Behavior Analyst and sleep educator extraordinaire Emily Varon joins me in Session 247 to talk about how to understand sleep problems in children. In this episode, we cover how she first got interested in the area of sleep intervention, what research and resources she used to expand her scope of competence in this area, how sleep challenges can be met without using extinction, sleep problems specific to individuals with Autism, the impact of screentime on sleep disruption, cultural considerations for practices like co-sleeping, the importance of bedtime routines, and whether wearable devices are actually helpful. 

You can learn more about Emily's work in this area, get free "sleep kit," and participate in continuing education events at Emily's website, Ready Set Sleep. 

We mentioned numerous resources in this episode, and I have links for them below:

• Jin, Hanley, and Beaulieu (2013). An individualized and comprehensive approach to treating sleep problems in young children.
• JOMO: The Joy of Missing Out.
• Sleep Better!: A Guide to Improving Sleep for Children with Special Needs, Revised Edition (note: Amazon Associates link).
• Whoop Strap sleep and fitness device (note: this is an affiliate link). 

This episode 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.
• 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.

Dr. Jim Moore, Chief Clinical Officer of Apollo Behavior, joins me in the 11th installment of the Apollo  Case Study Series. In this podcast, Jim also brought three of his Apollo colleagues into the discussion: Lydia Lindsey, Christina Nylander, and Lauren Elliott.

We started off the show with Lydia providing some background on her ABA career and how it brought her to Apollo. Spoiler alert: we managed to fit in a shout-out to Auburn University's ABA program (insert the obligatory "War Eagle" chant! (note: Christina and Lauren were guests in ACSS episodes Six and Nine, respectively).

This conversation centered around the use of Differential Reinforcement of Other (DRO) behavior procedures that the Apollo team implemented with two clients. As such, we discuss the following

• From a conceptual perspective, is DRO a reinforcement or punishment-based intervention?
• Why they chose this procedure over a more specific FCT intervention.
• The importance of determining a precise Inter-Response Time.
• How to avoid ratio strain.
• How to successfully fade DRO schedules.
• Balancing the effectiveness and efficiency of behavioral interventions.
• The importance of accurately re-setting the DRO interval.
• Coaching behavioral technicians to implement this procedure correctly, even when it is challenging to do so (see Dr. Claire St. Peter's excellent work in the general area of Treatment Integrity too).
• The Seven Steps to Instructional Control (disclosure: Amazon Associates link).
• The "London Cabbies Test."
• The importance of conducting client-oriented research in clinical settings.

If you are interested in learning more about Apollo Behavior, you can follow them on Instagram, LinkedIn, or visit their website here. 

Frank Bird and Dr. Jill Harper join me, along with JABA Editor in Chief, Dr. John Borrero, in the 17th installment of Behavioral Observations' Inside JABA Series. 

Both of our guests hail from Melmark. Jill is their Senior Director of Professional Development and Training, and Frank is the Executive Vice President of Clinical Services of this storied institution. As an aside, if you're not familiar with Melmark, we spend a few minutes talking about its history, mission, current services, and more.

However, we spent the majority of this podcast discussing the paper Jill and Frank published with their colleagues that you can find in the Fall 2023 issue of JABA.  The paper is called, Teaching clinicians and nurses to prepare for and present at interdisciplinary meetings through behavioral skills training.

If this sounds like a familiar topic, you're correct. We covered how to improve the and productivity of meetings in my first conversation with Dr. Florence DiGennaro-Reed almost two years ago. 

While there's something Dilbert-esque about examining the precision and efficiency of meetings, like so many things we talk about on this podcast, my guests make the case as to why this is important in their context. 

At the same time, reading this paper made me reflect on the various "processes" I have in place for a number of tasks that I have to do. I use quotes to underscore that fact that for so many of these activities, I don't have written procedures for, and probably should put some thought to this. Maybe you're in the same boat? Let me know either way by going to the newly revamped behavioralobservations.com and leaving a comment on the shownotes page for this episode. 

While you're there, consider signing up for the email list. By doing so, you'll get episode show notes delivered straight to your inbox. Also, this episode, along with many, many others, is eligible for BACB Continuing Education. In fact, it's eligible for highly sought-after supervision CEUs, second only the the even-more-highly-sought-after ethics CEUs!

To learn more, head to the CEUs page of the site. If you don't see this one right away, check back in a couple of days and it will be there. 

Thank you so much for supporting the show with your Patreon membership!

