented equivalence-related false memories. The present study investigated the effect of feedback for incorrect responses in memory tests. In Phase 1 participants studied three patterns, each comprising two geometrical forms within a larger one. In Phase 2 one of the small geometric shapes and the larger form became equivalent to other shapes. The memory test (Phase 3) presented, for recognition, the patterns previously studied in Phase 1 (targets), patterns formed by some of the geometric shapes from targets and other shapes equivalent to them (critical distracters) and new patterns (unrelated distracters). The No Feedback Group had no differential consequences for responses in the test whereas the Feedback Group had a presumably aversive sound following errors. Both groups recognized significantly more critical than unrelated distractors, attesting equivalence-based false memories. Surprisingly, the Feedback Group showed significantly more equivalence-related false memories, insofar as this group recognized critical distractors nearly as frequently as targets.

Sidman and colleagues’ originally defined equivalence relations as the emergent interchangeability of conditional and discriminative stimulus functions. This definition was well aligned with the matrix of tasks and outcomes that defined stimulus equivalence classes. Tests for symmetry, transitivity, and equivalence, for example, were perfect and complete assays of this interchangeability. Sidman’s new formulation of equivalence relations, however, involves the inclusion of responses and the stimuli serving as reinforcers in the emergent relations. This new formulation also offers an expanded view of the kinds of contingencies that can produce emergent equivalence relations. This presentation will argue that the change in how the phenomenon of equivalence is defined also requires a change in the way the phenomenon is measured. The presentation will review data from non-typical preparations asking questions about equivalence relations in an effort to frame a discussion about the ways in which we measure and describe equivalence relations. The presentation will suggest an expansion of the tasks that measure equivalence and end with some directions for future research.

Equivalence classes were formed using a trace stimulus pairing paradigm that isolated the presentation of the sample and comparison stimuli, and restricted responding to a separate time window presented after the comparison. Event related potentials recorded during the comparison stimuli measured neural correlates of decision making for each type of relation. xxx analysis was used to identify deep sources of neural activation that accounted the patterns of surface activation produced by baseline, symmetrical, transitive, and equivalence relations. The deep sources of activation were correlated closely with known cognitive processes

Developments in complexity science have highlighted the importance of social structures in explaining behavior. In network science, structures are understood as emergent webs of interactions within organizations and social groups. Different conceptual perspectives such as behavioral systems analysis and metacontingencies have attempted to bring a system perspective to behavior analysis. Although Skinner and Catania (in Catania & Harnad, 1988) recognized the value of considering structure when explaining behavior in the context of complex social interactions, such analysis is not often adopted in behavioral analysis. Understanding social structures opens for a behavior analytic investigation of variety of phenomena studied by complexity sciences (i.e., social contagion; how behavior spread in social groups as functions of webs of social reinforcement). On the other hand, complexity scientists may benefit from a better understanding of the behavioral processes taking place during social interactions (i.e., mutual reinforcement; contingencies in which two or more individuals behavior produce reinforces to each other). The present symposium invites for a reflection about conceptual models, experimental opportunities and applied interventions in network structures from a behavior analytic perspective.

A behavioral approach to large scale behaviors must be compatible with other scientific efforts to describe and explain behavioral phenomena. Behavior analysis is about the functional relation between behaviors and the environment. When focusing on how large- scale behaviors are established, maintained or get extinct, the concept of metacontingencies (Glenn and Mallott) add value to operant behavior analysis. The behavioral processes, (interlocking behavioral contingencies IBCs), maintain the functional relation to the environment. The result of the joint effort may be called an aggregate product which may or may not be selected by the environment. Hence, we have a parallel to a generic systems approach with the exception of the evolving structure. To capture the lineage in a metacontingency we will add structure, or the way the IBCs are nested together; the nIBCs. The way IBCs are nested together may give important information about the position and hence the contingencies responsible for establishing, maintaining or extinct interaction among members of the system.

The rapidly growing field of ABA offers a wide range of occupational opportunities for behavior analysts. One potential opportunity is operating a business that provides ABA services. In this panel discussion, three successful business owners who provide behavioral services will share their experiences and advice for starting and running a business that delivers ABA-based services. The three panelists are Dr. Megan Miller, Co-Founder of Navigation Behavioral Consulting, former CEO of PEAK ABA Solutions, and Founder of the Do Better Professional Development Movement; and Dr. David Bicard, CEO of Great Leaps Learning Center; Stephen Foreman, Vice-President/Chief Operating Officer of Clinical Behavior Analysis (CBA), Chief Behavior Analyst of Lee Specialty Clinic, and Founding Member and Past President of the Kentucky Association for Behavior Analysis. The three panelists will be address topics such as starting and maintaining a business, training and coaching staff, overcoming obstacles, and dealing with potential ethical issues. This panel is a 50 minutes Q&A panel discussion, in which you'll have the opportunity to ask any questions about the three different types of business in our ABA world.

