The Behavioral Observations Podcast | ABA | Functional Assessment | Autism | Behaviorism | Acceptance and Commitment Therapy |

If you caught the last few episodes of the podcast, you’ve heard me talk about our new sponsor, Britton Behavioral Consulting. This is where Dr. Lisa Britton, BCBA-D provides high quality Independent Fieldwork Supervision for individuals seeking board certification. Lisa has been a Behavior Analyst for almost two decades, and given the important role that supervision has in our field, I thought it would be a good idea to have her on to discuss best practices in this area. In this episode, we talk about the following: How Lisa got into the field of ABA What questions you need to ask yourself if you’re considering offering supervision as a service What a supervisee should look for in a supervisor How to embed Behavior Skills Training into the supervision process Specific tools she uses to conduct remote supervision sessions If you are looking for supervision, or if you simply have questions about the process, head over to www.brittonbehavioralconsulting.com and reach out to Lisa. During our conversation, we talked a lot about pieces of software, specific trainings, and other nitty-gritty details. I have attempted to provide links to most of the topics we covered below. Links to remote supervision software: https://www.gotomeeting.com/ https://www.gotomeeting.com/training The bSci21.org training that Lisa mentioned (about having difficult conversations) http://www.bsci21.org/courses/conversations-that-drive-performance-empowering-employees-with-behavior-science-1-bacb-ceu/ Intro to special edition of Behavior Analysis in Practice on supervision https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5118263/ Overview of Behavioral Skills Training, again, in Behavior Analysis in Practice https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3592486/

In Session 28 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast, Molly Ola Pinney joins me to talk about The Global Autism Project, an organization she started in 2003. In brief, The Global Autism Project trains teachers to work with children with Autism globally. The organization began this initiative in Africa, but has now branched out to helping people in this way to Central America, India, and beyond. In this episode, we talk about how the organization was founded, what it’s like to support teams remotely, and how exactly they carry out this mission today. Molly closes the interview by encouraging practitioners (or basically anyone listening to the show) to consider saying, “yes,” to new opportunities, even when they may be a little apprehensive about doing so. This episode is sponsored by Britton Behavioral Consulting. Dr. Lisa Britton, BCBA-D specializes in providing high quality independent fieldwork supervision to aspiring BCBA’s. For more information on her services, please check out her website here. Finally, if you are looking for BACB Type 2 Continuing Education, look no further (well, there are only 5.5 units available, so technically, you will have to look further, but you get the ideal…). Click here to find out about how you can earn CE’s for listening to selected podcast episodes.

In Session 27 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast, I chat with Dr. Adel Najdowski, BCBA-D about teaching Executive Functioning skills to individuals with Autism and Attention difficulties. Adel is the author of a new book on this subject, Flexible and Focused, and we discuss the idea of Behavior Analysts delving into the realm of more mainstream psychological and educational constructs, and more pragmatically, how to conceptualize things like EF into more manageable and teachable responses. The book is available on Amazon, and it will also be at the ABAI 2017 Bookstore, which is where I’ll probably pick my copy up. This episode is sponsored by Britton Behavioral Consulting. Dr. Lisa Britton specializes in providing high quality independent fieldwork supervision to aspiring BCBA’s. For more information on her services, please check out her website here.

I sometimes joke around with folks that we Behavior Analysts are perhaps the only people who think nothing of driving one hour to do two hours of work. While that’s a little bit of an exaggeration, I find that it’s not entirely off the mark either. Obviously there are only so many hours in the day, and from both a clinical and financial perspective, these practices lead to a lot of waste. What if there was a way to leverage existing technologies to reduce travel-related barriers to providing clinical services? Well, it turns out that the answer to this question already exists, and other helping professions have been using technology to both expand services and operate more efficiently. In episode 26 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast, I chat with Dr. Wendy Machalicek, BCBA-D, who is an Associate Professor of Special Education at The University of Oregon, about using technology to provide behavior analytic services to families in rural areas. This practice goes by a few different names, but is often referred to as Telemedicine or Telehealth. Wendy discusses some of her research in this area as well as walks us through how to conceptualize the use of technology in our own work. So does that mean you can fire up Skype and start consulting with clients? Not so fast… as I learned from this conversation there are tons of technical and ethical details that have the potential to be inadvertently overlooked, including things like encryption of data, consent/assent in terms of working with adults, privacy/confidentiality of anyone who can view/hear the client-analyst exchanges, etc... Wendy also the behavior-analytic, “scene,” in Oregon and provided some helpful advice for newbies to the field (though I found her thoughts helpful for older practitioners like myself too!). We covered a lot in this episode, so here are some links of the things that were mentioned: • VSee HIPAA compliant video conferencing software • Bluetooth headsets • External web cameras • Swivl remote camera gear • The American Telemedicine Association • The APA Guidelines for practice re: Telehealth Speaking of making life more convenient, if you’re on the road a lot but need Continuing Education, check out the CE page. That’s right, you can now earn BACB Type 2 CE’s by listening to selected podcasts, and answering a few questions. Right now CE credits are available for topics such as Functional Assessment and Function-Based Interventions, The Ethics of Self-Care, and Behavioral Economics. Again, visit the CE page for more details.

