Association for Behavior Analysis International

Implementation of evidence-based practices can be conceptualized as not only a set of practices, but also as a decision-making process. This process identifies multiple variables that affect sustainability of interventions. Further, when creating behavior intervention plans for all students, including those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), it is important that teachers, practitioners, and other interventionists evaluate and consider contextual variables that affect sustainability and overall acceptability of interventions as a whole. Sustainability and acceptability of intervention are two of the most important factors when evaluating the effectiveness of interventions, however, emphasis is not always placed on these two factors in practice. This panel presentation examines these variables and provides recommendations to increase overall effectiveness of interventions as a whole. This presentation is meaningful for all practitioners in roles that require development, implementation, and analysis of behavior interventions in school settings, as positive outcomes rely heavily on these critical factors.

This presentation is targeted towards practicing BCBAs working to develop interventions with strong contextual fit to ensure prolonged sustainability of intervention.

Recent technological advancements have the potential to vastly improve the strategies and tactics behavior analysts use to promote behavior change. These technologies have the potential to increase the efficiency of instruction, improve procedural fidelity and allow for the remote delivery of covert prompting and feedback to learners and clinicians. During this symposium, three presenters will describe their investigations incorporating various technological advancements into applied behavior analysis therapy settings. This will include a review of an intelligent agent (IA) used to guide clinicians working in vocational rehabilitation settings with adults with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD); the use of the Tactile Awareness Prompting System (TAPS) to evoke distinct social responses in children with ASD; and the use of the Apple Watch to contingently deliver covert remote tactile stimulation as a reinforcer for on-task behavior in a child diagnosed with autism. The potential benefits and challenges of successfully incorporating these types of technologies to improve behavioral therapy will be discussed.

This presentation is appropriate for practicing behavior analysts and supervisors.

Tactile stimulation can be used to privately prompt or provide feedback for a variety of behaviors. However, technological limitations have primarily resulted in narrow investigations of tactile stimulation delivered on a time-based schedule delivered by a device like a Motivader or WatchMinder. Recent advances in smart phone and watch technologies have created new ways for practitioners to deliver tactile stimulation privately and remotely to shape behavior. The aim of this presentation is two-fold. First, to share the results from initial investigations utilizing this technology to reinforce on-task behavior in a young child diagnosed with autism. Second, to discuss the advantages and applications of utilizing tactile stimulation as a prompt or reinforcer. Discussions will center around using this technology to preserve the privacy and dignity of clients by covertly shaping performance; prompt behavior based on environmental events independent of scheduled times; deliver feedback quickly, quietly, and remotely without interrupting interactions; and fade dependence on tactile prompting and feedback.

Children with autism often have deficits in generalization of skills and generalization has to often been directly programmed. Matrix training and multiple-exemplar training are two ways to effectively program for generalization. This symposium has two studies that will demonstrate the application of these two generalization strategies. Specifically, the first study will use matrix training to establish a generalized repertoire of direction following. This study will also discuss the implication of the size of matrix and efficiency of generalization. The second study will examine the effects of multiple exemplar training to establish a generalized repertoire of play sequences in young children

Graduate students and professionals

The purpose of the current study was to investigate the effects of implementing a diagonal matrix training layout to teach a generalized repertoire of direction following to four male preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) using two different sized matrices (i.e., 3x3 and 5x5). A multiple probe across participants experimental design was implemented to compare generalization efficiency. Participants were taught trained combinations using a constant prompt delay and a model prompt. Correct responding was defined as the participant performing the correct action and then selecting the target stimulus (e.g., “Jump to bowtie”) within 5 s of the discriminative stimuli. In addition, generalization was assessed on untrained direction combinations for within and across matrices. Interobserver agreement, procedural integrity and social validity was also assessed. The results demonstrated that matrix training led to generative responding across all participants and maintained up to four weeks after training was completed. Additionally, it was demonstrated through an efficiency measurement that a 5x5 matrix produced the fastest rates of generalization acquisition when compared to the 3x3 size matrix.

