The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

Dr. Lina Slim joins me in Session 217 for a wide-ranging conversation that is almost impossible to describe in a list of bullet points.  But I will try... In this show we discussed: Her pivot from studying animal behavior and language to teaching children with Autism. Her unease with seeing lackluster applications of ABA. Starting her own school while earning her Ph.D., while raising two children. Providing services all over the world. Detecting your own biases when providing services (please check this part out if you listen to nothing else in this podcast!!!). Developing trust through asking questions.  What it's like to practice ABA in three different languages. What she plans on talking about at this year's Verbal Behavior Conference (and please consider attending, it's a great time!). Great advice for the newly-minted BCBA. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did! This podcast is brought to you by: ·      Rose Griffin's FREE masterclass, The Power of Joint Attention. This 30-minute course will show you how to use books in therapy so your students are running over to listen to you read. The course also covers how to use songs in therapy so that your students are eager to participate and play and are ready to engage with you every session. Rose shares actionable tips that you can use in your next therapy session and provides BONUS pintables that you can practice right away. To learn more, go to abaspeech.org, and click the Free Masterclass tab at the top! ·       Being a behavior professional is hard. At How to ABA their goal is to make you feel supported and confident while helping your clients make real progress! In their membership community, you will find all the assessments, programs, data sheets, and materials you need so that your job is just a little easier. As a member, you’ll also be invited each month to join a live CEU and a live mentorship in our private community group. You’ll also have access to their extensive CEU library of recorded on-demand CEU’s on relevant, practical topics to BCBA’s in the field. It’s more than enough for recertification! With a Bx Resource membership, you’ll save time, feel confident, and master what you love! Go to howtoaba.com/join.  When you join today and use code BOP, you’ll receive 10% off a yearly subscription (includes CEU’s!). ·      The aforementioned Verbal Behavior Conference. This is conference is as equally fun as it is informative, and BehaviorLive makes it available virtually as well, so I hope to see you there!

Dr. Sal Ruiz and I recorded a long overdue podcast where we went over all things SAFMEDS, Instructional Design, best practices for online learning, and much more.  In this podcast we covered a lot of ground, but I think one of the most interesting things I took from the conversation are the procedural variations that have been explored. It turns out that there are some ways to do SAFMEDS that lead to better results depending on what outcomes you're looking for.  We also explore instructional design, and in that, we talk about starting with the end in mind, tailoring lessons for in-person, synchronous, and asynchronous modalities, how guided notes fit into all of this, and much more.  Long story short, whether you're a student, a university instructor, or even if you're responsible for training people outside of the university context, there are many lessons to be learned from this podcast.  Lastly, Sal's parting advice to BCBAs is really good. The advice involves choosing continuing education topics. I'm not going to spoil the details of this advice here, so definitely listen all the way through and check out what he has to say on the topic! Here are the links to the resources we discussed: Ruiz ABA on Facebook  Quigley 2014 dissertation, Evaluations of Various SAFMEDS Procedures  Ward-Horner and Sturmey 2013, Component Analysis of Single Subject Experimental Designs: A Review  Ruiz et al. 2021, Impact of Guided Notes on Graduate Student Retention of Facts  Riden et al., 2020, The Nature and Extent of Component Analyses for Improving or Mitigating Behavior: A Systematic Review  Since you're going to ask, you can find Jen Farris here and here, and ask her about the SSC for Practical Functional Assessment (and find training opportunities here) Wu 2015, Online learning in postsecondary education: a review of the empirical literature (2013-2014) Hunter College ABA Program  Sal's Mock exams (very reasonably priced IMHO!!!) Sal's social media: Twitter, Facebook, Instagram  This session of the BOP was brought to you by: The University of Cincinnati Online. UC Online designed a Master of Education in Behavior Analysis program that is 100% online and asynchronous, meaning you log on when it works for you. Want to learn more? Go to online.uc.edu and click the “request info” button. 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. When you work with HRIC, you work directly with Barb, thereby accessing 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. ACE Approved CEUs from .... Behavioral Observations. That's right, get your CEUs while driving, walking your dog, doing the dishes, or whatever else you might have going on, all while learning from your favorite podcast guests! 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.

