How to Support Adults with Autism: Session 140 with John Michael Guercio

In Session 140, Dr. John Michael Guercio joins me to talk about best practices for supporting adults with Autism. He is well suited to do just this, as John has been working with adults with various developmental disabilities for decades.

He is currently the Clinical Director for Benchmark Human Services in St. Louis, Missouri, and is the author of the recently published book, "Assessment of Adult Core Competencies: Teaching Skills to Adults with Autism and Severe Behavioral Challenges."

As you'll likely tell, I really enjoyed talking with John, and I think you're likely to learn a lot from his knowledge and expertise in the area of serving adults.

In this episode we obviously get into John's formative experiences in the field of Behavior Analysis and talk about his book for a bit. But we also spend quite a bit of time discussing Behavioral Relaxation Training, escalation, crisis management, and so much more. I really think there's something in here for just about anyone in the field.

Also, early on in the conversation, John and I discover that we both saw the original line up of The Grateful Dead back in the day. Don't worry though if you're not interested in this because we got back on topic right away. However, after the official interview concluded, we resumed this discussion on our favorite jam bands for about 15 minutes, and this bonus footage is available to those who are signed up in the Behavioral Observations Membership group.

John mentioned numerous resources during our chat, and I have attempted to note them all here:

• John's book.
• The Controversial Exchange #16, reacting to Skinner's address to the APA (highly recommended!).
• Guercio et al, 2004: Using stimulus equivalence technology to teach emotion recognition to adults with acquired brain injury.
• Guercio and Dixon, 2011: The Observer Effect and Its Impact on Staff Behavior in an Acquired Brain Injury Neurobehavioral Treatment Setting.
• Guercio and Dixon, 2010: Improving the Quality of Staff and Participant Interaction in an Acquired Brain Injury Organization.
• Wilson, et al., 2014: Exploring the Clinical Utility of a Stimulus Avoidance Model to Enhance a Relaxation Training Model.
• Dr. Camille Kolu's BOP episode on Trauma.
• Dr. Merrill Winston's BOP episode on Restraint.
• Jay Moore: The Conceptual Foundations of Radical Behaviorism.*
• Singh, et al., 2003: Mindfulness on the Soles of the Feet study.
• Dixon, et al., 2015: Research Rankings of Behavior Analytic Graduate Training Programs and Their Faculty.
• LeBlanc, Sellers, and Ala'I, 2020: Building and Sustaining Meaningful and Effective Relationships as a Supervisor and Mentor.*
• The Aura Ring.
• Carr et al, 2013: The original Performance Diagnostic Checklist article, An Assessment-based Solution to a Human-Service Employee Performance Problem.
• Felitti, et al., 1998: Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults: The Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) Study.
• LaFrance, et al., 2019: Multidisciplinary Teaming: Enhancing Collaboration Through Increased Understanding.
• Adler, et al., 1987: Relaxation Induced Panic (RIP): When Resting Isn't Peaceful.

This show is brought to you with support from the following:

• Gateway Learning Group, and their Autism Leadership Academy. Designed for new Regional Directors, the Autism Leadership Academy develops motivated BCBAs into successful leaders in the autism field. If you’re interested in running your own regional center and want to learn the skills to do so successfully, check out gatewaylg.com/BOP.
• Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings, including their brand new 8-hour Supervision Course, as well as their RBT offerings over at behavioruniversity.com/observations.
• The Whoop Strap! I've been wearing the Whoop Strap for just a few weeks and I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed getting quantitative information on all aspects of my health, including sleep analytics, heart rate, along with heart rate variability, calorie burn, exercise intensity, and Whoop's proprietary "strain" score. I could extol this neat device's virtues indefinitely to you, but instead, you can go check it out for yourself. To get your first month free, head over to behavioralobservations.com/whoop!