Children with autism (CWA) often lack play skills. CWA engage in repetitive manipulation of play materials (MacDonald et al., 2005) and are more likely to respond invariably to leisure materials than their typically developing peers (Bancroft et al., 2016). Current play research shows a variety of teaching methods have been used to teach play behavior, however play is often lacking novelty and generalization. The purpose of the current study was to examine the effects of combining an in-vivo model and multiple exemplar training to teach 9 dress up play sequences across 3 themes (fire fighter, chef, and doctor). One participant was trained on 9 dress up play sequences using in-vivo modeling. Probes across the 9 dress up play sequences were conducted to test for mastery and generalization within and across play themes. Results indicated increases in differentiated play, pretend play, and scripted play from that observed during baseline sessions.

The current symposium presents three papers examining behavior analytic strategies for teaching language flexibility, social planning, and social skills. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder often display rigid, inflexible interests (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), behaviors (Cruz et al., 2013), and cognitions (Van Eylen et al., 2011). The first paper analyzes the effects of a multiple exemplar training package on skill acquisition of language flexibility via a “shades of gray” continuum, wherein participants’ language rigidity or a “black and white” approach in categorizing concepts dichotomously is anticipated to correspondingly decrease. Planning involves the predetermination of a set of actions toward a goal (Hayes-Roth & Perrault, 1979) that requires consistent monitoring (Hill, 2004), and social planning involves engaging in a complex chain of behaviors to plan a social outing, event, interaction, or goal. The second paper evaluates the use of gamification as a method to increase social planning skills in individuals with autism using a multiple baseline across participants design. The third paper provides a review of behavioral procedures used to teach social skills to individuals with autism and developmental disabilities, with an emphasis on evaluating the extent of generalization observed.

BCBAs

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder often display rigid, inflexible interests (American Psychiatric Association, 2013), behaviors (D'Cruz et al., 2013), and cognitions (Van Eylen et al., 2011). Such rigidity can often lead to difficulty in functionally integrating into society, building, and maintaining relationships. However, there is a paucity of research on teaching individuals with Autism language flexibility skills. This study uses a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design to evaluate the effects of utilizing a shades of gray continuum intervention via a multiple exemplar training treatment package, consisting of contingent least-to-most error correction and reinforcement, to increase language flexibility in responding across individuals with Autism. Treatment entails creating a series of continuums that display the ‘shades of gray’ between two dichotomous terms that are relevant to individual participants’ everyday lives. Current data represent baseline performance across three participants followed by initiation of the intervention with participants one and two. Given the immediate change in level across both participants, data thus far is encouraging and suggests that the multiple exemplar training package will be effective in increasing language flexibility by responding with shades of gray comparative to baseline performance. Future data is to be collected in order to determine if the intervention continues to yield acquisition via increasing trend and limited variability. Finally, future data will also be collected on the continued baseline performance of the third participant, as well as the introduction of the intervention.

Social skills enable individuals to access to a variety of reinforcers across people and settings within their community. The absence of these skills is detrimental in that it hinders the development of successful social-emotional relationships that limits meaningful interactions with others (Goldstein & Naglieri, 2013). While social skills trainings are developed and implemented more consistently in ABA-based programs, a systematic review of these procedures has yet to be conducted to evaluate the extent of generalization outcomes across responses, settings, people, and time. Our aim is to provide a resource for practitioners to identify effective social skills training protocols for children, adolescents, and young adults (ages 3-22) that includes a generalization component and ensures the generalization of treatment effects. This literature review includes 60 studies (32 have been completed, and 28 are still in the process of data collection) from the last 20 years obtained from behavioral journals. The social skills evaluated included play skills (n=6), conversational skills (n=6), non-verbal social skills (n=2), perspective taking (n=3), and social interactions (n=11). The studies are classified according to their training format and setting, the intensity and length of training, the training procedures, and outcomes, including probes for generalization and maintenance. Generalization was trained in 23 of 32 studies and tested in 27 of 32 studies. Generalization was observed for 87 of 103 participants across all studies. Maintenance was observed at various points in 19 of 32 studies. These results will be discussed with the aim of generating a repository of information about generalization in social skills to inform clinical practice and provide directions for future research.