Editor’s note: A few months ago, my friend Miguel Avila and I thought it would be fun to offer some Behavioral Observations content to Spanish speaking ABA professionals, parents, and other folks who would enjoy it. Thanks to Miguel’s hard work, we have a few shows recorded, and more in the works. Our plan is to release about one episode a month for a few months. If you know folks who would be interested in these episodes, please consider sharing it with them. Lastly, we’d like to thank Essential for Living, which is now available in Spanish, for giving Miguel the time to record these thought-provoking conversations! Hace unos meses, mi amigo Miguel Avila y yo pensamos que sería divertido ofrecer contenido de Behavioral Observations (Observaciones Conductuales) a profesionales de ABA de habla hispana, padres y otras personas que podrían disfrutarlo. Gracias al arduo trabajo de Miguel, tenemos algunos programas grabados y más en proceso. Nuestro plan es lanzar alrededor de un episodio al mes durante algunos meses. Si conocen a personas que estarían interesadas en estos episodios, consideren compartirlo con ellos. Por último, nos gustaría agradecer a Essential for Living (Esenciales para la Vida), que ahora está disponible en español, por darle a Miguel el tiempo para grabar estas conversaciones que invitan a la reflexión. En esta sesión, el Dr. Javier Virues Ortega se une a Miguel para examinar el estado de la práctica del análisis de la conducta en los países de habla hispana. El Dr. Virues Ortega ofrece sus observaciones sobre la historia del análisis de la conducta en España y América Latina. A raíz de la salida de la BACB como una certificación internacional, revela algunas de las complejidades del desarrollo y las operaciones de los organismos de certificación y acreditación. El Dr. Virues Ortega y Miguel destacan las iniciativas modestas pero importantes que han observado de profesionales dedicados en Iberoamérica que quieren que la profesión del análisis de comportamiento prospere. También menciona algunos de los recursos y programas que se han puesto a disposición en español hasta el momento. Nos deja un valiosísimo consejo y una gran anécdota sobre la perseverancia. International certification, accreditation, and regulation of behavior analysts. Initiatives for Spanish speakers with Dr. Javier Virues Ortega In this session, Dr. Javier Virues Ortega joins Miguel to examine the state of the practice of behavior analysis in Spanish-speaking countries. Dr. Virues Ortega offers his observations on the history of behavior analysis in Spain and Latin America. In light of the departure of the BACB as an international certification, he unpacks some of the complexities of the development and operations of certification and accreditation bodies. Dr. Virues Ortega and Miguel note the modest, but important initiatives they have observed from dedicated professionals in Iberoamerica that want the behavior analysis profession to prosper. He also mentions some of the resources and programs that have been made available in Spanish thus far. He leaves us with invaluable advice and a great anecdote about perseverance.

I've been asked many times to highlight the work of Registered Behavioral Technicians, and in this installment of the Apollo Case Study Series, we do just that.   Dr. Jim Moore, Rachel Packiam (Director of Clinical Excellence), Christina Halverson (RBT Training Coordinator), and Emily Jackson (Lead RBT) joined me to discuss Apollo's unique organizational strategies for onboarding and training their RBTs.   As you'll learn in this episode, by the time an RBT works 1:1 with a child, they have had the training and confidence necessary to implement programming successfully. It is important to emphasize that this just doesn't happen by accident. There are many additional hours of supervising and mentoring that happen - hours that go far beyond the basic requirements. And as an outsider looking in, it's impressive to me just how much non-billable time they invest in ensuring their staff are as prepared as possible.   If you're a practice owner, or if you have some administrative role, you're going to want to grab a pen and paper to take some notes, because there are a lot of ideas for staff development and support in this podcast. We go over topics including rapport-building with trainees, soft-skills, staff morale, professionalism, teaching and upholding core organizational values, common struggles of trainees, and lots more!   If you're an RBT or BCBA, and this model of training and service delivery appeals to you, connect with Jim, or contact the folks at Apollo directly to learn more about potential job opportunities in their Atlanta-area clinics.

