The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

You may recall that a few months back, I interviewed Dr. David Cox (@davidjcox_). In our discussion, we spent a fair amount of time talking about the literature on the use of psychedelics for the treatment of a variety of behavioral and mental health challenges. I recently got the opportunity to extend this conversation with Dr. Matthew Johnson (@Drug_Researcher). Matt Johnson is a Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at John Hopkins University, and he's been a leading figure in this area of research for over 15 years. His expertise in this area is so well regarded that he's been sought out by media outlets such as (takes deep breath): The New York Times, Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, Globe and Mail, Daily Mail, USA Today, Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, Denver Post, Baltimore Sun, CNN, CBS News, NBC News, The Atlantic, Newsweek, Vanity Fair, Marie Claire, Vogue, Whole Living, The Washingtonian, Scientific American, Nature, Vice, Insider, Inverse, Healthline, Psychology Today (pause to inhale...) 60 Minutes, CNN’s Wolf Blitzer Situation Room, Fox Business News’ Kennedy, the Dr. Oz Show, PBS’ Retro Report, Labyrint (television show in the Netherlands), Spectrum News NY1, the BBC World Service, NPR’s Morning Edition, NPR’s Kojo Nnamdi Show, New Zealand Radio, and Newstalk Radio Ireland... just to name a few. Matt has also been featured in a special episode of The Tim Ferriss Show on this very topic. As such, I'm a little more than humbled to chat with him on Behavioral Observations! In our chat, we did a quick overview of Delay Discounting, talked about decision making with condom usage, and the behavioral economics of cannabis. As an aside, we've done quite a few shows on Behavioral Economics. Here's a quick list of them if you want to get really up to speed: Session 17, A Behavioral Economics Primer, Derek Reed. Session 114, The Behavioral Economics of Toilet Paper, Derek Reed. The aforementioned David Cox episode. Session 11: Obesity, Food Insecurity, Behavioral Economics, and Mindful Eating, Erin Rasmussen. Session 2: Science and Pseudoscience, Steve Lawyer. Back to this show, Matt and I spent a large part of our chat discussing his groundbreaking work in the area of psychedelics. We really get into the weeds, as it were, of how these studies are done, and discuss everything from recruiting participants, the timing of these trips, how participants are supported through their experiences, bad trips, transformative experiences, hypothesized mechanisms of action, what these treatments will look like in five years, and much, much more.  And before I forget, here are some links to additional readings that we referenced: MacCorquodale and Meehl (1948). Article on Hypothetical Constructs. Rasmussen and Newland (2009). Quantification of the Anti-Punishment Effect in Humans Using the Generalized Matching Equation. Hopkinspsychedelic.org, a clearing house of all the cool research that's being done at JHU. We close with a fun discussion of the concept of impulsivity. In Matt's view, as a psychological construct, the term isn't very useful, and we get into how he came to that conclusion.  This episode is brought to you by: HRIC Recruiting. Barb Voss has been placing BCBAs in permanent positions throughout the US for just about a decade, and has been in the business more generally for 30 years. Like Batman, she works alone, which means that when you work with HRIC, you work directly with Barb and get highly personalized service. So if you're about to graduate, you're looking for a change of pace, or you just want to know if the grass really is greener on the other side, head over to HRIColorado.com to schedule a confidential chat right away. Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings and podcast-specific discounts over at behavioruniversity.com/observations. Lastly, I’d like to mention something I don’t bring up all that frequently. I have a membership program for the podcast; think of it as a DIY Patreon… It’s been running for a few years now, and it costs the princely sum of $9/month. Members get access to a private FB group in which they are able to get nearly instantaneous access to the videos of these podcast interviews. The best part is that members get the raw feed. That means no ads, and none of the introductory comments. You just get right to the interview. Another cool thing we do is hold Zoom Hangouts with former guests. We do this about 6 times a year, and it works like this: we schedule a Zoom call, a former guest comes on and joins us, and the members have the opportunity to ask them questions directly. 