In Session 243, Dr. Casey Dupart joins me to talk about School Psychology, and in doing so, we touched on a range of related topics including the challenges of military families, multi-tiered systems of supports, socio-emotional learning, school refusal, educational policy, and so much more. 

As you'll hear in the interview, Casey has been a School Psychologist in various roles across several states. She also provides consultation and training through her company, Embracing Resilience. And while we're on that topic, she has a few webinars and workshops coming up on topics like Multidisciplinary Collaboration and Improving School Climate and Culture. You can find links to these events at the shownotes for this episode, or simply go to Embracingresiliance.org and click the services tab here. 

I believe BCBAs serving in public school settings may be an increasing area of practice. According to the BACB, about 12% of the BCBA and BCBA-D certificants work in educational settings. Also, I was invited to speak about low-tech interventions for disruptive classroom behavior at the recent BABAT conference, and I was honestly shocked to how many attendees were interested in this topic, particularly given the many other excellent talks that were going on in the same time slot.

As some of you may already know, I’ve been working with Anika Costa and Dr. Paulie Gavoni on a project called thebehavioraltoolbox.com to provide BCBAs and other school-based professionals trainings and tools to help them perform more successfully in these settings. Our first course, Ready, Set, Consult! is now available, and we’ve been really pleased with the feedback that we’ve gotten from our initial participants.

We’re also hard at work on getting our second course ready. This one is based off of the talk I gave at the recent BABAT conference. Our working title currently is, When NOT to FBA: 5 Quick Strategies for Improving Behavior in Classroom. I mention all of this to perhaps underscore the importance of being able to work both collaboratively and effectively in school settings.

And I think this conversation with Casey will be helpful for BCBAs who are new to school settings, or who simply want to be more successful with the students they serve. 

Here are some links to resources, etc... we discussed during the podcast:

• Back to School with PBIS, Session 198.
• PBIS, School Mental Health, and Supporting Students with Trauma: Session 78.
• Other school-related BOP shows.
• CASEL: Fundamentals of Social Emotional Learning.
• Sold a Story Podcast.
• Chronic absenteeism article.
• More school refusal literature.
• ABA Inside Track episode on chronic absenteeism.

Merrill Winston returns to the podcast for what seems to be the umpteenth time (and if you didn't catch the SNL reference we discussed, see here). In this episode, we discuss a presentation he recently gave that dove into the seminal Catania paper, The Myth of Self-Reinforcement. In this episode Merrill distinguishes between procedures and processes, why what we think of as self-reinforcement is likely more attributable to negative reinforcement, and the age-old problem of the term "non-contingent reinforcement."

Merrill also spends a few minutes discussing the contributions of Dr. Henry "Hank" Pennypacker, what he intends to talk about at this year's Stone Soup Conference (shameless plug: save at checkout using promo code PODCAST), and rounds out the episode with some more constructive ways to think about self-management. 

This was a fun episode, and if you enjoyed it, please consider sharing with friends and colleagues. 

This podcast is brought to you by:

The Stone Soup Conference, which is taking place on October 20^th. Use code PODCAST to save on your registration as well.

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.

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.

Dr. Jim Moore and I get back together to talk about a few specific client outcomes that we thought would be helpful for the audience to learn about. 

In this podcast, we talked about:

• The general profile of learners across the Apollo clinics.
• They pace at which learners make progress in their programs.
• Skinner's Attitudes of Science.
• Universal Behavioral Protocols.
• The Seven Steps to Instructional Control.
• Rapport Building and Instructional Fading Prior to Discrete Trial Instruction: Moving From Child-Led Play to Intensive Teaching (Shillingsburg, et al., 2018).
• How Apollo's unique training approach contributes to increasing staff flexibility.
• PEAK training curricula implementation.
• The Gulf Coast ABA Conference, where Jim is talking more about RFT outcomes.
• Who is heavier, James Hetfield or Dave Mustaine?
• What are the P.R.I.D.E. skills Jim talked about?
• Some stories about insurance authorizations (towards the end).
• Whether our children are interested in Behavior Analysis. 

Jim closes the show by sharing that he has other cases he could discuss. Please let us know if you want more of these stories!

Rich Brooks returns to the podcast to talk about how he's grown as a business owner. And while he's in a different industry, there are tons of parallels to what we do in the world of Applied Behavior Analysis. 

Rich has historically discussed all things digital marketing (see here and here), but this is a more personal story of how he had to step out of his role as a website designer and marketer in order to effectively lead and grow his business, Flyte New Media. 