Qualitative research is often undertaken to understand and improve practices within a particular discipline. Qualitative researchers are interested in understanding how people perceive or interpret their lived experiences rather than working to find and prove a hypothesis or discover a cause and effect. For example, understanding others’ theoretical ways of seeing the application of behavior principles to challenging behavior is a possible objective for the coding and thematic analysis that is typical of qualitative research. This symposium will address the process of qualitative research including the use of coding, memos, nodes, and themes. The presenters will address the research process of coding, categorization of codes and subsequent generation of themes. Qualitative research requires additional methods of triangulation of data (e.g., member checking, auditor, critical friend) and these methods will also be discussed , as will the iterative nature of the analysis of data in qualitative research.

This symposium is appropriate for researchers and practitioners who are interested in the perspectives of consumers of ABA services. The presenters will provide information about qualitative research and the insights that the iterative nature of qualitative data analysis provides when investigating the perspectives of consumers served by ABA researchers and practitioners.

For this qualitative research nine caregivers were interviewed and recorded. Recordings were transcribed. Transcriptions were systematically coded and analyzed for the lived experiences of caregivers around mealtimes/feeding and difficult behavior. Three qualitative researchers coded each interview separately and a list of codes, nodes and themes was generated and shared following each meeting. Additional codes and nodes were generated as the interview coding proceeded and each code was accepted as long as 2/3 of the researchers agreed to its inclusion. Codes will be condensed into themes and a minimum of three main themes will be generated through the reiterative process of qualitative data analysis; these themes will be discussed in detail. The contribution of the understanding achieved (i.e., of parents’ perceptions of interventions around feeding and mealtimes) qualitative analysis and results will be discussed, as well as the process of qualitative research itself. Member checking and an audit is planned upon completion of coding and thematic analysis (data analysis is ongoing at the time of this submission).

Beyond the exponential growth in the professional practice of applied behavior analysis, measured by increasing numbers of certified behavior analysts, little is known regarding what factors mediate and stimulate said growth. This presentation examines the number certified behavior analysts there in the world, and specifically examines how we can help grow our field on the international stage. Using geo-coded data that does not aggregate state data and charts plotting dispersal of certified behavior analysts we can examine the equitable distribution of behavior analysts and identify areas needing support. The first analysis will review BACB certificant growth at the global level, while the second analysis will provide insights about what policies and/or resources are related with rapid certificant growth. Finally, a case example of grass-root efforts to stimulate growth in Ontario, Canada will be discussed. Attendees will leave this presentation with up-to-date information of certificant trends at the international level, some ideas for how to stimulate certificant growth using a grass-roots behavioral-systems approach, and learn about current front-line efforts to generate change in Ontario, Canada, and how these can be generalized to other geographic regions with appropriate cultural tailoring.

Certified practitioners in the field and educators in verified course sequences.

The benefits of Applied Behavior Analyst for International School Students has been on the increase. In this symposium, three papers will illustrate these benefits for a range of primary and middle school learners. The first paper will report on how our science can be used to gather social validity measures to benefit inclusion of students with special education needs and their peers. The second paper will show how techniques from our science can improve and replace stereotypy and the third paper will show how video modelling can be used to teach drawing in middle school students with autism spectrum disorder.

Supervisors, Behavior Analysts, and Special Educators

Applied Behavior Analysis is increasingly effective at improving the inclusion of students with special education needs. Techniques from our science have been used to successfully include students and benefit all students in the primary school classroom. Using direct observation techniques and social validity measures we have discovered how well typical students attend to the teacher in group instruction in a variety of conditions and primary age ranges. This information can be used to develop criteria for inclusion of students with special education needs successfully.