You may recall that in Session 112 I chatted with Kelle Rich about, among other things, the upcoming Verbal Behavior Conference. In these pre-pandemic times, the event was supposed to be held in Austin, Texas. However, in anticipation of the stay-at-home orders, quarantines, and so forth, Kelle wisely shifted this event to the online space. So VBC 2020 became a virtual conference, and was executed as scheduled on April 2nd and 3rd. I had the pleasure of moderating the speakers' panel, and I thought it would be fun to share it with you here. This was indeed an august group, and featured Drs. Barbara Esch, Anna Petursdottir, Caio Miguel, Pat McGreevy, David Palmer, and Mark Sundberg. VBC 2020 VIRTUAL PANEL During the panel, we made some references to the speakers' earlier presentations. But don't worry, there's enough context in the Q and A, so I don't think you'll have a problem understanding what we're talking about. The one exception to this is that in Dr. Barbara Esch's presentation, she talked extensively about the book, Enjoy Old Age: A Practical Guide, by Skinner and Vaughn, and I asked her some questions about it, so if you hear a reference to "the book," that's what we were talking about.  I should also note that due to the video conferencing software, the audio - though listenable - is far from podcast quality. I apologize in advance for that, and encourage you to give the show a listen nonetheless, as there are a lot of fun exchanges, anecdotes, and lessons from all the panelists. Lastly, I'd like to thank Kelle Rich and her team at the Central Texas Autism Center for asking me to be a part of this fun event! This podcast is brought to you with support from The Essential for Living curriculum. If you are looking for a curricular alternative for children and adults with limited repertoires, especially those without an effective, efficient method of speaking, seriously consider Essential for Living. From now until May 31, you can use the coupon code ‘efl420’ to receive $20 off the regular price of the Essential for Living handbook. Since we're on the subject of marketing, I also want to let you know about the Behavioral Observations Podcast Membership Program. Think of this as a DIY Patreon program where members get access to ad-free videos of podcast interviews, oftentimes weeks (months in some cases) before they're publicly released. We also hold occasional special events in which I will bring previous guests from the show into a Zoom hangout, and members can have some direct Q & A. For more information about this, click here.

This episode of the Behavioral Observations Podcast is brought to you by Behavior University and GoLotus. Behavior University's mission is to provide you with university quality continuing education. If you're in quarantine like I am, take this time to brush up on your skills, or push yourself to learn something new. For great deals for podcast listeners, head over to behavioruniversity.com/observations to learn more. GoLotus recognizes that ABA providers are facing their most difficult challenges right now. So in light of recent events, Go Lotus has decided to open up its data trackers and scheduling systems for nearly 90% off to help everyone make it through these challenging times. Normally $40/seat, Go Lotus will offer these service for just $5/seat for all new customers until the crisis ends.  Trust me when I say that they are not looking at the pandemic opportunistically. GoLotus was founded by a mother of a child with Autism, and she wants to make sure providers have the tools necessary to serve their clients, even in the face of economic hardships. For more information, please check out GoLotus.com and request a demo today. OK, today's episode is a re-play of a podcast session that was apparently ahead of its time. Back Session 26, I interviewed Dr. Wendy Machalicek about using telemedicine in the context of ABA service delivery. At the time, she was one of a few Behavior Analysts conducting research in this area. Once this current pandemic went into full swing, I gave the episode a re-listen and found that many of the lessons Wendy imparted are still quite relevant today, so rather than reinvent the wheel, I decided to re-publish the show. I'm happy to produce more content in this area, so if this is something you're interested in, please leave a comment in the shownotes for this episode, or on Facebook, Twitter, or LinkedIn. At the same time, I know other ABA podcasters, CEU providers, and the like have created many offerings in the realm of telemedicine, so I'm just as happy to continue pursuing other topics of interest. Long story short, let me know your thoughts either way. Lastly, I'd like to draw your attention to the recent issue of The Journal of Behavioral Education, which put out a special issue on telemedicine. Behavior Analysis and Practice has also published many articles related to service delivery in the midst of this pandemic.