Also, I've finally taken my own advice and had his team tear down Behavioralobservations.com and rebuild it from the ground up. Yes, I finally had to invest in myself, just like Rich has done, and I couldn't be happier with the outcome!

If you want to learn more about digital marketing, check out Rich's upcoming conference, The Agents of Change Digital Marketing Conference, which is going down in Portland, Maine on October 4th and 5th, and will be available virtually for those who aren't in striking distance of one of the coolest cities in the country. He also has a great podcast, which you can find at that site as well. 

If you have questions for Rich about anything digital marketing, or even restaurant recommendations in the greater Portland area, hit him up on LinkedIn. 

What exactly is Joint Attention? How does Joint Attention interact with Eye Contact? What does the literature say about these repertoires, and how does that coincide with self-reports of the aversive nature of eye contact from Autistic people? 

These have been a few of the questions rolling around in my head for some time. A few years ago, we briefly touched on this subject with my guest today, Dr. Francesca Degli Espinosa, but it was in the backdrop of a larger panel discussion at the 2022 Verbal Behavior Conference. 

Fast forward to 2023, I recently heard Francesca on Dr. Mary Barbera's show talk about Joint Attention in great detail, so I asked her to join me to extend the conversation. 

In this show, we cover:

• What people mean when they use the term Joint Attention
• How JA typically develops in infancy and beyond
• Why 'attention' may not be an especially helpful term
• Some of the neuroscience and eye tracking studies that have examined the development of eye contact in typically developing and Autistic populations
• How to increase the value of looking at peoples' faces
• Why eye contact should be thought of as a reinforcing consequence 
• Some strategies to foster JA in the context of learner assent
• The difficulty of integrating the findings of different literatures that publish research in the area of Autism
• What she's talking about at this year's Stone Soup Conference (spoiler alert: She's going to go deep into this topic, and remember, save on your registration by using the promo code PODCAST)
• The problem associated with teaching eye contact via the 'look at me' method

Here are some of the links to the many resources we discussed:

• 2022 Verbal Behavior Conference Panel Discussion 
• Francesca on Mary Barbera's podcast 
• Francesca's available online courses 
• Dube et al. (2004). Toward a Behavioral Analysis of Joint Attention
• Silva and Fiske (2020). Evaluating the Effects of Establishing Eye Contact on the Skill Acquisition of Individuals with Autism
• Nuske et al. (2015). No Evidence of Emotional Dysregulation or Aversion to Mutual Gaze in Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Eye-Tracking Pupillometry Study
• Clin and Kissine (2023). Neurotypical, but not autistic, adults might experience distress when looking at someone avoiding eye contact: A live face-to-face paradigm
• A sample of the many eye tracking studies conducted by Dr. Ami Klin and colleagues

This podcast is brought to you by:

The Stone Soup Conference, which is taking place on October 20^th. Use code PODCAST to save on your registration as well.

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.

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.

While I don't personally use TikTok, I am aware of the considerable influence it has across a range of topics. As many listeners can imagine, Autism is one of those topics that generates unfathomable amounts of content on the platform. 

Unlike other forms of medical and scientific dissemination, there are really no barriers to saying whatever one wants, not only on TikTok, but on any other internet-based media platforms, podcasts included of course. And as you might imagine, this brings with it lots of variability in terms of information accuracy.

Today's guests, Drs. Elisabeth Sheridan and Giacomo Vivanti, along with their colleagues Diego Aragon-Guevara and Grace Castle, took up the challenge of analyzing the accuracy of Autism-related content on TikTok. They published their results in a recent issue of the Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders in a paper titled: The Reach and Accuracy of Information on Autism on TikTok. 

In this interview, we discuss the audience scope on TikTok - spoiler alert: it's massive, why they decided to undertake this study, how they categorized the veracity of the TikTok videos they reviewed, what type of content creators had more and less accurate videos, what were some commonalities to the inaccurate videos they surveyed, and lots more. We also spent some time talking about the reaction to this paper, which has been considerable. 

Here are the links:

• The paper itself: Aragon-Guevara, et al. (2023).
• A popular press write up of this paper in Psychology Today.
• Another interview of these authors on the Autism Science Foundation's podcast. 
• The Parenting Translator on TikTok. 
• Drs. Sheridan and Vivanti on LinkedIn. 
• The A.J. Drexel Autism Institute at Drexel University. 