I’m going to be honest with you here. This interview could have gone on for over two hours. To summarize, Jim Carr and I had a super fun conversation about the current state of the behavior analysis profession, what it was like when generation X-ers like us came into the field, what worries him about how the field is developing, and conversely, what areas of development is he most excited about. If you’re interested in a past, present, and future perspective on the practice of Applied Behavior Analysis, this is the show for you. We also unexpectedly touch on some other topics such as the behavioral treatment of tic disorders and the “green book” from back-in-the-day that listed the then-severely limited graduate programs in behavior analysis (and if anyone has this book, please, at the very least, email me a picture of it!). Jim also goes over his professional journey in some detail, but here is the official bio that I’ve taken directly from the BACB website: Dr. Jim Carr is the Chief Executive Officer of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board. His professional interests include behavior analyst credentialing, behavioral assessment and treatment of developmental disabilities, verbal behavior, and practitioner training. Dr. Carr has published over 150 journal articles and book chapters on these and other topics. Dr. Carr is a Fellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis International. He is the editor-in-chief of the journal The Analysis of Verbal Behavior and has served on the editorial boards of 10 other behavior analysis journals, including 4 appointments as associate editor. Dr. Carr is the president of the Colorado Association for Behavior Analysis and past president of the Mid-American and Alabama Associations for Behavior Analysis. He received his doctorate in 1996 from Florida State University under the mentorship of Dr. Jon Bailey and previously served on the behavior analysis faculties at University of Nevada-Reno (1996-1999), Western Michigan University (1999-2008), and Auburn University (2008-2011). On a housekeeping note, the podcast is now available on Google Play, so if you are an Android user and don’t want to download 3rd party apps like Stitcher Radio, click here, and you’ll be good to go.

In Session 24, Ryan O'Donnell joins me for a wide ranging discussion. We talk about everything from taking data on your own behaviors, things to consider before setting goals, to operant conditioning of fish! We also talk about some upcoming projects of his, including The Next Gen Revolution Summit, and his forthcoming podcast, "Why we do what we do," (coming in May 2017). During our chat, he mentioned a few apps to help with productivity. Here are links to a few of them: Base Camp Wunderlist Wrike We also talked about these books: I'll Stop Procrastinating When I Get Around to It, by Dick Malott Get Out of Your Mind and Into Your Life, by Steve Hayes I am trying this app out to track and manage my time on the iPhone: Moment Ryan is @ryanodonnell23 on Twitter & Instagram, so feel free to give him an virtual high-five! Oh, and there's that fish lab that we talked about....

In Session 23 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast, Mark Dixon visits with us again to discuss the PEAK assessment and curriculum. Specifically, he tells us about how he first got into working with individuals with Autism, what he saw that was lacking in the assessment and curricular tools at that point in time, and the related circumstances that inspired the creation of PEAK. Also, because our first conversation on ACT was so wildly popular, we spend a little time talking about the latest research and best practices for intervention using the ACT for Children with Autism and Emotional Challenges curriculum. For more information on PEAK, check out Mark’s PEAK Facebook page, or go directly to www.peakaba.com.

Dr. Linda LeBlanc joins me today to provide a primer of sorts on behavioral approaches to supporting the elderly, using solid behavioral principles to run organizations, and embedding ethics into everyday clinical decision making. She ends the show by sharing some great advice for BCBAs who are new to the field. Linda is the president of LeBlanc Behavioral Consulting, as well as the Executive Advisor for Trumpet Behavioral Health. Prior to these positions, she held faculty appointments at Western Michigan University as well as my alma mater, Auburn University (War Eagle!!!).

I am honored to be joined by Dr. Gina Green in Session 21 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast. In this show we talk about some current events in the practice of ABA, including the role of professional organizations, and the lessons that have been learned as states contend with the licensure of our practice. Gina's CV is uniquely impressive. Just her bio-sketch alone is longer than most resumes, so in the interest of space, I have included it in the show notes for those who would like to read more about her impressive career. In addition to discussing licensure, we talk a lot about the upcoming APBA conference in March of 2017, as well as that organization in general. For more information on the APBA and the conference, please check out www.apbahome.net.

In Session 20, Greg Hanley returns to The Behavioral Observations Podcast for an unprecedented third time! The first two podcast episodes with Greg (Session 1 and Session 7) were so popular that they have, as of this writing, been downloaded almost 18,000 times! Given the intense interest in this topic, a few months ago, I asked Greg if he'd like to come back on the show to answer questions from the audience. He graciously agreed to do so, and shortly thereafter, I sent out emails and FaceBook posts asking for listener questions. And boy, did you guys respond! As you'll see, we received a ton of great questions. In fact, we received so many questions that this episode is almost twice as long as other sessions of the podcast! Podcasts can be one-sided at times, so this episode is very special to me because of the tangible interaction between the audience and guest. Going forward, let me know if there are other guests you'd like a Q & A show with. I will try to incorporate listener submitted questions into my regular interviews as well. Details will be disseminated via the mailing list. Getting back to Session 20, Greg mentions a few articles and presentations that I'd like to provide links to: Click here for Greg's narrated Power Point that describes the rationale for the IISCA approach Derby, K. M., Fisher, W. W., Piazza, C. C., Wilke, A. E., & Johnson, W. (1998). The effects of noncontingent and contingent attention for self-injury, manding, and collateral responses. Behavior Modification, 22(4), 474-484. Ghaemmaghami, M., Hanley, G. P., & Jessel, J. (2016). Contingencies promote delay tolerance. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Jessel, J., Hanley, G. P., & Ghaemmaghami, M. (2016). Interview-informed synthesized contingency analyses: Thirty replications and reanalysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. Thanks for checking out Session 20! If you enjoy the show and have a few minutes, please consider heading over to iTunes to leave a rating and review.