Association for Behavior Analysis International

The number of certified behavior analysts in mainland China is increasing at a drastic pace every year. Despite this growth, its nature of service delivery, the focus of target service recipients, and the presence of a comprehensive professional standards make behavior analysis a developing profession that is unlike others in China. In this critical phase of development, practitioners’ adherence to ethical and professional standards becomes an even more critical key for its future success. While it is important to understand the Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts, one must demonstrate the interpretation of this Code through everyday practice. In a country with a vast diversity in beliefs, customs, and other cultural variables, this interpretation may not be apparent at times. The central theme for this symposium is working with practitioners in mainland, China. From a theoretical perspective, the presenters will first illustrate the ethical challenges that behavior analysts may face while providing services in a variety of settings in China. The audience will then learn about two empirical studies that demonstrate the use of data-based decision making to guide practitioners’ service delivery in the context of direct teaching and supervision in mainland, China.

Undergraduate, graduate, or practitioners in the field of behavior analysis

Over the past decade, educational and therapeutic services driven by Applied Behavior Analysis has gained more and more attention in mainland, China, particularly in the area of treatment for autism. Despite this increase in recognition and acceptance, the quality of service for students with special needs varies drastically across settings. This variation is caused by a need for more quality training courses, current misunderstanding toward students with special needs and their educators, and the availability of alternative, and often nonscientific treatment options. Behavior analysts provide services under clear and comprehensive professional and ethical guidelines. However, when cultural variations come into play, practitioners may require additional guidance with decision making during service delivery. From a conceptual analysis of behavioral perspective, this presentation will focus on the ethical challenges that behavior analysts may encounter while working in different educational and therapeutic setting in China. Potential directions and recommendations for future research and practice will also be discussed.

The emerging Western model of professional training and service delivery in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) leads to a continuous debate between universal designs and localized decisions in China, a country with over 75,000 preschools with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) (Sun & Allison, 2010; Zhang & Ji, 2005), who receive alarmingly uneven service quality given the high demand of treatment (Xu, Yang, Ji, Xu, & Wang, 2014). Even for those who claim the use of ABA procedures in teaching receptive labeling, one of the fundamental skills for preschoolers, the decision-making process is not typically based on data, but is rather on routines or personal preferences. In this study, two discrimination methods were compared in teaching students with autism. The first method is simple conditional discrimination (SCD), which involves a total of nine steps to gradually increase task difficulty over time. The second method is conditional only discrimination method (COD), which includes presenting the target task from the onset of the intervention (Grow, Carr, Kodak, Jostad, & Kisamore 2011). The data suggested COD resulted in more efficient acquisition while SCD fostered gradual improvement. The results provide data driven guidance for Chinese ABA practitioners in the decision making process of ASD program design.

According to the BACB, between 2016 and 2017, one of the most frequently violated categories is that of “improper or inadequate supervision or delegation.” Specifically, this category reflects ethical deviations to Compliance Codes 5.0 (Behavior Analysts as Supervisors) and 10.05 (Compliance with BACB Supervision and Coursework Standards). The RBT credentialing process includes the passing of a competency assessment, which is to be completed by a BACB certificant that has met supervision requirements. Additionally, once credentialed, the RBT must obtain ongoing supervision for a minimum of 5% of service hours delivered. This presentation will review common ethical issues RBTs encounter during the credentialing process, as well as in the field, especially those resulting from inadequate supervision. Practical strategies for alleviating these issues and promoting the provision of adequate supervision will be shared.

3. Research employing single choice paradigms suggest infants show a preference for prosocial others and those who are similar to themselves. This study (two experiments, N = 44 infants, aged 8 to 15 months) replicated and extended previous work by including (a) within-subject repeated measures and (b) an experimental manipulation of a plausible demand characteristic. In both experiments, (a) infants chose between two foods, (b) watched a puppet show in which one puppet expressed a liking for one of the foods and a disliking for the other food followed by a second puppet who expressed the opposite preferences, and (c) chose between the two puppets. Results for the first-choice trial indicated a majority of infants did not choose the puppet who liked the same food as the infant (i.e., the similar puppet). Within-subject repeated trials also indicated a majority of infants did not choose the similar puppet but a majority did choose a puppet presented on the same side. Findings suggest infants may not display very early preferences, for similar others and supports recommendations made by others, including publishing null findings, standardizing data collection and reporting methods, and examining individual differences by employing within-subject designs with repeated measures.

