Association for Behavior Analysis International

Applied behavior analysis can be utilized to affect a wide range of socially significant behaviors across a diverse number of populations. This symposium seeks to address additional areas, practices, and populations that can benefit from applied behavior analysis, and the ways in which behavior analysts can find themselves in these fields. The presenters will discuss their own work in traditionally established recipients of ABA services, review their progress in diversifying the recipients of applied behavior analysis, and provide future directions to be pursued. Historical, legal, and ethical barriers to applied behavior analysis in a variety of domains will be addressed, as well as introducing avenues by which behavior analysts can enter and improve other fields using the science of human behavior. This symposium will explore a number of diverse domains in which behavior analysis can work to improve the lives of a number of populations by affecting socially significant behaviors.

This presentation is an illustration of how both data-based decision making processes and technological tools are relevant in applied settings and how the latter can influence the former in a meaningful and powerful way. Simon Lergs-Dejardin will present a case of a young girl with Potocki-Lupski syndrom that had no functional communication prior to intervention. The intervention consisted in developing a fine motor repertoire (the Big 6) through fluency-based instruction to promote the use of the tablet in order to communicate with a selection-based app. The success of this case will show that both technology of teaching (fluency-based instruction through Precision Teaching, Big 6 and Clicker training), and technology of tools (the use of an on online application to chart data on Standard Celeration Charts aka Chartlytics and the section-based application) are a powerful combination in behavior analysis and should be the standard when one work with students with special needs.

Although behavior analytic services for students with autism and other developmental disabilities remain marginal (only around 30 Certified Behavior Analysts are registered in France), it is growing year after year due to increasing demand by parents and caretakers. The result of this growth is that behavior analysis, or ABA, becomes synonymous with autism treatment despite the our history of working with various populations, settings, and social significant events. Currently there are few Behavior Analysts in France that work outside the field of developmental and related disabilities. In order to extend behavior analysis outside the field of autism, professionals need to address other disabilities and needs. The presenters believe that a good starting point would be to help meet the difficulties that occur within school, as it represents a large number of children and adolescents. During this presentation, Simon and Dorothe Lergs-Dejardin will present the state of evidence-based practices (i.e., Precision Teaching) for students with special needs in France, show data that they have collected about the need for these kinds of services, and provide the process they went through in order to open the first specialized center in France.

Over the past 20 years, there has been a renewed interest in designing educational environments that lead to various practical outcomes for learners. Educational endeavors may be conceptualized as falling within several categories: formal public education, formal private education, independent studies, athletic activities, musical activities, and day-to-day learning through an individual's life. In the past decade, the creation of individual learning opportunities through internet-based applications increased. Behavior analysis, historically aligned with formulating instructional design methods, can lend a helping hand to create meaningful educational opportunities for people of varying ages and ability. An educational technology startup (Institute of Meaningful Instruction, LLC) in Reno, Nevada launched in 2015 with the mission to expand the human potential through instructional material. This presentation will cover the founders approaches to creating instructional materials in-line with the mission and outside mainstream ABA approaches and populations. Successes, failures, and suggestions for the future will be presented.