The target audience will be behavior analysts, undergraduates, and parents who want to know more about how to start and operating business that provides ABA services.

The first presentation will give an integrated analysis of behavioral science research on climate change and greenhouse gas emissions. The second presentation will provide an overview of the research programs, organizations providing funding, and community interventions that have been compiled by the Coalition of Behavioral Science Organizations Climate Change Task Force. The third presentation will provide an overview of the resources required to accomplish the goals of the task force and how to expand the efforts.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Much research has been conducted on increasing verbal behavior of individuals with and without developmental disabilities; however, there remains several unaddressed empirical questions. For instance, there is a paucity of literature on pre-requisite skills needed to increase the effectiveness of procedures, the efficacy of automatic reinforcement to increase infant vocalizations, if pairing procedures can increase textual behavior, and whether particular procedures are more effective to increase intraverbals. The current symposium will attempt to narrow these gaps in research. The first presentation will discuss findings on which skills may enhance the effectiveness of a Stimulus Pairing Observation Procedure in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Following, the second presentation will present results on the effects of a Stimulus-Stimulus Pairing procedure on the rate of vocalizations of a typically developing infant. Next, the third presentation will review outcomes of a word-picture pairing procedure to produce emergent textual behavior in children with reading deficits. Finally, the fourth presentation will discuss the effects of an echoic prompt plus error correction procedure and a Differential Observing Response procedure on the acquisition of convergent intraverbals in children with ASD. A discussion highlighting and integrating the aforementioned presentations will then be conducted by Dr. Ruth Anne Rehfeldt.

Behavior analysts

Answering social questions (i.e., intraverbals) is a skill that is commonly taught to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) because it is a common deficit in this population (Aguirre et al., 2019). Some intraverbals have multiple components that an individual must attend to in order to give an appropriate response. Some children with ASD commonly do not recognize these multiple components in order to emit a correct intraverbal response and may give the same answer from previous intraverbals learned (Aguirre et al., 2019). An echoic prompt plus error correction is a typical procedure for teaching children with ASD to emit appropriate answers to these complex intraverbals. Another teaching procedure that has been used is called the differential observing response (DOR), in which the child must repeat certain parts of the intraverbal question before giving an answer (Kisamore, Karsten, & Mann, 2016). There is currently limited literature on which of these procedures are more effective. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of the echoic prompt plus error correction procedure and a DOR procedure on the acquisition of convergent intraverbals with three children with autism. An adaptive alternating-treatment design was used to determine the acquisition of two sets of intraverbal questions with each participant. Results and implications will be discussed.

Textual behavior requires learning relations between dictated and printed words. Teaching printed words and pictures relations to individuals that already relates dictated words and pictures can establish equivalence classes that characterize reading with comprehension. We verified whether word-picture pairings produce emergent textual behavior (reading). Participants were three children (6-7 years) with reading deficits. Stimuli were printed words and their corresponding pictures, divided in three sets of three pairs. Pairing trials started with the presentation of a fixation cross in one corner of the screen. Clicking on the cross produced the presentation of a word followed by its corresponding picture. Three sessions were conducted for each stimulus set, and each word-picture pair was presented 12 times per session. Multiple probes evaluated the reading of all nine target words before and after teaching each set. Within sessions, pre- and post-tests assessed the reading of the three words. The probes showed emergence of reading after each set. Post-tests revealed an increase in reading within sessions. Participants did not read non-target words used only in probes. This study replicated, with a more rigorous experimental control, previous findings of our laboratory. We will discuss implications of these results for establishing reading with larger stimulus sets.

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a neurodevelopmental disorder characterized by deficits in social communication and repetitive behaviors [American Psychiatric Association (APA) 2013], and rates of ASD have risen exponentially in recent years currently impacting approximately 1 out of 59 children in the United States [Centers for Disease Control (CDC) 2018]. Several behavior analytic interventions have been established as effective with a focus on early delivery and high intensity for ameliorating symptoms of ASD and increasing meaningful skills. Even with this growth in practice, there remains inadequate access to services for families across the country. This symposium will include three presentations focused on development and implementation of parent training models to address: 1) lag between diagnosis and start of intervention, 2) service options for families living in remote and rural areas and/or with school-age children, and 3) evaluating the effect of naturalistic parent-mediated interventions. Together, results indicate that 1) parents were successful at implementing naturalistic interventions, 2) interventions met parent expectations, 3) parents reported positive response to intervention and format, and 4) children demonstrated positive gains during parent participation in the programs. Results from these models continue to inform research and community-based practice to address the needs of the community.