Thanks so much for supporting the BOP on Patreon! If you have friends and colleagues who'd also enjoy getting these ad-free episodes, let them know how they can join too!

This podcast is brought to you by:

• The Michigan Autism Conference, which is taking place on October 11-13 in Kalamazoo, and online as well. We’ll hear more about this event later on in the show, but if you’re impatient like me, to go michiganautismconference.org, and use the code MAC10 to save $10 at checkout.
• The Stone Soup Conference, which is taking place on October 20^th. This is an amazing event, benefitting a great cause, all for a very reasonable price. Use code PODCAST to save on your registration as well.
• 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.

Dr. Callie Plattner joins me in Session 236 to talk about her work in the area of Motivational Interviewing. Callie is the Vice President of Clinical Operations at Mosaic Pediatric Therapy, and happens to be a fellow Auburn grad (War Eagle!). 

Now longtime listeners will know that we've covered MI on the podcast before. Back in Session 158, my friend Dr. Jim Murphy, who incidentally also happens to be an Auburn grad, discussed MI in the context of helping young adults reduce binge drinking and other substance-related problems. 

Also, my good friend and colleague, Dr. Paulie Gavoni, has been talking about MI for years. In fact, he's in the process of developing a course on this topic for the project that Paulie and I, along with our colleague Anika Costa, have been working on called The Behavioral Toolbox (brace yourselves for hearing a lot more about this coming up ;-). 

This background aside, in this episode, Callie gives an overview of what exactly Motivational Interviewing is, and defines the four "micro-skills" of asking Open-Ended questions, providing Affirmations, Reflecting, and Summarizing... the so-called "OARS" skills. 

Callie then discusses the research she's conducted with Dr. Cynthia Anderson, which will be coming out soon in Behavior Analysis in Practice, and more generally talks about how MI can be an effective tool to build rapport with stakeholders and possibly improve things like staff and parent adherence to behavior plans, therapy attendance, and so on. 

Links from this episode:

• A brief history of ABA with Jim Johnston. 
• Mosaic Pediatric Therapy. 
• The Behavioral Toolbox.
• A Behavior-Analytic Account of Motivational Interviewing (Christopher and Dougher, 2009).
• Not discussed in this episode, but still relevant, and worth checking out: Taking a Motivational Interviewing Approach to Prevention Science: Progress and Extensions (Shaw and Wilson, 2021).
• If you get anything from these shownotes, watch these videos: The Ineffective Physician and the Effective Physician (huge shout out to Dr. Carolynn Kohn for sharing these with me!). 
• The Helpful Response Questionnaire. 

This podcast is brought to you by:

The Michigan Autism Conference, which is taking place on October 11-13 in Kalamazoo, and online as well. We’ll hear more about this event later on in the show, but if you’re impatient like me, to go michiganautismconference.org, and use the code MAC10 to save $10 at checkout.

The Stone Soup Conference, which is taking place on October 20^th. Use code PODCAST to save on your registration as well.

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.

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.

And we're back with another installment in the Inside JABA Series. In this episode, Dr. John Borrero and I are joined by Drs. Jessica Nastasi and Nicole Gravina. We discuss their recent JABA publication, Breaks and Productivity: An Exploratory Analysis (see Nastasi, Tassistro, and Gravina, 2023; and subscribe to JABA here if you want). 

Although this is a shorter episode by Inside JABA standards, we cover quite a bit of territory, including what motivated this research, the broader literature on breaks and productivity, the novel research design that was employed, and how the authors analyzed the data. 

And because this an Inside JABA Series podcast, we spent some time talking about why this study was published in JABA when other alternatives were available. 

In the coming days, this episode will be available for BACB CEU credit, so if you are interested in fulfilling your professional development needs while listening to the podcast, click here to learn more.  

• The Wages and Fair Labor Standards Act.
• How to Get Better Results with John Austin.
• How to Take Better Breaks at Work, HBR.
• The Pomodoro Technique.
• Dr. Gravina's page at U. of Florida.
• Dr. Gravina's lab on Facebook and Instagram.
• Drs. Nastasi and Gravina on LinkedIn.
• Inside JABA Series 9: Applied and Translational Research in Healthcare (Ethics CEU).
• Skinner (1955): A Case History of the Scientific Method.
• What I forgot to mention: Sidman's discussion of what constitutes a "Pilot Study."

Sea desde el sur de Sudamérica o desde Norte América, desde el Medio Oriente o desde una isla exótica, Carola Scolari porta en grande la bandera de la Perspectiva de las Circunstancias.

