To ensure we offer contemporary continuing education opportunities, the CE credit associated with this video is no longer available, however, the video remains available for viewing.
The rise in popularity (for good reason of course) of interventions based on behavior analytic principles for individuals with autism has changed the contingencies for those who provide the behavioral interventions for individuals with autism. Specifically, a number of systems-level practices and/or regulations have been established or have evolved by a variety of governing organizations (e.g., the licensing boards and certifying organizations, university-based training programs in behavior analysis and related disciplines) and social systems (e.g., economic, education, health care). Many of these practices and/or regulations have been established or have evolved due to the need to process increasing numbers of clients who are being served or increasing numbers of those providing/coordinating the service provision. These practices and/or regulations might serve several functions – from strengthening to evocative to selective. For example, they set the occasion for individual behaviors to be reinforced (or not) or punished, they restrict the repertoire of potential responses that are likely to be emitted, and they condition or perhaps make different classes of reinforcers more available. Each of us – practitioner, scientist-practitioner, student, researcher, professor – should be engaging in the complex contingency analyses that elucidate how these practices and/or regulations affect our behaviors with respect to our contributions to our science, our discipline, our research, our practice, and most importantly to the education and training of behavior analysts in order to ensure that we are engaging in a scientific approach to socially valid behavior change.