Drs. Jason Vladescu, Lauren Schnell, and Jessica Day-Watkins join me in Session 220 to talk about their research in training parents and caregivers on safe sleeping habits for infants. 

As you'll learn, there are sleeping practices that are recommended by Pediatric groups that reduce the likelihood of Sudden Unexpected Infant Deaths (SUIDs) in general, and Accidental Suffocation and Strangulation in Bed (ASSB) incidents. If those are new terms to you, don't worry, we get into what they mean, how frequently they occur, and lots more. 

And while this may seem like a depressing or morbid topic, and I've known people who've had children succumb to this, I also see this as a story of hope in that studies like these will lead to a wider adoption of sleeping practices that, over time, should reduce unnecessary infant deaths. 

Jason is a Professor in the Applied Behavior Analysis Department at Caldwell University, Lauren is an Assistant Professor at Hunter College, and Jessica is an Assistant Professor at the AJ Drexel Autism Institute. 

Together they worked on several projects in the area of infant safe sleeping, which culminated in some publications in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, which we discuss in this podcast. 

What I found fascinating about this topic is that it allowed us to discuss a wider range of issues that transcend safe sleeping practices. These include staff training, cultural humility, public health and policy, contingency management, video modeling, dissemination... the list goes on. There's an angle here for everyone.

Here are some links to what we discussed:

• Vladescu et al. (2020). 
• Mery et al. (2022).
• Mery et al. (2023).
• Inside JABA 14.
• Inside JABA 6.
• American Association of SIDS Prevention Physicians.
• AAP Safe Sleep Recommendations.

This podcast is brought to you by the following sponsors:

• 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  session in their 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. Go to https://members.howtoaba.com/join.  When you join today and use code BOP, you’ll receive 10% off a yearly subscription (includes CEU’s!).
• 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.

Dr. Greg Hanley returns to Behavioral Observations for another round of fun conversation on the assessment and treatment of severe problem behavior. 

This show gets into the weeds of the Practical Functional Assessment/Skills-Based Treatment Process right away, so if you have nuanc-ey questions or concerns about PFA/SBT, this is the show for you. 

In this segment of the show, we discuss the changes his company, FTF, had to roll with over the last few years, what he and his colleagues are up to now. We spend a considerably amount of time discussing what they've learned about functional assessment and treatment, and how their process has evolved over the years, especially in terms of the types of individuals who benefit from these interventions, as well as those who do not. 

Perhaps my favorite part of the conversation was when we discussed the complex nature of Skills-Based Treatment. To this end, Greg talked about the kind of training one ideally needs to be able to implement an SBT session successfully. Long story short, it's more than teaching someone to say, "My Way." 

Speaking of training, FTF offers a variety of on-demand virtual trainings, in-person live workshops, and short and long-term consultation engagements. 

Greg also mentioned numerous papers, most of which you can find here. If there are others not represented on this page, let me know and I'll add those to the show notes. 

What we didn't get into is the outreach FTF is making with using this process in public school settings. We also didn't get a chance to get into the SBT data collection app that his colleagues at Hi-Rasmus has created, but you can check out here. 

OK, back to the interview... after a lengthy nuts and bolts discussion of the what makes for successful SBT interventions, we broadened the lens to discuss many of the so-called 'hot topics,' in Behavior Analysis these days. This included:

• The influence of social media groups. 
• Overly rigid rule adherence, in which we spend a fair bit of time talking about token systems.
• Greg's perspective on Trauma-informed and Trauma-assumed ABA.
• Other aspects of "Hyphenated-ABA" that are being discussed. 
• Practical perspectives on assent... and if you're like me, and often think about the limitations of assent-based models of treatment, this will be helpful (and by the way, check out this article by Dr. Paulie Gavoni and Steve Ward), and, 
• The use of extinction. 

Greg also opened up a bit about how he almost left the field of ABA. You read that correctly. You'll have to listen to the show to hear about this in his own words. 

Greg was extremely generous with his time, and even stuck around to answer questions that I solicited from Patreon members. As you might imagine, there were a lot of great questions, and the answers were punctuated with a few really funny stories that you won't want to miss. 

All of this to say that I enjoyed this conversation immensely, and I hope you do too :-)

This podcast is brought to you by

• 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  session in their 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. Go to howtoaba.com/join.  When you join today and use code BOP, you’ll receive 10% off a yearly subscription (includes CEU’s!).
• 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 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!
• 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 Session 218 of Behavioral Observations, Troy Fry joins me to talk about his long career in Behavior Analysis helping individuals with disabilities improve their quality of life by learning meaningful skills.