Este episodio se centra en el artículo de Dr. Patrick Friman publicado en el 2021 titulado No existe tal cosa como un niño malo: la Perspectiva de las Circunstancias de la conducta problemática.

Carola se tomó el trabajo de traducir el artículo con el permiso de Dr Friman y estará disponible a partir del momento que este episodio sea publicado. Les recomiendo encarecidamente que lo lean y por supuesto que se tomen el tiempo de escuchar este episodio de casi 2 horas donde hacemos una detallada revisión y Carola nos enriquece con sus ejemplos e interpretaciones. Estoy muy orgulloso de este episodio y de Carola. Espero que lo disfruten.

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Whether from the south of South America or from North America, from the Middle East or from an exotic island, Carola Scolari carries the banner of the Circumstances View.

This episode focuses on Dr. Patrick Friman's 2021 article titled There's no such thing as a bad boy: The Circumstances View of problem Behavior.

Carola took the trouble to translate the article with the permission of Dr. Friman and it will be available from the moment this episode is published. I strongly recommend that you read it and of course that you take the time to listen to this episode of almost 2 hours where we do a detailed review and Carola enriches us with her examples and interpretations. I am very proud of this episode and of Carola. I hope you enjoy it.

Dr. Aaron Blocher-Rubin joins me in Session 232 to talk providing ABA services as a non-profit agency. Aaron is the President and Chief Executive Officer of Arizona Autism United, a multi-site provider of ABA and other therapeutic services.

In this conversation, we talk about how Aaron got into Behavior Analysis, what led him to found the agency he now runs, supporting the family along with the client, and the importance of offering a variety of services. We also spent a considerable amount of time discussing what it's like to work in a non-profit setting. From funding, to governance, to staffing, we get into the nitty-gritty details, and one can't help but to contrast these settings with private equity funded nation-wide providers. 

And Aaron and his colleagues must be doing something right because they were recently voted the 2023 Arizona Top Workplace (and for the second time at that!).

We also talked about some of Aaron's essays on what he calls ABA Red Flags that he's posted on LinkedIn, as well as some of the reactions to them. 

Here are the links:

• Jobs at AZA.
• The Autism Investor Summit.
• Aaron's podcast, SR Plus.
• The Autism Impact Fund.
• Aaron's LinkedIn.
• Donate to AZA.

This episode 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.
• 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.

In the 9th installment of the Apollo Case Study Series, I'm joined by Jim Moore, Valencia Harper, Chesley Herring, and Lauren Elliott. And in this show, we discuss all things mentorship, both at Apollo, as well as the guests' other professional experiences. 

In particular, we got into:

• Defining mentorship
• The importance of saying, "I don't know"
• The importance of asking questions
• Common needs of mentees
• Apollo's BAT program
• Why BCBAs need communities
• And the idea that, "closed mouths don't get fed"

Some resources we discussed include:

• Apollo CSS 8 
• My recent podcast with John Austin 
• The movie, Whiplash 
• Recommended Practices for Individual Supervision of Aspiring Behavior Analysts (Sellers, Valentino, and LeBlanc, 2016)

While you're here, click here to follow Apollo on LinkedIn and Instagram. 

Today's guest is Dr. John Austin, who has been in the OBM trenches as a student, professor, and frontline consultant for over 20 years. 

Before continuing with the usual opening remarks, I'm going to make a rare ask of you. Two asks actually. 

This is perhaps one of the most actionable podcasts I've published. If you listen to this show and act on some of the suggestions, you can improve your practice right away. And that's not hyperbole. So the first ask is to make sure you listen to the show in its entirety, and go to reachingresults.com/results-toolkit for additional support. 

The second ask is that you take a few minutes and share this episode with friends and colleagues. In your workplace, you might even consider discussing this episode, and more importantly, John's book Results: The Science-Based Approach to Better Productivity, Profitability, and Safety, in your staff meetings. 

In this episode, we cover:

• The evolution of OBM practice over the last few decades.
• Why OBM consulting in ABA organizations can be more difficult than other settings.
• How to form better relationships with the people you work with. 
• Ways to pinpoint and measure your interactions with colleagues and supervisees. 
• The importance of asking questions.
• Agreeing on, instead of setting expectations.
• Why the book Atomic Habits irks me. 
• John's conceptualization of Burnout and Psychological Safety.
• What is a Mastermind, and why might you consider joining one.