Thanks so much for checking out installment number 14 in the Inside JABA Series on Behavioral Observations. Dr. John Borrero, JABA's Editor in Chief, and I are joined by Drs. Brett Gelino and Derek Reed to discuss a novel study that they and their colleagues conducted on the University of Kansas campus.   The study, which culminated in the paper, "Tobacco-free policy reduces combustible tobacco byproduct," shows how a group Behavior Analysts teamed up with university policy-makers to craft and evaluate a campus-wide tobacco-free initiative.     On the one hand, policy evaluation may sound like a dry topic. But if you step back and think about this for a minute, this is an example of how we can use Behavior Analytic concepts and principles to solve relevant problems at scale. How many times have you seen well-intended policies produce the dreaded "unintended consequences," because the people who made the policy did not have sufficient expertise in behavioral concepts and principles?    So to my mind, this piece of research is a very exciting and promising development. Long story short, this one is for all my fellow policy-wonks out there, and there are many cool elements to this study when it comes to data collection and analysis.     And here are some links that we discussed: Gelino et al., (2023). Tobacco-free policy reduces combustible tobacco byproduct.   Critchfield and Reed (2017). The fuzzy concept of Applied Behavior Analysis research.  Fawcett et al., (1988). Behavior Analysis and public policy.  Chapman and Risley (1974). Anti-litter procedures in an urban high-density area. You've subscribed to JABA, right? Huitema (2011). Simple interrupted time-series designs.  This podcast will eventually be available for BACB CEUs, and to learn more about how to get continuing education credits for listening to this show, click here.

This was a really fun episode. Dr. Tim Hackenberg joined me to discuss both what we know, and what we don't know about token economies. This conversation was inspired by my interview with Dr. Matt Brodhead in Session 205, where in listening to that show, Tim picked up on a misstatement of mine. We get into the specifics of this in our interview, but in brief, I made an off-the-cuff comment about token economy research. Thankfully, Tim reached out  to me and offered to discuss this issue in more detail, and more importantly, correct my point of view on this matter.  And I'm so glad he did just that. I really learned a lot in this episode. In it, we discuss the basics of what constitutes a token economy, the importance of generalized reinforcers, early research in this area, troubleshooting ineffective token economies, and perhaps most interestingly, directions for future research.  Our discussion centered around Tim's 2018 JABA paper, Token Reinforcement: Translational Research and Application. As I mention in the interview, it's simply an impressive work of scholarship, and I highly recommend taking the time to read through it.  So whether you're a newly-minted BCBA, or a seasoned pro, I think there's something here for everyone.  Tim also shared that he, along with Dr. Francesca Delgi Espinosa, created two token economy courses. One is a brief overview course that's free, and there's an advanced course titled, "Token economies: Bridging the gap from research to practice." You can find out more about them here.  Session 212 is brought to you by: The University of Cincinnati Online. UC Online designed a Master of Education in Behavior Analysis program that is 100% online and asynchronous, meaning you log on when it works for you. Want to learn more? Go to online.uc.edu and click the “request info” button. Rose Griffin's FREE masterclass, The Power of Joint Attention. This 30 minute will show you how to use books in therapy so your students are running over to listen to you read. The course also covers how to use songs in therapy so that your students are eager to participate and play, and are ready to engage with you every session. Rose shares actionable tips that you can use in your next therapy session, and provides BONUS printiables that you can practice right away. To learn more, go to abaspeech.org, and click the Free Masterclass tab at the top! Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings, including their 8-hour Supervision Course, as well as their RBT offerings over at behavioruniversity.com/observations.

