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| Opening Remarks |
| Sunday, January 25, 2015 |
| 8:15 AM–8:30 AM |
| Grand Ballroom |
| Chair: Jennifer R. Zarcone (Kennedy Krieger Institute) |
Dr. Jennifer Zarcone will welcome attendees and provide opening remarks. |
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Toward a Safer, Faster, and Better Functional Analysis of Problem Behaviors Associated With Autism |
| Sunday, January 25, 2015 |
| 8:30 AM–9:20 AM |
| Grand Ballroom |
| Area: AUT; Domain: Applied Research |
| Instruction Level: Basic |
| CE Instructor: Gregory P. Hanley, Ph.D. |
| Chair: John D. Molteni (University of Saint Joseph) |
| GREGORY P. HANLEY (Western New England University) |
 Dr. Gregory P. Hanley has been applying the principles of learning to improve socially important behaviors of children and adults with and without disabilities for more than 20 years. He worked and trained at the Spurwink School, the Groden Center, and the Kennedy Krieger Institute, earned his Ph.D. at the University of Florida and was tenured at the University of Kansas. He is currently a professor of psychology and director of the Behavior Analysis Doctoral Program at Western New England University and an adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of Massachusetts Medical School. Dr. Hanley has published more than 80 articles in peer-reviewed journals in areas such as the assessment and prevention of problem behavior, teaching tactics for young children, and evidence-based values. Dr. Hanley is a Fellow of the American Psychological Association (Division 25), past editor of Behavior Analysis in Practice (BAP), and a past associate editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, The Behavior Analyst, and BAP. |
| Abstract: Although a diagnosis of autism is not dependent on problem behaviors like meltdowns, self-injury, or aggression, one or more of these types of problems will likely require address at some point in the life span of a person diagnosed with autism. There is strong evidence supporting behavioral intervention to address these problem behaviors, with better outcomes evident when a functional analysis is part of the pretreatment functional assessment process. Nevertheless, assertions regarding the legitimacy of different types of functional assessment vary substantially across published studies. In addition, the research literature shows an unfortunate trend toward the standardization of the functional analytic part of the process. In this session, a highly individualized and practical functional assessment process that leads to fast, safe, and effective outcomes will be described. The comprehensive and socially validated treatments for problem behavior that result from this particular functional assessment process also will be described. |
| Target Audience: Psychologists, behavior analysts, practitioners, and graduate students. |
| Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, participants should be able to: (1) given the results of an open-ended interview, design an efficient, safe, individualized (nonstandardized), and synthesized functional analysis; (2) given different functions of problem behavior, design functionally relevant, effective, and skill-based interventions capable of producing generalizable and socially valid improvements in problem behavior; and (3) describe and implement several strategies for teaching individuals with severe problem behavior to tolerate both delays to and denials of reinforcers previously maintaining their problem behavior. |
| Keyword(s): functional analysis, problem behaviors |
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Using Stimulus Pairing Procedures to Induce New Vocalizations |
| Sunday, January 25, 2015 |
| 9:30 AM–10:20 AM |
| Grand Ballroom |
| Area: AUT; Domain: Basic Research |
| Instruction Level: Basic |
| CE Instructor: Anna I. Petursdottir, Ph.D. |
| Chair: Thomas S. Higbee (Utah State University) |
| ANNA I. PETURSDOTTIR (Texas Christian University) |
 Anna Ingeborg Petursdottir received her Ph.D. in psychology from Western Michigan University and is currently an associate professor of psychology at Texas Christian University. Her primary area of research is verbal behavior and its acquisition. Her applied research interests include strategies for enhancing basic communication skills of children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder, whereas more basic research interests include typically developing children's language acquisition, and how research and theory in this area may translate into effective language interventions. Dr. Petursdottir's research has been published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, and the Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, among other journals. She is past editor of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior and an associate editor of the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, and has served on the editorial boards of numerous other journals. Dr. Petursdottir is also a past president of the Texas Association for Behavior Analysis and has served on the annual convention program committee of the Association for Behavior Analysis International. |
| Abstract: It has long been hypothesized that the early cooing and babbling of infants may be shaped into their native-language speech sounds in part via auditory feedback from their own voices. In behavioral terms, this means that vocalizations that resemble speech sounds regularly heard in the infants' environment function as reinforcers for vocalizing. Clinicians and researchers have translated this hypothesis into a stimulus-stimulus pairing intervention intended to increase novel vocalizations of nonverbal children with autism and other developmental disabilities. However, the literature to date has produced mixed results. In this presentation, Dr. Petursdottir will discuss strengths and limitations of the existing literature on stimulus-stimulus pairing, and use data from her lab to illustrate alternative procedures intended to establish speech sounds as conditioned reinforcers. |