The present study used functional behavior assessment and a treatment package including conditioning of toy play with a student with autism in an international primary school. The functional behavior assessment confirmed that the behaviors were being maintained through automatic reinforcement. The procedure was a partial replication from research conducted with adults and preschool students. Our student was 11 years old and had a long history of stereotypy behaviors and a limited community of reinforcers. This study tested for the external validity of the treatment package.

Video Modelling has been found to be effective to teach a wide range of b behaviors with greater efficiency than direct instruction. Using this antecedent based strategy, we taught drawing to two students with autism in an international school classroom setting. Both the middle school and high school student improved their drawing based on the video modelling treatment package.

One variation of noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) involves delivering preferred items independently of responding. NCR is a common intervention for changing clinically significant behavior. However, few studies have evaluated the parameters that are necessary for NCR to be effective. This symposium includes within subject parametric evaluations assessing impacts of varying levels of treatment integrity during NCR and varying magnitude of NCR in applied settings. The first presentation includes two experiments in which commission and omission errors of varying degrees are superimposed on an effective NCR procedure with typically developing elementary school students. Effects of errors differed across error type and participants. The second presentation includes evaluations of effects of varying duration and quantity of noncontingent access to preferred items on compliance. All participants across both experiments exhibited more compliant behavior with higher magnitude noncontingent access. These parametric evaluations of NCR shed light on conditions under which NCR is an effective or ineffective behavioral intervention.

BCBAs Researchers

Noncontingent reinforcement (NCR), which involves the delivery of reinforcers independently of responding, significantly decreases challenging behavior when implemented consistently. Less is known about effects of inconsistent implementation, although these inconsistencies are likely common. In Experiment 1, we evaluated effects of reinforcing 20% and 80% of challenging behavior during Noncontingent reinforcement for students who engaged in challenging behavior maintained by access to items. In Experiment 2, we evaluated effects of omitting 20% or 80% of scheduled noncontingent reinforcers on the likelihood of challenging behavior for the same participants. Challenging behavior consistently occurred during baseline. Consistent NCR suppressed challenging behavior by at least 75% relative to baseline. Effects of reduced integrity implementation differed across participants and error type.

Researchers have demonstrated behavior-analytic principles can be applied in higher education settings with college students. The three presentations in this symposium exemplify such research. Thomas Farnsworth will describe the effects of a professionalism training on undergraduate students’ e-mail formatting and etiquette during the first presentation. During the second presentation, Kathryn Glodowski will provide an overview of the influence of quiz length on college student behavior in an undergraduate psychology class. The final presentation, given by Sarah Kong, will include a review of the impact of a study training package on undergraduate students’ studying skills.

Behavior Analysts who teach and/or work with undergraduate students or in higher education.

Email is the primary form of communication between undergraduates and instructors outside the classroom, but past research suggests that undergraduate email writing needs improvement. Fortunately, simple interventions can help. The purpose of the present study was to extend research by Elbeck and Song (2011) by evaluating the effect of a brief, self-guided, and out-of-class training on email professionalism. The training package consisted of instructions with an accompanying graphic example and an online quiz. “Email professionalism” was operationally defined by email checklist ratings based on adherence with basic formatting and etiquette guidelines generally associated with beneficial outcomes in the email-communication literature. Experimental control of emails sent to the course instructor by the training was demonstrated using a multiple baseline design across two sections of an introductory psychology course. Generality probes, in which participants emailed novel recipients, were rated higher post training and higher than emails sent to the course instructor, for both sections. Mean interobserver agreement was over 90% for both sections. The results of social validity assessments suggest that the goals, procedures, and outcomes of the training were viewed favorably by participants and career-development staff. Email professionalism training outside the classroom is feasible and may supplement or replace other tactics.