You've more than likely heard the saying, "A bird in the hand is worth two in the bush." In the third installment of the Inside JABA Series, Dr. Iser DeLeon, along with Inside JABA regulars Drs. Tiger and St. Peter we do a deep-dive into the topic of accumulated versus distributed reinforcement arrangements to see if this adage is true in the context of skill acquisition and problem behavior. I'm excited to have Dr. DeLeon, better knowns as Willie to friends and colleagues, on the show. Willie's contributions to the field are too lengthy to list here but to summarize, he is a Professor of Psychology at The University of Florida, and he has done great work in the area of translating concepts derived from the Experimental Analysis of Behavior for use in the applied realm. I'll read you a bit from his bio: "[Willie's] work is notable for its use of concepts derived from behavioral economics, behavioral momentum, and other conceptual models as they apply to behavior analytic interventions. In addition to his impressive research and scholarly contributions, Dr. DeLeon has served on the editorial boards of a number of behavior analysis journals, including as associate editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and editor of translational research for the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior." So as you can see, Willie, along with my other Inside JABA co-hosts, are eminently qualified to talk about this subject. In this episode we reference three different papers on distributed versus accumulated reinforcement. For the purposes of short-hand, I referred to them in the conversation as "Willie's paper," "Claire's paper," and so on. Allow me a minute to give full and proper recognition to all of the authors. The papers we discussed include the following: DeLeon, Chase, Frank-Crawford, Carreau-Webster, Triggs, Bullock, and Jennett (2014). Distributed and accumulated reinforcement arrangements: evaluations of efficacy and preference. Fulton, Tiger, Meitzen, and Effertz (2019). A comparison of accumulated and distributed reinforcement periods with children exhibiting escape-maintained problem behavior. Robinson and St-Peter (2019). Accumulated reinforcers increase academic responding and suppress problem behavior for students with Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. During our chat, a number of other papers came up, and my colleagues on the podcast were nice enough to go back and track down those references as well. Hackenberg and Pietras (2000). Video access as a reinforcer in a self-control paradigm: A method and some data. Fienup, Ahlers, and Pace (2011). Preference for fluent versus disfluent work schedules. Frank-Crawford, Borrero, Newcomb, Chen, Schmidt (2018). Preference for and Efficacy of Accumulated and Distributed Response–Reinforcer Arrangements During Skill Acquisition. We also promised to excerpt Figure 1 from DeLeon, et al., (2014): As with previous Inside JABA Series podcasts, there are no ads during these shows, but the content is eligible for continuing education credit. Half of the proceeds from these sales go towards supporting the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. So to support what we're doing here, please go to behavioralobservations.com/get-ceus. Once there, you'll also be able to see other podcasts that are eligible for continuing ed, and discounts are available for bulk purchases. If you're interested in getting CEU's for this event and want to learn more, here is the abstract, followed by the specific learning objectives: The delivery of reinforcement in intervention programs is often delivered in small increments (e.g., 30 s) on a dense schedule (e.g., FR 1). An alternative to this distributed delivery of reinforcement is to arrange conditions in which reinforcement can accumulate following multiple target responses before then being consumed. This episode’s discussion highlights three studies that compared task engagement among individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (DeLeon et al., 2014) including those identified with escape-maintained problem behavior (Fulton et al.,  2020) and adolescents with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (Robinson & St. Peter, 2019) under accumulating and distributed reinforcement arrangements. Across each study, engagement was increased and problem behavior reduced during accumulated reinforcement conditions. Further, these studies each included preference assessments in which participants were provided with the opportunity to choose between accumulated and distributed reinforcement arrangements. There was some variability across participants, but many individuals preferred to engage in extended work periods for the opportunity to accumulate reinforcement prior to consumption. Learning Objectives: Describe the difference between distributed and accumulated reinforcement arrangements. Describe why reinforcement efficacy may be increased through accumulation of reinforcers? Describe why a preference for accumulated reinforcement may be counterintuitive. OK, if that doesn't get you excited to learn, I'm not sure what will, so go head, and click here to pick up that CE!