Tummy time is an activity intended to strengthen infant motor development by placing them in a prone position. However, many infants may find this time aversive, often evoking noncompliant behavior and tantrums. Previous studies have used preferred tangible items during tummy time to reduce challenging behavior and improve head elevation. We extended this previous research by comparing the effects of a more-preferred stimulus (i.e., toy penguin) in comparison to a less-preferred stimulus (i.e., mother attention alone) selected from a preference assessment with two typically developing infants. During the preference assessment, items were placed to the side of the infants’ sight while they were seated in a comfortable position and the percentage of eye contact with each item was used to establish a hierarchy of preference. During the treatment comparison, the infant was placed in the prone position and the items were situated just above the infants’ view to ensure that seeing the item required holding the head up. Although both treatments improved head elevation and reduced tantrums, the caregiver selected the treatment using the more-preferred stimulus during a concurrent-chains preference assessment.

Annually, approximately 3,500 infants die suddenly and unexpectedly in the United States, and many of these deaths are due to unsafe sleep positioning or environments (Centers for Disease Control, 2018). To promote safe sleeping and infant development, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends that caregivers put infants on their backs for sleep and on their stomachs to play, known as “tummy time.” In this study, we evaluated the effectiveness of an educational video on 120 current and expectant parents’ knowledge of the AAP’s positioning recommendations. The video was associated with a significant improvement in participants’ knowledge from pre- to post-test. We also identified that participants’ reasons for positioning their babies unsafely for sleep and for limiting tummy time was largely associated with infant intolerance. In this presentation, I will: (a) discuss the implications of our results and the role of behavior analysis in addressing infant safe-sleep and tummy-time behavior and (b) describe a new intervention to teach parents of high-risk, hospitalized premature infants about safe sleep and tummy time.

The purpose of this meeting is to discuss some of the core practices and guidelines for the Committee on Publication Ethics, or COPE, with an eye toward common issues or dilemmas encountered by the editors of the ABAI journals. The panel will share insights from their experiences as authors, reviewers, and editors, and will also advise newer authors on those common policies and practices that are necessary to ensure that behavior analysts pursue publication with integrity.

ABAI members interested in publishing.

Behavior analytic service is highly demanded as indicated by an exponential increase in certified behavior analysts (Deochand & Fuqua, 2016). Although the American Psychological Association requires graduate programs to train students in cultural competence, this type of training is not a requirement in the verified course sequence to certify behavior analysts. The need to integrate cultural assessments into the functional behavior assessment will increase as services are delivered to a broader community. Unfortunately, there is a dearth of data on the demographics served by behavior analysts in practice and in research. Li, Wallace, Erhart, and Poling (2017) indicate that only 10.7% of behavior analytic research reports racial or ethnic characteristics. This issue coupled with the paucity of guidelines regarding training cultural competent practitioners requires the community to start building the framework for such initiatives. This panel will define social justice, discuss how we meet the needs of an evolving consumer base while developing successful cultural and linguistic competency training programs. The field of applied behavior analysis could be uniquely positioned to lead discussions regarding culturally competent services due to its focus on individualized client-centered treatment.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts, Graduate students, verified course sequence program coordinators

Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) has been shown to be an effective treatment strategy for a range of populations, including individuals with autism. Recent behavior analytic attention has been paid to ACT, as evidenced by a recent surge of behavior analytic training/workshops, curriculum materials and protocols, research publications, etc. While promising, limited information is currently available for practitioners to assess their integrity with implementing ACT with their clients. Similarly, behavior analysts have minimal resources to consider ethical conduct when implementing behavioral therapies in general, and ACT specifically. Therefore, the current panel will discuss relevant scope of practice for behavior analysts when implementing ACT in their practice. The goal of the panel is to provide attendees with insight into specific areas, to ensure ethical and quality implementation of ACT. The following topics will be discussed: implementation strategies, ethical considerations, and strategies for targeting private events. All three panelists have published empirical studies using acceptance and commitment training and relational frame theory (RFT), and are board certified behavior analyst-doctoral.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts, Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts

Within certain areas of healthcare, it has been documented that treating patients with compassion and empathy can have important benefits, such as increasing patient satisfaction, enhancing adherence to treatment, and improving clinical outcomes. While current empirical support for these outcomes is mixed (Kirby, Tellegen & Steindl, 2017), there is increasing scientific interest in the benefits of compassionate care. Behavior analysts have recently begun to articulate the importance of attending to relationships in our clinical work. For example, Taylor, LeBlanc and Nosik (2018) proposed that clinical outcomes of clients may be enhanced by improving relationships with caregivers. The panel will review survey data documenting parent perception of compassionate care by behavior analysts, as well as behavior analysts’ impressions of training needs in this area. Panelists will present their respective clinical and or research programs that incorporate compassionate care, such as ACT in parent training, and staff training programs to increase the therapeutic relationship skills of BCBA’s. Audience members will have an opportunity to ask questions and engage in discussion with panelists.

Target audience is Master or Doctoral Level clinicians, BCBAs or BCBA-Ds.

Functional analysis of problem behavior has become the "gold standard" assessment to be used. However, the use of functional analysis involves some risk, because it creates conditions that occasion problem behavior (Khang et al., 2015). Safety precautions should be part of the considerations when designing and implementing a functional analysis (Poling et al., 2012). Despite the widely accepted use of functional analysis technology to assess problem behavior and the need for safety precautions to reduce risk during a functional analyses, there is not a single source to access recommended safety precautions. Instead, they are scattered throughout the literature. As such, Wiskirchen, Deochand, & Peterson (2017) suggested the need to develop a formal risk-benefit assessment for proceeding with a functional analysis. This session discusses ethical considerations when designing and implementing a functional analysis as well as safety precautions that should be considered in the evaluation of problem behavior. The panelists will also address when to use alternative assessments when the risks of a functional analysis cannot be ameliorated satisfactorily. These safety precautions must also be considered during treatment implementation, because problem behavior is likely to occur during treatment as well. Thus, the panelists will also address safety precautions and considerations within treatment during the discussion.

Behavior analysts working with individuals who engage in severe and challenging behavior

This panel is a continuation of previous presentations at ABAI regarding Behavior Analysts Who Are Behaving Badly. This year we will focus on the Ethics of Supervision. For this panel we have brought together three behavior analysis ethicists who are regularly sought after concerning the practice of behavior analysis through the ABAEthicsHotline.com site as well as other sources. To demonstrate the range of approaches used and opinions offered, recent supervision questions will be presented, each panelist will offer their guidance, we will then debate the merits of our various often differing, approaches. Toward the end of the session we will open the floor to questions from the audience and again each ethicist will respond so that the range of tactics and strategies will be apparent.

The target audience is both supervisors who need to learn about inappropriate and unethical practices as well as supervisees who need to know what to watch out for and what to do in the case that they are a victim of unscrupulous supervision practices.

In the context of medically necessary treatment for Autism Spectrum Disorders, the intensity of service delivery translates to a clinical prescription. The panelists will present a case for level of care recommendations that meet rigorous expectations for effective and efficient progress and that align with best practice literature and the Behavior Analyst Certification Board’s Professional and Ethical Compliance Code. The panel will identify common barriers to best practice in prescription intensity and prescription fulfillment (i.e. full utilization of treatment hours prescribed). Barriers will be categorized as impacted by caregiver availability/adherence or behavior analyst’s competency; the panel will explore successful interventions implemented by supervising clinicians and organizational leaders to improve prescription fulfillment and to align treatment recommendations. At the conclusion of the presentation, participants will be able to: create alignment between ethical values and prescription practices, analyze organizational data to identify relevant barriers, and describe 6 barrier-specific interventions that can be implemented immediately to improve prescription adherence.