This symposium will describe new methods that can be used across educational, medical, and psychiatric settings to improve the quality of data collection and increase the social validity of behavioral interventions. In the first study, the authors developed a data collection tool to evaluate the quality of behavior support plans developed for children with severe problem behavior in a community school. The authors demonstrated that by using the tool, they were able to determine the strengths and weakness of current behavior plans to obtain a measure of quality. The second presentation focuses on a treatment package for improving staff’s data collection. The treatment package included simplified data sheets, behavior clickers, and prompts. Results demonstrate that these strategies can improve the quality of data collection on an inpatient psychiatric unit. The final presentation focuses on increasing the amount of behavior data collected by nurses on an inpatient medical rehabilitation unit. This study expands on the findings from the second presentation by systematically evaluating the effects of prompts via an established medical records system. Results support the use of prompts as demonstrated by a significant increase in the amount of data collected by nurses in prompt conditions as compared to baseline conditions.

The target audience of this talk is any behavior analysist or supervisor who is responsible for monitoring and improving staff performance within a clinical setting.

Data collection is a hallmark of effective behavior-analytic therapy. Collecting accurate data permits a behavior analyst to evaluate the effectiveness of behavioral treatment. The current study evaluated the use of a clicker, simplified observation, and timer to improve accuracy of data collection on a psychiatric unit for children diagnosed with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Experiment 1, conducted within a combined multiple baseline across participants and reversal design, was an evaluation to identify an intervention package for four participants employed by the psychiatric unit. Interventions yielding the highest interobserver agreement (IOA) were highly individualized. Thus, we selected the most comprehensive intervention and exposed four additional participants to this intervention during Experiment 2. Results showed that this intervention improved IOA for these additional participants as evaluated within a multiple baseline across participants design. Results of the current study will be discussed to assist other behavior analysts improve data collection practices in hospital or school settings.

Patient’s behavior in the medical setting often interrupts medical care (e.g., refusal of care, removal of medical equipment, self-injurious, and aggressive behaviors). Direct behavioral measurements are essential to adequately design and evaluate the efficacy of behavioral interventions in an effort to provide appropriate medical care and ensure safety. Nurses have the most frequent contact with patients and are responsible for evaluating and documenting patients’ medical and behavioral information; however, nurses typically collect indirect measurements of behavior and psychological wellbeing rather than direct behavioral observations. The present study evaluated effectiveness of computerized prompts to increase nurses’ data recording behaviors in a subacute pediatric inpatient medical rehabilitation unit. Initial baseline data demonstrated that only 28.17% of intervals of behavior data were collected by nursing staff. Computerized prompts within the hospital’s electronic medical records system (Meditech) were implemented across five sets of nurses using an A-B-A-B reversals with one set, A-C-B-A-B-D-B reversal design with a second set, an A-B design with two sets, and intervention only condition with the final set. Percent of data collected was calculated using permanent products of weekly behavior data sheets. Results of the present study demonstrate that computerized prompts resulted in a clinically significant increase in the percent of data that were collected.

Behavior analysts know that our science can be applied to many different industries and social problems. One application of this is within the public service industry. Behavior Leader combined those who were traditionally trained as behavior analysts and those who were traditionally trained as firefighters to address common organizational problems within the fire service industry. Panelists will discuss four projects that cover two different applications of behavior analysis into fire stations as well as future directions. First, the panel will discuss diversity and inclusion issues within the fire service and how behavior analysis can be used to assess and address the diversity of the workforce and the culture that allows or does not allow inclusion of all. Second, the panel will discuss billing optimization of EMS services and how behavior analysis can be applied to create new systems that maximize payment of claims. Finally, the panel will discuss other opportunities where behavior analysts can extend our science into the public service world by working with fire fighters, police officers, elected officials, and military personnel.

Any individual that is a student or certified behavior analyst who is interested in applications of behavior analysis outside of the autism field.

Practitioners and researchers who are interested in diversity-related issues in general; providers and educators who are interested in providing programs to Chinese populations.