In these unprecedented times of social isolation, public education has made a rapid shift towards a distance learning model. It's probably not a surprise that outcomes will vary for students based on myriad factors. If you'd like to become more involved in your child's educational progress to ensure your child's success, then this is the podcast for you! Amy Evans, who is an expert in Instructional Design and Precision Teaching, joins me in Session 114 to discuss how setting up brief practice sessions with your learner can really enhance not only skill acquisition, but retention too (which is, in my experience, an often overlooked outcome measure). Long story short, the goal of this conversation is to provide parents practical tips based on what we know about learning, using readily available materials (ie, stuff that’s downloadable). We did our best to keep the jargon to a minimum, as I am hoping that this podcast will reach an audience beyond my usual listeners. Amy tutors children individually, and is offering these services at a 50% discount during the COVID-19 pandemic. She has also recently launched a business that will train Behavior Analysts to bring Precision Teaching and Fluency-Based instruction to their practices, so to learn more, click here to get on her email list to learn more. To that end, your help will be greatly appreciated. If you find this information helpful, please feel free to share it with friends and colleagues! If your acquaintances are not podcast listeners, I'd like to use this as an opportunity to let folks know that every podcast I've published gets posted to YouTube in case that's a more convenient medium. The best part about this topic is that there are so many freely available or inexpensive materials out there for parents to use. Here are links to materials we discussed (and some we didn't; and a huge thanks to Amy for finding all of these resources!): A general web page with links to free resources that are available during school closures: Amazing Educational Resources. University of Oregon sites (per Amy: good place to go if you need to know where to start with your child’s skills: easyCBM. Resources (Big Ideas in Beginning Reading). The Maloney Method (Free Assessment + first 10 lessons). https://www.learninga-z.com/. One Minute Reader Fluency App and Audio-Supported Books Math Worksheets | Free and Printable (good downloadable materials with lots of practice opportunities). The Math Worksheet Site.com (great for timings - easy to configure, and tons of response opportunities). Khan Academy | Free Online Courses, Lessons & Practice DeltaMath EdReady™ Application Home If you want to take a deeper dive into Precision Teaching, or if you're looking for other CE topics, Central Reach has opened up their online library to all BCBA's at no charge through April 30th. As with Amy's services noted above, this is not a sponsored plug; both CR and Amy are offering free or highly discounted services to support the field, and I'm happy to share these resources. For more info, go to centralreach.com/business-continuity. In case you were worried, we still do have sponsors for this episode though. Session 114 is brought to you by the following: The ABA Marketing Minute with Rich Brooks. Digital marketing guru and two-time guest Rich Brooks and I have teamed up to provide listeners with 60-second micro-lessons in digital marketing. You'll hear the first installment later in this broadcast, so I won't spoil it here, but let's just say the message should parallel a lot of what we should strive for in our clinical practice. The Virtual Verbal Behavior Conference. Yes, when the going gets tough, the tough go online. Instead of cancelling this year's VBC, Session 112 guest Kelle Rich putting the entire program online. The Virtual VBC is scheduled for April 2nd and 3rd, but will likely be available afterwards in recorded form. Also, I just learned that Dr. Vince Carbone has been added to the speakers' list! For some reason I can't quite put my finger on, his time was suddenly freed up. I hope you're able to check it out. Last but certainly not least, I've been getting tons of great feedback on Steve Ward's appearance on the show. If you like his style, The Applied Behavior Analysis Center is hosting a webinar with Steve on June 16th, 2020. ABAC is offering a 20% discount on this event as well as other offerings to podcast listeners. If you're interested in checking this out, go to abacnj.com and use the code ABACBO20 at check out.

Dr. Derek Reed joins me today to discuss the behavioral economic principles that underpin so much of what we're seeing today as the world attempts to cope with the Coronavirus pandemic. From buying all the toilet paper in sight, to heeding (or more to the point, not heeding) government guidelines for social distancing, Derek relates these behavioral patterns to some very basic operant principles. We start the show with a quick overview of three key behavioral economic terms: Delay Discounting, Probability Discounting, and Behavioral Economic Demand. We then talk about how these processes can be used to interpret some of the fascinating societal behavior that we're seeing all around us, including, of course, the panic-buying of toilet paper. Derek then goes on to describe some of the research that he has done in this area, and suggests some lines of future research. We also discuss some the shortcomings of traditional ABA research designs in studying these phenomena, along with what we can do to overcome these barriers. Derek brought up several references. Here are the links: Derek's first appearance on the BOP in Session 17. The "pop" behavioral economic concept of the Zero Risk Bias. Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968). Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1987). Critchfield and Reed (2017). Reed, et al. (2013). Behavioral Economics: A Tutorial for Behavior Analysts in Practice. The Max/Mel Brooks PSA on Social Distancing (YouTube vid). Today's episode is sponsored by: Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings and podcast-specific discounts over at behavioruniversity.com/observations. The Verbal Behavior Conference will be going down in Austin Texas. This event will feature speakers such as David Palmer, Barbara Esch, Pat McGreevy, Mark Sundberg, and more! They’ve even asked me to moderate a panel at the end of the first day, so if this sounds like fun to you, go to ctac1.com/podcast, where you can register at a discounted rate.