Behavior Analysts

Though behavior analysis has its own theoretical framework for the concept of culture, low efforts have been made to apply it to addressing macro-level, social issues, such as creating measures to avoid discrimination and bias. As a science and practice dedicated to behavior change, there is an obligation to be well-informed in how to effectively service vulnerable populations with multicultural competence. Given that behavior analytic technologies have produced effective cultural change, diversity and inclusion strategies are able to be addressed by behavior analysts as topics of interest. Furthermore, these strategies should be systematically integrated into supervision, academia, and service delivery to ensure that we are seeking to improve the social validity of our field. This panel attempts to help offer some insight on how to define bias and discrimination, as well as strategies to incorporate diversity and inclusion within various roles. Panelist Chair:

The target audience is any individual practicing or teaching applied behavior analysis, or in an otherwise supervisory role in the field of behavior analysis.

Telehealth, an exciting and promising service delivery model, has changed significantly in the past two years. It is now evident that this model can be a viable option for providing ABA services by increasing the availability of providers within the United States and on an international scale. Our expert panel will provide a comprehensive overview of recent advancements relating to demand and insurance coverage in the United States, as well as international opportunities. A thorough analysis of providing ABA services using the telehealth model will also be discussed, as it requires careful considerations to yield interventions that are both effective and ethically sound. Several critical areas needed to successfully implement the telehealth model on a global scale will be examined which are inclusive, but not limited to, the BACB’s standards. We will explore how to successfully use HIPAA-compliant technology in order to effectively provide clinical services, including supervision. Business perspectives will be examined, in addition to a family systems approach that supports ethical and evidenced-based practices in ABA. Each of the panel members will contribute their own unique experiences as it pertains to each of these key areas.

The target audience is BCBA's and LBA's providing direct services, supervision, and parent training. Those who are interested in learning about advancements in the Telehealth delivery of service would benefit from this presentation.

Behavior analysts often work collaboratively with other disciplines; however, behavior analytic consultation within an acute pediatric medical setting can present unique ethical challenges. During consultation, behavior analysts are typically provided short time frames to conduct assessment and implement treatment. However, behavior analysts still need to follow ethical guidelines to work with medical colleagues to rule out medical etiology and determine how to safely conduct assessments and implement treatment in a medically compromised patient population or patients who are awaiting transfer to in-patient psychiatric units. In addition, behavior analysts must disseminate behavior analysis in a setting where this technology is relatively novel to other team members, who are more familiar with pharmacologic interventions and psychotherapy to manage problem behaviors. This symposia will discuss the use of traditional and synthesized functional analyses within a pediatric medical setting as well as the implementation function-based treatment to reduce life-threatening behavior, and demonstrate the use of behavior analysis to help inform medical decision-making with medically and behaviorally complex patients.

Target audience includes behavior analysts practicing in a variety of settings, specifically those working in consultation roles and as part of an interdisciplinary team and those working with medically complex populations.

Integrating applied behavior analysis into an acute medical setting allows opportunities for technology to be utilized with a diverse patient population. A transdisciplinary team within a pediatric medical hospital may include nursing, psychiatry and psychology, neurology, and other medical professionals. The ability to provide objective data regarding patient behavior can help inform medical decisions in complex cases in which the transdisciplinary team has struggled to make progress related to the patient’s behavior. This may include decisions to make changes in psychotropic or other medications, as well as providing input into difficult diagnoses. Behavioral intervention and the use of data-based decision-making has been useful with patients with a variety of medical diagnoses, including anti-NMDA receptor encephalitis, functional neurologic/conversion disorder, and avoidant/restrictive food intake disorder (ARFID), with the benefit of minimizing the amount of as needed/PRN medications given to patients, informing the transdisciplinary team on timing of standing medications, and discharging patients to less restrictive settings.

