Adopting Precision Teaching Across a Multi-State Provider: Session 186 with Chrissy Barosky

In Session 186, I am joined by Chrissy Barosky, Clinical Director for Bierman Autism Centers. In this episode, we discussed how their organization adopted a Precision Teaching approach for their learners. 

You heard that correctly, a large multi-state organization transitioned all of their data collection practices to the Standard Celeration Chart. So in this show, we dive into how Chrissy and her colleagues managed to pull this off, what they learned during the process, and the benefits they've seen from taking on such a large endeavor.

We also discussed a paper that Chrissy and her colleagues published in Behavior Analysis in Practice titled, Increasing Trials Presented to Children With Autism: Using Frequency Building With Modeling and Feedback. This is a case study of how the authors taught behavioral technicians to improve the efficiency of their teaching using a frequency-building approach.

Whether or not you care about the chart, I think this is an interesting episode because it speaks to a larger issue of organizational change. Chances are, if you're listing to this podcast, you're not using the chart. Imagine for a moment that your agency decided to adopt it? So in many respects, this episode presents an opportunity for a fun thought experiment about about changing clinical practices, and I hope you find the exercise helpful. 

As a matter of housekeeping, I to apologize for some of the audio quality challenges issues we had during this episode, including my dogs barking for several minutes when my town decided to do some tree-trimming along my road. I don't think it detracts from the overall conversation, but wanted to make a note of this. 

Here are links to some of the resources we mentioned:

• Bierman Autism Centers 
• Can precision teaching save the world? 
• Barosky, Keane, and Gallagher (2021). Increasing Trials Presented to Children With Autism: Using Frequency Building With Modeling and Feedback
• A slideshow where a 5 year old teaches a charting tutorial (translation: you can do it too!)
• Where you can purchase charts and learn more.
• The Standard Celeration Society FB group
• Links to several BOP shows on Precision Teaching
• Bulla et al (2021). Introduction to the Special Section: Precision Teaching: Discoveries and Applications
• Octave's Project Blue training for aspiring charters
• Rick Kubina's Precision Teaching books
• PrecisionX charting software

Session 186 is brought to you with support from:

• 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.
• Behavior University. (who incidentally is sponsoring the Stone Soup Conference!) Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings, including their brand new 8-hour Supervision Course, as well as their RBT offerings over at behavioruniversity.com/observations.
• The 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.