It's that time of year again folks. If you're new to the show, every year, I get together with my friends from ABA Inside Track for a Year in Review show, and this year was no different. In this podcast, we went over a handful of happenings in the world of Applied Behavior Analysis.  In this episode, we covered: The changes in leadership of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and the Association for Professional Behavior Analysis. What shows from each of our pods resonated with our respective audiences. Whether West Coast or New England IPAs are best (c'mon, is this even worth talking about?), including an impromptu short history of American Craft Beer.  Other questions from the audience. The passings of Tameka Meadows, Beth Sulzer-Azaroff, David Jarmolowicz, and Dale Bretthower. With regard to the latter, I would like to say that I wish we had more time to elaborate on the contributions of these behavior analysts. We were pressed for time, not only for recording, but also in terms of show preparation, and I apologize if that segment of the show fails to live up to the standards you've come to expect from Behavioral Observations.  We also fielded a great question from long time listener, Penny Holloway. Again, time did not allow us to do her question justice, but if you listen to the very end of the show, I do my best to address it, and I hope you get a chance to check that out.  Huge thanks again for the ABA Inside Track crew, along with Alan Haberman for being such great conversational partners. I look forward to sharing more fun discussions with you in 2023 and beyond!!! Here are the links to some of the things we discussed: Inside JABA 13 (John Borrero and Linda LeBlanc). Inside JABA 2 (Big Idea Papers). Session 205 (Matt Brodhead/Ethics and the use of Punishment). Session 201 (Holly Gover/Preference for Contingent Reinforcement). Session 180 (Merrill Winston/Why Your Behavior Plan Stinks). Inside JABA 10 (Rajaraman/Austin/Trauma Informed Behavior Analysis). Apollo Case Study Series. For Kids With Severe Behaviors, Hospital ERs Increasingly Becoming De Facto Homes. ABA Inside Track - Facilitated Communication. ABA Inside Track - A Call to Action re: Rekers and Lovaas. Session 122 (Justin Leaf/The Case Against Social Stories).

If you're a long-time listener, you've likely heard me talk about the Verbal Behavior Conference at various points over the last few years. If you're not familiar with the event, it's a two-day workshop that my friends at the Central Texas Autism Center have been putting on for years.  What you're about to hear is the panel discussion from the 2022 event, which was the first post-pandemic live event for the conference, which took place, as always, in Austin, Texas.  This panel discussion included Kevin Luczynski, Sarah Lechago, Francesca Delgi Espinosa, Tamara Kasper, Mark Sundberg, David Palmer, David Roth, and Pat McGreevy.  This particular panel discussion started off with going over some granular details about Joint Attention and Joint Control, but as panels often do, this one got a little more freewheeling as it went on. For example, there were some great discussions regarding assessing bilingual clients, the role of eye contact, core vs. fringe vocabulary, rule-governed behavior, and much more! I had the honor to be invited to moderate this amazing lineup. These duties included asking my own questions, taking questions from the in-person crowd (and huge thanks to Kelle Rich for sprinting around the mic!), and monitoring the on-line chat to take questions from those participating at home. As such, there are some occasional long pauses here and there throughout the discussion, so please bear with that, as I think it will be worth your time.  If an event like this sounds fun to you, you're in luck because the 2023 Verbal Behavior Conference is just around the corner. It's taking place on March 30th and 31st, as always, in Austin, Texas. However, if you can't be there in person, the Verbal Behavior Conference will be presented online via Behavior Live, and for what it's worth, they do a fantastic job doing this. Whether virtually or in person, I'd love to see you there.  This year's event includes talks from Pat McGreevy, Troy Fry, Lina Slim, Andresa De Souza, Sarah Frampton, Einar Ingvarsson, and Samantha Bergman. Once again, I will be moderating the panel at the end of the first day. All in all, it's a really fun time.  If you're listening to this and it's still 2022, early-bird pricing is still in effect, so if this all sounds fun to you, grab your ticket today and save some cash in the process.  This podcast is brought to you by: The University of Cincinnati Online. UC Online designed a Master of Education in Behavior Analysis program that is 100% online and asynchronous, meaning you log on when it works for you. Want to learn more? Go to online.uc.edu and click the “request info” button. Session 204 guest Rose Griffin's FREE masterclass, The Power of Joint Attention. In this 30 minute training you will learn how to use books in therapy so your students are running over to listen to you read. The course then moves onto using songs in therapy so that your students are eager to participate and play, so that your students are ready to engage with you every session. Rose shares 3 actionable tips that you can use in your next therapy session, and shares BONUS printiables that you can use and share with parents. 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.