Typically, speech-generating device interventions for children with autism spectrum disorder have often involved discrete-trial approaches. Recently, there has been a trend towards using naturalistic developmental behavioral approaches for children with autism spectrum disorder. These approaches embed behavioral principles within natural contexts, routines, and social interactions. Natural communication partners (e.g., parents, peers) are also often involved in such approaches. There is a need for speech-generating device research that explores the utility of these more naturalistic approaches across a variety of device display formats. This symposium will explore how different speech-generating device display formats (including simple grid-based formats, dynamic navigational grids, and visual scene displays) can be incorporated into different natural routines (e.g., play, art activity, meal time, conversation) with natural communication partners (parents and peers). All three studies embedded a variety of behavioral techniques (e.g., prompting, time delay) into natural routines in order to encourage the use of speech-generating devices for communicative purposes. Results indicate that naturalistic interventions with behavioral components can be effective for teaching communication responses to individuals with ASD across a range of display formats.

The target audience for this event would be BCBAs and related practitioners with interests in behavioral approaches to speech-generating device interventions (e.g., special education teachers, speech-language pathologists).

This study evaluated the effectiveness of embedded naturalistic instruction for teaching multi-step speech-generating device (SGD) responses to three preschool-aged males with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Parents were taught to embed opportunities to request objects, request help, reject items, and make comments during every-day routines (e.g., play, meal time). During intervention, parents used time delay, prompting, reinforcement, and device proximity to encourage the use of two-step SGD responses on a grid-based display with category folders (e.g., vehicles, animals). The display format was selected based upon prior dynamic assessment to determine appropriate formats. Effects of intervention were evaluated using a multiple-probes across participants design. For object requesting, all three participants showed an immediate increase in responding that maintained at high levels. Other pragmatic functions also increased, but at a more gradual pace. All three participants showed generalized responding when new items were introduced, and when display pages with a larger array of folders and vocabulary items were assessed.

Social interactions are a critical component of quality of life. These interactions are often complicated for adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), as they experience difficulty in participating in social interactions with their peers. The challenges of social interactions are further intensified for those adolescents with ASD who have difficulty with speech. Speech-generating device (SGD) interventions designed to support communication during social interactions with peers in natural environments are needed for these individuals. Video visual scene displays (video VSDs) capture dynamic routines that support communication. This study used a multiple-probe across participants design to assess the impact of an intervention using videos with integrated visual scene displays (video VSDs), presented on a tablet-based app, on the communication of four adolescents with ASD and complex communication needs and their peer partners. The automatic pausing of a video at key points served as a prompt for communication opportunities and provided the necessary vocabulary within the VSD. Following intervention, all four participants demonstrated an increase in communicative turns and in modes of communication used (including speech), suggesting that video VSDs may be an effective tool for supporting social communication.

The evaluation of treatment outcomes is key to a wider adoption of behavioral treatments by key players in health and education including health insurance providers, advocacy groups, and government agencies. As part of this symposium we will present a series of pioneering studies in the area of treatment evaluation and outcome research in behavioral services for people with autism and fragile X syndrome. Study 1 from Scott Hall's group at Standford University presents a randomized controlled trial of function-driven interventions for problem behavior provided via telehealth. Study 2 from Svein Eldevik's group at Oslo Metropolitan University presents a 10-year follow up of treatment outcomes for adolescents and adults that have received early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) during childhood. Study 3 by Bill Ahearn's group at the New England Center for Children presents an evaluation of an early detection and treatment protocol. The study hopes to demonstrate that early detection followed by early treatment can result in optimal outcomes for young children with autism. Finally, Study 4 by Javier Virues-Ortega's group at The University of Auckland and Universidad Autónoma de Madrid presents the results of a case-control study aimed at identifying neural biomarkers of treatment outcomes. The study compared a range of neural pathways in two groups of children with autism who had or had not received parent-managed behavioral intervention. Together these studies feature a variety of emerging approaches to evaluate behavioral services. Dr. Brian Reichow author of several high-impact Cochrane reviews of EIBI will discuss the session.