A few weeks ago, I sat down with Kelle Rich, founder of the Central Texas Autism Center, to discuss a handful of topics, one if which being the upcoming Verbal Behavior Conference. If you've tuned into the last few episodes, you've likely heard me talk about this event. At the time of our conversation, the Coronavirus was just coming onto the nation's radar screen, but the "plan" was to go ahead with the event, which was scheduled to take place in Austin, Texas, unless conditions changed. Well, as you can guess, the conditions have changed since we recorded this interview. The bad news is that the spread of Covid-19 has continued, and Kelle made the difficult, yet prudent decision to cancel the on-site event. The good news however, is that Kelle decided not to take this lying down, as it were, and she's now hosting this event in a webinar format. As such, tickets remain on sale, so if this is something you're interested in, head to ctac1.com/podcast to grab one for yourself. Aside from the availability of the breakfast tacos, the program will remain the same. It includes talks by Drs. Mark Sundberg, Barbara Esch, Pat Mcgreevy, and more. Kelle was also kind enough to ask me to moderate a panel at the end of day 1. If you're not interested in the conference, I still urge you to check this show out, as we actually spend the majority of the time discussing the development of Applied Behavior Analysis in Texas, why Kelle started the Central Texas Autism Center, how she recruits, trains, and maintains high quality staff members, and more. Long story short, there are plenty of lessons no matter where your interests lie. This episode is brought to you with the generous support of the following: FTF Behavioral Consulting. Dr. Greg Hanley and the rest of the FTF team are holding a two-day workshop covering all aspects of the Practical Functional Assessment and Skills-Based Treatment processes (formerly known as the IISCA). It will be held at the DCU center on April 16th and 17th in Worcester, Massachusetts. For more information, go to ftfbc.com and click the events tab. Like everyone else, they're taking the Covid-19 pandemic seriously, and so they will likely change the details of this event as a result. If that happens, not to worry! They have a lot of online learning options available, so check out ftfbc.com/services/courses. GoLotus. GoLotus is an easy to use, intuitive practice management platform. From scheduling, to notes, to data collection and more, they do it all. And with no contracts or obligations. Find out more about what they have to offer at golotus.com/register. And If you do sign up, the coupon code Matt2019 and you will get 25% off for the first 3 months. The ABA Marketing Minute. Former two-time guest, Rich Brooks, has teamed up with me to provide a series of 60-second micro lessons on marketing your services. You'll hear the first installment in this episode, but Rich has also set up a web page with more resources on this topic, including a free 30-minute webinar called, How to Build an Effective Website for Your Small Business. You can check it out at takeflyte.com/abaminute. Lastly, you probably hear me reference the show notes to this podcast quite frequently. You can always find them at behavioralobservations.com, however, if you want to save a step and have the shownotes directly emailed to  you, go to behavioralobservations.com, look for the red button on the right hand side, and click to sign up for the newsletter. I don't share your email address, and I only send a few emails a month. OK, that's it for opening announcements, so without any further delay, please enjoy this conversation with Kelle Rich!

Almost from the outset of the podcast, people have been asking me to get Steve Ward on the show. If you're not familiar with Steve, he is the co-founder of Whole Child Consulting, and co-author of The Inventory of Good Learner Repertoires (amongst many other books). In this episode, Steve and I talk about his paper that discusses the role of humor in behavioral interventions. We also talk about his concept of "task as reinforcer," and then digress into helping kids who present with oppositional repertoires. We discussed a ton of resources, and I have done my best to capture them below. If you like the kind of approach that Steve offers, he is conducting a webinar that's hosted by The Applied Behavior Analysis Center on June 16th, 2020. ABAC is offering a 20% discount on this event as well as others to podcast listeners. If you're interested in checking this out, go to abacnj.com and use the code ABACBO20 at check out. With a few exceptions, this discount is available for most of the ABAC webinars, so hit the show notes for more details. Steve's ABAC webinar. The Inventory of Good Learner Repertoires. Teaching Good Learner Repertoires. Teaching Advanced Learner Repertoires. What You Need to Know About Motivation and Teaching Games: An In-Depth Analysis. Another 21 Games: This Time, It's Personal. Task-as-reinforcer BAP paper. Using Humor paper. An Operant Analysis of Joint Attention (Holth, 2005). Today's show is brought to you with the generous support of: HRIC Recruiting. Barb Voss has been placing BCBAs in permanent positions throughout the US for just about a decade, and has been in the business more generally for 30 years. Like Batman, she works alone, which means that when you work with HRIC, you work directly with Barb and get highly personalized service. So if you're about to graduate, you're looking for a change of pace, or you just want to know if the grass really is greener on the other side, head over to HRIColorado.com to schedule a confidential chat right away. The Behavior Analysis Student Association from Florida Tech. In somewhat of a role-reversal, Behavioral Observations is sponsoring their annual student conference, which is taking place on April 17th, in sunny Melbourne, FL. This event will feature presentations from people such as Drs. Sarah Bloom and Tim Vollmer. It's good for 5 CEU's and both on and off site registration options are available. This is a student fundraiser, so no promo codes but don't worry, the early-bird registration price is absurdly cheap! For more information, go to FIT.edu/continuing-education. On April 20th, Hillcrest Educational Centers is hosting Dr. Greg Hanley for a full day workshop in Pittsfield, MA. The event is titled, "How to provide happy, relaxed and engaged treatment." Attendees will earn 7 CE's. Save on your registration by using the promo code YEARN. 