I'm really excited to chat with Dr. Paulie Gavoni again on the podcast. As long time listeners know, he's been on the show many times, and always brings a down-to-earth, practical point of view to what we do as Behavior Analysts. In preparation for a talk at the recent Hoosier Association for Behavior Analysis event, Paulie did a deep dive on characteristics of bad leadership. It went over very well, and we thought it would make for an informative podcast episode. And Paulie presents his findings in his own unique and fun manner. I won't spoil it here, so be sure to hear him go through it all. I should also note that Paulie and I talk all the time and our banter may have drifted into what I'll refer to here as 'middle school language.' Nothing terribly profane mind you, but I did want to give a heads up because I know many of you listen to the podcast while ferrying your kids around. On a different note, Paulie and I, along with our colleague Anika Costa, are working on a really fun project for behavioral professionals in public school settings. We are hoping to have it out in the first quarter of 2023, so stay tuned for that. Here are the links: Follow Paulie on LinkedIn; he's always posting thought provoking-articles. Check out Paulie's Podcast. Paulie's first appearance on BOP. Hoosier ABA. The Magic Relationship Ratio. Quick Responses for Reducing Misbehavior and Suspensions. Quick Wins! Accelerating School Transformation through Science, Engagement, and Leadership. Deliberate Coaching: A Toolbox for Accelerating Teacher Performance. Downloadable Performance Diagnostic Checklist. This podcast is brought to you by: The Empowering Parents with ACT course, from Praxis Continuing Education and Training. Taught by Dr. Lisa Coyne and Dr. Evelyn Gould, this course presents a powerful acceptance and commitment training-based approach to supporting parents and caregivers with evidenced-based interventions. Designed for anyone who works with caregivers and their families, including children with mental health issues, autism, physical or developmental differences, chronic health issues, and other challenges, this self-paced training will help you work with caregivers to help their families grow and thrive. To watch a free video lesson from Empowering Parents with ACT, go to: praxiscet.com/parents. Session 204 guest Rose Griffin's FREE masterclass, The Power of Joint Attention. In this 30 minute training you will learn how to use books in therapy so your students are running over to listen to you read. The course then moves onto using songs in therapy so that your students are eager to participate and play, so that your students are ready to engage with you every session. Rose shares 3 actionable tips that you can use in your next therapy session, and shares BONUS printiables that you can use and share with parents. The University of Cincinnati Online. UC Online designed a Master of Education in Behavior Analysis program that is 100% online and asynchronous, meaning you log on when it works for you. Want to learn more? Go to online.uc.edu and click the “request info” button.

Editor's Note: I generally publish three episodes a month, but I wanted to share this bonus, fourth episode with you as I know there will be a lot of people embarking on road trips in the coming days. As such, I’ve chosen one of my earliest interviews to re-release, and it’s my first interview with Dr. Pat Friman (originally released in August of 2016!?!?), who as many of you know, went on to appear in several more Behavioral Observations Episodes. What I will say though is that if you’re listening to this re-release of Session 10 shortly after it is published, that there is a huge CEU sale going on right now. These huge discounts that are available now through November 27th. And if you’re catching this show after the sale is over, I usually have a few different discounts going so it’s worth checking out no matter when you hear this.  And speaking of Pat Friman, three of his later appearances on the show are indeed eligible for CEUs, so if you enjoy his message and want to hear more of it, and earn CEUs along the way, then this sounds like a win-win. In Session 10 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast, I speak with none other than Dr. Pat Friman. Pat is the Vice President of Behavioral Health Services at Boys Town as well as a Clinical Professor of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Nebraska School of Medicine. In today's show, Pat tells the story of how he literally wandered into a career in Behavior Analysis as well as the remarkable story of how Boys Town was started and how it serves children and families today. We then talk about his point of view on functional assessment practices, how he interviews parents, his take on what we refer to as, "kids these days," and Behavior Analysts as parents. With regard to the latter, I accidentally broach some of my own parenting struggles, so you might have some fun at my expense (your welcome). If you enjoyed the show, please share it with friends and colleagues!