Behavior Analysts

Parent-mediated interventions can lead to significant gains in social, communicative, and adaptive skills for children with autism spectrum disorder (Meadan et al., 2009). Although there is consensus about the benefits of evidence-based parent-delivered intervention, many barriers exist for families seeking training on effective teaching practices. Geographical distance from treatment centers and the high cost of high-quality services are two variables that often contribute to inequity in behavior analytic treatment. The current investigation sought to examine the impact of a short-term intensive parent training program on parent fidelity of implementation of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) and child communication. Twenty-four families living in remote or rural communities in Arizona participated in 25 hours of in-vivo parent coaching through a grant-funded, clinic-based program. Across all participants, the average fidelity score increased from 30% at baseline to 82% post-training and child responsivity increased from 22% to 67%. Additionally, families rated the program favorably and reported comfort using the strategies in their home environment. Results indicate that the one-week intensive program may offer a solution in addressing ongoing disparities in autism treatment.

Brief parent education programs for parents of young children has shown to be effective at increasing parent use of teaching strategies and having positive effects on child social communication skills (Vismara, Colombi, Rogers, 2009). However, few studies have examined the impact of parent-education models for parents with school-aged children. In this study we utilized the same format (Rogers et al., 2012) and evaluated the impact on parent delivery of Pivotal Response Treatment (PRT) with school-aged children. This study reviewed the outcome data of the first four parent-child dyads to participate in the pilot and suggests that parents of school-age children may benefit from a short-term low-intensity model similarly to parents of young children. Following participation all participants agreed that they felt comfortable implementing the motivational procedures of pivotal response treatment. In addition, all parent-child dyads demonstrated gains in verbal responsivity and achieved an acceptable level of fidelity. Results suggested a 12-week education model can be an effective modality to increase fidelity of implementation of pivotal response treatment for caregivers of school-aged children.

This panel will serve as a follow-up to the previous events on “A Strategic Plan for Expanding Behavioral Science Research on Climate Change”. It is the first of a two panel discussion on coordinating efforts of the behavior science community to increase research and community intervention to reduce carbon emissions. This panel includes experts from the fields of prevention science, clinical psychology, environmental education, and behavior analysis. The panelists will discuss coordinating efforts of individuals with diverse expertise in the development, execution, and data analysis of interdisciplinary sustainability research and make suggestions for immediate and pragmatic actions at the individual, community and societal levels. Audience members will have the opportunity to participate in real-time work to expand and scale up research and application needed in this area. We invite participants to dialogue and identify the opportunities and barriers to doing this work and commit to taking actions to increase the contributions of the behavior analysis community toward mitigating the effects of climate change.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Jessica Ghai, M.Ed. BCBA, LABA(MA) is a doctoral candidate at the Boston University: Wheelock College of Education and Human Development (anticipated completion: Spring 2020) and a Volunteer Coordinator for the Behavioral Science Coalition: Climate Change Task Force. In additional to extensive teaching experience and animal-related dissertation research, Jessica’s academic background includes a B.S. in Natural Resources from The Ohio State University: College of Food, Agriculture, and Environment Sciences. Following completion of her doctoral program, she hopes to pursue a career in research. Research interests include: human-animal interactions through a behavior analytic lens, animal well-being and management of maladaptive behaviors in zoological settings, visitation behaviors of patrons at zoological facilities, and the effectiveness of behavior change interventions related to species biodiversity and conservation of natural resources. Jessica also volunteers as a keeper’s aide at a zoological facility and is a member of ABAI’s Applied Animal Behavior SIG. 

If you design, select, modify, or deliver instruction, this session is for you! Direct Instruction (DI) programs are highly effective, with design and delivery based on the content’s “Big Idea” and application of three powerhouse components: content analysis, instructional sequencing, and clear communication. Content analysis is an active and creative part of instructional design that ensures concepts are learned and readied for teaching generalization. Thoughtful sequencing and example juxtaposition improve efficiency. Clear communication reduces ambiguity and errors—for both the teacher and the learner—and influences DI’s presentation features (e.g., scripting, active student responding, pacing, progress monitoring). The program elements of true DI move the instructional design process beyond simply selecting multiple exemplars, the prevailing method in much of behavior analytic teaching. This session will apply and extend these core features to real-world contexts for any and all teaching, content, and circumstances. Our goal? You’ll learn to infuse these critical components of DI into your own instructional design and delivery.