Rebecca Womack, who is the Director of Clinical Compliance at BlueSprig Autism joins me in Session 101 to provide an overview of the importance of pinpointing and analyzing Key Performance Indicators, or, KPI's for short. At first glance, this may seem like a topic that is about as exciting as doing your taxes. However, when we dove into this subject, my inner nerd was engaged, and I started thinking about how I could use this concept in all aspects of what I do. I guarantee that even if you do not work in an insurance funded setting, or if you are not in operations management - you'll still many takeaways from this conversation. Rebecca effectively makes the case for using a KPI lens in your work. After we concluded our interview, I learned that she was not only battling pneumonia, but her husband was texting her with updates from their barn, as one of their goats was giving birth! So I appreciated Rebecca's ability to put aside these things to patiently educate me on this topic. We mentioned a handful of resources in the episode: Article on Values-Based Care. Council of Autism Service Providers (CASP). Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales, 3rd Edition. Panel on KPS's at the 2020 Association for Professional Behavior Analysts convention (details TBA). Session 110 is brought to you with support from the following: My friends at FTF Behavioral Consulting are holding a two-day workshop covering all aspects of the Practical Functional Assessment and Skills-Based Treatment processes (formerly known as the IISCA). It will be held at the DCU center on April 16th and 17th in Worcester, Massachusetts. For more information, go to ftfbc.com and click the events tab. Let's say you're not in Massachusetts on April 17th, but some place warmer, like Melbourne, Florida, consider attending the FIT Behavior Analysis Student's Association conference! This event is also available online, so to learn more, check out fit.edu/continuing-education! Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings and podcast-specific discounts over at behavioruniversity.com/observations. Last but certainly not least, on April 2nd and 3rd, the Verbal Behavior Conference will be going down in Austin Texas. This event will feature speakers such as David Palmer, Barbara Esch, Pat McGreevy, Mark Sundberg, and more! They’ve even asked me to moderate a panel at the end of the first day, so if this sounds like fun to you, go to ctac1.com/podcast, where you can register at a discounted rate.

Hey Everyone, welcome to session 109 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast! I’m joined by multiple-time guest, Dr. Pat McGreevy. We talk about what he’s been up to lately, how to support learners who have barriers in communication, implementing Essential for Living in public school settings, why he prefers working with non-behavior analysts…  and we end with a fun and poignant story about Pat’s mentor, Ogden Lindsley.  We also spend some time discussing the upcoming Verbal Behavior Conference. It’s taking place on April 2nd and 3rd in Austin, Texas. In the spirit of transparency, I’m helping the Central Texas Autism Center promote the event, so keep that in mind for what it’s worth.  In addition to promoting the event, I’m also excited to be a part of the program this year. At the end of the first day, I get to moderate a panel with all of the conference speakers! If this all sounds fun to you, head to ctac1.com/podcast and take advantage of the discount that was arranged for Behavioral Observations listeners. Also, if you’re traveling to Austin, the special event rates for the conference hotel, the Hilton Austin, will expire on March 2nd, so if this is something you're considering, I would advise you to make your plans soon! If you can’t make it to the event, but want to learn more about Pat, and/or The Essential for Living Assessment and Curriculum, check out their website. And check out their options for online training at eflapp.com/training. This podcast is sponsored by an event that’s coming up in a different part of the country. It’s called the Insider's Guide to Legal Tactics Used Against Schools: How Behavior Analysis Can Help! This event is brought to you by Brett DiNovi and Associates, and it takes place on February 28, 2020 from 9:30am-2:00pm at the DoubleTree by Hilton at SeaWorld in Orlando, FL. Attend either in-person or via webinar. Student discounts are available, and all proceeds go towards the BF Skinner Foundation!