Addressing issues of diversity and equity is an ongoing process that requires intentional goal-setting, committed action, and ongoing evaluation. As a field, we have embraced diversity as a value, however greater individual awareness and training are needed to increase engagement in values-directed behaviors by individuals. The aim of this symposium is to discuss key data and research related to increasing diversity and equity in Applied Behavior Analysis; specifically issues related to race, gender, socioeconomic background, and sexual orientation will be discussed. The symposium will open with a detailed discussion of cultural competency with respect to transgender individuals, followed by a paper examining an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) approach to increasing awareness of privilege and committed action with respect to increasing cultural competency as an ABA practitioner. Following a review of relevant data and research, each paper will discuss key ethical and practical concerns related to the topic, and make recommendations regarding specific actions that might benefit consumers and create a more inclusive and empowering environment for ABA staff, students, and practitioners.

BCBAs, BCaBAs, Graduate students, Psychologists, Researchers, Academics

This discussion paper will define and differentiate gender identity, gender expression, and sexual orientation specific to the transgender and gender-nonconforming community. Relevant research and data will be presented to highlight the unique needs of transgender individuals and the common barriers that impact their access to healthcare and behavioral health services. Tying in the BACB ethics code, specific action steps will be outlined to promote cultural sensitivity and competence, with a highlight on navigating pronouns.

Given the current ethical standard to conduct a functional assessment when addressing problem behavior, there are a myriad of challenges for practitioners in applied settings to conduct such an assessment consistent with evidence-based practices. Ethically, we are bound to conduct the most efficient, evidence-based assessment to find the function and other maintaining variables for problem behavior then devise a plan that is most likely to be effective. This symposium will provide an overview of several perspectives by the presenters regarding ethical and legal challenges to conducting functional assessments in applied settings and offer potential practical solutions for practitioners. One potential barrier pertains to acceptance by administrators, funders, parents and others regarding implementation of traditional functional analysis methods in the behavior analysis literature (cf. Iwata et al., 1982/1994). Reliable approaches to functional analysis are currently under development that are promising in addressing acceptability, and thus alleviate ethical and legal challenges (e.gs. Bloom et. al., 2011; Hanley et. al., 2014). Presenters will offer current approaches to functional assessment and functional analysis that may serve as potential solutions to these challenges and permit for evidence-based methods in settings where these are not currently permitted and may serve to address acceptance concerns.

BCBAs, BCaBAs, School Psychologists, Psychologists,  ABA practice owners and managers, school administrators, others involved with policy and financial roles for provision of ABA services.

As behavior analysts, we are all continuously working to integrate what we as individuals and a field view as ethical into our daily practices. We actively self-evaluate to ensure compliance with our current work and try to be proactive while evaluating potential new work we might be pursuing. For example, if a new job or promotion expands an individual’s scope of competence beyond the direct implementation of a given area of service, then the scope has now shifted from direct-provision of services to managing employee performance. Ethics, in all its forms and extensions (e.g., regulation, credentialing), should be defined and applied to OBM practitioners the same as they do in other areas where behavior analysis is applied. The purpose of this panel is to discuss OBM ethics from various perspectives, including the role of business owners, researchers, consultants, supervisors, and various areas of leadership and the role of OBM ethics in the pursuit of credentialing and licensure.

The target audience is new and experienced OBM practitioners or those who might eventually become OBM practitioners (e.g., front-line BCBA seeking promotion).

There is a call for behavior analysts to research and create adaptations for those with multiple disabilities and impairments in all areas of the world. With growing attention to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) as an approach to assist children with disabilities, ABA methodologies are spreading globally. Popular assessments available in the field, however do not adhere to individuals with multiple disabilities and significant impairments. This session will address the challenges encountered by a group of behavior analysts who spent two weeks introducing ABA to an orphanage in Fuzhou, China, that has had no prior exposure to ABA principles. The treatment plans created, incorporated child-specific adaptations for 25 children in the orphanage that are not easily assessed through common modalities. From this trip, it was ascertained that steps would need to be taken to accurately assess the skills and deficits of these children, many of whom were non-verbal, blind, and/or wheelchair bound. Since this experience, the expansion of the orphanage to include a school specializing in ABA has begun. The successes and challenges of creating an ABA school in a novel setting as well as ways to contribute to the school will be discussed.