| Target Audience: Psychologists, behavior analysts, practitioners, and graduate students. |
| Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, participants should be able to: (1) explain how the concept of automatic conditioned reinforcement has been used to account for increases in child vocalizations after the child is exposed to pairings of adult speech sounds with preferred stimuli; (2) identify the strengths and limitations of the literature on stimulus-stimulus pairing to establish early speech sounds in children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder; and (3) describe discrimination training and response-contingent pairing as two alternative procedures to establish speech sounds or other stimuli as conditioned reinforcers. |
| Keyword(s): stimulus pairing |
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Autism Insurance Reform Across America |
| Sunday, January 25, 2015 |
| 11:00 AM–11:50 AM |
| Grand Ballroom |
| Area: AUT; Domain: Theory |
| Instruction Level: Basic |
| CE Instructor: Robert K. Ross, Ph.D. |
| Chair: Robert K. Ross (Beacon ABA Services) |
| LORRI SHEALY UNUMB (Autism Speaks) |
 Lorri Shealy Unumb is a lawyer, professor, and the mother of three children--Ryan, 13, who has autism; Christopher, 9; and Jonathan, 6. In 2005, she wrote ground-breaking autism insurance legislation for South Carolina ("Ryan's Law") that passed in 2007 and served as the catalyst for the national movement toward autism insurance reform. Ms. Unumb began her work in autism advocacy as a volunteer. In 2008, she was recruited by the New York-based nonprofit Autism Speaks, where she now advocates full time on behalf of individuals with autism. As head of state government affairs, she has testified more than 100 times on health insurance issues in legislatures around the country. For her advocacy efforts, she has been recognized with the Jefferson Award for Public Service; the Autism Society of America 2008 "Parents of the Year" Award (along with her husband, Dan); the Behavior Analyst Certification Board's Michael Hemingway Award; the California Association of Behavior Analysts 2012 "Leadership in Law" Award; the Miss South Carolina Pageant 2012 "Woman of Achievement" Award; the Association of Professional Behavior Analysts 2013 "Jerry Shook" Award; and the NASCAR Foundation's Betty Jane France Humanitarian Award. Her work has been profiled on CNN, on NPR's Morning Edition, and in Town&Country magazine, from whom she received one of three 2009 "Women Who Make a Difference" awards. She is profiled in the American Academy of Pediatrics 2013 book Autism Spectrum Disorders: What Every Parent Needs to Know. Before joining Autism Speaks, Ms. Unumb enjoyed a fulfilling career as an appellate litigator with the United States Department of Justice and then as a law professor at George Washington University Law School and an inaugural faculty member at the Charleston School of Law. A frequent keynote speaker, Ms. Unumb still teaches a health law course at George Washington University Law School called "Autism and the Law." She and her husband, Dan, wrote the first-ever comprehensive textbook on legal issues related to autism, also called Autism and the Law. They recently founded the Autism Academy of South Carolina, a nonprofit center in Columbia serving the year-round therapeutic needs of children on the spectrum. She attended the University of South Carolina, where she earned degrees magna cum laude in broadcasting and political science and was awarded a full scholarship to USC Law School, where she graduated with honors in 1993. She was named the Law School Graduate of the Year by the international legal honor society Phi Delta Phi. |
| Abstract: Historically, individuals with autism have had difficulty obtaining meaningful health insurance coverage. Since 2007, however, more than 35 states have enacted legislation requiring insurers to cover autism interventions, including applied behavior analysis. The purpose of this session is to explain the new laws and examine the underlying grassroots advocacy that resulted in their passage. Ms. Unumb will discuss the terms of the new laws, the different types of insurance policies that consumers may have, and the potential pitfalls that consumers may face in obtaining coverage. |
| Target Audience: Psychologists, behavior analysts, practitioners, and graduate students. |
| Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, participants should be able to: (1) understand why health insurance has typically denied insurance coverage for ABA; (2) identify different types of health insurance policies and the significance of each; and (3) be aware of the implications of the Affordable Care Act on autism insurance coverage. |
| Keyword(s): insurance coverage, legislation |
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| Closing Remarks |
| Sunday, January 25, 2015 |
| 12:00 PM–12:15 PM |
| Grand Ballroom |
| Chair: Wayne W. Fisher (Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Med) |
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| Wayne W. Fisher (Munroe-Meyer Institute, University of Nebraska Medical Center), Jennifer R. Zarcone (Kennedy Krieger Institute) |
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Dr. Wayne Fisher and Dr. Jennifer Zarcone will conclude the conference and provide closing remarks. |
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