Dr. Bruce Tinor returns to the podcast for an informative conversation about his work as a principal at The Child and Career Developmental Center of Chester County, Pennsylvania. Long-time listeners will recall that Bruce originally joined me in Session 197.
In this podcast, we talk all things alternative ed. Specifically, Bruce gives a quick review of how students find their way to his school, and in doing so, provides a mini-seminar in FAPE (and if you're not familiar with that acronym, you will be shortly). We talk about working in a multidisciplinary setting, how those related services are provided, improving academic skills as a behavioral intervention, and in general, what it's like to be a BCBA and a school principal.
In many ways, this is a podcast about culture and leadership too. Bruce talks about his interview practices and how he supports teachers and staff throughout the day. We also talk about some of the unique Tier 1 and Tier 2 behavioral practices, how he makes new students feel welcome, his behavioral approach to social-emotional learning, and lots more.
We close the podcast with what I thought was a really special discussion about Bruce being a role model. I don't want to spoil that part of the podcast here. You'll definitely want to listen to it for yourself, so I hope you check that part of the show out.
This podcast is brought to you by the following:
Dr. Chris McGinnis joins me in Session 266 to talk about his work in Primary Care Behavioral Pediatrics. If you're not sure what that is, don't worry. We go over that right away and learn that this area of work sits in an important and underserved niche: The niche between the general behavioral advice dispensed by pediatricians, and intensive treatment for serious mental health challenges.
In a way, this conversation expands on something that Pat Friman brought up in our most recent interview: The idea that BCBAs are uniquely suited to provide families with this type of care. In order to provide direction to those who are interested in doing just this, Chris recently published Introduction to Primary Care Behavioral Pediatrics: A Guide for Behavior Analysts.
In our conversation, we covered:
· His background in Behavioral Pediatrics, including his work at BoysTown (and meeting Pat Friman for the first time).
· The motivation for writing his book.
· The reification of psychological terms (see Skinner '45).
· The myth of the Chemical Imbalance Hypothesis.
· The range of behavior challenges he sees in his practice.
· Thoughts on caregiver adherence.
· The pros and cons of reimbursement practices, including the concierge model he has currently adopted.
· Chris' study of Trauma-Informed Care.
· Permissive vs. Authoritative, and how those related to adolescent mental health.... In other words, why parenting is like The Marshmallow Test.
· Advice for the newly-minted BCBA.
This podcast is brought to you by the following:
Dr. Camille Kolu joins me again on the podcast, and let's just say that she came back loaded with great insights like these to share with you.
If you're not familiar with Camille, she's been on the show before (see here), and is one of the predominant voices discussing the impact of trauma, and how it interacts with what we do as Behavior Analysts.
In this episode, we discuss her recent paper in Behavior Analysis in Practice, Providing Buffers, Solving Barriers: Value‐Driven Policies and Actions that Protect Clients Today and Increase the Chances of Thriving Tomorrow.
This article is not about trauma, but instead, it's about practices and repertoires that can protect individuals from the harmful health impacts of adverse childhood experiences. We also discuss Camille's article in Operants Magazine, called, Understanding Choice, which is where that audio segment was clipped from.
If you like the work that Camille does and want more training from her, she has generously provided listeners with a discount on her training materials over at Cusp Emergence University. If you want to go deeper into this topic of Buffers and Barriers, she has not one, but two courses on it, providing both Ethics and Supervision CEUs. If you want take her other courses in the area of Trauma, you can do that too (just click here to check it out). When you do so, be sure to use the promo code summerofBOP24 to save 24% off at checkout.
Camille also created a free, 15-minute course called, The Buffers Story: Simple, Important Things We Almost Forgot, and she'll be doing a workshop later this month with Connections-Behavior.
Lastly, if you like Camille's content, perhaps the easiest way to keep up with it is to sign up for her mailing list.
Burke-Harris (2018). The Deepest Well: Healing the Long-Term Effects of Childhood Adversity (note: Amazon Associates link).
Ala'i-Rosales et al. (2019). The Big Four: Functional Assessment Research Informs Preventative Behavior Analysis.
Ratey (2008). Spark: The Revolutionary New Science of Exercise and the Brain (note: Amazon Associates link).
Inside JABA 10: Towards Trauma-Informed Applications of Behavior Analysis.
Maier and Seligman (2016). Learned helplessness at fifty: Insights from neuroscience.
In full disclosure, these are not sponsored products and events; I’m just trying to get the word out there. However, the sponsors that are responsible for bringing this episode to you include: