Association for Behavior Analysis International

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Attendees should be familiar with functional analysis and assessment.

In order to maintain ethical obligations, behavior analysts must ensure the treatment they provide to patients is effective. While research has demonstrated that applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy provided over telehealth modalities is effective for clinical supervision and caregiver consultation, there is limited research on the effectiveness of ABA over telehealth directly to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). This study utilized natural environment teaching and discrete trial training procedures provided over a videoconferencing platform to teach new skills directly to eight individuals, between 4 and 16 years old, with a primary diagnosis of ASD. Skills were taught directly to each individual solely over the videoconferencing platform in a multiple baseline research design. Skills taught were in the language, adaptive, and social domains. All eight individuals acquired mastery for all targets. Additionally, generalization was assessed to caregivers for some targets and findings are discussed. Results suggest that ABA provided over telehealth directly to the patient is a modality that is effective and can be considered for all patients when assessing the appropriate location of treatment.

As telehealth direct therapy is increasingly provided to individuals with autism spectrum disorder, it is critical to ensure that the intervention is provided with integrity. Not only is this central in ensuring services are of a high quality; measuring integrity is also a necessary part of meeting ethical practice requirements. The telehealth therapy treatment integrity measure (TTTIM) includes seven sections that address various aspects of a telehealth direct therapy session: 1) caregiver engagement and support, 2) planning, 3) patient engagement, 4) downtime, 5) behavior intervention plan, 6) skill acquisition, and 7) data collection. Each section includes items that specify critical behaviors the behavior technician (BT) should implement. Items specify behaviors that are telehealth specific as well as behaviors that require generalization of an existing BT skill set to the videoconferencing platform. A description of the TTTIM and strategies for implementation will be discussed. The TTTIM provides an initial definition of behaviors a BT should implement during a telehealth direct therapy session in order to ensure they are providing quality services within their scope of competence.

As variations of functional analysis (FA) continue to be studied and expanded, the feasibility and acceptability of implementing FAs in applied settings have increased. However, there remain gaps in the literature in terms of limitations in ecological validity, such as using natural settings, involving indigenous implementers, having normative comparisons, and maximizing the usefulness of FA results in guiding intervention selection. This symposium will present two single-case design studies on adaptations of FA procedures to address these issues and one systematic review that examined the ecological validity of function-based interventions (FBIs). The first paper identifies appropriate communication and play skills in typically developing children using a modified trial-based functional analysis and provides a normative sample for comparison with children who are targeting the acquisition of appropriate skills to replace problem behavior. The second paper examines potential sub-functions of automatically reinforced stereotypy in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) through a practitioner-implemented modified FA to determine if stereotypic behaviors are influenced by varying levels of environmental stimulation. The third paper examines existing FBIs for children with ASD in schools to identify strengths and weaknesses related to ecological validity. Recommendations for improving the ecological validity of FAs and FBIs will be discussed.

Researchers, BCBAs, graduate students in applied behavior analysis or special education. Prerequisite skills include knowledge or experience in implementing functional analyses and function-based interventions.

Prior research has established that automatic reinforcement is the most prevalent function of stereotypic behavior, which is typically determined through a functional analysis (FA). However, difficulty in accessing and manipulating the contingencies that automatically maintain stereotypic behaviors restricts the ability to determine potential sub-functions of automatic function (i.e., automatic positive reinforcement or automatic negative reinforcement), which may lead to limitations in designing function-based interventions that specifically address variables that maintain stereotypic behavior. Identifying potential sub-functions of automatically maintained stereotypic behavior may help practitioners determine if an individual engages in stereotypic behavior to access or escape stimulation. We conducted a modified functional assessment across three young children with ASD including a brief interview, a screener FA with an alone condition, and a pairwise FA consisting of high-stimulation alone and low-stimulation alone conditions. FA results show that one participant engaged in diminishing levels of stereotypic behavior across both high- and low-stimulation conditions, indicating that the behavior had a social function. Two participants engaged in higher levels of stereotypic behavior in the low-stimulation alone condition, indicating that their stereotypies were primarily maintained by automatic positive reinforcement. Our findings offer practical implications for environmental modification to address stereotypic behavior in children with ASD.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have deficits in imitation skills. Imitation skills are prerequisites to acquiring more complex behaviors. Often these deficits are debilitating as individuals move into adulthood and need to imitate the skills of peers, teachers, and colleagues. Baer et al. (1967) defined imitation as any behavior that temporally follows a behavior emitted by the model, and the imitative behavior’s topography is functionally controlled by the model’s behavior topography. Thus, the model becomes a critical aspect to teaching individuals to imitate. In this symposium, we discuss methods in which imitation skills were taught to children with ASD. In the first presentation, the presenter will describe a study in which modeling and prompting procedures were used to teach Syrian children with ASD imitation skills including eye contact. In the second presentation, the presenter will describe a study in which the effectiveness of two methods of prompting were compared. Based on the outcome, the most effective prompting procedure was used to teach imitation skills using a mirror to children with ASD. The symposium will conclude with remarks from a discussant.

The target audience includes practitioners delivering services to individuals with autism spectrum disorder and developmental disabilities. Attendees should have basic understanding of terminology related to imitation, generalization, and single-case research design.

In this presentation we will describe the effects of prompting and modeling on imitation skills and eye contact of three Arabic-speaking children with autism spectrum disorder. A multiple baseline design with a withdrawal component was used to evaluate the effects in a clinical setting and in follow up sessions conducted in the participants’ homes. All participants’ imitative responding increased when modeling and prompting was used. Additionally, participants’ percentages of the targeted imitation skills maintained at a high correct percentage at the two- and five-week follow-up. Finally, participants’ percentage of eye contact increased during the modeling and prompting conditions and maintained at follow-up will be discussed.

Up to two-thirds of youth with autism spectrum disorder develop challenging behaviors, which are the most common cause for referral to behavioral health services in this population. While progress in treatment in this area has been made, many youth remain treatment refractory or unresponsive to the work of a single discipline. Specialized acute inpatient psychiatry units can be utilized to bring together the strengths of applied behavior analysis and other disciplines to assess and treat complex challenging behaviors. The service landscape, approach, and treatment evidence for these settings will be reviewed, and emerging novel approaches utilizing detection of physiologic signals in relation to challenging behaviors will be presented.

Practicing behavior analysts, administrators of ABA programs, clinical researchers.

Dr. Siegel is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics of Tufts University School of Medicine, Vice President of Medical Affairs, Developmental Disorders Service of Maine Behavioral Healthcare, and Faculty Scientist II at Maine Medical Center Research Institute. He has developed a nationally recognized continuum of treatment and research for individuals with autism, intellectual disability and co-occurring mental illness and challenging behaviors.

Dr. Siegel attended Amherst College, Stanford Medical School and trained at Brown University in child psychiatry, psychiatry, and pediatrics. He is the Principal Investigator of the Autism and Developmental Disorders Inpatient Research Collaborative (ADDIRC), a network of specialized child psychiatry units performing studies of children severely affected by autism and intellectual disability. Dr. Siegel is nationally recognized for his expertise in inpatient care and the treatment of serious challenging behaviors. He served on the Autism and Intellectual Disability Committee of the American Academy of Child & Adolescent Psychiatry for a decade and is a co-author of the Academy’s Practice Parameter on the Assessment and Treatment of Children and Adolescents with Autism Spectrum Disorder and the Parameter for the Assessment and Treatment of Psychiatric Disorders in Children and Adolescents with Intellectual Disability.

Extensive research has demonstrated the efficacy of interventions using differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA) for reducing undesirable behavior. Although these interventions are efficacious, empirical studies have demonstrated that DRA treatments often fail to maintain behavior reductions under challenging conditions. For example, changes in context and reductions in treatment fidelity often cause undesirable behavior to recur. When problem behavior returns following initially efficacious interventions, this is generally known as treatment relapse. Research has shown that treatment relapse is a highly prevalent phenomenon in clinical settings, suggesting an urgent need to understand the variables affecting relapse and the development of mitigation strategies to minimize its occurrence. Translational research is beneficial for manipulating the relevant variables present during treatment challenges using precisely controlled procedures, providing researchers with knowledge that can be used to develop techniques to enhance the durability of DRA interventions in applied settings. In this symposium, our presenters will share their recent research on treatment relapse following DRA interventions using translational preparations. Implications for such findings for individuals with problem behavior and future endeavors for treatment relapse research will be discussed.

This talk will discuss how to induce observing responses for children who are pre-observers. These children typically don’t orient to other’s faces, listen to other’s voices, or attend to educational materials presented in pictures or objects. Without these foundational observing responses, everything else will fall short. It would be extremely challenging to teach them visual match-to-sample, conditional discrimination, let alone derived relations. Traditionally, these students rely heavily on prompts from their teachers and caregivers. They also require substantially more trials to reach their learning objectives. Our CABAS® research labs, which are affiliated with Teachers College Columbia University, have identified a sequence of verbal behavior cusps and developed the intervention protocols for those who are missing any of these cusps. This talk will focus on the recent advances in the study of observing responses and intervention protocols. These protocols are shown to be effective in establishing the conditioned reinforcement and increasing the children’s general awareness of their surroundings. In particular, children learn to select out people’s faces and voices as well as pictures and objects as discriminative stimuli from their environment. In consequence, they require fewer prompts during instruction and their learning rates also increase dramatically. Once these foundational cusps for verbal behavior are established, children will be ready to learn things they are not able to before (e.g., see-do, hear-do, bidirectional naming).

Board-certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students

Dr. Lin Du received her first MA in sociology from Nanjing University, China. She then earned her MA and Ph.D. in applied behavior analysis from Teachers College, Columbia University. She is a CABAS® senior behavior analyst, associate research scientist, New York State Licensed behavior analyst, and BCBA-D. Dr Du is a research scientist and program supervisor at the Fred S. Keller school (a R&D lab for master and doctoral candidates in ABA and school psychology programs at Teachers College, Columbia University). She is also an adjunct assistant professor of behavior analysis at Teachers College, Columbia University. Her primary research interests are verbal behavior development of children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). She has published two books, several book chapters and many peer-reviewed papers in the behavior analytic journals, including the Psychological Record, Journal of Béhavioral and Brain Science, Behavior Development Bulletin, Behavior Analysis in Practice, European Journal of Behavior Analysis, The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, and International Journal of Behavior Analysis and Autism Disorder. 

Behavioral Safety is not only relevant to “classical” physical work in plants. It’s also important in social service organizations and other environments that are not typically in focus, when thinking about workplace safety. This symposium highlights several developments in behavioral safety. One is the application of the well-established procedures to work environments previously not being targeted much by behavior analysis. The first talk is about the use of the Performance-Diagnostic Checklist – Safety (PDC-S) to enhance safety in two social service institutions. The other presentations in this symposium describe the collaborative effort of machinery safety experts and behavior analysts to include the knowledge of behavior analysis into international standards of workplace safety like the International Standard Organization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Behavior analysis introduces it’s measurement and assessment strategies to machinery safety, to make the human factor – once thought of as a “soft” factor – more controllable and manageable. Perspecitves for future developments are discussed.

Employees in social service institutions, e.g. those providing day care for mentally and / or physically impaired adults or social work assistance for endangered youths face a variety of safety hazards. Those hazards origin not only from the physical environment but also from the behavior of the people taken care of. To analyze the contingencies influencing the safety of employees in organizations, Martinez-Onstott, Wilder, and Sigurdsson (2016) developed the Performance Diagnosis Checklist Safety (PDC-S). The PDC-HS (Human Services; Carr, Wilder, Majdalany, Mathisen & Strain, 2013) addresses performance problems including safety issues in human service organizations. We present two applications of these checklists to analyze the contingencies underlying safety issues in an intermediate home for children with various behavior problems and in a sheltered workshop for adults with multiple mental and physical disabilities. Results were used to develop safety checklists for behavioral self-monitoring of employees and safety observations of the work environment and the behavior of the people looked after.

Differential responding to long intervals—i.e., long-interval timing—requires a functional hippocampus (HPC). However, reduced timing capacity in HPC-lesioned animals performing timing tasks is complicated by ostensible motivational effects which arise from the delay-to-reward imposed by interval timing tasks, as well as overlap between timed and non-timed responses. To address these concerns, two adjustments to long-interval timing tasks are proposed. First, subjects should be afforded with reinforced non-timing behaviors concurrent with timing. Second, subjects should initiate the onset of timed stimuli. Under these conditions, interference by extraneous behavior would be detected in the rate of concurrent non-timing behaviors, and changes in motivation would be detected in the rate at which timed stimuli are initiated. In a task with these characteristics, rats initiated a concurrent fixed-interval (FI) random-ratio (RR) schedule of reinforcement. Changes in schedule requirements affected the rate of initiating responses and the timing of changeovers, but reduced reinforcer efficacy, via pre-session feeding, only affected the former. A similar task using concurrent FI FI schedules revealed the effects of chronic variable stress—which reliably impacts hippocampal function—on motivation and interval timing.

This presentation will address the question of effective practices for the treatment of individuals with autism spectrum disorder, from both an epistemological and a therapeutic perspective, and suggest the importance of a synthesis of two paradigms—behavior analysis and general systems theory—as a means of optimizing our assessment of the needs and the services provided to people with disabilities. Despite the development and the use of a wide array of behavior analytic practices that help all children with ASD to reach their full potential, a question that remains under-researched has to do with the effort expected from the child and his/her family and whether this effort can be somehow lessened without compromising the benefits. The answer to that question led to investigating the properties of another epistemological paradigm—general systems theory—its merits, its compatibility, and its complementarity to the discipline of behavior analysis. This presentation aims to demonstrate that the two paradigms are compatible and complementary and that their combination may lead to optimizing the therapeutic and pedagogical outcomes of behavior analytic practices. If we are to adapt a systemic perspective, according to which the joining of two or more systems leads to an outcome that exceeds by far the additive effects of those systems, it will be interesting to assess the potential emergent benefits of the synthesis of two compatible and complementary epistemological paradigms and how those translate into therapeutic outcomes.

Researchers and therapists in the field of autism spectrum disorder.

Functional communication training (FCT) has strong empirical support for its use when treating socially reinforced problem behavior. However, treatment effects often deteriorate when FCT procedures are challenged, leading to the recurrence of problem behavior, decreased use of the functional communication response, or both. Recent prevalence estimates suggest that treatment relapse is common in the clinic. Researchers have accordingly described a number of strategies for improving the long-term effectiveness of differential-reinforcement-based procedures (e.g., FCT), and quantitative theories of relapse (i.e., Behavioral Momentum Theory, Resurgence as Choice) provide falsifiable predications regarding modifications for mitigating treatment relapse. In this presentation, I share recent research on the prevalence of treatment relapse during routine, clinical service delivery and discuss our work on applying quantitative models of relapse to improve treatment durability. Future steps for advancing promising relapse-mitigations strategies will also be discussed, as will clinical considerations that limit the practicality of otherwise effective mitigation procedures.

BCBAs, applied and basic researchers

One effective component that leads to better health and educational outcomes is Interprofessional Education and Collaborative Practice (IPEC) (WHO, 2016) and another is developing culturally aware practices. This panel facilitates discussions regarding the initial establishment of interprofessional collaborations, ways to bridge cultures and create partnerships, challenges to collaboration from an international perspective, and the roles of cultural competencies and cultural humility in fostering effective collaborative and therapeutic relationships. Case examples will be presented from the United Arab Emirates, Europe, Canada and the United States, reflecting challenges and successes in fostering positive collaborative relationships with various stakeholders, including government. Panelists will also discuss suggestions for how to effectively resolve conflicts to improve health and education outcomes for all clients and raise a call to action for the field of behavior analysis to develop education and training systems/programs that foster building culturally aware practices and cultural humility, and promote the dissemination of the science of behavior analysis across international borders.

Behavior analysts and professionals from other disciplines that have more than 1 year practical working experience with individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. Students enrolled in an ABA master's program. University Professors of ABA programs. Clinical supervisor of ABA services. Parents who are members of ABA advocacy groups.

Over the past 10 years, as the prevalence rate of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) increased, applied behavior analysis (ABA) has become the topic of interest in Saudi Arabia. It has drawn the attention of medical professionals, teachers, clinicians, stakeholders, and legislators alike. ABA is increasingly being recognized as the leading evidence-based intervention for individuals with ASD, and with this rising recognition, there is a growing demand for accountability and provision of state-of-the-art services. To respond to this demand, we have established the first verified course sequences in the Middle East on both undergraduate and graduate levels, as well as provided collaborations with schools and clinics. In this presentation, I describe the dissemination efforts made through training behavior analysts, implementation of positive behavior support in schools, and advocating for services and the establishment of a local legislative body. Furthermore, the significant growth in the number of certificants, clinics using ABA, ABA training programs, as well as the current challenges and the future of ABA in Saudi Arabia are discussed.

Dr. Baowaidan is the department chair of the Master of Science Program in Applied Behavior Analysis and assistant professor of special education at Dar Al-Hekma University, Saudi Arabia. She launched the first graduate program in ABA in the Middle East.  In 2016, she became the first Saudi to hold a Ph.D. in Applied Behavior Analysis and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst with doctoral designation (BCBA-Dâ). She earned her MA and Ph.D. in Applied Behavior Analysis from Columbia University under the direction of professor R. Douglas Greer. She has extensive teaching experience with children with and without special needs under the CABAS® model of schooling at the Fred S Keller School, where she also acted as a program supervisor and served as a clinical professor to many graduate students.

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) may exhibit deficits in language and social communication; therefore, behavioral intervention needs to ameliorate deficits in verbal behavior and expand relevant repertoires. Continuous refinement of procedures to assess and teach these skills is needed to promote efficacious and efficient intervention strategies, which should produce meaningful outcomes for clients. This symposium will present empirical data from research projects aimed at identifying efficacious and efficient procedures to teach and expand the verbal repertoires of children with ASD. Jones et al. will report on a comparison of procedures to teach multiply-controlled verbal behavior, short story recall. Livingston et al. will present on a comparison of methods used to condition echoic behavior as reinforcers to increase vocalizations. Niland et al. will describe the results of a comparison of isolated and compound stimulus presentations to teach auditory tacts. Finally, Scott et al. will describe the results of a comparison of different antecedent verbal stimuli on the acquisition and emergence of bidirectional intraverbals. Presentations will be followed by a discussion of applied implications and future directions.

Reading comprehension is an important early academic skill that may pose challenges for some children with autism. Prior research (Valentino, Conine, Delfs, & Furlow 2015) has reported effective methods for teaching children with autism to retell short stories that were previously read to them, as a possible first step in establishing a reading comprehension repertoire. We replicated and extended this prior work with three school-aged children with autism using a multiple baseline across stories and a non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants. Participants were exposed to an initial baseline, a reading with reinforcement condition (treatment 1), and a backward chaining with textual prompts condition (treatment 2). All three participants emitted mastery-level recall of stories more rapidly and under less complex intervention procedures than in prior research. Improvements in story recall were associated with increases in correct answers to basic comprehension questions, and intervention also resulted in generalized improvements in recall across multiple stories. We also conducted standardized reading assessments with all participants before and after completion of the study. These data have important implications for behavior analysts and educators providing reading intervention to children with autism, and suggest several possible avenues for future research on reading comprehension and recall.

Tacts are verbal operants evoked by some object, event, or stimulus feature, and tacts should occur in the presence of stimuli across all five senses. An example of an auditory tact is saying “siren” upon hearing the high-pitched noise of an ambulance. We replicated and extended a study by Hanney, Carr, and LeBlanc (2019) by examining the efficacy and efficiency of three different stimulus-presentation conditions including: (a) isolated, (b) compound with known visual stimulus, and (c) compound with unknown visual stimulus. We evaluated the acquisition of auditory tacts with an adapted alternating treatments design embedded within a nonconcurrent multiple-baseline design across sets with two children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). All three conditions were efficacious with at least one set of stimuli for each participant. However, the compound conditions were more likely to lead to mastery in the least amount of time. In transfer probes, isolated stimuli were presented as compound stimuli and compound stimuli were presented in isolation; correct auditory tacts emitted during probes indicated appropriate control of auditory stimuli persisted. Implications for future applied research and application to practice will be discussed.

Behavior analytic interventions delivered via telehealth have undergone a number of experimental evaluations with evidence supporting the use of telehealth to reduce problem behavior and increase functional communication. This symposium presents the results of four studies, conducted across three different research labs, evaluating innovations in the assessment and treatment of problem behavior via telehealth with a focus on parent-implemented assessments and interventions. The symposium will begin with a brief literature review focused on the evidence supporting functional assessment and function-based treatment delivered via telehealth (Talk 1). Researchers will then present advances in assessment including results from a brief functional analysis delivered via telehealth (Talk 2) and telehealth-mediated functional communication training conducted internationally with families in Asia (Talk 3). Author(s) also demonstrate the generalizability of functional communication training beyond training contexts (Talk 4). Finally, as a leader in this area of behavior analysis, Dr. Jennifer McComas, will discuss the studies, findings, and implications for research and practice.

As the world continues to navigate the COVID-19 health crisis, behavior analysts are considering how best to support families while maintaining services and ensuring the health and safety of everyone involved. Telehealth is one service delivery option that provides families with access to care in their own communities and homes. This presentation will review the findings of Schieltz and Wacker (2020) by providing a brief review of the behavior analytic telehealth literature in applied behavior analysis that provided coaching and training to families for individuals who displayed challenging behavior. These studies targeted functional assessment and function-based treatment for challenging behavior. Specifically, we will briefly summarize what is known relative to the assessment and treatment of challenging behavior via telehealth, place these results within a descriptive context of the decisions made by our research team, and discuss what we, as behavior analysts, should consider next to advance our understanding and practice of telehealth.

Interventions combining functional analysis (FA) and functional communication training (FCT) are effective in mitigating socially maintained problem behaviors. Recent studies evaluating the effectiveness of using telehealth to train caregivers across large geographical distances in the United States (Wacker et al., 2016) and internationally (Tsami & Lerman, 2019) indicate that this modality can increase families’ accessibility to evidence-based interventions for problem behavior, such as FCT. Additionally, the telehealth model reduces service costs while maintaining caregiver procedural integrity (Ferguson et al., 2018). Providing these services to international families might decrease barriers to effective treatment and promote parental well- being (e.g., reduce stress and depression; Frantz et al., 2018). In this study, practitioners and interpreters in the United States remotely coached six caregivers of children with autism residing in two countries in Asia (i.e., Pakistan and Vietnam) to implement FA and FCT. All children reached the 90% reduction of problem behavior criterion and acquired the communicative response. Additionally, all caregivers indicated that the procedures were acceptable. The impact of training on levels of parenting stress, psychological distress, and self- efficacy also will be discussed. Overall, our findings suggest telehealth is a feasible modality for service delivery in Asia.

Functional communication training (FCT) is a well-established treatment for problem behavior in young children with autism (National Autism Center, 2015; Wong et al., 2014). Parent-mediated FCT delivered in the home, but facilitated by therapists through telehealth is an effective approach that extends the treatment model into a natural context (Lindgren et al., 2016). Despite an extensive literature base supporting FCT, little is known about the generalized effects of FCT outside of the training context. In this study, generalization of treatment effects were evaluated as part of a large multi-site study on parent-delivered FCT for children with autism using telehealth. To meet this purpose, data were collected from pre- and post-treatment parent ratings of targeted and non-targeted problem behavior in settings and contexts outside of the training conditions. Results suggest that the effects of FCT may extend beyond the behaviors and contexts targeted for treatment. Possible reasons for successful generalization, implications for practice, and suggestions for future research will be discussed.

Students who fail to acquire foundational literacy skills during preschool are likely to read below grade level average in elementary school and beyond and are at a heightened risk for future school failure and poverty. The purpose of this study was to compare the effects, maintenance of, and preference for a combined kinesthetic movements and embedded pictures (CM) flashcard intervention and a single kinesthetic movements (KM) flashcard intervention on letter-sound correspondence with 3 preschoolers who were not in school at the time of the study. Another purpose was to evaluate the generalization of interventions to un-taught reading skills (e.g., nonsense word recognition). In 3 of 4 evaluations, participants mastered the KM set in substantially fewer intervention sessions than the CM set. In 1 of 4 evaluations, the participant mastered the KM and CM sets with little differentiation between the number of sessions. Maintenance data demonstrate a higher number of correct responses for the KM condition across all weeks, however, generalization effects were greatest for the CM condition. Preference varied across participants and was not always consistent with the more effective intervention. Findings demonstrate the utility of pairing kinesthetic movements with flashcard interventions to teach letter-sound correspondence to preschoolers.

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is an effective intervention used to change a variety of behaviors, across populations, and in various settings (see Tingstrom, Sterling-Turner, & Wilczynski, 2006, for a review). There is limited research on the intervention with preschoolers (Foley et al., 2019; Wiskow et al., 2019), the efficacy of the intervention when the GBG is faded or removed (Dadakhodjaeve et al, 2019; Ruiz-Olivares et al., 2010), and the potential side-effects associated with the GBG (Groves & Austin, 2019). We evaluated the efficacy of the GBG with preschoolers and determined whether effortful components of the GBG could be faded while maintaining treatment effects. Furthermore, we conducted a systematic analysis of peer interactions as a potential side effect of the GBG. Results suggest the GBG is an effective intervention for reducing the disruptive behavior of preschoolers and treatment effects maintained as we faded components. Finally, the side-effect analysis showed the GBG was associated with an increase in peer interactions and specific variables (e.g., delivery of reward) were associated with specific types of peer interactions.

Studies on interteaching have shown that it leads to higher exam scores, more positive course evaluations, and increased levels of student participation in class. Most interteaching research has been conducted in traditional face-to-face classes, thus there is a need to demonstrate the efficacy of this approach in online learning environments. The first presenter will acquaint the audience with interteaching and discuss results of a literature review summarizing the published research that has evaluated interteaching in an online environment. The second presenter will describe results of a study which evaluated the effect of adding cumulative exams to the interteaching method in an online asynchronous class. The third presenter will highlight the findings of a study on the effect of instructor presence on student engagement during online synchronous interteaching discussions. The final presenter will review the interteaching literature related to the effect of different components of interteaching on student outcome, and include a tutorial on how to implement components of interteaching in an online classroom. Together, these four presentations illustrate current online interteaching research and practice in higher education.

Academics, supervisors, and teachers.

The present study is an extension of the previous study presented at ABAI International in 2019. The investigators looked at the effects of instructor presence on student engagement in an online graduate behavior analysis class. Student engagement and instructor presence were evaluated in an interteaching environment. Interteaching is an approach which incorporates engagement between at least two students and/or student with faculty to improve learning and increase fluency of definitions and class material (Boyce & Hineline, 2002). In this study, participants were assigned to groups based on availability and given weekly preparation guides, composed by the instructor, to answer collaboratively and subsequently submit for further clarification. Student engagement and instructor presence were recorded using partial-interval recording and a modified alternating treatments design.

Interteaching is a behavioral instruction method that departs from the traditional lecture format in College settings (Boyce & Hineline, 2002). Though previous research has consistently supported its effectiveness (Querol et al., 2015; Saville et al., 2011; Sturmey et al., 2015), a recent meta-analysis (Hurtado-Parrado et al., under review) found that less than 5% of published studies reported implementation of interteaching in online settings (synchronous or asynchronous). The dramatic increase in remote teaching due to the COVID-19 pandemic has required instructors to adjust their methods accordingly, including those implementing in-person interteaching. The experience of adapting interteaching to synchronous and asynchronous online instruction will be described. While doing so, data related to different components of interteaching and their relation to students’ performance will be discussed, with an emphasis on the relationship between Preparatory Guides (10-15 questions of varying complexity based on the course readings) and Discussions (students peer review the Preparatory Guides of other students). Preliminary data show that scores on Preparatory Guides and Discussions significantly predict 44% of the variance in Quiz scores. A related mediation analysis (Hayes, 2013 - Model 4) indicates that the relationship between Preparatory Guides and Quiz scores is significantly mediated by Discussions (95% CI [.1038, 1.3795]).

Given the high incidence of impairments in language in individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), there is a need for evidence-based interventions that target generative language in this population. The purpose of the current study is to determine the effectiveness of matrix training, also called a matrix strategy or a miniature linguistic system, in improving re-combinative generalization in instruction-following, expressive language skills, spelling, and reading interventions. Matrix training is a systematic framework for the organization of learning targets with the aim of improving generative language (Goldstein, 1983b). A systematic review methodology was used to reduce bias in searching, selecting, and coding treatment studies. A multifaceted search of over 20 bibliographic databases and trial registries was conducted, followed by ancestry and forward citation searches. Studies were subjected to a rigorous inclusion process, and 26 experimental studies were included. The study is currently in the data extraction phase. Using a pilot-tested coding form, at least two review team members will independently code all included studies to extract the identified data. Synthesis of the extracted data from randomized, quasi-experimental group designs, and single-case experimental designs will follow. Findings will have implications for informing evidence-based treatment to promote generative language for people with ASD. Goldstein, H. (1983b). Training generative repertoires within agent–action–object miniature linguistic systems with children. Journal of Speech & Hearing Research, 26(1), 76-89.

In recent years, the demands for behavior analysis to serve consumers with diverse cultural backgrounds have significantly increased. Though the field is in great need of culturally competent behavior analysts to support the needs of an increasingly diverse population, there are very few people of color represented. Especially African Americans. African Americans and other minorities within the field understand the feelings associated with walking into a large conference and finding it all but impossible to witness a black presenter, and seeing very few African American women or men attending.This panel is intended to explore the topic of increasing diversity and improving cultural sensitivity within the field through dissemination.

Access to low-cost, easily implemented behavioral treatments for a range of socially important health issues is severely limited in developing nations. As a case in point, most citizens in developing countries have no access to behavioral treatments for epilepsy. In behavior medicine, epilepsy is defined as the combination of a tendency to seize together with internal and external factors which increase the probability of reacting with a seizure reaction. In this model, epileptic seizures, like any behavior, is amenable to respondent and operant conditioning; thus, it is possible to effect and change the outcome of the seizure process using a behavior analysis and subsequent interventions. This paper aims to present a summary of the main points of clinical research in the behavioral treatment of epilepsy during the past 50 years and show the author's own recent studies done in South Africa and India. A presentation of two such RCT studies of behavioral treatment in the form of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy show promising results.

JoAnne is a native North American who has lived her whole adult life in Sweden. She has her clinical psychology degree, psychotherapy degree, Ph.D. och Docent from Uppsala University in Sweden where she also held a position of full professor of psychology prior to her retirement last year. JoAnne has specialized in behavior medicine and has focused on applying learning theory in practice for many chronic illnesses such as epilepsy, constipation, asthma, obesity, and chronic pain. She is the author and or coauthor of five professional books applying ACT and RFT to both chronic illness as well as Love relationships as well as publishing over 60 scientific studies in these areas. JoAnne is a peer reviewed ACT trainer and an ACBS fellow.

The likelihood of engaging in ethical behavior when confronted with a moral dilemma often involves the presence competing contingencies: behaving for the good of oneself versus the good of the commonwealth. The BACB Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts is a set of standards that serves as a guide for decision-making that impacts consumers, the practitioner, and other certificants. However, familiarity with these standards alone may not impact the behavior of a practitioner when confronted with an ethical problem. Phylogeny and ontogeny prepare individuals to act in their personal, short-term self-interest, but ethical matters require behaving with respect to the needs of the group. In ethically challenging scenarios, direct control exerted by the immediate contingencies is likely to be stronger than the control exerted by a person's history of rule-adherence, especially when doing so would disadvantage them. In this talk, we propose that influencing ethical behavior requires programing environmental contingencies at the cultural level of selection. Ethical conduct guidelines specify general precepts, but groups applying these precepts must actively and ongoingly discuss situations in which they are to be applied, scaled, abandoned, or synthesized. Additionally, we suggest that groups consider the cultural function of ethical conduct rules in adversely controlling the behavior of minority and intersectionally marginalized individuals within their ranks. In short, attention must be afforded to balancing the needs of the individual and those of several concentric levels of the collective in order to assure ethical behavior in any given instance. A comprehensive, naturalistic analysis of the conditions under which cooperative behaviors are selected may be crucial to the design of organizations and communities that produce reinforcement for behaving for the good of all.

BCBA, BCaBA

Intervening on a precursor to problem behavior (hereafter: precursor) appears to be a promising treatment strategy. However, the assessment of precursors is not routinely conducted in clinical practice. The relative inattention to precursors could be related to these behaviors being rare, the under identification of these behaviors, or both. However, there is good reason to believe that precursors are relatively common, but under identified. For example, Fritz et al. (2013) found that at least one antecedent behavior had a temporal relation with problem behavior for 16 individuals. Fritz et al. then conducted a subsequent analysis with 8 of those 16 individuals and determined that the antecedent behavior was a precursor in seven of eight cases. In the current study, a lag sequential analysis was conducted with 17 individuals who received assessment of problem behavior. Subsequent probability analysis indicated an antecedent behavior with a temporal relation to problem behavior was found for approximately 70% of individuals. Results suggest that antecedent behaviors commonly enter into temporal relations with problem behavior. Implications of this finding will be discussed.

One of the biggest challenges in education is the shift from learning to read (foundational reading) to reading to learn (reading for function). Students learn to read to understand information, read to follow instructions, and read to access reinforcement. How we arrange instruction is crucial for students to acquire the function of reading. This is most effectively taught through the arrangement of reading instruction that focuses on functional reading objectives. Writing instruction is also arranged to teach the functional effects of writing or writing to affect the behavior of a reader or a targeted audience. Teaching the function of reading and writing allows this to become a verbal repertoire, which in turn, creates a social exchange between the reader and writer. Research out of the Comprehensive Applied Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS®) Accelerated Independent Learner (AIL) classrooms have identified teaching procedures and how to arrange instruction to focus on teaching the function to students as educational objectives. In this paper, we will describe scientifically based procedures to teach the function of reading and writing within public schools.

The ECHO- Education: Autism model utilizes videoconferencing technology to simultaneously connect parents, caregivers, and family members (known as the ‘spokes’) to an inter-disciplinary panel of university-based specialists (known as the ‘hub’) in regularly scheduled sessions. These professional learning opportunities are grounded in the principles of Applied Behavior Analysis and family support, seeking to provide families with the support necessary to decrease child engagement in challenging behavior, while increasing access to systems of care. This model seeks to increase collaboration and support among caregivers across the country, especially in areas that may have limited access to these resources. Measures of efficacy of the implementation of the ECHO model include positive child and caregiver outcomes, as well as development of a community of support for caregivers navigating similar experiences. This symposium will discuss three different ECHO networks focused on providing caregiver coaching and support for families of children with autism and other related disabilities. Further, implementation of this model at the University of Washington, the University of Virginia, and University of Wyoming will be presented and discussed.

Behavior Analysts providing parent coaching and caregiver/family support to families of children diagnosed with disabilities.

Companies are not effectively harnessing the tremendous power of human performance. Employees consistently report lacking the basic things needed to drive performance and feel good about their contributions (Gallup, 2020). According to Gallup, high performing, high engagement organizations put the focus on concrete, real-time performance management activities such as clarifying work expectations, collaboratively setting goals, getting people what they need to do their work, and providing ongoing, meaningful coaching conversations. The old-style command and control management style in companies is not working. The one-on-one OBM consultant approach is not scalable or sustainable. In today’s fast-paced modern workplace, a grassroots, digitally-enabled approach is needed to engage everyone real-time in addressing these needs to optimize human performance and help people succeed. This presentation will demonstrate how Performance Ally is addressing these issues and bringing OBM to the mainstream through the use of technology.

Anyone who works in an organization interested in OBM

This panel will be a discussion of Dr. Brian Greer’s SQAB Tutorial on using quantitative theories of relapse to improve FCT.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Reading and writing skills can be conceived as a network of equivalence relations between stimuli (e.g., printed words, dictated words, pictures, objects) and between stimuli and responses (e.g., picture naming, textual behavior, transcription, dictation-taking). We have been using this conceptual framework as a foundation for the development of assessment tools and teaching procedures. In this presentation I will describe an instrument for the assessment of basic repertoires involving S-S and R-S relations which characterize the skills of beginning readers. The instrument comprises 15 tasks, organized in blocks of 15 trials each. Some tasks measure identity matching-to-sample (picture identity, printed word identity), arbitrary auditory-visual MTS (picture recognition, printed word recognition), and visual-visual matching-to-sample MTS (picture <--> printed word correspondence). Other tasks measure discriminated operants for which the discriminative stimuli are pictures (picture naming), printed words (copying, textual behavior ["reading'']), and spoken words (dictation-taking). The child performance in these tasks allows the identification of basic perceptual skills (does the student see and hear?), vocal skills (does the student articulate the sounds with accuracy and in the correct sequence?), and the main discriminations required to read and write accurately. Failures in some of these tasks (or in all of them) provide important information about the student's current repertoire and the gaps that need to be developed. The instrument was applied to approximately 2300 students (6 to 12 years old). Individual results allowed the evaluation of selection-based responses (listening and seeing behavior) and topography-based responses (verbal operants in vocal or written modes) and to define a profile of the student's repertoire. Averaged data showed that the matching skills were significantly correlated with textual behavior and dictation-taking. An "integration" index taking into account all the scores showed that, as predicted by the stimulus equivalence paradigm, the interdependence of the operants increased as the entire repertoire developed. The integration index may be a useful tool for the prediction and evaluation of the effects of teaching programs for establishing the target repertoire in non-readers.

Behavior analysts interested in basic (initial) reading and writing repertoires: assessment and teaching procedures

Deisy de Souza is Full Professor at the Psychology Department, Universidade Federal de São Carlos (UFSCar), Brazil, where she teaches behavior analysis in graduate and undergraduate courses in Psychology, and in Special Education. She obtained her Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology at Universidade de São Paulo (USP), under the direction of Carolina Bori, and held a post-doctoral position at the University of Maryland Baltimore County, working with Charlie Catania. She has published articles and book chapters on non-human and human relational learning, including studies applying the stimulus equivalence paradigm to investigate the acquisition of symbolic relations involved in reading and writing, and in developing curricula to teach those skills. She is past-Editor of the Brazilian Journal of Behavior Analysis (BJBA), past-Associate Editor of Acta Comportamentalia, and she is currently a member of the Board of Editors of JEAB. She received the 2015 Distinguished Contributions to the Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Award  from the Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Special Interest Group (EAHB SIG); she was elected ABAI Fellow (2018); and she is currently the International Representative in the ABAI Council.

Empirical evidence supports that pre-session pairing or rapport building, between a clinician and client, can increase clinical outcomes in ABA services. Kelly, Axe, Allen, and Maguire noted the effects of pre-session pairing on decreasing challenging behaviors in 2015 while Shillingsburg, Hansen, and Wright (2018) delineated 9 steps in the pairing process to best support children with Autism for in seat, at a table, discrete trial instruction. Furthermore, Lugo, King, Lamphere, and McArdle (2017) sought to operationally define the behaviors characteristic of pre-session pairing to then train staff to better implement these skills. This presentation explores the systematic approach to training BCBA supervisors and technicians in pre-session pairing and the addition of a “Rapport Building” curriculum to a client’s individualized learning program. The presenters will describe the training of clinicians across skills, review the development of a systematic pre-session pairing program, and compare clinical outcomes between clients whose programs include a systematic approach to pairing and those without. Finally, the presenters will examine the social validity from parents, payers, and technicians to support the pre-session pairing program.

The audience should be competent in basic principles of behavior analysis, running center or home-based programming, writing, running, and supervising behavior analytic programming.

The COVID-19 pandemic has prompted a vigorous discussion on how to apply essential Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) services (APBA, April 10, 2020) safely and effectively (Cox, Plavnick, & Broadhead, 2020; LeBlanc, et al. 2020). One possible format, telehealth, demonstrates promise as a means to continued care while reducing risks of infection across treatment modalities and treatment settings (Rodriguez, 2020). The current analysis represents an extension of essential service delivery model for ABA providers during a crisis described by Colombo, Wallace, and Taylor (2020). The decision model evaluates several factors (e.g. immediate needs, vulnerability of clients, and the competency of service providers) as a means of assessing the best means of mitigating the effects of the current crisis on the on the progress of ABA consumers. The current paper will describe the effects and outcomes of applying this delivery model across four individuals who receive ABA services to address severe challenging behavior. Data reflecting treatment effects on target problem behavior will be evaluated across initial baseline, pre-COVID, telehealth, and withdrawal (e.g., in-person, mixed, etc.). Results, barriers, and potential extensions will be discussed.

The current study analyzed the effects of two frames for durations of time – calendar unit and calendar date – on measures of compliance to hypothetical social-distancing policies related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Participants reported the extent to which they would comply with hypothetical social-distancing polices lasting different durations of time. Durations of time were framed as calendar units (e.g., days, weeks, months, years) and calendar dates (i.e., specific dates the policies would extent to). Levels of compliance across durations of time were used to calculate the area under curve (AuC) for each condition. Social-distancing policies framed in calendar dates yielded significantly greater AuC values compared to social-distancing policies framed in calendar units. Participants’ self-reported political party affiliation yielded a significant main effect: Conservative participants’ AuC values were significantly lower than liberal participants’ AuC values. The framing of the duration of time was a significant variable in controlling rates of compliance to hypothetical social-distancing policies.

Audience members should be able to: (a) Define delay discounting, (b) Identify and describe mechanisms controlling measures of delay discounting; (c) Interpret area under curve (AuC) as a measure of delay discounting; (d) Comprehend the use of a delay-discounting framework to explain a variety of behavioral phenomena

For the past thirty years Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) has been implemented in Norway and other European countries. In most countries it has been a challenge to deliver EIBI according to suggested minimum standards. The most common challenges have been to have properly trained staff implement the intervention, to get parents involved, and to provide intensive intervention (a minimum of 20 hours per week). As a result of this, outcomes have generally been moderate. However, outcomes of EIBI have been much better than “treatment as usual”. We will present two-year outcome data from a group of 30 children that were provided 10 hours a week and a group of 30 children that were provided 20 hours a week. We will also present data from another site were user satisfaction was evaluated in a reversal design across seven cases that received video-based supervision.

BCBAs, supervisors in EIBI programs.

We have developed a quality standard based on the logic of the Periodic Service Review to evaluate and improve quality of individual EIBI programs. The programs are provided through in the two largest cities in Norway, Bergen and Oslo. Based on the core elements of EIBI we have made a 36-item checklist that we consider to represent an optimal EIBI program. Some of the items are given a higher weight (such as intensity of intervention and therapist training). The standards have measurable targets (done/not done) for all involved parties (supervisors, therapists, parents, community staff). We report quality data from 60 individual programs collected over a two year period and discuss what we have found to be the most common challenges we face in providing EIBI of high quality.

We compared the use videoconference with on site supervision of EIBI cases in a reversal design. Supervision was provided either on site or using video conference every second week. Questionnaires were developed to evaluate to what degree videoconference influenced the perceived quality of supervision. The questionnaires consisted of 12 items that were scored on Likert scales and measured program supervision, registrations/data collection, preparedness, and technical quality. Both the supervisor and the supervisees evaluated their experiences across the supervision modes. We discuss our findings in terms of the perceived quality of supervision, potential for saving travel time saved and implications for caseload capacity.

This symposium features three studies on training undergraduate students and service providers to implement behavior analytic assessments and interventions. First, Karie John will present on the use of video modeling to teach undergraduate students to conduct trial-based functional analyses, and the results suggest the use of video models produced high treatment fidelity and social validity ratings. Second, James Maraventano will present on a pyramidal training model to teach job skills to staff supporting adults with autism in a community setting, and the results suggest improved performance observed during behavioral skills training generalized to in situ probes with clients. Finally, Kerri Peters will present on teaching behavior analysts and occupational therapists to conduct a structured mealtime assessment using behavioral skills training, and the results suggest improved protocol integrity posttraining across all participants. All three studies improve our understanding of efficient and efficacious training procedures that maximize impact.

Basic understanding of behavior analytic principles and components of behavioral skills training

The training of human services staff in behavior change methods is often a labor-intensive function of the supervising behavior analyst. The pyramidal application of behavioral skills training (BST) has been demonstrated an effective means for promoting the acquisition of skills related to behavior analytic treatment, while increasing the efficiency of the individual behavior analyst’s training efforts. As BST has potential for broad application, we extended a pyramidal BST approach toward job skills training for service recipients enrolled in a program providing support for adults with autism in the community setting. During pre-training assessments, 10 staff members were instructed to role-play BST using given task analyses. Following BST-based instruction in the application of BST (a pyramidal paradigm), participants demonstrated improved performance of BST component skills in the role-play setting, relative to baseline levels. High performance levels were also observed during subsequent on-the-job assessments of staff conducting BST with service recipients in the generalization setting.

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often display feeding problems such as consumption of a limited variety of foods (Schreck, Williams, & Smith, 2004). It is also common for these children to be enrolled in early and intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) services for comprehensive treatment (Roane, Fisher, & Carr, 2016). Combined, these factors make it possible that behavior analysts will have a role in a child’s clinical care related to feeding. In addition, children with ASD are often attending regular appointments for occupational therapy (OT) and on occasion those providers are targeting feeding problems. However, given that the etiology of pediatric feeding disorders is complex and multifactorial (Peterson & Ibanez, 2018), OT providers and BCBAs should ensure they have sufficient training and a setting that is appropriate for assessment and treatment. Therefore, we evaluated the effects of a training package, including instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback, for training BCBAs in an EIBI setting and OT providers to conduct a structured mealtime assessment. Training resulted in increases in their integrity of protocol implementation, and we observed replication of these effects for all participants

Behavior analysts know that getting children with ASD enrolled into ABA treatment at the earliest possible age is important to achieving the best outcome. To resolve barriers that both parents and providers encounter and reduce delays to ABA service, Behavior Analysts need to collaborate with other providers in this service system. Parents typically start by talking to their pediatrician, then their insurance provider, a diagnostician, then get referred to ABA and other therapeutic/educational services. This complex process is difficult to navigate for all stakeholders, resulting in delays to service. Because other stakeholders within the system of care have earlier contacts with families, it is important for Behavior Analysts to collaborate with these stakeholders to develop ways to reduce delays in starting ABA. This presentation provides a review of barriers identified, including targeting marginalized populations, and proposed solutions created by a community-based research team made up of parents, providers at each access point, payors, community group leaders, and governmental leaders, who are currently targeting this issue. Barriers identified and discussed will include parent engagement, the referral process, coordination of care, provider and family education, equitability of services, and simplification of workflow for providers distributing resources and educational materials to families.

Intermediate - Audience members should have a basic understanding of ABA principles and procedures related to the care of individuals with ASD and their family. Audience members should also have the ability to complete a basic cost benefit analysis assessing variables associate with successful outcomes and the ability to evaluate individual client and family barriers that might impact treatment outcome.

In order to enable more equitable access to care for underserved families, providers must work to identify barriers to access behavioral services. A team of stakeholders participated in the development of products and strategies targeting access, using a collaborative community-based approach to evaluate experiences of providers and families within the Wayne County Michigan Medicaid state funded system. Both parents and providers expressed concerns about the complex processes to gain access to ABA treatment. Additional concerns were identified by the group related to ensuring equity in access for underserved families. Barriers identified included limited resources for families and providers designed to understand the system of care, knowledge on the steps to gain access to behavioral services, and what choices amongst service providers are available for families. Permanent product solutions were developed to address equitability and inclusion barriers for families and providers. A variety of surveys, media, and documents were developed through this process for use by service providers, both within and outside of the ABA community, to achieve equitable access to behavioral services. This presentation will also review recommendations about ways to facilitate collaborative work within a local healthcare system to increase awareness of barriers and urge more intervention research to explore the means for removing them.

Individuality of treatment has always been a primary focus in the field of ASD and ABA. Factors such as trauma, age, and family barriers have guided Behavior Analyst’s individualization of portions of treatment including teaching procedures, reinforcers, goals, and behavior intervention plans. However, in order to ensure true individuality of care for all clients, all stakeholders involved should be culturally competent. Cultural competence involves learning and understanding the views and practices of different cultures. Our cultural beliefs and traditions influence our thoughts and actions, and therefore, should be considered as early as screening and diagnosis. Parents have interactions with a variety of stakeholders including pediatricians, diagnosticians, schools, ABA and other therapeutic services. Starting at screening and ending at treatment implementation, each client’s cultural beliefs should be a consideration in the way stakeholders communicate with families regarding diagnosis, what assessment is chosen, what goals are chosen, what materials are used in programming, and much more. This presentation will include discussions and recommendations for how to modify treatment when encountering language barriers, stigma involving diagnosis, lack of support and understanding from support communities, and differing beliefs on the roles for men and women coming from different back grounds.

Individuals with developmental disabilities often struggle to learn independent daily living skills requiring complex behavior chains. Applied behavior analysis has identified both chaining and video-modeling as effective training procedures for teaching such complex behaviors. The present study compared the effects of chaining, video-modeling, and video-modeling plus chaining to examine the most effective teaching method for twin boys with Autism Spectrum Disorder. We created a task analysis for three skills of equal difficulty level and randomly assigned each twenty-step chain to a teaching procedure. We examined both the percentage of steps completed in the correct order during probes and the number of steps completed independently regardless of order. For both participants, the combined video-modeling plus chaining procedure was most effective under both variables. The video modeling-alone conditions were the least effective for both participants under the total number of steps completed variable. The chaining-alone condition was the least effective for the first participant under the percentage of steps completed independently variable, and the video-modeling alone was the least effective for the other participant under the same variable.

Teaching independence with shaving can provide individuals with privacy and comfort, increase quality of life, and reduce effort of caregivers. Unfortunately, no previous studies have provided clinicians with procedures for teaching leg shaving. The current study evaluated the effects of a video prompting teaching package on leg shaving skills using a concurrent multiple baseline design across participants. Participants included three women ages 22 to 56, each with a different diagnosis (i.e., paraplegia, Down Syndrome, and cognitive impairment with Schizoaffective Disorder). The Finishing Touch Flawless Legs™ shaver was selected because a) it can be used without water or shaving cream, b) individuals with fine motor deficits can handle the device, c) the device will not cut or knick the user, and d) it is rechargeable and does not require batteries. Participants learned to shave their legs at the mastery criterion of 100% independent, correct steps within a mean of 7.3 teaching sessions. These levels were maintained at 2-week probes and during generalization probes. On the Treatment Acceptability Rating Form - Revised, scores indicated high social validity of the procedures of this treatment package.

The rapid growth in computer technology means that nearly anything imaginable is either possible or will soon become possible. Behavior analysts, as specialists in learning and behavior, are uniquely trained to become strong collaborators on multidisciplinary teams focusing on projects to advance machine learning, simulation-based experiences, and much more. In this tutorial, I will discuss how we currently leverage such technology in my lab and integrate robotics, virtual reality (VR), and artificial intelligence (AI) in our behavior analytic research. I will share the outcomes of some of our current research projects as well as my collaborative efforts on the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) and National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) grants.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Designing skill acquisition programs requires careful consideration of variables that can affect the speed of learning. For example, the number and type of stimuli to include in an instructional set, sequencing of stimuli during instruction, the number of practice opportunities to arrange, and the selection of mastery criteria are important considerations when designing programs for learners. In this presentation, Dr. Kodak will synthesize research on these topics and provide recommendations for practitioners who are responsible for designing instructional programs. In addition, areas of additional research that can help improve the design and outcomes of skill-acquisition programs will be discussed.

Dr. Kodak is an Associate Professor in the Behavior Analysis program at Marquette University. She is a licensed psychologist, licensed behavior analyst, and Board Certified Behavior Analyst. She has worked with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder more than 25 years. Dr. Kodak obtained her Ph.D. in School Psychology from Louisiana State University. She formerly served as an Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and Learning and Motivation. She currently serves on several editorial boards including the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, Behavior Analysis in Practice, and Learning and Motivation. Her research interests in the area of early intervention for children with autism spectrum disorder include increasing the efficiency of skill acquisition, treatment integrity, assessment-based instruction, verbal behavior, conditional discriminations, parent training, and computer-assisted instruction.

Though the principles of behavior are universal, the specific behaviors, stimuli, and social contingencies impacting our clients are rooted in the cultures in which they live. As behavior analysis grows around the world, the inherent biases and assumptions of our technology becomes more apparent. Assessment instruments need translation, revision, and validation; interventions need to be adapted to ensure social validity and relevance; and the ways in which behavior analysts provide services need to expand to ensure that they are accessible to all clients in need. This symposium will present strategies for behavior analysts to identify biases in their professional practices, minimize such biases when they arise, and learn to practice cultural humility.

Practitioners and researchers. 

The cultural and linguistic diversity that characterizes the world remains a seminal barrier for the global uptake of applied behavior analysis (ABA). Although North America accounts for only 4.7% of the world’s population, more than 95% of BCBAs live in the United States and Canada. While behavioral principles may be universally applicable, this talk will argue for why understanding cultural diversity and avoiding prejudice is important. We will discuss specific challenges for the global dissemination of ABA, with India as an example, and suggest potential training strategies with which to overcome such barriers. Our training protocol may serve as an initial framework for practitioners and researchers to achieve buy-in and positive outcomes internationally. In addition, we will highlight existing frameworks to define and describe cultural adaptations and list previously used adaptations in ABA-based treatments for individuals outside of North America. Finally, we will advocate for a behavior analytic perspective for organizing and reporting potentially relevant variables for the global success of ABA services.

Since the rise of the #MeToo and #BlackLivesMatter movements, and especially since the murder of George Floyd, the field of behavior analysis is experiencing tremendous growth in action toward social justice. This growth of action and activism within our field is exciting but many have concerns over how much of this change is actually structural, versus performative, and therefore whether or not it will persist over time. From the perspective of a white man in a position of substantial privilege and power within the field of behavior analysis, I will stand next to and amplify the voices of behavior analysts of color who have offered powerful and practical resources to all of us to create and sustain our roles as accomplices in furthering social justice. This presentation will amplify recent publications by behavior analysts of color on practical strategies for enacting social justice within our own personal lives, within the service provision agencies where we work, and within our graduate programs, among others. In particular, practical strategies from behavioral approaches to self-management, including acceptance and commitment training, will be shared.

Dr. Jonathan Tarbox is the Program Director of the Master of Science in Applied Behavior Analysis program at the University of Southern California, as well as Director of Research at FirstSteps for Kids. Dr. Tarbox is the past Editor-in-Chief of the journal Behavior Analysis in Practice, a Board Member of the ABA Task Force to Eradicate Social Injustice, and a member of the Advisory Board of the Women in Behavior Analysis (WIBA) conference. He has published five books on applied behavior analysis and autism treatment, is the Series Editor of the Elsevier book series Critical Specialties in Treating Autism and Other Behavioral Challenges, and an author of over 90 peer-reviewed journal articles and chapters in scientific texts.  His research focuses on behavioral interventions for teaching complex skills to individuals with autism, Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), and applications of applied behavior analysis to issues of diversity and social justice. 

The pressing need to engage in compassionate, culturally humble behavior as a field became apparent following the needless deaths of those such as Mr. George Floyd; the world at large recognized the importance of social justice and, as behavior analysts, we are uniquely poised to engage in systems change and create levels of institutional accountability throughout all aspects of our work. This dialogue will discuss culture as a dynamic metacontingency and will focus on understanding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) as related to all cultures. We will analyze our own self-bias and will describe ethical problem-solving frameworks designed to increase DEI through the engagement of culturally humble behaviors as practitioners and researchers. Finally, we will review ways to implement measures of institutional accountability to assess whether we are meeting our goals of DEI. We will end by inviting questions from the audience to promote thoughtful considerations intended to further our understanding of the topography of culturally humble behaviors and how we can begin immediately to engage in social justice change.

Nasiah is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, with a Doctorate degree in Education from Loyola University of Chicago. She holds a Master’s degree in Special Education from the University of Illinois at Chicago, and a Master's degree in Educational Leadership from the American College of Education. She is a graduate of the Infant Studies Specialist program at Erikson Institute of Chicago. In addition to her BCBA credential, she is an Illinois licensed special education teacher and an Illinois Early Intervention provider and State evaluator. Professionally, she has served as a special educator, clinician, educational administrator, and professor of special education. Her clinical experience spans infancy through adulthood. Currently, she is the CEO & Founder of ULEZI, LLC, Co-Founder of Pivot 2 Inclusion and serves as a court appointed special advocate, for children in the Illinois foster care system. She is also an Advisory Board member for Black Applied Behavior Analysts and a Board member for the Illinois Association for Behavior Analysis. She has assisted school districts in the State of Illinois in developing meaningful educational programs to meet the needs of students with autism. Her research interests include supervision, mentoring, leadership, and culturally humble practice within the field of ABA. She is a champion for diversity, equity and inclusion and is deeply committed to using her skills and experiences, paired with the science of applied behavior analysis, to empower the lives of the people she supports and serves, in positive and meaningful ways.

Noor Syed, Ph.D., BCBA-D, LBA/LBS, (she/her) is an Assistant Professor of Applied Behavior Analysis, Clinical Coordinator, and founding Director of the Center for Autism Inclusivity (Research, Education, and Services) with SUNY Empire State College. She is also a Senior International Program Director with Anderson Center International, an Adjunct Professor Advisor in ABA with Endicott College, and Research Coordinator for the Global Autism Project.  She is a certified general and special education teacher in New York, U.S., birth through grade six. Over the past 15 years, Dr. Syed has worked with individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder and developmental disabilities from early intervention through adulthood in school and center-based settings as a teacher, therapist, consultant, and administrator. Dr. Syed has consulted for autism clinics around the world, including in Uganda, Antigua and Barbuda, and the Czech Republic, and currently serves as the international and school-based expert on ABAEthicsHotline.com with Dr. Jon Bailey. She assisted in building Lehigh University Autism Services and its corresponding practicum, which is an insurance and university-based program offering services in the home, community, and clinic. Dr. Syed’s interests lie in compassionate care, cultural humility, ethical practices, supervision, the practice of school-based BCBAs, and diversity. She received her undergraduate degree in ABA under Dr. Raymond G. Romanczyk in the Institute of Child Development at Binghamton University and completed her PhD in ABA with Dr. R. Douglas Greer at Teachers College, Columbia University.

Being confined with inadequacy to explore may cause animals housed in managed-care facilities to engage in stereotypic behaviors. Stereotypic behaviors often include pacing, random motor behaviors, or any repetitive behavior without any apparent goal. Enrichment devices prove to be one solution that may help increase the quality of life for animals in managed care. Environmental enrichment provides non-human organisms opportunities to engage in adaptive behaviors and may improve their well-being, however the exposure and enrichment animals receive in the wild can be difficult to replicate. In the current study, we used the results of food and color preference assessments to create individualized enrichment devices. Researchers used highly preferred food in enrichment devices based on the most and least preferred colors of the loggerhead seat turtle. An alternating treatment design was used to assess the effects of each device on stereotypic and adaptive behaviors. Results and implications for practice will be discussed.

Programming for generalization is a critical component of applied behavior analysis. Previous research has evaluated several procedures for achieving stimulus generalization in the context of tact training with children with autism spectrum disorder, including serial multiple exemplar training (S-MET), concurrent multiple exemplar training (C-MET), and instructive feedback (IF). Although previous research has compared some or all of these procedures, results have been mixed. In the present study, we used an adapted alternating treatments design to directly compare the efficacy and efficiency of S-MET, C-MET, and IF for producing generalization of tacts of various types of stimuli (e.g., color photographs, black and white outlines, colored drawings) with four males with autism spectrum disorder. For most participants, C-MET led to generalization in the fewest training sessions, followed by IF. These results suggest that S-MET is unlikely to lead to generalization more efficiently than other conditions, but that the ideal training arrangement may be idiosyncratic.

The current study examined the efficacy and efficiency of incorporating the use of instructive feedback within matrix training to teach children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to label common objects and adjectives. The study was conducted in a private school providing educational services to students with ASD based on the principles of applied behavior analysis. We taught one set of responses using a non-overlapping matrix, a second set of responses using an overlapping matrix, and a third set of responses using a non-overlapping matrix along with secondary targets to three individuals with ASD. The results demonstrated that all teaching methods were effective and all trained and untrained responses were acquired. Additionally, results will be discussed across different measures of efficiency, including training sessions and training time to mastery. Our findings will be discussed in light of the extant matrix training and instructive feedback literatures. Additionally, we will provide directions for future research.

Pediatric feeding disorders (also termed avoidant/restrictive food intake disorders) are characterized by food refusal or extreme food selectivity by type, texture, brand, shape, or color. Some children develop feeding problems due to a medical condition such as reflux or a severe illness. Some have poor oral motor skills and have difficulty chewing and swallowing, which impacts their diet. This symposium will explore issues related to the assessment and treatment of feeding disorders and provide overviews of recent advances in the area of behavioral interventions for children who engage in food refusal, food selectivity, or inappropriate mealtime behavior. Topics such as treating liquid expulsion, interpreting functional assessment results, multidisciplinary approaches to feeding tube dependence, and indices of child happiness and unhappiness during treatment will be explored. This symposium will be suitable for researchers and practitioners alike and will be valuable for those new to the area of pediatric feeding disorders as well as experts in the field.

Beginner

Caregivers may discount the clinical benefits of an effective intervention if it does not appear to lead to positive changes in their child’s affective behavior (Dillon & Carr, 2007). Some researchers suggest that when children appear to enjoy teaching procedures, caregivers may be more likely to seek out the treatment for their child and adhere to implementing the procedures (Green et al., 2005; Kazdin, 1980). Escape extinction, an empirically supported intervention for the treatment of pediatric feeding disorders, is often necessary to improve consumption of healthy, targeted foods for children with feeding disorders. However, extinction may occasionally be associated with undesirable side effects (e.g., bursts, increased emotional responding) (Bachmeyer, 2009; Woods & Borrerro, 2019). In the current study, we evaluated the effects of environmental enrichment (i.e., noncontingent reinforcement) combined with escape and attention extinction procedures on treatment effectiveness and behavioral indices of happiness and unhappiness in the treatment of pediatric feeding disorders. We will discuss these findings and address future directions of the study in terms of intervening on child happiness or unhappiness during treatment.

The extant literature on pediatric feeding disorders indicates intensive, multidisciplinary treatment holds benefits for children with severe feeding difficulties, such as patients relying on enteral nutrition (e.g., gastrostomy tube). The most common methodology documenting outcomes for these programs are Nonrandomized Studies (NRS). Although NRS represents a valuable tool for providing insight to intervention, prior research utilizing NRS included potential bias concerning data abstraction. Additionally, there is a lack of standardization across studies regarding uniformity of outcome measures, and description of patient characteristics and treatment protocols. The purpose of the present study was to examine the clinical presentations, intervention characteristics, and treatment outcomes in a sample of children receiving intensive, multidisciplinary intervention for feeding tube dependence. This study followed the Strengthening the Reporting of Observational Studies in Epidemiology (STROBE) criteria to plan the study, guide data abstraction and structure the study’s methodology. We conducted a retrospective electronic medical review to gather outcome data for patients admitted to an intensive day treatment feeding program. The review included 81 individuals dependent on enteral nutrition. We will describe treatment setting and protocols and outcome measures including demographics, anthropometrics, meal-time behaviors, oral/enteral intake and caregiver satisfaction at admission, discharge and follow-up.

This symposium will address three questions through four presentations related to race, culture, and behavior analysis. The first presentation will address the question of how preferences for behavior-analytic treatment strategies align across caregivers and providers of different races, and then address the implications misalignments across racial groups might have for best practice. The second and third presentations will conceptually address the question of how behavior analysts can assess for and build multicultural and antiracist education, practice, and research. Examples of an assessment tool for research and recommendations for graduate training programs in behavior analysis will be provided. The final presentation will conceptually address the question of how behavior analysis can be applied to larger cultural and race-based issues by reviewing police use-of-force reform. A discussion of these presentations will follow and focus on how behavior analysts can contribute to improvements in cultural humility and competence.

The target audience for this workshop includes college students, early-career researchers, BACB certificants in-training (e.g., RBTs), behavior analysts (BCaBAs, BCBAs, BCBA-Ds), and behavioral health aides or direct care workers with a working knowledge of the principles of behavior and basic behavior analytic procedures (e.g., antecedent strategies, differential reinforcement, etc.).

Culturally competent practices are materializing in the clinical work of behavior analysts. This growth may be the result of added components to coursework, continuing education training, and client-focused curricular materials. However, applied behavior analysis (ABA) research has been slower to see these changes. With ABA research guiding the work of new and seasoned practitioners, it is imperative that it strongly reinforces components of cultural responsiveness. Researchers outside the field of ABA, Dr. Bal and Dr. Trainor, have recognized the importance of research demonstrating cultural competence. Resultantly, they developed the Culturally Responsive Research Rubric for evaluating studies. The 15-item rubric is built upon existing tools for assessing research quality, but is not aimed at commonly accepted indicators (e.g., experimental design). Rather, the focus is on a set of culturally responsive criteria (e.g., how culture guided design). To bridge gaps in ABA research and cultural competence, two behavior analysts aim to introduce the rubric, discuss its applicability to the field of ABA, give examples of rubric components that align with the work of behavior analysts, and present a review of the behavioral research on pyramidal parent training through the lens of the rubric.

Racist policies and inequity are prevalent in society; this includes higher education institutions. Many behavior analytic training programs have been complicit in omitting cultural humility and antiracist ideas in their curricula and institutional practices. As societal demands for allyship and transformational change increase, programs must rise to the challenge and act as agents of change in our clinical, professional, and personal communities. The current paper offers a multitude of strategies for institutions to develop an antiracist and multicultural approach. These recommendations encompass policies that may be promoted on the following levels: (a) organizational infrastructure and leadership, (b) curriculum and pedagogy, (c) research, and (d) with faculty, students, and staff.

Structural racism is rooted in American social systems that were supposedly designed to promote our right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. Social systems like policing, for example, are built on a foundation of discriminatory practices designed to disenfranchise Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC). One of the most recent visible examples of racially-biased policing is the excessive use-of-force by officers toward BIPOC. In response, advocates, policy makers, and researchers have sought solutions. Police use-of-force reforms such as Body-Worn Cameras (BWCs) and Implicit Bias Training (IBT) have become popular and are currently being applied in many police departments across the country. However, evidence supporting the effectiveness of these reform strategies to reduce use-of-force is mixed, and further evaluations are needed to understand why these strategies are purported to be an effective solution. The purpose of the current review is to ignite future empirical evaluations of use-of-force reform. Following a summary of the research conducted to date on BWCs and IBT, we will conclude with a brief discussion of how behavior analysts might improve and foster strategies that are efficacious.

Since first published (Iwata et al., 1982), the process of Functional Analysis (FA) has profoundly changed the process and effectiveness of Applied Behavior Analytical (ABA) treatment for individuals with challenging behaviors. Across ages and diagnoses, ABA has provided empirically validated evidence based treatment for behaviors maintained by attention, escape from demand, or tangibles. Yet in the years that have followed, the identification of automatic (assumed to be sensory) or undifferentiated findings has not kept pace, and this has left Behavior Analysts without a clear approach to treatment. This often results in needing to rely on default technologies that are often controversial, and less effective. In this symposium, we will discuss the potential significance of medical issues on understanding the individual’s idiosyncratic function(s) of behavior; Looking at neuro-biological variables as potential motivating operations in further clarification of the function(s) of behavior; and working toward awareness of environmentally mediated variables informed by fine grained analysis of automatic reinforcement maintaining the behavior. Practical suggestions regarding more effective practice and research to address challenging behavior will be included.

This symposium is intended for intermediate behavior analysts engaged in research and application of applied behavior analysis in treatment of challenging behaviors.

Nearly 40% of individuals with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) have at least one comorbid anxiety disorder (van Steensel, 2011). Behaviors associated with anxiety have shown greater differences in heart rate range (Chock & Koesler, 2013). Additionally, some individuals with ASD manifest hyper- or hypo-reactivity to sensory input (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 5th Edition [DSM-V], 2013). Due to this, physiological measures that require contact with the skin may present problems for individuals with atypical responses to tactile stimulation. In order to address this concern, a habituation protocol was used to assess participants’ tolerance to wearing a vest for the collection of physiological measures. Specifically, a repeated presentation procedure was conducted to decrease possible sensitivity to a vest (Thompson & Spencer, 1966). The results indicated that all six participants in this study successfully completed the habituation protocol and none required a lengthy fade in protocol for wearing the vest. Based on these results, apparatus using these types of physiological measures are feasible for conducting research. These findings should encourage other researchers interested in assessing physiological responses in individuals with possible sensory sensitivities.

The diagnostic severity of ASD is partly based on restrictive and repetitive patterns of behaviors, interests, and activities (APA, 2013). Automatic reinforcement function accounts for 16.9% of restrictive and repetitive behaviors and 25% of self-injurious behaviors (SIB) based on functional analyses (Beavers, Iwata, and Lerman, 2013; Hagopian, 2015). The types of behaviors within this category include 1) stereotyped or restrictive motor movements or vocalizations, 2) insistence in sameness, inflexibilities with routines, ritualized vocal or non-vocal behavior, 3) highly restricted/fixated interests, and 4) hyper-/hypo- reactivity to sensory factors (APA, 2013; CDC, 2013). Due to the nature of automatically reinforced behaviors, it is recommended that physiological assessments be used to determine relationships between physiological events and behavior (Romanczyk and Gillis, 2006). Tools that are sensitive to biological activity may help to discern sources of automatic reinforcement. The current investigation is a continuation of the utilization of functional analysis, treatment analysis, and physiological measures to investigate the role that positive and negative automatic reinforcement play in the treatment of problem behaviors. The results show an association between non-socially mediated behaviors and physiological events and adds to the empirical basis for differentiating operant psychology principles for operant and respondent conditioning.

Although behavior-analytic treatments are often effective in achieving initial reductions in a target behavior, target behavior may relapse due to changes in reinforcement or stimulus conditions. Renewal occurs when changes in the stimulus context following treatment produce relapse of extinguished behavior. Researchers typically examine renewal using a three-phase arrangement. After reinforcement of target behavior in Context A followed by extinction in Context B, the organism transitions to Context A (ABA renewal) or a new context (ABC renewal), and extinction continues. This symposium presents four basic and translational renewal studies that demonstrate the varied applications of the renewal paradigm. Our first presenter will present a study conducted with rats that compared ABA renewal after extinction or omission training in Phase B. The second presenter will describe two studies conducted with rats: the first using an ABC renewal preparation, and the second examining the effects of discriminative training on ABC renewal. The third presentation details a series of translational studies modeling renewal of problem behavior in dual-language homes and by multilingual individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. The final presenter will speak about a translational renewal study conducted in an analog organizational setting.

Researchers interested in the experimental analysis of behavior, translational research, and relapse research will be an appropriate target audience. Practitioners interested in understanding the behavioral mechanisms of relapse of undesirable behavior may also be appropriate.

Insights from extinction research have been useful to researchers and clinicians in the domain of applied behavior analysis. Behavioral treatments are effective for producing initial reductions in problem behavior; however, relapse after treatment is common and a major barrier to treatment efficacy. It is possible that relapse might be influenced by the specific response elimination technique and that different treatments for problem behavior might be differentially susceptible to relapse. The present study compared ABA renewal after responding was eliminated by extinction or omission training in rats. In this experiment, lever pressing was reinforced with food pellets in Context A and then eliminated with either extinction or omission training in Context B. The response was then tested in Contexts A and B in either the presence or absence of free food pellets delivered on a random time schedule. All rats showed higher responding when tested in Context A than Context B, and there was little evidence that omission training attenuated this ABA renewal effect. Also, noncontingent pellets increased responding after extinction but not after omission training. The results provide new information about factors creating relapse after omission training.

Relapse may be a particularly relevant framework for understanding the ways in which stimuli influence employee responding, given that organizational settings are replete with changing stimulus contexts and contingencies. The purpose of this use-inspired basic study was to develop a translational model to evaluate workplace contexts within a renewal framework that focused on the renewal of desirable employee behavior. Adults without a diagnosiscompleted a computerized check processing task in a simulated workplace environment in which color-correlated stimuli served as contextual changes across phases. Findings demonstrated renewal of desirable behavior across all six participants. The current study and its findings extend the human operant literature on renewal by demonstrating one type of translational model that may bring together operant renewal and organizational behavior management. Implications of these findings as they apply to performance management of staff and future research will be presented.

A central component of the Morningside Model of Generative Instruction is teaching students specific repertoires, called “learning skills”, that allow them to more effective and more confident learners in the classroom. Online learning created many challenges for teachers and students, particularly in the area of learning skills instruction. Morningside teachers had to assess, then teach, not only the specific skills needed to effectively learn in the remote setting, but also those that would be necessary for in-person setting. This presentation will focus on that assessment, instruction, and measurement process. With the students working at home, amidst several distractions, online learning created a unique opportunity to teach the students to advocate for themselves and to take control of their own learning. To develop these independent learning repertoires, students were taught to identify when they were confused, what part of the instruction confused them, and how to ask specific questions to get the information necessary to be successful. Students were then coached to track these behaviors using Morningside’s Daily Support Card and the Standard Celeration Chart, to set goals to decrease the amount of time between activities and the number of prompts given in each instructional period.

As the world of remote learning unfolds, old habits and patterns must be adjusted for technological advances. Markle describes good instructional design as having meaningful active responding, errorless learning, and immediate feedback. Donald Cook observed, “...the principles of active response and low error rate were widely cited, but they were often misunderstood and misapplied.” Often overlooked is the word meaningful; being active is not enough. Responding that is a function of prompting, copying, or echoing, are all active, yet all should be avoided when teaching cognitive tasks. When Morningside Academy moved to online learning, faculty had to stay true to the model. The author will provide examples of response requests that require active responding, how a mathetics approach limits errors and facilitates an error analysis, and new ways to to provide immediate feedback.

Learning at the Judge Rotenberg Center shifted from the school buildings to individual residences. Dining rooms and living areas became classrooms and teachers were tasked with instructing a new group of students organized by residential assignment to accommodate the school health and safety plan. High rate responding activities during ELA instruction occurred at the school daily before moving to in-person instruction from the residences. From March-June, students continued to engage in high rate responding activities during ELA instruction, from their residence opposed to the structure of the classroom. This presentation aims to share data from one classroom/residential group of students diagnosed with severe disabilities and between the ages of 15-19, before, during, and after initial pandemic response adaptations to learning environments within the Judge Rotenberg Center. This Presentation will also detail steps taken to deliver in-person instruction from the residential environment. Data presented was collected using the IReady Assessment tool for both Reading and Math for each student.

Behavior analysis offers a variety of instructional technologies to teach all types of students a variety of skills. Many college-level instructors have incorporated behavior analytic techniques to the college classroom successfully to improve learning outcomes across subject areas. While there are a plethora of data available on the effectiveness of these techniques in face-to-face classroom, several issues arise regarding the practicality of these techniques in an online classroom. The current presentation highlights the literature on instructional design and evidence-based instructional strategies as it applies to virtual learning. Additionally, the presenters offer practical recommendations with associated examples on how to extend additional strategies to meet the demand of virtual learning.

The ABAI International Task Force on Education was formed in 2020. It includes representatives from ten countries. The goal of the task force is to develop a model of education that can meet the needs of constituents around the world. The task force generated a model of education that has been reviewed and supported by the ABAI Accreditation and VCS Boards, and the ABAI Executive Council. Constituents from India, Japan, and Norway will provide an update on the on the task force’s progress. We welcome attendance of all those interested in this effort.

In order for behavior-analytic treatments to be maximally effective, caregiver training (e.g., parents, teachers) is necessary. This symposium will describe four studies examining methods for assessing variables related to poor caregiver performance and strategies for training caregivers to implement behavioral interventions. The first study describes an evaluation of the psychometric properties of the Performance Diagnostic Checklist-Human Services, designed to assess the environmental determinants of poor staff performance. The second study will present data examining the utility of a self-instructional manual for training special-education teachers and graduate students in behavior analysis to select appropriate prompting strategies. The third presentation describes a study evaluating methods for training staff to implement task analyses with high levels of fidelity. Finally, the fourth presentation will describe a randomized controlled trial assessing the effects of a manualized parent-training program targeting high-frequency challenging behaviors displayed by children with autism spectrum disorder. Training caregivers to become effective treatment agents is an integral part of behavior-analytic service delivery and each presentation will provide thoughtful insights on the topic. To end, the discussant will review the collective findings and provide directions for future research.

The target audience for this symposium will be students, researchers, and practitioners that are interested in caregiver training.

Manualized parent-training protocols (e.g., the Incredible Years) are available to parents whose children engage in problematic behaviors. These protocols typically utilize an eclectic range of therapeutic strategies. To date, however, there has not been a manualized parent-training protocol that exclusively utilizes behavior analytic-based techniques to address problematic behaviors common among children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). We examined the efficacy of a 6-week, focused parent training intervention across 38 parents of children with ASD. Parents were randomized into either a behavioral parent training or an active control intervention. A variety of outcome measures were used to examine the effects of the intervention at baseline, the conclusion of treatment, and at a 6-month follow-up. The primary outcome measure was the Clinical Global Impression-Improvement (CGI-I) scale administered by an Independent Evaluator (IE) who was unaware of treatment assignment. The CGI-I scale score reflected the IE’s assessment of overall improvement from baseline to endpoint. Differences in improvement were found between groups. In the control group, 22.2% of families improved significantly, compared to the treatment group, of which 62% of families improved significantly. Results will be discussed in relation to other manualized parent-training protocols, and directions for future research will be presented.

Visit dozens of exhibitors in the virtual exhibit hall!

The 2009 Homeless Emergency Assistance and Rapid Transition to Housing (HEARTH) Act directs federal funding to agencies and services that have adopted a “Housing First” or “Rapid Rehousing” approach. This approach requires that those experiencing homelessness be housed as quickly as possible and that services then be provided to keep them housed (HUD Exchange, 2020). Little controlled research has been undertaken 1) to determine the effectiveness of this approach in maintaining long-term housing stability and 2) to identify the services most important for averting a return to homelessness (Urban Institute, 2018). We suggest that behavior analytic tools, such as the functional analysis (Kanfer & Saslow, 1969), metacontingency analysis (Glenn, 2004), and contextual functional analysis (Hayes, Barnes-Holme, & Wilson, 2012), can be employed to clarify the competencies and skill deficits, supports and resources, and systems level variables that impact long-term housing stability for homeless families. We discuss the need for research that examines whether a culturo-behavior science analysis leads to improved long-term housing stability of families who have experienced homelessness. We present a brief case example to demonstrate the potential utility of this approach and discuss several research strategies to acquire empirical data related to long-term housing stability.

Online crowdsourcing platforms have revolutionized 21st century social science research. With sites like Amazon Mechanical Turk and Reddit, researchers can rapidly recruit large, representative samples at a low cost. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this trend is likely to continue, as researchers pivot to conducting human subject research virtually. Despite this proliferation of online research, extant guidelines for ethical research are written for in-person recruitment and do not provide guidance sensitive enough for potential ethical pitfalls unique to virtual platforms. In this paper, we provide a review of the current guidelines from the Behavior Analysis Certification Board’s Professional and Ethical Compliance Code, The National Institutes of Health Guiding Principles for Ethical Research, and the American Psychological Association’s Ethical Principles and Code of Conduct. We review why these guidelines are insufficient in their current form for online research. We will present a case study of crowdsourced recruitment during the Covid-19 pandemic to illustrate potential ethical concerns when using online platforms. Lastly, we will discuss additional guidelines we recommend based on our experience for conducting ethical crowdsourced internet-based research.

People with intellectual disabilities/developmental disabilities in the United States are living longer in recent decades. People 65 and older are in better health than previous decades due to more awareness of the beneficial effects of a healthy diet, preventative medical care, and physical exercise. Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities are living longer as well. However, this presents challenges in meeting the needs of this population. This paper details the results of a survey developed to assess several areas of services, including social engagement, health-related services, group home environment, and staff training and development, were evaluated to identify areas in need of improvement. Participants consisted of 95 direct care staff working for a not-for-profit agency providing residential services to adults with intellectual disabilities/developmental disabilities. The results of the survey indicate that need for improving social engagement opportunities for older adults residing in the community and more training on working with older adults with intellectual disabilities/developmental disabilities for direct care staff in a residential setting. The goal of the current study was to examine residential services through the eyes of direct care staff to see if the increasing needs of older adults with intellectual disabilities/developmental disabilities are being met.

Attendees should have basic understanding of algebraic slope, angles of inclination, and ratios.

At the conclusion of the presentation, participants will be able to (1) describe the difference between algebraic and geometric slope, and (2) describe how altering the new equation of graphic induced variability (i.e., the Graphic Variability Quotient [GVQ]) measurably alters the appearance of slope and variability on any time-series graph. 

Video modeling has been used widely in behavior analysis. The literature has cited its use as a consumer teaching procedure (e.g., teaching children with Autisms perspective-taking skills, play skills, etc), as well as a method of staff training (e.g., preference assessments, functional analysis, discrete trial training). Video models afford learners access to a well-produced model, which may increase the over quality of the model, as well as provide opportunities to display and highlight specific features of the modeled behavior. This symposium will discuss several applied studies that attempt to extend the current literature. The reviewed studies will discuss advances in digital technology for the delivery of video models, and conceptual extensions of commonly used procedures which may provide clarity on best practices.

Behavior Analyst, Licensed Psychologist, Graduate Students

A concurrent multiple baseline design, across participants, was implemented to investigate the effects of behavioral skills training (BST) on the identification of interest and disinterest of a conversational listener. In addition to BST, pre-recorded video exemplars were created and used to model the target behaviors in tandem with lag reinforcement schedules. During baseline, all participants were shown three video-exemplars with no feedback. The mean accuracy score for all participants during baseline was 12.2%. During the training condition, BST, multiple-video exemplar training and lag reinforcement was used to teach participants how to identify if a conversational listener is either interested or disinterested in what the speaker is saying. All participants researched a 100% mastery criterion with an average maintenance criterion of 98.7%. From baseline to training, all participants had a non-overlapping data score of 96.7%, acquiring the skills needed to identify the interest and disinterest of a conversational listener. Additionally, all participants generalized skills with family and friends’ post-study, with all families observing participants attempts to re-engage the disinterested conversational partner.

High procedural integrity is essential for the implementation of behavior analytic procedures. Procedural integrity can vary across staff; however, evidence-based training procedures can increase the likelihood interventions are implemented in the manner they were designed. Despite the availability of evidence-based training procedures, organizations continue to rely on didactic based trainings. This may be because many training procedures require a trainer to provide feedback. Video modeling is a training procedure that can be used without the use of performance feedback. The literature is mixed regarding the success of video model trainings without the use of feedback. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate the use of a video model training procedure, in which participants viewed content through a head mounted device to eliminate the need for performance feedback. The data for three participants were evaluated using a multiple-probe design across target skills. By the end of intervention, all participants met mastery criteria for each target behavior without the need of performance feedback. One participant required video models with voiceover instructions to master each target skill. Two participants met mastery criteria for a portion of targets skills with video models alone. The results of this study suggest that video models delivered through a head-mounted device, also known as immersive video modeling, can train direct care staff in common behavior analytic procedures without the need for performance feedback.

Previous studies indicate that video-modeling is a more effective intervention method to teach children on the autism spectrum how to imitate actions or activities. However, McDowell, Gutierrez, and Bennett (2015) conducted an alternating treatment design in which they compared live-modeling with prompts to video-modeling without prompts and found that live-modeling was a more effective intervention method. The purpose of the current study was to compare whether video-modeling without prompts and live-modeling without prompts is a more effective intervention for increasing imitation in children diagnosed with autism. The results were inconclusive, however the results of one participant suggest that video-modeling without prompts is a more effective intervention treatment for children on the autism spectrum with some prerequisite imitative skills. Implications related to this finding are discussed.

This study used independent ABAB withdrawal designs to determine whether BPT increased parent fidelity of implementation of function-based intervention which then resulted in decreasing rates of child challenging behavior while increasing rates of appropriate replacement behavior. Four participants aged 8-17 were included in the study with their parents serving as interventionists. The routines of concern were mealtime, toothbrushing, and room cleaning with various topographies of challenging behavior impacting the quality of these family routines. Each parent achieved high treatment fidelity with one session of BPT and bug-in-ear coaching. Three participants had an immediate decrease in challenging behavior upon the introduction of the intervention. Three participants showed reliable reversals to their challenging behavior with the withdrawal of the intervention and corresponding decreases in challenging behavior when the intervention was reintroduced. All parents reported high acceptability, ease of use, and contextual fit pre- and post-intervention. Results and implications for practice and future research were discussed.

Staff turnover can pose a significant problem for human service organizations. For Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) service providers, turnover may be particularly problematic due to the resources required for training. Accreditation organizations such as the Behavioral Health Center for Excellence® (BHCOE®) collect large amounts of organizational data that can point to trends in ABA organizations and provide a basis for problem identification and intervention. In this study, we evaluated BHCOE® data to examine potential predictors of staff turnover as well as staff and caregiver satisfaction in ABA organizations. Results of multiple regression analyses suggest that high rates of turnover among job classes (i.e., technicians and supervisors) correlate with each other’s turnover. Behavior Technicians are also more likely to turnover when wages are lower and caregiver satisfaction wanes. Staff satisfaction was not a significant turnover predictor but was generally predicted by caregiver satisfaction. These findings suggest that turnover and satisfaction are multi-faceted processes worthy of examination; we provide broad recommendations for improvement and avenues for further study.

Automatically reinforced problem behavior may be difficult to treat due to practitioners’ inability to manipulate the establishing operations or functional reinforcers. Noncontingent reinforcement is one of the common interventions used to treat automatically maintained self-injury because the noncontingent delivery of the stimuli competes with engaging in the problem behavior. Although this intervention is effective, it might be difficult to implement in settings in which individuals are expected to engage in functional activities (e.g., schoolwork, daily living tasks) without engaging in problem behavior. Thus, the purpose of this study was to further evaluate the effects of noncontingent delivery of competing stimuli on automatically maintained self-injury and compliance for mastered tasks. Two children with developmental disabilities who engaged in severe self-injurious behavior participated in this study.

Elopement is a dangerous behavior exhibited by some individuals with autism, and accurately identifying the function of elopement is important to develop successful treatments. Functional analyses for elopement have been developed to mimic contingencies appearing in the natural environment; however, some of these analyses are limited by the required retrieval component. The current study replicated previous research which used a latency-based functional analysis that eliminates the retrieval component in order to safely and more precisely identify the function of elopement. In addition, we extended previous latency-based research by evaluating a treatment to reduce elopement. Specifically, we evaluated latency-based functional analyses to assess elopement exhibited by three children with autism. We then implemented function-based treatment packages for both children. Results showed that the treatment packages were effective to reduce elopement.

The application of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) in the juvenile justice settings is a fairly new area of research for ABA. Recently Adapt & Transform Behavior, LLC behavior analysts have trained detention center administrators, supervisors and staff to become credentialed as registered behavior technicians (RBTs). The introduction of RBTs to this setting was hypothesized to increase the effectiveness of facility wide interventions put in place by the Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and aid in the fidelity of staff compliance with mandated facility operating procedures. The purpose of the case studies to be presented were to evaluate the effects of evidence-based interventions in the implementation and proficiency of daily detention roles and responsibilities. Pyramidal training (BCBA ? RBT? Detention staff) was used to train detention officers using behavior skills training on conducting effective and proficient searches on youth. Secondarily, a multicomponent intervention was implemented by RBTs to increase level card proficiencies.

As research shows, high intensity Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) for individualized interventions is a successful approach. However, in many cases the density of services is minimized by institutions in the name of cost savings. This presentation will review a case study demonstrating the ability of highly effective FW-PBIS systems to be put in place at a quicker pace with high fidelity when high intensity Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) interventions are implemented by Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs). Prior to the introduction of high doses of ABA, the facility was experiencing high rates of self injury, property destruction, fighting and noncompliance that resulted in multiple escapes, arrests and hospitalizations of youth alongside high rates of staff turnover and terminations. These issues resulted in financial consequences (in the form of fines, hospitalizations, freezes and on boarding) for the program that outweighed the cost of attempting to bypass the use of BCBAs. The results of this case study show that both facility wide and individualized interventions were effectively put in place within three months and services were systematically faded and maintained at a lower level over the next year.

The climate crisis challenges all of us to step up our sustainability efforts as soon as possible: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change warns that global greenhouse gas emissions must be cut by nearly 50% by 2030. How can we help accomplish the necessary changes using behavior-analytic principles? A high-profile study by the American Psychological Association found that two of the major behavioral barriers to more individual climate action are a sense of futility, and the difficulty of transitioning to new green habits (see the 2009 report from the APA Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change). Both of these - motivation and habits - are areas where behavior analysis offers major contributions. How can we build on what we have already accomplished in climate action? How can we transfer what has worked in our related areas of strength? Each of the panelists is experienced in behavioral sustainability, and will offer a few suggestions. Opening the floor to the audience, we will attempt to put together a plan of action.

All behavior analysts concerned about climate change and environmental sustainability

Behavior analysis is expanding and diversifying to include analysts from multiple and diverse backgrounds, from Western and non-Western countries, and who speak many different languages. Fostering internationalization and diversity in our field is not only necessary to achieve optimal growth as a field but represents a strategy of turning science inward to improve the way that we operate behavior analysis as a unified and diverse field. The first talk will explore potential advantages that bilingual behavior analysts may have in areas of derived relational responding and psychological flexibility that can translate to work with clients. The second talk will discuss several barriers that international students face when completing graduate training and work within the United States. Addressing these barriers may ultimately confer several advantages not only to practitioners, but this work can also serve to improve the overall quality and scope of our evolving field.

BCBAs

There are over 38 thousand BCBAs worldwide with roughly 2 thousand residing outside of North America (BACB, n.d.). With behavior analytic work being highly sought after and needed (Carr and Nosik, 2017), the 103 institutions outside of north America that have a verified course sequences (VCS; ABAI, n.d.) serve as the educational hubs abroad before the BACB decisions to pull back certification to only USA and Canadian certificants. Many students, however, come from around the world to the USA in order to complete these courses sequences in hopes of becoming a BCBA. There is a surprising lack of data regarding international students engaged in this coursework in addition to outcomes of individuals who have graduated from USA-based institutions. International students also experience more barriers and hurdles to overcome during their time than local students (Mallinckrodt, et al. 1992; Sawir, 2005; Lian & Wallace, 2020) making the education/learning experience received, as well as future job prospects, inequitable. Given this lack of data and concerns regarding access to resources, this manuscript will be addressing the various barriers that inhibit the training experience and overall comfort of these students while completing their graduate education in behavior analytic programs. These barriers will be broken down into administrative, structural, and cultural barriers being behaviorally defined, identification of what is included within that barrier, and author lived experiences with each. Suggestions for policy change as well as future research will be suggested in order to create a more equitable model of support for international students.

Numerous professionals, including board-certified behavior analysts (BCBAs), have had to pivot to delivering ABA therapy via telehealth due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The lessons learned from these experiences can provide insights to researchers and practitioners about the state of telehealth practice in the community. This symposium includes a series of presentations to inform the field and support the application of telehealth services during times of crisis. The first presentation will describe results from a convergent mixed-methods survey study of the experiences of 657 BCBAs, three months after stay at home orders went into effect. The second will describe the results of a single-case, multiple probe design study across three BCBAs who were provided professional development via telehealth on strategies for building better rapport with caregivers and coaching them to bring about maximum clinical efficacy. The third will describe results of a randomized controlled trial on the effectiveness of a series of online parent training modules on caregiver’s use of behavioral principles with their young child with challenging behaviors.

The importance of family engagement in their children's education and treatment is emphasized by researchers, professional organizations, and legislations. Providing services with caregivers via telepractice has gained more support and is becoming especially timely due to the current pandemic and social distancing requirements. Professionals, such as board-certified behavior analysts (BCBAs), who work with caregivers with children with disabilities may benefit from receiving professional development on strategies for building better rapport with caregivers and coaching them to bring about maximum clinical efficacy. The current study replicated an earlier study by Meadan et al. (2020) to examine the effects of the Coaching Caregiver Professional Development (CoCarePD) program, in which (a) BCBAs received training and coaching from researchers via telepractice on their caregivers coaching practices, (b) BCBAs coached caregivers of children with autism. A single-case, multiple-probe design study across three BCBAs was conducted. Findings support a functional relation between the CoCarePD and BCBAs' use of coaching practices. Participating BCBAs were also satisfied with the goals, procedures, and outcomes of the program. The detailed method, findings, limitations, and implications will be discussed.

Consistent challenging behaviors of young children are known to have significant impact on the child’s optimal development, such as social-emotional development or communication skills (Dunlap et al., 2006). Furthermore, some parents who live in Korea have exacerbated hardships due to limited opportunities for treatment for their children with autism. Intervention delivery using telepractice is supported with more research in these cases. To strengthen the capacity of parents in Korea, we developed and examined the effectiveness of a series of online parent training modules on behavioral principles using a randomized controlled trial with a waitlist control group (N = 88). We found significant interaction effects of Group X Time for (a) parental knowledge of behavioral principles, (b) positive parenting practices, and (c) parental stress, with no preexisting differences between the two groups. Furthermore, qualitative social validity data indicated that parents were highly satisfied with the goals, procedures, and outcomes, and that the modules affected their parenting styles, increased knowledge leading to better child outcomes, and recommendations for future research.

This symposium presents three papers that evaluate procedures to increase skill acquisition or independence for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) across the life span. The first paper by Mandel et al. evaluated the effect of different stimulus modalities on the efficacy and efficiency of tact of actions acquisition in young participants diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The second paper by Braren et al. evaluated the predictive validity of a brief error-correction assessment when using Discrete Trial Instruction to teach adult participants with IDD to build LEGO® structures. The third paper by Budge et al. evaluated the effects of staff proximity on the performance of adults with ASD in completing vocational tasks at job sites. Audiences can expect to learn more about current research targeting the improved efficacy and efficiency of skill acquisition procedures, as well as research on procedures to increase skill acquisition or independence in adults with IDD.

Attendees should have experience with DTT methodology; experience in implementing multi-component procedures with fidelity (e.g., model, error correction); experience with using multiple baseline, alternating treatments, multi-element designs; experience with verbal behavior.

As school-age students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) transition into adult services, resources can diminish significantly. Adults with ASD may still require substantial supports and supervision to achieve successful outcomes. However, drastic reductions in financial resources upon turning 21 can have significant adverse effects on the ability to provide adequate staffing. While employment in the competitive workforce is the preferred outcome, lower levels of staff oversight may hinder the ability to procure employment for adults on the spectrum with significant support needs. Perceptions of potential employers on adult workers with ASD include a lack of productivity and the higher level of supervision that may be required (Morgan & Alexander, 2005). In order to be successful in an integrated work setting, adults with ASD must display the ability to perform work tasks thoroughly and independently. The purpose of the present study was to assess the role of staff proximity on the quality of vocational tasks in adults on the spectrum. Permanent products of completed tasks were measured at the employment setting of two participants. Assessment results indicated a negative correlation between staff proximity and task completion. The quality of work decreased as the instructor’s proximity from the participant increased. After achieving this outcome, intervention options will be examined to improve the quality of work performed in the absence of an instructor. Further, implications will be discussed for the importance of fading behavioral intervention plans as children age out of school-based placements.

Behavior analysts need to understand the process of child development in order to understand the development of atypical behavior. Behavior analysis has increasingly focused on treatment of problem behavior but seldom examines the process of development itself. Behavioral systems theory (BST) is a fundamentally behavioral approach to understanding the developmental process. BST combines dynamic systems and developmental systems theories with the principles of behavior analysis. This symposium identifies recent developments in the field of behavioral development since the publication of Child and Adolescent Development: A Behavioral Systems Approach by Novak and Pelaez. The talks will review the principles of behavioral systems theory and identify new trends in behavior analysis that have emerged in recent years. The first paper will outline BST’s principles. It will present some new concepts that have emerged in both behavior analysis and developmental psychology relevant to BST. The second paper will examine basic areas of research in child development, including cognitive, social learning, communication and language development and present relevant new research in these areas. The final paper will present a behavioral systems application to problem behaviors such as Autism Spectrum Disorder and ADHD. A review of research literature relevant to these areas will be covered.

Educators, practitioners, and researchers interested in the area of child development.

This paper examines the emerging areas of application in child development and the critical role of a behavioral systems theory approach toward the comprehensive treatment of childhood behavior disorders. From this standpoint, behavior disorders are the result of the same developmental process as other behaviors, where genetic-constitutional, historical, physiological, environmental, and behavior dynamical interactions must be considered. In particular, common childhood behavior disorders including Autism Spectrum Disorder and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder will be discussed, with emphasis on the importance of initial diagnosis and early behavioral interventions in preventing further maladaptive behavior patterns. The relationship between the person-environment interactions and efficacy of treatment will be outlined. A review of relevant research in these areas will be covered, highlighting the critical role of certain treatments such as social skills training and early language interventions. Further, implications and opportunities to incorporate behavioral systems theory within areas of applied child development will be discussed.

This panel will be a discussion of Dr. Ellie Kazemi’s SQAB Tutorial on the utility of computer technologies in behavior analysis.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Social learning, or learning mediated by the interaction with others or their behavioral products, is a burgeoning field in psychology. Broadly, social learning researchers are interested in understanding the conditions under which organisms learn from one another rather than directly from the nonsocial environment, and if a tendency to learn socially varies across individuals, populations, and species. These questions are often positioned within a wider goal of understanding the evolution of culture, and are likely of great interest to behavior analysts. Additionally, social learning research has been criticized for overlooking the importance of associative learning mechanisms, providing an opportunity for behavior analysts to contribute. Here, I overview the social learning literature in an effort to introduce the terms and points of analysis to a behavior analytic audience, and highlight the areas in which a radical behaviorist framework can aid in the discovery of the mechanisms that underpin social learning abilities. I also overview the current popular questions in social learning research, including whether or not “high-fidelity” social learning processes, such as imitation and teaching, are required for cumulative culture, as well as the role of “complex contagion” in behavioral transmission.

Discussion topics will include: implicit biases; potential empirical investigations surrounding diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), verbal behavior surrounding DEI, and next steps as a field.

Dr. Kent Johnson would like to meet and greet you all to describe his new book,The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction: Building A Bridge Between Skills and Inquiry Teaching,co-authored with long-time co-writer Dr. Elizabeth Street, as well as Morningside Academy Directors Andrew Kieta and Joanne Robbins.At over 500 pages, this comprehensive work provides a thorough overview of how best practices in behavioral education can bridge the seemingly endless divide between educators who build basic skills and those who aim to teach inquiry and thinking. This is a must-have for those interested in expanding from direct instruction and fluency-based instruction into higher order thinking and problem solving, as well as teachers looking to build solid foundations from which to continue inquiry-based approaches.

Topics to discuss will include:

• Telehealth applications for behavior analysts in research and practice
• Supporting trainee/consultee/supervisee skill development through virtual training environments
• Teleconsultation to support ABA practice in school settings
• Telesupervison and support.

Our 8th edition just came out on April 1, 2021, and we’re eager to chat with you about it. To answer questions like, “Why’s this the world’s greatest intro to behavior analysis?” Like, “Is it just rats and pigeons or DD or autism?” Like, “Why’s it so weird?” “Is it really as rigorous as you think it is?” “Is it a fun read?” “Is it an easy read?” “Is it really an excellent choice for both college freshmen and first-year grad students?” “Is it really responsible for seducing a lot of innocent students into the field of behavior analysis?”

Oh yes, and we might also chat about our fantasy of providing continuous, online support and about any corrections you recommend or problems you see, because we hope to make whatever adjustments are helpful online, as we probably can’t re-edit the book, until the 9th edition.

This isn’t a talk, but rather an informal question, and hopefully answer, session.

To what a dog attends when responding to verbal cues has been a focus of considerable research. Less research, however, has examined factors specific to voice quality or masking of the face. Prior research shows that changes to phonetic pronunciation of a behavioral cue significantly decreases response accuracy in dogs. Our lab has also shown that non-occluded versus covered faces improves cue response accuracy. The present study examined how canines responded to obedience cues when a recorded or human voice delivered the cue. Dogs were also exposed to varying facial occlusions and gestural cue conditions. Results show that a synthetic voice cue increased latency and decreased accuracy of responding, particularly when paired with facial obstruction and a lack of a gestural cue. Further, the obstruction of the full face or the eyes reduced accuracy and increased latency more than mouth coverings regardless of type of voice cue. These data are highly relevant during the pandemic-mandated mask wearing for handlers and trainers. The data suggest that mask wearing is not deleterious to cue responding in dogs. However, recorded human voice is not perceived as identical to an actual human voice by trained dogs.

Animal labs can offer students of behavior analysis a unique, hands-on learning experiences. However, COVID-19 restrictions - while put in place to protect both human and animal health - have presented challenges to traditional brick-and-mortar lab classes. We conducted a pilot study to evaluate the use of a virtual animal behavior research clinic as a method to teach undergraduate students humane training and education techniques based on behavior analytic principles with companion animal dogs and cats remotely. Training sessions included instruction, modeling, and rehearsal for modules on habituation, Pavlovian conditioning, preference assessments and reinforcer assessments, matching law, shaping, and environmental enrichment techniques. Future directions to evaluate the efficacy of the virtual clinic on student learning outcomes and social validity are needed and will also be discussed.

Several studies have looked at ways to mitigate resurgence of a target behavior by manipulating dimensions of reinforcement for an alternative behavior. To date, only one study has examined differences in resurgence following different magnitudes of reinforcement for the alternative behavior, and only one study has addressed resurgence in an academic setting. The current study evaluated resurgence of a target academic response when all responses were placed on extinction subsequent to a phase of high- or low-magnitude reinforcement for an alternative response. Four fourth-grade students without a diagnosis participated and their rate of problem completion was measured across sessions. In Phase 1, students were reinforced for completing addition problems. In Phase 2, students were reinforced for completing subtraction problems, but not addition problems. Finally in Phase 3A/3B, reinforcement was not provided for any response (i.e., extinction). In Phase 3A, extinction was not signaled and resurgence was only observed in 3 of the 4 students. In Phase 3B, extinction was signaled and resurgence of the target response occurred for all four participants, with variable levels across the high- and low-magnitude conditions. Implications and directions for future research will be discussed.

Meaningful stimuli are, by definition, pre-experimentally related to other stimuli. Some authors have suggested that training relations between a meaningful stimulus and a member of an equivalence class could produce the merge of the experimental class with a pre-experimentally established class. Here, two experiments compared the effects of meaningful and meaningless words on the merger of classes. In both experiments, adults were trained on AB and AC relations for the emergence of three 3-member equivalence classes with abstract stimuli. Then, they were trained on DA relations and tested for the inclusion of D and a set of nine meaning-related pictures in the class. In Experiment 1 (N = 22), D1 and D2 were meaningful written words, and D3 was a written pseudo word. In Experiment 2 (N = 13), for two groups, D1, D2, and D3 were meaningful words; for another group, D1, D2, and D3 were meaningless words. In both experiments, only meaningful words produced the merger of the ABC and the meaning-related stimulus classes. These results support the notion that meaningful stimuli are members of pre-experimental classes and that using meaningful-stimulus in equivalence tasks can produce the merge of the experimental and the extra-experimental classes.

The purpose of the present study was to investigate if the behavioral processes of probability and social discounting could predict people’s compliance with the protective measures recommended during the COVID-19 pandemic. A sample of 116 adults living in Brazil completed an online survey composed of a probability discounting questionnaire (PDQ), a social discounting questionnaire (SDQ), and a 10-question assessment of how often they complied with the health authorities’ recommendations (e.g., wash the hands frequently, practice social distancing, stay at home as much as possible, wear a mask when in public). Only the participants who showed higher or lowered compliance with the protective measures were included in the final analyses. Results revealed that the PDQ and SDQ responses could predict people’s compliance with the protective measures recommended by the health authorities. Participants who showed low compliancewere more likely to perform risk choices in the PDQ than high-compliant ones. To a lesser extent, participants who showed high compliance were more prone to present cooperative choices in the SDQ, compared to low-compliant participants. These results suggest that probability and social discounting processes can play an essential role in the self-protective and cooperative decisions people made during a global health emergency, such as the COVID-19 pandemic.

Six pigeons pecked on the food key to receive reinforcers on a two-component mixed schedule (VI 30 s/EXT), or on the observing key to change the mixed schedule to a multiple schedule by sometimes producing an observing stimulus (S+/S-) that corresponded to the current component in effect. Components alternated irregularly with variable durations and responses within the final 5 s of an EXT component extended the said component. Across conditions we manipulated the duration of the observing stimulus (3.25, 7.5, 15, 30 s). As observing-stimulus duration increased, percentage of session time spent as a multiple schedule increased and fewer observing stimuli were produced. What remained invariant across conditions was the degree of differential responding during the mixed stimulus. Number of successive food-key responses since offset of observing stimuli showed that observing stimuli (S+/S-) produced differential responding on the food key during the mixed stimulus. Consequently, producing observing stimuli resulted in better discrimination during the mixed stimulus compared to a mixed schedule without such an opportunity. These findings show that observing stimuli were produced to an extent that affords greater discrimination of an uncertain environment regardless of the duration of these observing stimuli.

Associating meaningless trigrams (CS) with a positively valenced attribute (US) may influence appetite-associated motivational systems, such as increased saliva production, regardless of whether the former (CS-US) relation is consciously tractable. We test this claim in the present study, where we expose three groups of Brazilian undergraduates (N = 69) to a subliminal conditioning protocol. The procedure involved presenting eating-related activities (CS) or their scrambled counterparts (non-CS) at subliminal visual thresholds, followed by visible positive or neutral attributes (US). A free-selection visibility check confirmed that no participant identified the subliminal stimuli during the conditioning task. For the group who associated eating activities with the positive US, saliva production increased significantly as predicted. Outcomes across explicit and implicit evaluations were statistically inconclusive, but Markov Chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) simulations suggested conditioning effects were somewhat likely. Reliable saliva augmentation, coupled with inconclusive evaluation outcomes, illustrates how affective CS-US information can influence motivational responses with minimal deliberative influence.

The present study was designed to determine whether the repeated reversal procedure that has been used to demonstrate the formation of functional classes in pigeons and sea lions could be adapted for rats using olfactory stimuli. Rats were exposed to simple discrimination training with responding reinforced on an FI 5-s schedule for six odors (Set 1 positive) and extinction for a different set of six odors (Set 2 negative). When responding was well differentiated, the discriminations were reversed (i.e., Set 2 positive, Set 1 negative). Discrimination reversals were repeatedly performed and performances were on the initial session of a reversal were analyzed to determine whether was contacting the reversed contingencies with some set members would transfer without direct training to other set members. We found transfer in most rats tested, but mainly after exposure to the changed contingencies with five of the set members. These data provide some of the first evidence of functional class formation in rats.

The latency-based functional analysis (FA) is a hypothesis testing strategy used to inform effective function-based interventions for students who engage in challenging behavior (Lambert et al., 2017). Despite the promise of interventions informed by this experimental analysis, some students—especially those with emotional/behavioral disorders—respond in unexpected ways. For example, the establishing operations presented during functional communication training may elicit challenging behaviors as part of a stress response or evoke them in the form of countercontrol. These unanticipated responses may signal intervention procedures are aversive to the student, indicating a need to adapt procedures to prioritize student autonomy and safety. One such modification is the Enhanced Choice Model (ECM; Rajaraman et al., 2018), where concurrently available alternatives to participating in intervention sessions are programmed. We implemented a latency-based FA and subsequent function-based intervention with an elementary student who received special education services under an emotional disturbance label. When initial functional communication training with isolated contingencies failed to reduce rates of challenging behavior, we implemented skill-based treatment (Hanley et al., 2014) within an ECM. Outcomes suggest, with a moderate degree of confidence, that the adapted intervention successfully increased the student’s tolerance for stressful classroom conditions.

A growing body of evidence indicates systematic practice with math fact families efficiently and effectively improves fluency. The present investigation tested the effects of a fluency building intervention on math facts performance with four elementary school students participating in multi-tiered systems of support. The researchers employed a multiple baseline design across three sets of fact families. Intervention components consisted of modeling the fact family followed by three, one-minute practice trials with immediate feedback delivered between each timing. The students received up to a ten-day window of intervention on one set of fact families before moving to the next set. Results suggest a significant increase in digits correct per minute and a decrease in digits incorrect per minute. Study outcomes also suggest that fluency instruction focusing on the inverse relationship between addition and subtraction operations can plausibly serve as a viable alternative to instruction with isolated and unrelated math facts. Discussion points on stimulus equivalence as well as implications for practitioners and recommendations for future research will be shared.

This literature review was conducted to synthesize the research studies that evaluated point of view video modeling and analyze the behavioral, academic, and social outcomes it had on students with autism. Video modeling has been established through research as a robust intervention with positive effects across disabilities to teach behavioral, academic, functional, social, and life skills. Methods: A literature search was conducted using the online databases ERIC and APA PsychInfo. The Boolean search string: video technology AND modeling AND point of view AND autism was used. The titles and abstracts of the articles were reviewed to identify relevance and, in order to be included in the review, studies had to meet the following criteria: (a) independent variable is POV video modeling, (b) study participants are individuals with autism, and (c) study was conducted using a single-subject research design. Results: Twenty studies met the criteria for this review. Analysis of these studies indicate a functional relation between POV video modeling and the skills and behaviors the researchers were targeting. Implications: This systematic review provides evidence that point-of-view video modeling has positive effects when used to teach play, social skills, vocational tasks, letter writing, mathematics, and transition related tasks.

We tested the effects of implementing a CABAS® based educational model for 12 adolescents and young adults, aged 13 to 21, all enrolled in a learning and research centre in Italy. We collected monthly data on the total number of Learn Units, on the learning objectives achieved and on the number of Learn Units to Criterion by each participant. Data were discussed based on graphical analysis and suggested that CABAS® can be an effective tactic for the individualized education of our Participants. Also, the model appeared to successfully adapt to the Italian welfare system, and could provide Public Services leaders with easy-to-read data on the efficiency of evidence-based treatments for adolescents and young adults. Further research should compare different treatment intensity packages and add norm-based data. This pilot project was aimed to measure treatment effectiveness and efficiency using Learn Units, with the purpose of sharing the results with the Italian Health Department and stakeholders.

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a widely accepted science in which treatment for problem behavior reduction and skill acquisition interventions has been developed for learners diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Discrete Trial Training (DTT) is an effective teaching method within ABA that presents teaching targets in a rapid instructional format until a mastery criterion is met (Smith, 2001). Clinicians and researchers select instructional format and mastery criterion when designing the DTT protocol for their clients with ASD. Modifications in the instructional format present ratios of mastered teaching targets relative to targets in acquisition. Furthermore, the specified mastery criterion demonstrates when a skill is learned to sufficiency. The interaction of teaching format and mastery criteria options may impact the efficient acquisition and maintenance of the novel skills. The purpose of this review was to systematically categorize and evaluate instructional format and mastery criteria within a discrete trial teaching procedure for learners with developmental disabilities. The review included 15 studies organized into the following categories: Mass trial, interspersed trial, and distributed trial, as well as mastery criteria. Task interspersal (75% of those that compared instructional format) and an 80% mastery criterion correct across 3 days or sessions (80% of those that compared mastery criteria) were the most commonly identified. However, there was extreme variability across studies and future research is needed to allow clinicians to form a rationale for their treatment modification selections. Clinical implications and future directions for research are discussed.

Today, gaining competitive employment often requires searching for jobs and completing applications online, which may be a barrier for older, chronically unemployed adults with heroin addiction. In contrast, college students in the job market are presumed to be skilled with computers. To compare these populations, we measured digital literacy using interactive, online assessments (https://digitalliteracyassessment.org). Participants were 31 adults with chronic unemployment and heroin addiction (Treatment) and 115 college students enrolled in introductory computer science courses as part of their general education program (Control). Treatment participants had low median scores in assessments of Microsoft Word (52% vs. Control=83%), Microsoft PowerPoint (37% vs. Control=73%), and information literacy (49% vs. Control=67%). Although Control participants had higher median scores than Treatment participants in all domains, scores were within 10 percentage points in Social Media (difference=2.8%), Computer Basics (difference=7%), and E-mail (difference=9.2%). Employment support in addiction treatment should target computer skills to address this potential barrier to employment.

Educational policies over the past two decades have prioritized integrating students with disabilities into the general education setting. With this shift, the demographics of the general education setting have become more diverse, requiring teachers to implement a variety of behavioral and academic interventions to support the varying needs of individual students. To support teachers and students, interventions that are effective, while still socially valid, must be identified. Self-monitoring interventions have widely been used to address behavioral and academic concerns across a variety of educational and clinical settings and across a variety of disabilities. However, limited studies have examined the use of self-monitoring in the inclusive setting. Previous research would suggest that general education classroom teachers would benefit from implementing self-monitoring based intervention packages. Additionally, interventions capable of intervening on a group of students at one time, thereby reducing effort and oversight on the part of the teacher, are more favorable and socially valid. The combined use of a student-directed intervention (such as self-monitoring) and a group-based intervention (such as a group contingency) could have a significant impact on the performance of target and non-target students within a general education classroom. This study analyzes previous use of self-monitoring interventions, the possible implications of these interventions on the general education classroom setting, and makes suggestions for future research.

Brief Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) exercises focusing on values clarification and committed action were delivered to post-master’s participants qualified to sit for the Board Certified Behavior Analyst exam in a virtual setting during a 6-week test preparation class by RogueABA. The current study was an extension of Palilunas et al. (2018) who conducted a randomized controlled trial and delivered the same exercises to master’s levels students in a university setting. The current study differed in that a single-subject experimental design was utilized, along with differing dependent variables. Following exposure to ACT exercises, there was an increase in psychological flexibility as indicated by results by the Acceptance and Action Questionnaire 2 (AAQ-2); however, there was no clear evidence of a functional relation between these ACT exercises and several overt dependent variables. It was noteworthy that Group One, who gained more psychological flexibility as measured in an AAQ-2 self-report, completed an increased percentage of asynchronous online modules immediately following exposure ACT exercises. This was evident in a withdrawal design. However, this effect was not replicated for Groups Two and Three. Furthermore, the current study serves as a proof of concept in which automated data collection methods can be utilized to measure socially significant public behaviors in addition to self-reports that are commonly used in contextual behavior science research.

Special education programming in public schools relies heavily on the use of paraprofessionals to support instructional, behavioral, and social learning for students with disabilities (SWDs), however, paraprofessionals often lack formal training in the use of evidence-based practices (EBP). Traditional lecture-style methods of professional development for school-based staff are neither cost or time-efficient, nor effective at producing long-term changes in instructional behaviors employed by staff in the classroom. Research has demonstrated that paraprofessional-level practitioners can learn to use high levels of implementation fidelity of EBPs with SWDs when provided experiential training such as coaching. We conducted a systematic and quality review of literature on the use of coaching to train paraprofessionals to implement interventions for SWDs. We reviewed 174 full-text articles for inclusion and evaluated the methodological rigor of the research. Contextual variables, including trainer and participant characteristics, target skills, and implementation fidelity were synthesized to provide a summary of strengths and gaps in the evidence. Recommendations for practice and future research will be discussed.

The increased need for Applied Behavior Analysis services, especially in autism treatment, has resulted in behavior analysts working with client populations, in settings, and addressing behaviors of concern that they were not explicitly trained to address. It is essential that our field provide guidance for how behavior analysts can become competent in new practice areas. However, the Behavior Analyst Certification Board’s Professional and Ethical Compliance Code provides limited guidance in this area. Brodhead et al. (2018) has made recommendations for how behavior analysts can self-evaluate and expand their own scope of competence. This poster will expand on the work of Brodhead et al. (2018) to suggest a framework of specific practices to expand one’s scope of competence. This framework will include both technical skills as well as other important repertoires including clinical decision-making, problem solving, rapport building, and culturally responsive practice. Implications for graduate training and professional development will be discussed.

This presentation will report a review of single-case studies across cultures to summarize the characteristics of caregiver involvement in communication interventions for culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) families of individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and intellectual/developmental disability (IDD) for recommendations on culturally responsive practices. Caregiver involvement can improve communication skills in CLD individuals with ASD and IDD; however, there is a need to provide culturally and linguistically appropriate support to CLD caregivers during caregiver involvement. Limitations and implications for future research and practice will be addressed.

The importance of the distant provision of psychological and behavioral interventions is crucial during COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores psychologists’ and behavior analysts’ attitudes toward using telehealth-based ABA services to support individuals with disabilities in Saudi Arabia. The research addresses a two-fold problem? inadequate corroborated empirical evidence concerning the effectiveness of using telehealth models to provide individuals with disabilities with ABA services and a lack of research on practitioners’ attitudes toward employing telehealth-based ABA services. A quantitative survey method informed the study. The researcher used 20 survey questions to collect quantitative data from 104 participants about their general perceptions toward using telehealth-based ABA services to support individuals with disabilities. The researcher used descriptive, correlational, and statistical analyses to analyze the data. The results showed that most of the surveyed people (53%) stated that they were aware of the concept of telehealth in the field of applied behavioral analysis. Moreover, the majority of respondents expressed positive attitudes toward telehealth-based ABA services in terms of utility, willingness to provide the facilities, and potential benefits during the COVID-19 pandemic. The results also indicated that most of the respondents (88%) are willing to provide telehealth services if an adequate training is provided. On the other hand, (43%) of the participants disagree with the statement that telehealth provides the same benefits as the direct healthcare services. Keywords: Telehealth, applied behavior analysis, behavior analytic interventions, individuals with disabilities, COVID-19 pandemic, telehealth-based ABA services

This study wanted to determine if the addition of novel stimuli in the form of costume pieces (primarily novelty hats) would increase student engagement in pre-recorded lectures for an asynchronous masters level course. When comparing the results between a control and an experimental group, the first experimental test results showed better outcomes including a decreased range of scores between the lowest score and highest score across group participants and an increased low score on the exam. Following the first experimental test, however, scores leveled out to scores similar to baseline and the control groups, suggesting either satiation (i.e., wearing off of the effect) or anticipation of the procedure, resulting in no effect. Limitations and future research considerations are also discussed.

A series of studies has demonstrated that video modeling is effective to train staff to conduct stimulus preference assessments. However, only a few studies have conducted the evaluation of content validity of the video presented to participants. The purpose of this study was to produce a video to teach the implementation of paired-stimulus preference assessment, and evaluate its content validy. Initially, a task analysis was carried out to identify the necessary steps to a correct implementation of a paired-stimulus preference assessment. Then, we produced a video containing a written description of each one of steps identified through the task analysis, followed by a depiction of a full assessment. Finally, six professionals with different areas of expertise viewed the video and answered a questionnaire evaluating its content. They indicated that the video had all the steps necessary to conduct the assessment, and suggested a few modifications which were made to improve the comprehensibility of the information presented in the video. Considering that the report of the professionals is not enough to prove the effectiveness of the video, it is necessary to evaluate its effects on the implementation of a paired-stimulus preference assessment.

Scientific evidence clearly supports the existence of climate change, attributes this change largely to human behaviour, and warns that these changes will produce rapid and potentially catastrophic changes (Houmanfar, & Mattaini, 2015, Lehman & Geller, 2004; Luke, Roose, Rakos, & Mattaini, 2017; Thompson, 2010). Research has provided insight into changing individual’s pro-environmental choices using both consequence and antecedent strategies (Bacon & Krpan, 2018; Wansink & Love, 2014; Kongsbac et al., 2015; Baca-Motes, Brown, Gneezy, Keenan, & Nelson, 2012; Arieley, Bracha, & Meier, 2009). One area of research involves nudges, which are a collection of tools which make purposeful changes in the choice architecture and influence the behaviour of individuals (Lehner, Mont, & Heiskanen, 2015). In reviewing the literature, there are at least eight strategies that can be employed to increase the probability that people will engage in pro-environmental behaviours. These strategies can be implemented at the individual, community and governmental levels to move societies towards a sustainable and livable future.

The education of values as competencies for life is one of the current challenges of the school. The values can be analyzed as a psychological phenomenon, based on the behavior of an individual in relation to the functional changes of the individual or object before whom he behaves. The conditional relationships are analyzed based on the taxonomy proposed by Ribes (2018). An experimental design with Baseline, Intervention Phase and Follow-up Phase was used. Twelve preschoolers from a Kindergarten in the city of Xalapa, Veracruz participated. The study suggests that the performance of children's rights during the intervention phase was high on average in the three behaviors under study in the five functional levels: higher in promoting the “common good” and “tolerance” and a little lower in “equality between people”. However, in the follow-up phase, under natural conditions, the level of functional aptitude was identified more frequently in the first levels of functional aptitude; higher in “tolerance”, then in "equality between people" and lower in promotion of “the common good”. The results suggest that children's rights are learned and performing as life practices and that they can be studied from the Analysis of Behavior Theory.

Binge drinking is prevalent among college students. Students who count drinks and set limits are less likely to binge drink; however, these tactics require knowledge of standard servings. Unfortunately, most students are unable to identify or pour standard servings of alcohol. Although Behavioral Skills Training (BST) has been used to teach this skill, researchers have not evaluated the generality of this skill across different types of cups and across time. We used a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design to examine whether students (N=6) can acquire the skill and whether this skill generalized across untrained cups and a 5 -10 day follow-up. After receiving BST, most participants poured accurately into the trained cup and into one of the untrained cups. At follow-up, three participants poured accurately into all cups without needing additional BST. Two participants poured accurately into all cups after an additional round of BST for one cup. One participant continued to pour inaccurately. Because most participants poured accurately into at least one untrained cup after receiving BST, this suggests that some skill generalization and maintenance occurred. The time investment of BST may be worthwhile, and college administrators may want to incorporate BST into college alcohol education courses.

This research involves a critique of the concept of childhood “pathologization” that has been given greater importance, mainly due to the increase in children diagnosed with disorders that did not exist before, which has given rise to a catalog of treatments that include behavioral management therapies on occasions accompanied by drugs, losing sight of the individuality of the minor and only attending to a clinical diagnosis. In the present study, the effect of a behavioral change program was designed, applied, and evaluated through Contingency Analysis to observe human behavior, whether it is valued as problematic or not. This research was carried out using an experimental ABC design in two primary school children, referred for presenting behaviors valued as "problem behaviors". The interventions were carried out in three phases: Analysis, application, and follow-up. The analysis shows that morphologically similar behaviors, defined by the teacher, should be addressed differently in each one, given their circumstances, and that approach does not depend on a diagnosis. The application phase consisted of the use of behavior modification techniques adjusted to each context. The results show a decrease of problems behaviors on intervention and follow-up phases. The discussion is based on Behavior Analysis Theory.

Although Acceptance and Commitment therapy or Training (ACT) derives from behavior analytic principles, ACT has only recently become popular amongst behavior analysts. Although an incredibly large body of research already exist, supporting its utility to produce meaningful behavior change, most of the studies are conducted outside behavior analytic settings. The current project examines the state of ACT research conducted within the field of behavior analysis. Preliminary results suggest that the majority of empirical research conducted on ACT within behavior analytic journals (N = 36) has not been conducted by behavior analysts (n = 9). The current study also examines participant demographics, types experimental designs used, dependent variables, and the types of interventions implemented. Our brief review suggests that more empirical research is needed to examine the direct effect of ACT among diverse clinical populations typically served by behavior analysts.

Moreso than in most medical problems and health crisis situations, leaders of many and diverse disciplines repeatedly cite “changes in behavior” as the mainstay of addressing the challenges of the Covid 19 pandemic. Given the lack of preventative, protective, and treatment modalities, the importance of behavior and habit change by individuals and society becomes the most prominent “tool in the box,” and allows for empowerment of individuals, familys, organizations, and societies. This presentation highlights ways in which behavioral principles and techniques, especially when integrated with relevant principles of medicine and public health, can, and need to, be applied by clinicians and non clinicians to promote desired behaviors/habits including mask/PPE use (and techniques) and practicing social distancing,as well as remembering to NOT do many things we habitually do like shaking hands and holiday family gatherings. It applies as well to "private" behaviors of attitudes, opinions, knowledge (reality of the illness, safety of vaccines). The current pandemic serves as yet another opportunity for those most skilled in the principles and techniques of the management of behavior and development of habits to showcase the power of the discipline in making substantive desirable impacts on many phases of the Covid 19 pandemic, and the people affected by it.

Parental distress and coercive parent-child interactions are of major issues in our society. Cultural biases, stigma, and language barriers keep Asian-American parents and children away from mental and behavioral services. Behavior parent training as part of applied behavior analysis services is usually available to parents and children if their child has a diagnosis, but not for parents of children without diagnoses. Research in the area of parent-child interactions suggests a combination of behavior parent training and acceptance and commitment training as an effective preventative intervention alleviates parental distress and fosters positive parent-child interactions. However, limited research is available that examined the effectiveness of preventative acceptance and commitment training-based interventions for this population. Thus, the current study evaluated the effects of the individual acceptance and commitment training Matrix online training for Japanese-speaking distressed parents in the United States, using a single-subject design. Specific dependent variables measured were value-driven behaviors, parental engagement in treatment, parental distress, and psychological flexibility. The results revealed that the acceptance and commitment training Matrix training was effective in improving all four dependent variables. Parents reported that the training was culturally sensitive, effective, and appropriate in the social validity questionnaire.

Healthy eating is essential in combating diseases such as obesity, diabetes, and high blood pressure. Unfortunately, healthy eating has decreased with the decline of home-cooking and increased consumption of convenience foods. Research shows some indication that cooking interventions that contain social contingencies are more likely to have results that maintain and generalize to the home versus those that do not. The current study targeted meal preparation in the homes of college students utilizing an interdependent group contingency. 18 participants were divided into three groups, added to a social media group page, and required to post about their home cooking. The group contingency included a goal where all members of the group had to increase their number of weekly meals prepared in the home in order for all members of the group to receive monetary reinforcement. Results indicated that while the intervention initially increased meal preparation, these increases quickly declined. This is most likely due to group members failing to meet goal and not contacting reinforcement. However, further research is needed to determine if other group contingencies or goal levels may be more successful and utilizing social media groups may still have utility as it allows remote delivery of social consequences.

Physical inactivity continues to be a national health concern contributing to increased risk for mental and physical health problems in childhood (Reiner et al., 2013; Väistö et al., 2014). Environmental factors such as decreased activity and increased sedentary routine (i.e., video gaming and television watching) as well as social influence regarding physical activity among children are thought to contribute to and maintain the problematic unhealthy lifestyle trends (McKenzie et al., 1997; Väistö et al., 2014). Introduction to physical activity habits at a young age can help to promote beneficial lifelong health behaviors. Obesity prevention and physical activity intervention programs are often costly and require extensive resources to run (Chen & Wilkosz, 2014; Rivera et al., 2016). Recent advances in mobile technology, such as the Fitbit,® can potentially offer a cost-effective solution to increasing physical activity levels among children. Few research studies have been published on the effectiveness of Fitbit® use among young children. Even fewer studies have examined the impact that social influence, such as gamification or challenge features, have on the user’s level of physical activity. The current study was aimed at determining: the effectiveness of the Fitbit® with children and the impact of social influences on physical activity. Overall, it was found that the Fitbit® alone and when using its 24-hr challenge feature were ineffective at increasing step counts to recommended levels. Similarly, adding the goal, for two out of the three dyads, was ineffective at increasing step counts, and the one dyad who did respond to this component was found to have confounded data due to learning about the upcoming rewards phase. The addition of tangible rewards was only found to increase steps for two of the four participants who received them.

Tummy time is an activity for infants to practice their early motor skills. Although most pediatricians recommend tummy time, parents may avoid the procedures due to infant discomfort during this period. The present study investigated whether a preferred item increased head elevation and decrease negative vocalizations during tummy time with two typically developing infants. We compared more-preferred items identified using preference assessments to that of maternal attention. In addition, we evaluated social acceptability of the two procedures with the mothers in two ways. First, the mothers were given the direct opportunity to select which tummy time treatment they would like to implement in a concurrent chains design. Second, the mothers completed social validity questionnaires regarding their personal experiences. We found that more-preferred items and mother’s attention were effective at increasing head elevation and decreasing negative vocalizations during tummy time for both infants; however, the caregivers preferred the treatment including the more-preferred items.

The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of different diabetes diagnoses on sharing practices. Diabetes is a family of diagnoses that involves a dysfunction of the pancreas and impacted insulin levels. Different forms of diabetes include type 1 diabetes, an autoimmune condition, type 2 diabetes, gestational diabetes, and prediabetes. Diabetes is a health condition that may incur certain stigma and bias, and this may impact social interaction. Through this study, data collection was performed in order to surmise if there is a difference in sharing practices concerning diabetes diagnoses. It was hypothesized that sharing practices would be impacted by the types of diabetes diagnosis, versus control, in a negative manner. Using a between subject model, social discounting was tested at different social distances within each different group. The participants, university students, were divided into four different groups correlating to type 1 diabetes, type 2 diabetes, prediabetes, and control. Data was collected and analyzed. Through the use of different statistical analyses including non-parametric statistics, it was seen that there may be a difference between sharing for diabetes and non-diabetic individuals with participants trending towards being more willing to share with individuals diagnosed with diabetes.

Before the COVID19 pandemic, 20% of the children population was already at risk of showing problem behaviors associated with parents´ raising behaviors. Furthermore, we can study behavioral mechanisms through understanding behavioral learning principles underlying children´s choice of behaving. This paper describes the relationship between children´s behavior function and discounting of reinforcement in specific contexts as a pilot study. Thirteen scholar children, between 6 and 8 years old (M= 7; 69% were girls) took part in this preliminary study. The parents´ mean age was 34 years old (SD=6.01), 92% were women, and 100% were in confinement because of the COVID-19. We used the Children´s behavior inventory, the Alabama Questionnaire, the Probability of Compliance Occurrence Questionnaire, a Caregivers-children´s Observational System, and the Rabbat software version 2.0 (Escobar et al., 2020). We used a within-subject design to get the baseline thorough functional analysis situations (e.g., Waiting to receive reinforcement) and to assess the subjective value of reinforcement through delay, probability, and effort discounting tasks. We used Zoom®, Meet®, Visual Basic 10 Express®, and Google Forms® platforms, and accomplishing APA (2013) ethical guidelines. Mainly, results from the 104 behavioral patterns from the behavior´s functional analysis and the 780 trials of discounting task (260 temporal, 260 probability, and 260 effort discounting task) suggested children´s waiting to receive reinforcement negatively associated with opposition defiant, and hyperactivity behavior; both associated to effort and probability discounting (respectively). Furthermore, data indicated a generality of the children´s context choice effect over reinforcement devaluation when used the virtual rewards in computational environments and how different mechanisms of choice behavior resulted from the cost associated with the delivery of prizes. We have initiated to study the relationship between these subjective values of reinforcement, functional analysis of behavior, and choice procedures explaining children´s behaviors.