The target audience would be for those interested in continuing their education on the global application of Applied Behavior Analysis.

Within a treatment/educational program that is highly positive, is there a place for use of aversives if that mode of treatment advances a client toward his or her full potential and optimizes the client’s quality of life? Is there a small population of clients for whom aversive stimulation falls within the individual’s right to effective treatment? This symposium will examine these issues as they played out in a recent legal case in Massachusetts. The presentations include a review of the research, how aversives (including relevant safeguards) fit into an otherwise highly positive program at the Judge Rotenberg Center and the role of media on public perceptions of JRC. Testimony of experts and legal tactics in the case will reviewed as well. The symposium will show how, following a 44 day trial that included dozens of witnesses and hundreds of pages of exhibits, a judge concluded that there is a place for ethical use of aversives. A parent will describe the impact of aversive programming on the dangerous behaviors, and on the life prospects, of his adult child.

In 2013, the Massachusetts Department of Developmental Services (DDS) filed a motion to vacate a settlement agreement that allowed the Judge Rotenberg Center (JRC) to use a skin shock device (the Graduated Electronic Decelerator (GED)), approved by the Massachusetts Probate Court on a case-by-case basis, to treat individuals with severe problem behaviors. To support the motion, DDS initially claimed that positive behavior supports rendered punishment procedures unnecessary. Later, DDS provided expert testimony that psychotropic medications combined with positive behavior supports were sufficiently effective to treat severe problem behaviors. On the other hand, JRC argued that despite the advances in psychopharmacology and behavior analysis, some individuals continued to require treatment that included the GED. Over the course of 44 trial days, hundreds of scientific articles were offered to the court and critically examined by lawyers and experts on both sides. Here, the process of presenting and critiquing the literature pertaining to severe problem behaviors is discussed using transcripts from the trial.

In a recent court case, a Massachusetts judge undertook a thorough review of the use of an aversive stimulation method (skin shock) at the Judge Rotenberg Center, the only treatment center in the U.S. to use the controversial method. This presentation will review the judge’s findings after a thorough review of the evidence, pro and con. The judge also described included numerous acts of “bad faith” by individuals within the State Department of Developmental Services in its efforts to undermine and prevent effective treatment at JRC. The presentation will address ethical issues including the likelihood of a future of institutionalization, lived out on high doses of medications that include deleterious side effects, is preferable to the thoughtful and ethical use of aversive stimulation when that treatment modality is carefully and minimally used within a treatment program that is overwhelmingly positive. Is a two-second shock, although painful, an ethical treatment if it opens the door to a life of education, community outings, employment and a quality of life that previously could not have been imagined? Ethics of the use of skin shock will be discussed and audience participation is encouraged.

Since the mid-1980's, the Judge Rotenberg Center has been embroiled in controversy that more often than not has been misrepresented by the media. For decades, we have been fighting for the right to effective treatment as well as parents’ rights to recommend what they feel is the most effective, least restrictive treatment for their children. Often the media have responded to outcries from well-intentioned but misguided individuals who have never worked with clients who exhibit high rates of behaviors that are dangerous to themselves and/or to others. Moreover, those who have most harshly criticized the use of aversives at JRC have refused to visit the Center even when invited to do so. Despite the progress made and the dramatic improvement in many clients’ quality of life, the media has portrayed what happens at the center in a negative light. This presentation will discuss the ramifications of the negative media, including protests, serious threats, and proposed regulatory changes.