Other resources mentioned include:

• The Fearless Organization by Amy Edmonson.
• Building a Psychologically Safe Workplace, a TedTalk by Amy Edmonson. 
• Teaching Employees How to Receive Feedback: A Preliminary Investigation (Ehrlich et al., 2020). 
• ABA on Reddit here and here. 
• Radical Candor: Fully Revised & Updated Edition: Be a Kick-Ass Boss Without Losing Your Humanity by Kim Scott. 
• HBR article: Good Leadership Is About Asking Good Questions.
• John's interview with Dr. Paulie Gavoni.
• My interview with Dr. Aubrey Daniels. 
• Rapid Change: Immediate Action for the Impatient Leader, by Joe Laipple. 

This podcast is brought to you by:

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. And check out the Leadership CEU I mentioned here.

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!

This is a conversation I've really been looking forward to sharing with you. Jose Rios is a legend in our field, particularly if you're a behavior analyst in California, where he's based out of. 

In this conversation, Jose recounts his more than 50 year career in providing ABA services to individuals with developmental disabilities. We cover the following:

• How he got started in the field at the tender age of 17.
• What the field of ABA was like in the early 70s.
• What it takes to provide amazing experiences for group home residents and staff.
• The founding of the Latino Association for Behavior Analysis.
• The evolution of behavior support plans over the years.
• Jose's intense mentoring program.
• What makes for good presentations.

Jose is an avid reader, and we spent almost a half hour talking about our favorite fiction authors before hitting the record button. In the interview itself however, we do mention a few books and other resources that are more pertinent to the topic of Behavior Analysis, including:

• The various works of Dr. Gary LaVigna.
• The various works of Dr. John Lutzker.
• Teaching dating skills to individuals with disabilities (Cuvo et al., 1985).
• Vollmer et al. (1992). A content analysis of written behavior management programs. 
• Resonate, by Nancy Duarte.
• Presentation Zen: Simple Ideas on Presentation Design and Delivery (Voices That Matter) 3rd Edition, by Garr Reynolds.
• The Last Lecture, by Randy Pausch.
• The Supervisor’s Guidebook: Evidence-Based Strategies for Promoting Work Quality and Enjoyment Among Human Service Staff, Reid & Parsons.

This conversation is like a lesson in the history of Applied Behavior Analysis, and I hope you enjoy it as much as I did. 

This podcast is brought to you by:

• 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!
• 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.

The Apollo Case Study Series returns with a conversation that many Behavior Analysts will likely resonate with. 

In this episode, I speak with Kristen Vaughn, Vice President of Clinical Operations of Apollo Behavior. We discuss her career arc, and focus on her transition from providing mainly clinical services to her current role in executive management. 

We cover her early clinical experiences, what it's like to get direct and perhaps difficult to hear feedback, the challenges of letting go of clinical duties, and what it's like to work with a leadership coach. 

If you're a BCBA, or an aspiring one, chances are, you'll have to supervise the work of others in some capacity, so there are many great lessons in this episode for you. 

Related to this, we talked about the book, Motivating human service staff: Supervisory strategies for maximizing work effort and work enjoyment, by Reid and Parsons. It, along with The Supervisor’s Guidebook: Evidence-Based Strategies for Promoting Work Quality and Enjoyment Among Human Service Staff, should be considered must-reads for those in supervisory positions. 

Click here to check out previous Apollo Case Study Series podcasts, and to learn about all the fun employee engagement activities they're up to, follow them on Instagram. 

In the 15th installment of the Inside JABA Series, Editor and Chief Dr. John Borrero and I chat with Drs. Lesleigh Stinson and Jesse Dallery about their novel application of a Contingency Management intervention. In this case, they used CM procedures to reduce excessive social media use. 

Lesleigh is a Postdoctoral Researcher at the University of Florida's Center for Behavioral Economic Health Research, and Jesse is a Professor of Psychology, also at UF. 

If you're not sure what Contingency Management is, don't worry, Lesleigh and Jesse cover the basics of it in this show. For additional information, you can also check out Jesse's previous appearance on the Inside JABA Series, where he and his colleagues used smartphone mediated technologies in conjunction with CM to reduce cigarette smoking. 

This is a truly "Under the Dome" paper, and in our discussion of it, we touch on topics that include Internet Addiction, the recent APA Health Advisory on social media use, motivational interviewing, stages of change, and the benefits of single-case designs. 

This podcast, as with all other Inside JABA Series shows, is available for continuing education. To learn more about that, click here. If you want to subscribe to JABA, click here. 

We mentioned many resources and studies during this podcast. I've done my best to list them all below:

• Center for Behavioral Economic Health Research
• Jesse Dallery's lab: BHaT Lab
• Reducing problematic social media use via a package intervention (Stinson and Dallery, 2023)
• APA Health advisory on social media use in adolescence 
• N of 1 collaborative
• Screen Sanity (great resources for families)
• A behavior-analytic account of motivational interviewing (Christopher and Dougher, 2009)
• “I’s” on the prize: A systematic review of individual differences in Contingency Management treatment response (Forster et al., 2020)
• Toward an era of impact of digital contingency management in the treatment of substance use disorders (Dallery et al., 2023)
• A Preliminary Evaluation of the Effects of a Contingency Management + Deposit Contract Intervention on Problematic Smartphone Use With College Students (Williams-Buttari et al., 2023)
• Contingency management for smartphone and social media use: a feasibility study (Stanley et al., 2021)
• The association between social media use and sleep disturbance among young adults (Levenson et al., 2016)
• How Motivational Interviewing Helps Reduce Alcohol Use Problems in Young Adults: Session 158 with Jim Murphy

Problemas Pediátricos de la Alimentación con la Dra Varsovia Hernández Eslava

Aunque el tema de este episodio se centra en problemas pediátricos de la alimentación, la Dra Varsovia Hernandez Eslava nos comparte una muy interesante trayectoria profesional y un panorama e historia del análisis de la conducta en México. De aquella mirada inicial pasamos a una nueva panorámica muy detallada de los problemas pediátricos de la alimentación empezando por describir qué son y de ahí a conocer los procesos de evaluación y sus subsecuentes intervenciones. Son importantes los detalles y aclaraciones que la Dra Varsovia nos ofrece acerca del proceso evaluativo como también los varios componentes y etapas durante la intervención (los dejamos con intriga para que lo escuchen con detenimiento). Fue fascinante apreciar todas las sutilezas que un profesional competente considera a nivel clínico y de validez social. Esa importancia de las experiencias supervisadas, el obtener y mantener competencias fue claramente enfatizado. Dado el profesionalismo y responsabilidad que describe la Dra Varsovia para con las partes interesadas, no fue sorpresa escuchar de los altos niveles de adherencia, participación y satisfacción para aquellos que han interactuado con ella en estos contextos. Un modelo para nosotros seguir. Nos deja con la reflexión de buscar mentores y una búsqueda constante por nuevos y más profundos aprendizajes; de ser éticos y humildes.

Pediatric Feeding Issues with Dr. Varsovia Hernández Eslava

Although the theme of this episode focuses on pediatric feeding problems, Dr. Varsovia Hernandez Eslava shares with us a very interesting professional career and an overview and history of behavior analysis in Mexico. From that initial look, we move on to a new, very detailed overview of pediatric feeding problems, beginning by describing what they are and from there, learning about the evaluation processes and their subsequent interventions. The details and clarifications that Dr. Varsovia suggests that the evaluation process is important, as are the various components and stages during the intervention (we leave you intrigued so that you are prompted to listen carefully). It was fascinating to appreciate all the subtleties that a competent professional considers at a clinical and socially validity level. The importance of supervised experiences, obtaining and maintaining competencies was clearly emphasized. Given the professionalism and responsibility that Dr. Varsovia describes with regard to the relationship with stakeholders, it was not surprising to hear of the high levels of adherence, participation, and satisfaction for those who have interacted with her in these contexts. A model for us to follow. It leaves us with the reflection of looking for mentors and a constant search for new and deeper learning; to be ethical and humble.

In Session 225, Shira Karpel and Shayna Gaunt from How To ABA return to the show to discuss a recent webinar that they provided for their online community (note: see here for their first appearance on the podcast). 

Their talk discussed code element 1.10, from the Behavior Analysis Certification Board's Ethics Codes for Behavior Analysts. For a quick recap, it reads as follows:

1.10 Awareness of Personal Biases and Challenges

• Behavior analysts maintain awareness that their personal biases or challenges (e.g., mental or physical health conditions; legal, financial, marital/relationship challenges) may interfere with the effectiveness of their professional work.

• Behavior analysts take appropriate steps to resolve interference, ensure that their professional work is not compromised, and document all actions taken in this circumstance and the eventual outcomes.

In the spirit of this code element, Shira and Shayna discuss how they define these  biases, and how they can potentially occur in practice. More importantly, they discuss steps for detecting and responding to such biases when they do surface. 