Recommendations for pacifier use include those that encourage the use of a pacifier for infants up to 12 months of age ("Pacifiers (soothers): A users guide for parents", 2003). Mauch, Scott, Magarey, & Daniels (2012) reported that 79% of first-time mothers followed these recommendations and introduced a pacifier to their first-born infants. Cited advantages of pacifier use include the documented decrease in risk for sudden infant death syndrome (SIDS), the decreased risks of future tooth development issues when compared with thumb sucking, as well as the ability to satisfy an infant’s instinct to suckle ("Pacifiers (soothers): A users guide for parents", 2003). Some of the disadvantages of pacifier use include the decreased duration of breastfeeding, future impact on teeth development, and delayed vocal exploration and language development (Sexton & Natale, 2009). Average mouthing behavior frequency, type, and duration has been reported as an under researched area of importance for children under 5 years of age (Tulve, Suggs, McCurdy, Cohen-Hubal, & Moya, 2002). Research studies cite both advantages and disadvantages to mouthing behavior. Many of the advantages include exploration of the environment (Lowsky, 2015), while many disadvantages relate to the increase exposure risk to toxins (Tulve et al., 2002). Due to the high rate of pacifier use in infants, the implications on mouthing behavior should be explored. This study seeks to begin understanding the relationship between mouthing behavior and pacifier use. A 14-question survey was developed to assess correlations. The surveys were distributed to parents who attended an Early Intervention Christmas party in York/Adams Pennsylvania. Initial findings suggest a relationship between pacifier use and mouthing occurrence.

The main goal of applied behavior analysis (ABA)is understanding behavior through the empirical application of the principles of respondent and operant conditioning to elicit a change in behavior which holds a social significance. In order to achieve its fundamental goals, behavior analysts require the aid of the caregivers in order to provide a more consistent implementation of ABA. While a great part of the therapy concerns itself with teaching and shaping skills, that is only half of the work. ABA provides great emphasis in the concept of generalization, which is the goal for these individuals to not only learn the skill but be able to generalize the concepts to others in their everyday lives and environment. The role of the caregivers is of utter importance during this phase, as direct hours are not 24/7 and generalization requires other individuals for mastery. In the field of ABA, there is resistance from caregivers when it comes to treatment implementation. Research has shown that in other fields, as part of client-based therapy, Motivational Interviewing increases the response and compliance in treatment from these individuals. Motivational interviewing is a counseling style approach which is a person-centered method that guides to elicit and strengthen personal motivation for change. This systematic literature review will explore how MI has been used and implemented in similar scientific fields with similar populations (children, adolescents, adults and people with developmental disabilities) and demonstrate that MI’s application in the field of ABA will in fact reduce resistance from caregivers in treatment implementation as it has in other cognitive behavior fields.

Delay discounting tasks quantify the relationship between time and reinforcer effectiveness. The present study introduced a brief, user-friendly measure for practitioners interested in quantifying sensitivity to reward delays for school-aged children. Study 1 reanalyzed data collected by Reed and Martens (2011) and found that 1-month delay choices reliably predicted student behavior. Study 2 examined the utility of the indifference point at 1-month delay in predicting saving and spending behavior of second-grade students using token economies with two different token production schedules. Collectively, results showed that (a) the indifference point at 1-month delay predicts behavior, (b) children who discount less and have greater self-regulation accrue and save more tokens, (c) a variable token production schedule better correlates with discounting than a fixed schedule, and (d) there are group differences regarding sensitivity to the token production schedule change. Implications are discussed regarding future utility of a rapid discounting assessment for applied settings.

Acceptance and Commitment Therapy utilizes techniques to promote mindfulness and psychological flexibility. Working on psychological flexibility Acceptance and Commitment Therapy can help people with anxiety induced stress encouraging them to be more mindful of their thoughts and how it effects their emotions. The techniques promoted in are gaining popularity with those who work in high stress fields. To understand how well known Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is, whom is providing training to those in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis, and whether the techniques have proven useful a survey was created for therapists who work 1:1 in various settings with children with an Autism Spectrum Disorder. The results of the survey provide support to the ever-growing research on Acceptance and Commitment Therapy as to whether it should continue to be promoted and utilized in a high stress field such as applied behavior analysis.

Technological innovations and online education channels have attracted young people to excessive screen time, adversely affecting their physical and cognitive abilities while growing obesity, vision, sleep, depression, and anxiety issues (Domingues-Montanari, 2017). Contingency contracts have been used to address writing skills, improving social interactions, and reduce challenging behaviors (Alwahbi, 2020). The current single subject study aimed to reduce the screen time of a 10-year-old school-going boy in grade 5. His classes had moved online due to the Covid-19 pandemic, and he attended 3 hours of daily on-screen academic sessions. Baseline measurements indicated that he spent an additional 6 hours watching TV or playing online games and declined to comply with verbal instructions to engage in other activities. We designed a contingency contract in discussions with him and his parents. The contract involved parents recording his screen time daily and rewarding him with an extra allowance at the end of the week for meeting the criteria specified in the contract. The participant was to engage in other preferred activities such as practicing notes on a keyboard and outdoor play with the extra time. The study used an A-B design. Results indicated that the contingency contract intervention reduced the screen time immediately and sustained the improvements. Keywords: contingency contracts, screen time

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the extent to which a final verbal response is dependent on mediating verbal behavior (covert or overt) occurring between the offset of the discriminative stimulus and the target response. Furthermore, this study measured changes in rates of mediating verbal behavior across five exposures to a discriminative stimulus. Participants solved fifty arithmetic problems with no accompanying visual stimuli while continuously emitting overt verbal behavior. For some problems, distractor stimuli were present (experimental condition) and for others, distractor stimuli were absent (control condition). The experimenter collected data on participants’ mean latency to respond, accuracy, and rates of echoic and self-echoic responses emitted during the response interval. Participants’ mean latency to respond significantly decreased across exposures, but decreased to a greater degree in the control condition. Participants’ mean accuracy significantly increased across exposures, but increased to a greater degree in the control condition. Participants’ mean rates of echoic and self-echoic responses significantly decreased across exposures, but decreased to a greater degree in the control condition. The results of this study indicate that the necessity of verbal mediation may depend on (a) the presence of distractor stimuli, and (b) the learning history with the discriminative stimulus.

The purpose of this study is to provide content validity evidence for the Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP). A national panel of 13 experts provided an evaluation of the domain relevance, age appropriateness, method of measurement appropriateness, and domain representation across the three levels of the Milestones Assessment, Early Echoic Skills Assessment (EESA), and Barriers Assessment. Overall, the content validity evidence for the VB-MAPP Milestones, EESA, and Barriers Assessment was moderate to strong across the evaluated areas although there were areas with limited or conflicting support. The evidence suggests that the scores of the VB-MAPP provide information relevant to the target behaviors of interest but a few domains may not be fully represented by their specific items.

Working Memory (WM) and Syntactic Awareness (SA) are operationally described as sequential performances. Children with deaf and hard hearing (DHH) who use cochlear implant (CI) shows deficits in WM scores compared to normal-hearing, and few studies have reported the effects of teaching on these skills. This work assessed the effects of Equivalence-Based Instruction (EBI), involving sentences, on standard measures in WM and SA, in a 10-year-old boy with DHH and CI. Data collection was remote, computer-based, during the covid-19 pandemic. EBI included conditional discriminations teaching between dictated sentences and pictures via Matching-to-Sample, and between dictated sentences and printed sentences construction via Constructed-Response-Matching-to-Sample. Three sets of sentences (regular, difficulties to decoding and pseudo - words), 4-terms (subject-verb-article-object, in Portuguese), and organized in matrices (overlapping the syntactic function) were adopted. Reading, tact, constructed-response, WM and SA tests were interposed to teaching sets. An increase was observed in speech accuracy for pictures tact (mainly with pseudo-sentences, from 49% to 98%) and WM percentile (from 0.3 to 3); SA scores decreased (from 20 to 16). The relations between the teaching of sentences, and WM and SA measures should be clarified with DHH and CI users; increasing the participants sample and adjusting designs are recommended.

Despite the vast amount of research generated by Skinner’s (1957) Verbal Behavior, elementary verbal operants are arguably understudied in basic research settings. To this point, the purpose of this study was to investigate the participation of self-stimulation (responding to one’s own visual response products) among copying text and taking dictation verbal operants by measuring performance in a novel intraverbal recall task. Using an online platform, undergraduate students completed a series of trials in which they (1) performed either a copying text or taking dictation response (dependent on group assignment), (2) completed a distractor task, and (3) recalled the initial response in an intraverbal test. Contingencies were arranged such that participants could earn points when copying text, taking dictation, and completing intraverbal tests and could avoid losing points during the distractor task. In half of the trials participants could see their response products, and in the other half they could not. Results suggest the extent to which the modality of antecedent verbal stimuli and self-stimulation participate in recall events and complex verbal behavior.

The present study sought to assist in preparing an individual with developmental and behavioral disabilities to transition into the workforce settings using stimulus equivalence training. The purpose of the training was to establish derived equivalence relations of job titles, responsibilities, and hypothetical individuals who serve in those positions. Conditional person (A) to job title (B) (A-B) relations were directly reinforced and conditional job title (B) to job responsibility (C) (B-C) relations were directly reinforced. Transitive person (A) to job responsibility (C) (A-C) and equivalence job responsibility (C) to person (A) relations were tested throughout the study. Results in a multiple baseline across employment settings (i.e., restaurant, school, and hospital) supported the efficacy of equivalence-based instruction. The participant was able to master directly trained and derived relations supporting this procedure in assisting adolescents to obtain necessary information to perform well in vocational settings.

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a Tier 1 classroom intervention used to encourage teachers to implement effective classroom management strategies to increase academically engaged behaviors (AEB) and decrease disruptive behaviors (DB) in the classroom. The GBG literature demonstrates positive effects across various settings and participants. However, only two studies explore the effects of the GBG on students with severe disabilities. To expand the GBG literature, this study used a single-case multiple probe baseline design to investigate the impact of the GBG intervention on students with severe disabilities and general education teachers in inclusive classrooms. Findings indicate students were able to understand classroom-wide expectations and participate in the GBG, as demonstrated by an overall increase in AEB and an overall decrease in DB across all participants. Findings also suggest that the GBG had positive effects on general educator behaviors illustrated by an increase in praise statements and the implementation of positive classroom management strategies. This study demonstrates how the GBG can be used to provide positive behavioral supports to all students, including those with severe disabilities in inclusive settings. Findings also indicate several implications for practitioners as well as future researchers in the field of special education.

The emergence of joint attention is a critical point in children’s social and language development. Research shows the efficacy of various behavioural teaching strategies in increasing responses and initiations of bids for joint attention among children with autism spectrum disorder. The use of gaze-based behaviours has been the predominate method of evaluating the attainment of joint attention, as a marker of social engagement and awareness of others’ attention. Although children with visual impairment have difficulty perceiving how others’ attention is directed towards stimuli, they are assumed to acquire joint attention through alternative sensory modalities and positive social experiences. The purpose of the current study is to examine the effectiveness of a parent-implemented behavioural teaching strategy via telehealth to teach children with cortical visual impairment to engage in more bids for joint attention. Three to five children under 6-years and their caregivers will participate in a behaviour skills training procedure using a single-case, multiple baseline design. This study will report on the findings from pre to follow-up changes in children’s engagement in joint attention. The results of the study are expected to provide valuable information about effective caregiver-implemented behavioural teaching strategies to increase joint attention skills of children with visual impairment.

According to the Center of Disease Control, approximately 40 million adults in the workforce have a disability; the numbers are increasing ((Disability and Health Data System [DHDS], 2020). There is growing support for inclusive workplaces for adults with disabilities alongside legislation and State endorsed vocational training however eligibility criteria, costs, and limited availability to training programs often make them inaccessible. Therefore, there is a need to evaluate other training options. Behavior Skills Training (BST; Fetherson & Sturmey, 2014) is considered an evidence-based training model used to teach novel skills to a variety of populations including adults with disabilities. A systematic literature review from 2000 to 2020 was completed to determine what is known about using Behavior Skills Training to teach vocational skills to adults. Eleven articles met inclusion criteria and were reviewed. Results supported that while Behavior Skills Training was effective in teaching vocational skills to adults, there were inconsistencies across components of Behavior Skills Training used, limited technological and measurement information reported, and outcomes indicting that the procedure was not efficient. Recommendations for future research are provided.

Many adults with developmental disabilities supported in residential services engage in challenging behaviour, interfering with their quality of life. Training direct care staff is essential to address these behaviours and improve relationships between service providers (SP) and service users (SU). However, little research directly assesses the effectiveness of training based on direct measures of behaviours or the long-term effects of these changes. This meta-analysis of 13 single-subject experimental designs evaluated staff training's effect on outcomes for SP and SU. The purpose of this research was to examine the types of training and factors responsible for improvements in SP and SU behaviours directly following training and during maintenance. Training in positive behavioural support was the most effective training for changing SP and SU's behaviour, followed by active supports. In-situ training and incorporating multiple components of behavioural skills training (particularly models and feedback) appeared to lead to greater changes. Follow-up was conducted for six out of 14 studies, and four maintained their results. The only factor found to account for these results was the use of a group format. This research demonstrates that the type of training and how training is delivered influence the effectiveness and maintenance of outcomes.

After an initial, multielement functional analysis resulted in low and undifferentiated levels of aggressive behavior across conditions, experimenters evaluated a diverted-attention condition in which a target therapist engaged in conversation with a secondary therapist and delivered mild reprimands following instances of aggression. The sensitivity of aggression to attention during this condition was demonstrated in a reversal design. Next experimenters evaluated multiple permutations of this condition including one in which a single therapist was present but engaged in a conversation on the phone. This condition required fewer staff members but also occasioned elevated levels of aggression as when both therapists were present. Aggression under this condition was then reduced using functional communication training.

Functional Communication Training (FCT) is a well-known and often recommended intervention to treat problem behavior among individuals with developmental disabilities. FCT consists of teaching a functional, alternative communicative response to replace problem behavior in the individual’s repertoire to allow them to obtain functional reinforcers that previously maintained problem behavior. Despite a number of literature reviews on FCT, to date, no literature review has examined studies that have evaluated FCT as a treatment for negatively reinforced problem behavior. It may be beneficial to explore treatment-related factors to inform practitioners and researchers on how to increase the social validity and generalization of FCT outcomes for negatively reinforced problem behavior(s). The primary purpose of this literature review was to evaluate factors that impact the effectiveness of FCT alone and/or in conjunction with other interventions to treat negatively reinforced problem behaviors. Results across 47 empirical studies supported and extended prior literature review findings. Some novel identified findings on factors that can affect FCT efficiency and generalizability were quality of reinforcement, variability of mands, and the exposure of problem behavior to establishing operations. Recommendations for clinicians and potential avenues for future research will be discussed. Keywords: functional communication training, negatively reinforced behavior, escape-maintained problem behavior

Cultural biases are prevalent in our society, and many instances have the power to influence individuals in different degrees. Within the South Asian community, there are numerous social stigmas and negative perspectives on seeking mental health services. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the social stigmas and cultural biases within the community experienced by parents who are raising children with developmental disorders. As a result, furthering their readiness to seek services for their child. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) is beneficial in identifying values and choosing committed actions to aid parents in overcoming the barriers they face to better support their child. The specific ACT tools such as, identifying personal values, paying attention to the present moment, and choosing committed actions that are meaningful to them can help shift how this specific group approaches treatment for their child. Once caregivers identify what specific changes need to occur in their behaviors, whether that is influenced by South Asian stigma and biases experienced, this can influence the ability to access services for their child as early as possible. ACT is a powerful tool to overcome the prejudice caregivers encounter and promote fulfilling lives for their children.

The effectiveness of interventions based on functional analysis is well established in the empirical literature. A variation of the functional analysis is the trial-based functional analysis. The purpose of this paper is to provide a systematic review of studies that utilize the trial-based functional analysis as a means of assessing challenging behavior, synthesized with the Rispoli et al. (2014) study. The method is based on the method described in Rispoli et al. (2014), with some minor changes including the addition of an examination of interobserver agreement and procedural integrity, and a look at the number of studies published on trial-based functional analysis through the years. The results of the current study add to the growing literature on the effectiveness of the trial-based functional analysis as a means of identifying the function of challenging behavior. This systematic review adds to and synthesizes with the Rispoli et al. (2014) literature review by examining participants and trial-based functional analysis characteristics in studies ranging in date from 2013 to October 2020. We compare the results of each review and discuss directions for future research, implications for practitioners, and limitations of this study.

The present research study sought to elaborate and adapt necessary vocational skills training procedures to a remote climate. Adapting Constant Time Delay procedures (CDT) to online instruction allows researchers to examine the effects of teaching domestic and vocational skills, identified by the LIFE curriculum (Dixon, in press), to two individuals with various developmental and/or intellectual diagnosis. Throughout this study, researchers utilized a matrix training approach to assist in developing the selected domestic skills (i.e. washing a table, washing a fridge door, washing a window) to increase autonomous living and potential future employment opportunities. A multiple probe design across targeted skills was replicated across the participants within their homes with prompting provided over virtual conferencing due to COVID-19. Results demonstrated an increase of task completion independent of prompting for both participants and when presented with the Treatment Inventory - Short Form (TEI-SF) participants indicated the intervention was helpful, positive, and adaptable to their current circumstances.

Individuals with developmental disabilities have limited access to participate in leisure activities compared to typically developing peers. Despite an abundance of free time, this population has limited access to leisure activity participation due to maladaptive behaviors and deficits in communication and social interaction. Leisure activities provides an opportunity for them to build relationships and gain skills that are essential for successful integration into the general public. Video modeling provides several advantages, such as, it can be edited to show the desired behavior, and the video can be repeated for better understanding. This systematic literature review analyzed 16 single-subject studies published from 2000 to 2020 that used video modeling to teach individuals with developmental disabilities to complete leisure activities. The dependent variable was the percentage of completion of the leisure activities. The studies were analyzed using the guidelines of the What Works Clearing House (2020). Participants in the study were aged between 3-35 years and were diagnosed with a varying diagnosis that fell under the generic term of developmental disabilities. Initial results analyzed through visual analysis indicate that video modeling is effective. The study’s limitations and implications for future research are discussed.

The relative effectiveness of accumulated reinforcement over distributed reinforcement among persons with developmental disabilities (DD) has been well established especially on easy tasks. However, inconsistent findings have been found for studies using diverse task difficulties. In this study, effectiveness of distributed and accumulated schedule of reinforcement was investigated using a visuospatial working memory task with moderate level of task difficulty. 33 children with intellectual disability (ID) ages from 7 to 11 years old were recruited. This study used a within-subject design in which visuospatial working memory task was administered under a distributed and an accumulated schedule of reinforcement. Dependent variables were accuracy rate, response rate per minute and correct response per minute. The results showed that accuracy rate and correct response rate per minute in the accumulated schedule of reinforcement were significantly greater than the distributed schedule of reinforcement. There was no significant difference between the groups in response per minute. Implications and limitations of current research and suggestions for future research were discussed.