This parental presentation will trace the history of a child whose high rates of extremely dangerous behaviors had resulted in his placement in, and eventual expulsion from, a number of well-respected residential placements wherein the best efforts of professionals had failed to eliminate or significantly reduce those behaviors. Several of the behaviors were life-threatening and had resulted in extreme, though necessary, restrictions on quality of life. The earlier placements had involved long-term physical restraints as well as heavy doses of psychotropic medications that produced unhealthy side-effects. After several months at the Judge Rotenberg Center during which only positive techniques were employed, there had been little improvement in the dangerous behaviors. Ultimately, I was approached about the use of aversive stimulation, skin shock, with my child. This presentation will review the behaviors, earlier failed efforts to address them, the decision-making process regarding aversives, the treatment and the outcome relative to the dangerous behaviors along with resultant changes in my child’s quality of life and potential

Growth of the natural science of behavior analysis, and the credentialing of behavior analytic practitioners has accelerated over the last thirty years. The availability of services, however, has only unevenly kept up with the demand for service, with many areas of the world underserved, and many more unserved. In this symposium, we describe implementation of service provision at a distance in three venues. First, we describe providing distance based behavior analysis services to reach otherwise unserved service participants in largely rural Idaho. Next, we describe a combination of behavior analytic teaching and up-to-date technology to provide services to families of underserved children in urban, suburban, and rural Virginia, using an innovative web-based platform. Finally, we describe providing services from US-based behavior analysts to families of children with disabilities in Pakistan, using easily accessed internet platforms. We present outcome and satisfaction data which speak to the effectiveness of service provision in each ofd these modalities.

Practicing behavior analysts and behavior consultants. Individuals providing services or supporting those that provide services to rural, unserved, or underserved populations.

In 1968, Dr. Skinner laid out an elegant description of how to deliver effective instruction. Fast forward 50 years, and the field of behavior analysis has changed dramatically. There has been a huge proliferation of training programs, and there are more than 90,000 people in the world who are credentialed by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Applied behavior analysis has become a widely recognized, mainstream treatment modality for children and adults with a variety of disabilities. Ninety thousand credentialed professionals, however, is not enough to meet the need for behavior analytic services, and many go unserved or underserved, even in locations where behavior analysts may be relatively plentiful. AnswersNow combines Dr. Skinner’s technology of teaching with an innovative technology platform, leveraging technology with good, old-fashioned behavior analysis to deliver a first-of-it’s-kind service dedicated to improving the lives of children diagnosed with disabilities worldwide. We will share the results of early beta testing, parent survey results, ongoing data, and platform design. Implications for future uses of technology will be explored.

Ethical guidelines provide a critical navigational tool for practitioners in order to ensure that they are delivering the highest ethical considerations possible to every client across all settings. In general, ethics and ethical dilemmas are not entirely compulsory, and while a general consensus may exist regarding standards, challenges arise regarding decision-making and application. In clinical practice, identifying ethical dilemmas are often evident to practitioners however; making ethical decisions that benefit all stakeholders across settings tends to be more difficult. In addition, providing highly ethical services for individuals who engage in dangerous behavior in the community provides a unique challenge and tests the limits of a behavior analyst’s decision-making abilities. In this discussion, the panelists will elaborate on their successes and challenges related to actively applying ethical models to uncommon, complex, and even life-threatening scenarios within the home and community based service setting.

This panel is designed for current BCBAs, BCaBAs, and practitioners who are actively working in challenging situations, or are seeking additional information on aspects of working in the home/community setting.

While schools continue to adopt the use of behavior anlaytic principles into their teaching practices when working with students with developmental disabilities, the employment of Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and their job descriptions in the school setting are quite diverse and vary with each school district. Teachers and paraprofessionals can benefit from the guidance and feedback provided by a BCBA but barriers do exist that prevent adequate time and resources for all levels of educators to access quality training. Buy-in from school administrators is sometime directly correlated with costs that includes materials, resources, and substitutes to cover classrooms when teachers and paraprofessionals leave for training purposes. Ethical considerations for BCBAs employed by the public school system will be discussed as well as future directions for providing schools with the education and tools necessary to give teachers and paraprofessionals the ABA training that they need. Representation from school systems across the US will present their schools' basic data and job descriptions for BCBAs in their districts, as well as how they disseminate the use of ABA to all levels of educators who work with individuals with developmental disabilities. This panel will discuss the need for BCBAs in the school system, challenges, and recommendations for job descriptions for districts employing BCBAs in their systems.

Behavior analysts of all levels employed by both schools and private companies that may consult/work in collaboration with public school systems.