Association for Behavior Analysis International

The Applied Animal Behavior Special Interest Group in conjunction with the Association for Behavior Analysis International Student Committee offer a panel discussion with behavior analysts who currently work as experts in applied animal behavior across multiple settings. Settings include university, zoo, and private practice. These panelists will offer overviews of applied animal behavior with specific emphasis on training, settings, career opportunities, and the importance of behavior analysts contributing to the field of applied animal behavior analytic research.

As a student representative for the Association of Behavior Analysts International I have constructed a professional development series on Advice to Behavior Analysts Serving in Remote and Rural Communities. The PDS is comprised of a world class panel who have a diverse and wide range of experience and knowledge. The speakers that are presenting on my panel are Dr. Mark Sundberg, Dr. Cheryl Young-Pelton, and Dr. Eric Larsson. As there is an increase in children who are diagnosed with autism, it is important to be mindful that some of these children live in remote and rural communities with autism. These families do not have the accessibility to all services than those individuals who live in urban centers. Environmental constraints, geographically spread out communities, and lack of professionals are few of many factors that make it difficult for children to receive necessary and adequate amount of services. Therefore, the panel will present the ongoing issues and methods that they have used in their professional experience to ensure that all families are receiving services that they need.

Are you tired of working in Autism? Are you looking to challenge your clinical skills? Want to try your hand at working on an interdisciplinary team? Have you ever been curious about work within brain injury rehabilitation? For years acute and post acute brain injury rehabilitation teams have worked to integrate programming efforts across disciplines, overcome issues associated with problem behaviors and demonstrate the efficacy of programming efforts. However, until recently, integration of behavior analytic concepts and principles uniquely suited towards these same goals has been misunderstood, underutilized or simply excluded. This panel of experts will discuss the growing role of the behavior analyst within brain injury rehabilitation. They will address the past, present and future of opportunities for behavior analysts to integrate themselves into this dynamic and growing field.

Conducting preference assessment to identify potential reinforcers is one of the first steps in managing the behavior of individuals with developmental disabilities. Different types of preference assessment are utilized based on the abilities of the individual. Preference assessments may seem fairly simple; however, there is a complexity that involves the incorporation of motivating operations that takes notice of environmental and ecological variables that are in play. This panel includes 3 notable behavior analysts who have experience working with preference assessments. This presentation will review recent research on preference assessments, constraints upon choice involving phylogentically-important events (PIE) and the “ecological fit” of reinforcers and their implications for a model of reinforcer selection. Learning what individuals prefer under specific circumstances is essential to provide appropriate reinforcement options during programming. Finally, panelist will answer audience questions and provide recommendations to those interested in working or conducting research in preference assessments.

A difficult decision faces graduate students upon program completion: What to do with that Ph.D? Many graduates choose to move into faculty positions within the wild world of academia. All in their first or second year as faculty, panelists will discuss their personal accounts of graduate school, the application and interviewing process, and the transition from graduate school into the professional community. Based on their own experiences, panelists will provide recommendations and advice for graduate students seeking to obtain positions in academia. Time will be allotted for members of the audience to direct specific questions to panelists. Hearing from panelists who attended three different behavior analysis programs as graduate students and are now teaching behavior analysis as faculty at three different institutions should be helpful to students who are deciding what to do after graduation.

Home-based and center-based care programs invest a lot of time and resources training front-line staff to implement behavioral programming. However, while staff spends a significant portion of time with clients, the majority of a clients time is actually spent with their primary caretakers. Clients diagnosed with disabilities in particular need the environment to be specially arranged to maximize learning opportunities. Since caregivers spend so much time with their dependents they are an essential component to any treatment team. Given the high number of contact hours between clients and caregivers it is not surprising that caregiver involvement in training predicts better outcomes in treatment. During this event we will discuss issues involved in training primary caregivers to implement behavioral programming with their dependents. The topics will include how to better include parents in programming, how to adequately train parents, and parent expectations. Ideally, this will encourage behavior analysts and their affiliated agencies to program for more caregiver participation, which will in turn directly impact client progress.

The field of Applied Behavior Analysis has seen dramatic growth over the past 15 years. There are now over 14,000 Board Certified Behavior Analysts and associate Behavior Analysts internationally, over 35 states with "autism mandate" insurance bills for ABA services billing by qualified behavior analysts, and at least 10 states with licensure for the practice of behavior analysis. It has become time to actively consider ethics on a broader scale. In 2012, ABAI re-formed an Ethics SIG for the promotion and development of ethics for the practice of behavior analysis. The BACB's "Guidelines for Responsible Conduct" have done much to provide a degree of consumer protection and set standards of practice; however these are suggested guidelines. This panel will explore issues regarding the practice of behavior analysis, the question of expanding ethical standards to be adopted by insurance companies and written into law for those states with licensure laws for the practice of Behavior Analysis, and potential ways to take these issues into consideration in the ethical marketing of behavior analysis.

Upon completing their graduate training, many students will need to identify, apply for, and survive a post-doctoral fellowship before obtaining a faculty position. This panel is designed as an open forum for a discussion of the role of a post-doctoral fellow from the perspective of current post docs and recently hired faculty. The panelists will draw from their breadth of experience and discuss the major elements of their post-doctoral fellowships with respect to professional career development. They will provide recommendations and advice to those looking to pursue a post-doctoral position, elaborating on goals and expectations involved in completing a post doc successfully. Additionally, they will highlight how their post doc training opportunities compared to their graduate training experiences and current experiences in a faculty position. This is a Student Committee sponsored event.

This panel discussion has been organized as part of the ABAI annual convention's Professional Development Series, which is hosted by the ABAI Student Committee. Experts in the field of School Psychology have been invited to serve as panel speakers and share their knowledge regarding group contingencies and ways to increase the effectiveness of group contingency interventions. Panel speakers will discuss topics relevant to procedures that can be used in order to increase the effectiveness of group contingency interventions implemented in the classroom setting. Panelists will describe basic independent, dependent, and interdependent group contingency intervention components. Next, the ways in which contingency components can be randomized in order to increase intervention effectiveness will be explained. Finally, panelists will present other types of behavioral intervention components that can be paired with group contingency interventions to increase their effectiveness in the classroom setting. After presenting, panelists will invite audience members to share in an open discussion surrounding successful implementation of classroom based group contingency interventions.

This panel includes leading discussants working outside the realm of intellectual disabilities, covering the areas of health and fitness, child welfare, and behavioral pediatrics. BF Skinner challenged behavior analysts to solve the worlds problems, but a vast majority of certified behavior analysts are working with individuals diagnosed with intellectual disabilities - a very small subset of the population. While this work is invaluable, behavior analysts could do much more to address this unanswered challenge. These panelists are active researchers in their respective fields and may cover recent findings as well as offer advice about how to pursue a career in each of these non-traditional career paths. This discussion may include additional necessary certifications or training, where to look for a job, and how we can promote our field in new markets.