In particular, we discussed:

• How he found his way to Behavior Analysis at a time when it wasn't nearly as seemingly ubiquitous as it is today.
• What it was like to be mentored by Ray Miltenberger, Don Baer, Barbara Etzel,  Montrose Wolf, and more.
• How Troy became colleagues with Pat McGreevy.
• A brief history of the treatment of adults with severe developmental challenges in the United States.
• Troy's extensive international work in France and Italy, and what it's like to provide services in large, congregate-care facilities.

We also spend a bit of time talking about his talk at the upcoming Verbal Behavior Conference. As he describes in our conversation, EFL is rolling out the Performance Analysis Tool, and his talk at the Verbal Behavior Conference will elaborate on that in more detail.

If you're interested in what Troy has to say, consider attending the Verbal Behavior Conference on March 30th and 31st. The on-site event will be held in Austin, TX, but if you can't make it there, the virtual event is a fantastic option.

The cool thing about the VBC, especially in-person, is that attendees really have lots of opportunities to interact with the speakers. In fact, at the end of the first day, I have the honor of moderating a panel with all the speakers.

A panel, in this case, is really just an opportunity for you to ask the speakers questions directly. And audience Q and A is open to both virtual and in-person attendees. In fact, in last year's conference, we had more questions from our virtual audience!

This podcast is brought to you by 

•    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  session in their 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. 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 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.
•    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 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!

En esta segunda sesión de la serie de Behavioral Observations para Hispanohablantes, el Dr. Luis Morales Knight vuelve a compartir su experiencia como Psicólogo Clínico. Esta vez centra su historia de origen en resaltar sus experiencias en el análisis de comportamiento tradicional que lo llevaron a su práctica utilizando ACT y Psicoterapia Analítico-Funcional. 

El Dr. Knight enfatiza la importancia de una base teórica sólida para mejorar la práctica. Comparte su transición a la telemedicina impulsada por la pandemia y los desafíos comunes de sus clientes después de la pandemia, incluida la "adultez", los efectos del consumo de las redes sociales y la medicalización de la experiencia humana. También comenta acerca de las diversas dinámicas de las sesiones terapéuticas con niños, adolescentes y adultos. 

Por último, nos deja con una gran nota sobre alejarnos de la perspectiva de la culpa y pasar a una visión a las circunstancias que nos lleva a tener más compasión (¿te suena familiar?).

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Si te sientes estancado con algunos de tus aprendices que tienen grandes desafios en el desarrollo, y aunque inviertas horas y horas en enseñarle, no estás mejorando su vida significativamente.

Si estás confundida y no sabes por dónde empezar o sabes que las herramientas que has utilizado no son adecuadas para ellos

Queremos decirte algo, ¡puedes mejorar su calidad de vida significativamente si re piensas qué estás enseñando y cómo lo estás enseñando!

El jueves 2 de marzo realizaremos un evento en línea y gratuito llamado Re-Pensando el Rumbo, donde enseñaremos a profesionales como tú a utilizar el currículum Essential for Living (Esenciales para la Vida) para identificar qué habilidades son imprescindibles enseñar a niños y adultos con grandes desafíos en el desarrollo para mejorar su calidad de vida. Para Participar, haz click en este enlace  www.diversitad.com/re-pensando-el-rumbo e inscríbete.

¡Aun No es tarde para repensar el rumbo!

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Functional Analytic Psychotherapy, ACT and Telemedicine with Dr. Luis Morales Knight

In this second session of the series Behavioral Observations for Spanish Speakers, Dr. Luis Morales Knight comes back to share his experience as a Clinical Psychologist. 

This time he focuses his origin story on highlighting his experiences in traditional behavior analysis leading to his practice using ACT and Functional Analytic Psychotherapy. Dr. Knight emphasizes the importance of strong theoretical foundations to enhance better practice. He shares his transition to telemedicine prompted by the pandemic and the common struggles of his clients post pandemic including “adulting”, effects of social media consumption, and the medicalization of the human experience. He also discusses the various dynamics of the therapeutic sessions with children, adolescents and adults. Lastly, he leaves us with a great note about moving away from the blame perspective and into a circumstantial view that leads us to have more compassion (sound familiar?)

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.

• 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 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.