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Birds ofa Feather: Applied Behavior Analysis and Quality Of Life |
| Saturday, May 26, 2012 |
| 1:00 PM–1:50 PM |
| 303/304 (TCC) |
| Area: PRA; Domain: Service Delivery |
| CE Instructor: Eileen Gambrill, Ph.D. |
| Chair: Ronnie Detrich (Wing Institute) |
| EILEEN GAMBRILL (University of California, Berkeley) |
 Eileen Gambrill is the Hutto Patterson Professor of Child and Family Studies at the School of Social Welfare, University of California at Berkeley where she teaches both research and practice. Her research interests include professional decision-making; evidence-informed practice and the role of critical thinking within this; propaganda in the helping professions and its effects; and the ethics of helping. Recent publications include Propaganda in the helping professions (2012), Oxford; Critical thinking in clinical practice: Improving the quality of judgements and decisions (3rd Ed.) (2012); John Wiley & Sons; and Critical thinking for helping professionals: A skills-based workbook (with Len Gibbs) (3rd Ed.) (2009), Oxford. |
| Abstract: Applied behavior analysts have been helping people to enhance the quality of their lives for decades. Its very characteristics as described by Baer, Wolf and Risley in 1968 continue to guide efforts to help clients and their significant others. Yet this knowledge often languishes unused and unappreciated. Distortions and misrepresentations of applied behavior analysis and radical behaviorism abound. Applied behavior analysis is deeply contextual and deeply concerned with social validity—with the views of clients and significant others in terms of what matters. These very characteristics make it radical in terms of shedding light on dysfunctional contingencies that some may wish to remain hidden. But given that ABA and quality of life are birds of a feather, we must become more adept at highlighting this close relationship. An agenda for accomplishing this is suggested. This agenda includes drawing on technologies such as the Internet including interactive opportunities to highlight avoidable ignorance and related harms and missed opportunities to help clients to enhance the quality of their lives. Related research in the areas of critical thinking, evidence-informed practice and social persuasion is drawn on in designing this agenda. |
| Keyword(s): critical thinking, evidence-informed, social persuasion |
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Why Skinner Considered Verbal Behavior His Most Important Work |
| Saturday, May 26, 2012 |
| 1:00 PM–1:50 PM |
| 6BC (Convention Center) |
| Area: TPC; Domain: Theory |
| Instruction Level: Intermediate |
| CE Instructor: Julie S. Vargas, Ph.D. |
| Chair: Per Holth (Oslo and Akershus University College of Applied Sciences) |
| JULIE S. VARGAS (B. F. Skinner Foundation) |
 Dr. Julie S. Vargas is president of the B. F. Skinner Foundation and a former president of the Association for Behavior Analysis International. Along with Dr. Scott Wood, she was a founder and senior editor of The Behavior Analyst. Dr. Vargas is on the editorial boards of several journals, including The Analysis of Verbal Behavior. She is author of four books, including Behavior Analysis for Effective Teaching, published in 2009. Her publications include two encyclopedia entries on B. F. Skinner as well as articles on instructional design, on Skinner’s life and work, and on verbal behavior. Dr. Vargas is currently involved in archival work in conjunction with the B. F. Skinner Foundation and the Harvard University Archives. |
| Abstract: B. F. Skinner called Verbal Behaviorhis most important work. It is the only book entirely devoted to human behavior, a topic he had avoided in his 1938 book Behavior of Organisms. However, by 1938 Skinner had already begun work on the book that was to become Verbal Behavior. This paper traces Skinner’s comments in personal notes, correspondence, talks, and publications about verbal behavior and its importance for a science of behavior. |
| Target Audience: #none# |
| Learning Objectives: 1. List two features of the book Verbal Behavior that were responsible for Skinner saying the book was “his most important work.”
2. Explain how the main characteristics of Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior extended his experimental laboratory work.
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"Please Take a Bite!" What Behavior Analysis Has to Offer the Field of Childhood Feeding Problems |
| Saturday, May 26, 2012 |
| 2:00 PM–2:50 PM |
| 303/304 (TCC) |
| Area: DDA; Domain: Applied Research |
| CE Instructor: Keith E. Williams, Ph.D. |
| Chair: Jennifer M. Asmus (University of Wisconsin-Madison) |
| KEITH E. WILLIAMS (Penn State Hershey Medical Center) |
 Keith Williams received his Ph.D. in Applied Developmental Psychology from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. He has been the Director of the Feeding Program at the Penn State Hershey Medical Center since 1997, where he supervises multidisciplinary clinics and a day treatment program. Prior to this, he worked with the Kennedy Krieger Institute's Feeding Program. He has over 40 publications in the area of childhood feeding problems including the book, Treating eating problems in children with autism spectrum disorders and developmental disabilities with Richard Foxx. An Associate Professor of Pediatrics at the Penn State College of Medicine, he also teaches in Penn State Harrisburg's graduate program in Applied Behavior Analysis. Dr. Williams provides training in the area of feeding throughout Pennsylvania, nationally, and abroad. |
| Abstract: Up to 25% of the pediatric population experiences a feeding problem at some point across the span of childhood and this percentage has been found to be even higher among children with special needs and/or chronic health problems. While behavior analysts have been working with children with feeding problems for decades, the number of behavior analysts who work in this area of practice is still limited. There are two main goals of this talk. The first is to review the role behavior analysts have played in the treatment of childhood feeding problems and discuss need for behavior analysts to expand their presence in this area of clinical need. The second is to advocate for the spread of our methodology and interventions to the other disciplines toserve children with feeding problems. While there may now be over 5,000 certified behavior analysts, there over 100,000 occupational therapists and 120,000 speech pathologists in the United States. Providing behavior analytic tools to our colleagues in other allied health disciplines will allow for a larger number of children with feeding problems to receive effective treatment. |
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