Behavior analysts (certified), educators, instructional designers

How do you take a concept/content analysis and figure out the sequence of what to teach when? Even after performing the necessary analytical components for teaching a concept we still have to figure out how to best teach it. The sequence in which skills are taught is instrumental for success. Learning new concepts can be made easier or more difficult depending on the order in which stimuli are introduced. Critical design aspects of how to teach include the sequence and arrangement of examples and non-examples (juxtaposition), the use of clear instructions (faultless communication), the judicious presentation of “interruptions,” and the selection of teaching routines based on the learner's current repertoire (response teaching strategies). This presentation will outline five Direct Instruction (DI) principles for sequencing and ordering examples to maximize learning, and it will consider their ties to behavior analysis.

The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction is based on five pillars: Assessment, Curriculum, Instruction, Precision Teaching, and Generative Responding.

Nicole Erickson will detail how a teacher, working within a homogeneously achievement grouped classroom, uses a package of instruction strategies, Precision Teaching practices, and further assessment, to continuously evaluate and refine the homogeneity.

Kathy Fox will detail how coaches at Haugland Learner Center have developed a school-wide, systematic modification of the Good Behavior Game to improve student academic and social-emotional behavior outcomes.

Jill Hunt will describe how the Judge Rotenberg Center has worked with coaches from Morningside Teachers' Academy to develop a staff coaching model that focuses on effective classroom management and Precision Teaching procedures to improve student outcomes and shift the educational culture.

Andrew Bulla will present a study focused on effective practices in instruction and Precision Teaching, specifically a comparison of free operant acquisition and frequency building procedures versus restricted operant procedures, such as discrete trial training (DTT).

Behavior Analysts, Teachers, Psychologists

One of the five pillars of the Morningside Model of Generative Instruction is homogeneous achievement grouping, wherein students with similar academic repertoires are placed together to foster the most effective instruction. While students complete a wide range of macro assessments – standardized, norm-referenced achievement tests – those assessments are designed to show growth over the course of year, not for use in homogeneous achievement grouping. Instead, results from a battery of curriculum placement tests are used to create the most homogeneous instructional groups. However, while students are placed homogeneously according to their overall average strengths and weaknesses, they do not show up in the classroom as homogeneous in each specific area of strength and weakness related to curricula. Within a given classroom, several areas of variance are evident, such as specific learning and organizational skills. As effective instructional practices turn student weaknesses into strengths, the teacher must continuously reassess and regroup students to maintain homogeneity. The never-ending job of the classroom teacher is to analyze multiple levels of assessment data to accommodate the different types of deficits that learners present with, and to effectively differentiate instruction and practice opportunities to an ever-changing diverse set of homogeneous learners. Data will be presented that demonstrate how this differentiation is done to produce successful learner outcomes.

Good classroom management is a key factor in student success in all settings but can be especially important in classrooms that serve students with special needs. The Good Behavior Game is widely recognized as an evidence- based classroom management strategy. Haugland Learning Center(HLC), based in Columbus, Ohio, serves students with autism and other disabilities and uses variations of the Good Behavior Game to set students in a variety of classroom settings up for behavioral and academic success. This presentation will discuss how the use of the Good Behavior Game affects progress and outcomes, how HLC trains and coaches staff to implement effective classroom management strategies using the Good Behavior Game and how data are monitored to ensure continuous progress for individual students, classroom groups, and teachers. Our data indicate that students and staff perform better and reach more optimal academic and behavior outcomes when the Good Behavior Game is used consistently and reliably. Specific examples of student, classroom, staff and school academic and behavior data will be analyzed and discussed.

The Judge Rotenberg Education Center(JRC) is a residential school for students with severe disabilities. For the last two and a half years, JRC has had the privilege of learning from Morningside Teachers Academy(MTA) via onsite vists from MTA consultants. Work with MTA has focused on the Morningside Math Facts program, classroom management, and staff coaching. After the introduction of the Morningside Math Facts program, data demonstrated grade level equivalency gains of 1.8 years growth during the first 8 months. Additionally, staff coaching data show improved classroom management and increased student participation in the Morningside Math Facts program. Data collected during coaching sessions in the classroom have shown an increase in the amount of group responses and teacher praise statements and many staff and students report a pleasant change in the classroom environment. This presentation aims to discuss how the use of well- sequenced learning materials combined with application of good classroom management strategies inspired change in our educational department and continues to lead to better outcomes for our students and the lessons we've learned along the way.