This podcast will be available for BACB Continuing Education (1.0 Ethics Credits). To learn more about how to obtain, click here. If you want to learn more about the great community that Shira and Shayna are leading, click here. In the meantime, be sure to check out their blog, free resources, and podcast. If you decide to join their community, use the promo code, BOP, when signing up to save on your membership!

Many-time guest Dr. Andy Bondy returns to the podcast for a fun chat. Our conversation centered around a recent talk he gave which was titled, "Verbal Behavior: Myths and Misconceptions."

What myths and misconceptions are we talking about here? Well, I certainly don't want to spoil the podcast, but we did manage to cover a wide variety of topics, including:

• PECS' Certified Classroom process.
• The conceptual rather than data-based nature of the Verbal Behavior book itself.
• Recall versus recognition.
• Aided versus unaided communication systems.
• Selection versus topography-based communication systems.
• The more subtle aspects of the autoclitic.
• Whether PECS limits improvised communication.
• The topic of Matching-to-sample vs. Tacting in PECS.
• The nature of prompts.
• Constructional aspects of learning.

As many of my chats with Andy have gone, this is a podcast that could've been twice as long. Good news though: we've already scheduled a follow up interview for later on in the summer. If you have questions based on this podcast, perhaps we can feature an "Ask Andy Anything," segment.

Keep an eye on the BOP emails for future announcements.

Andy grounded his points in many empirical studies (and of course the OG text, Verbal Behavior). I've done my best to capture all of them below:

• Kuhn's, The Structure of Scientific Revolutions.
• Potter and Brown (1997). A review of studies examining the nature of selection-based and topography-based verbal behavior.
• Tincani (2004). Comparing the Picture Exchange Communication System and Sign Language Training for Children with Autism.
• Tincani et al. (2006). The Picture Exchange Communication System: Effects on Manding and Speech Development for School-Aged Children with Autism.
• Marckel et al. (2006). A preliminary analysis of teaching improvisation with the picture exchange communication system to children with autism.
• Chaabane et al. (2009). The effects of parent-implemented PECS training on improvisation of mands by children with autism.
• Schreibman and Stahmer (2014). A randomized trial comparison of the effects  of verbal and pictorial naturalistic communication strategies on spoken  language for young children with autism.
• See here for Andy's previous appearances on the BOP.

Find out more about PECS' services, products, and trainings here.

• 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.
• 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.
• 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!

This is a fun conversation to share, not only because it involves chatting with three very smart grad students from my alma mater, Auburn University, but also because the topic tackles an issue that is outside of what we might consider the "mainstream" of Applied Behavior Analysis.

A few months ago, Ashley Anderson, Daniel Sheridan, and Anna Kate Edgemon reached out to me, and informed me of the great work they're doing supporting justice-involved youth in a juvenile detention setting.

As I learned, there is some history of behavior analysts practicing in this area, and these grad students, led by Dr. John Rapp and colleagues, have been developing effective interventions in these settings. And when I say effective, I'm talking about incredibly low recidivism rates...

But I'm getting ahead of myself. If this is unfamiliar territory for you, don't worry. We go over enough introductory terms and definitions to get you up to speed straight away.

Also, there are some great meta-lessons embedded in this conversation about rapport building, staff training, cultural competence, teaching real-life skills, and more. So even if this specific topic is not your thing, there are parts of this interview that I think will apply to your practice.

I left this conversation really inspired by the somewhat untapped potential for our field, and I hope the intervention strategies these guests and their colleagues are publishing become adopted at a much wider scale!

This research group has been prolific, and here are some of not only their papers, but others in this space that you might find helpful:

Related to Juvenile Justice (History & Review):

• Morris (1980)
• Apel & Diller (2017)
• Children/Persons in Need of Supervision (CHINS).
• Mack (1909). The Juvenile Court.

Auburn’s Partnership & Related Research:

• Luna et al. (2022)
• Brogan et al. (2018).
• Sheridan et al. (2023).
• Bush et al. (in press).
• Coon et al. (2022).
• Brogan et al. (2020).
• Edgemon et al. (2020).
• What does "War Eagle!" mean?

This session of Behavioral Observations is brought to you by the following:

• 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. To learn more about their thriving and supportive online community, CEU events, support materials, and more, go to howtoaba.com/join, and use code BOP at checkout to get 10% off a yearly subscription.
• 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!
• 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.
• 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.