Higher education in behavior analysis is in high demand, especially online learning options. Any modality of education must use current evidence-based teaching methods, however, little to no empirical research has been conducted on online learning methodologies. The following studies were all conducted in behavior analysis Master-level courses. The studies evaluated various aspects of those courses including with and without access to online forums (asynchronous discussion), with and without instructor involvement on forums, point contingencies on forums, access to synchronous and asynchronous discussion, participation in synchronous or asynchronous discussion sessions, and grading criteria (credit/no credit vs accuracy).

Those interested in higher education, especially online learning.

Pre-lecture reading quizzes, or Readiness Assessment Tests (RATs), improve college students’ exam performance; however, implementing RATs requires instructor resources. This study compared accuracy versus credit/no credit grading criteria on exam scores, participation, and attendance in an upper-level college course using a nonequivalent control group design. Students in the credit/no credit group spent less time on RATs and performed poorer on both RATs and unit exams across the semester compared with students who were required to respond accurately on RATs. We did not find significant differences between groups on attendance or participation measures. More students in the credit/no credit group reported liking RATs and recommended other instructors use them, whereas more students in the accuracy group had a preference for RATs over in-class quizzes. Although grading for completion rather than accuracy may be less intensive for instructors, our findings suggest this choice may decrease the benefits of RATs for students.

An extension of the panel on “Coordinating Interdisciplinary Sustainability Research”, this panel is composed of experts in behavior analysis who will share perspectives on coordination and outreach, research institutions and foundations, and collaboration with others to design community-level interventions to curb the effects of greenhouse gases. This panel aims to foster an open dialogue on how the behavioral community can move this work forward through addressing complex questions, sharing new ideas, and collaborative problem-solving. Audience members will have the opportunity to ask questions of the panelists and offer ideas for collaboration and expansion of the work of the task force. We invite participants to lean in to the complex nature of behavioral science work on climate change and explore new relationships and collaborations that build a community of researchers, practitioners, and activists that are committed to the health and long term survival of our planet and the important role that behavior science plays in making that happen.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Behavior analysts have the potential to encounter ethical challenges on a daily basis. While the Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts (Behavior Analyst Certification Board; BACB, 2014), includes clear and concise guidance and direction, many behavior analysts find there is significant ambiguity, misunderstanding, and interpretation when applying the Code to real-life professional circumstances. Practitioners may find themselves in an uncomfortable conflict between adhering to the Code and integrating their own appraisal and perspective of challenging scenarios. Fortunately, behavior analysts are adept at assessment of the events surrounding targeted behavior and can directly apply this skillset toward understanding behaviors associated with ethically difficult situations. The panelists will discuss ethical decision-making models for incorporating and analyzing the function of ethically precarious behavior within context while remaining consistent with ethical standards of the field and ensuring quality care for clientele.

The target audience for this presentation is anyone interested in the study or practice of applied behavior analysis including Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs), Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts (BCaBAs), Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs), psychologists, psychiatrists, clinicians, graduate students, professors, teachers, and parents. The primary audience will be those practicing, teaching or studying in applied behavior analysis.

Private events and behavior-analytic perspectives concerning them has been in discord with traditional psychological accounts for decades. Interestingly, however, behavior analysis hasn't wavered much in its conceptualization of them as predominantly verbal in nature. To that end, the present symposium takes a unique look into the interestingly-sparse empirical literature relative to private events and subsequently posits progressive approaches to changing our relation to private events given a delay discounting empirical investigation. Findings are discussed and a trajectory of ABA relative to private events is provided.

beginner-intermediate

Previous research has suggested that impulsivity is character trait and thus, cannot be changed. However, recent research has demonstrated that Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) can change how people make choices when given selections between smaller-immediate vs. larger-delayed rewards. No research to date has evaluated the effect of ACT interventions on choice making when given a choice between avoidance vs. engaging in an aversive activity to access a reward. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of defusion exercises on participants’ choice making on a computer task which presented choices between a negative reinforcer (i.e., avoidance of an aversive sound) or a positive reinforcer following the presentation of an aversive stimulus (e.g., access to money following the presentation of an aversive sound). Defusion is a behavior analytic procedure that trains participants in how to respond in more flexible ways to aversive private events, rather than engaging immediately in previously negatively reinforced behavior. In this study, a multiple baseline design across participants was used to measure change in discounting before and after a brief ACT session (data in this submission is presented as discounting curves but will be presented as both curves and as a multiple baseline in the conference presentation). In general, participants discounted less steeply (i.e., selected to listen to the sound in order to earn money more often) following defusion training when compared to baseline.