Practitioners, researchers, advocates and policy decision-makers.

Introduction:Early Interventions for children with developmental disabilities are increasingly being delivered via telehealth to reduce health access disparities. In this paper, we describe the outcomes of a study designed to evaluate behavior analytic treatments for problem behaviors exhibited by young children with fragile X syndrome (FXS), the most common known inherited cause of Autism Spectrum Disorder. Methods:Participants were 61 boys with FXS, aged 3 to 10 years, who exhibited problem behavior on a daily basis. Following a functional analysis, participants were randomized to receive function-based behavioral treatment over 12 weeks (n=26) or treatment as usual (n= 25). The primary outcome measures were scores obtained on the Aberrant Behavior Checklist- Community (ABC-C) and the Treatment Acceptability Rating Form - Revised (TARF-R). Results:Children who received function-based behavioral treatment via telehealth evidenced significant decreases in problem behavior compared to those who received treatment as usual (Cohen’s d = 0.65, p<.001). Scores obtained on the TARF-R indicated that treatment acceptability remained high at 4-week follow-up. Discussion:These data provide initial evidence to support the efficacy of delivering function-based behavioral treatments via telehealth for this population. The advantages and disadvantages of using RCT designs to evaluate treatment effects will be discussed.

This presentation reports the current outcomes of adolescents and adults with autism who received Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) in their childhood. Nineteen children (16 boys and three girls) who had received two years of EIBI starting at a mean age of 2.9 years took part in an extended follow up 12 years later. Results showed that participants had significantly increased their cognitive and adaptive standardized scores during the two years of EIBI, and that these gains were maintained 10 years after EIBI had ended. Participants also showed a significant reduction in autism symptoms between intake and follow-up. Participants had not received any additional psychiatric diagnoses and were not taking psychotropic medication at the 10-year follow up. Results indicate that treatment gains achieved in EIBI are maintained into adolescence. Treatment outcomes during adulthood are reported for eight children from Eikeseth, Smith, Jahr and Eldevik (2002, 2007) who received either three years of EIBI (n = 4) or three years of eclectic special education (n = 4). Preliminary results suggest that children who had received EIBI made larger gains and maintained their progress to a greater extent than those who received eclectic treatment. Overall, our results indicate that gains made after EIBI may persist into adolescence and adulthood.

In the last decade, the applications of acceptance and commitment training (ACT) has exploded within behavior analysis practice. The scope of ACT investigations, however, has been somewhat limited to efforts within the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) population. To that end, the present symposium seeks to expand the empirical reach of ACT to populations outside that of ASD, and discuss the overarching implications of using ACT as a viable, behavior-analytically-rooted approach in a thoroughgoing fashion.

intermediate

Few studies have examined the effects of contextual behavior science interventions for adult athletes with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Those few, reviewed herein, show preliminary empirical support for treating behavioral deficits exhibited by young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder engaged in competitive sports. In the current study, we evaluated a novel iteration of Acceptance and Commitment Training called Watch Me Try and compared it to direct contingency management to facilitate athletic performance of young adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder using a concurrent multiple baseline across participants design. The title and language used in establishing the intervention were geared specifically to the social development of the participants. All three athletes increased their attendance, heart rate, and length of falls during training to simulate desired performance during competitions and subsequently, their competition performances improved. One improved with direct contingency management alone; the other two required the Watch Me Try approach to bolster their performance.

This symposium will address diversity, inclusion, and social justice issues within the field of behavior analysis and in society at large. Some of the topics addressed are controversial and may be uncomfortable for some behavior analysts to hear and discuss. Topics include the differential treatment of applied practitioners vs. basic researchers/academicians and the negative effects on individuals, the field, and society. A second topic is the apparent acceptability of disparaging group members online, even by social media groups who pride themselves on being inclusive and respectful. A third presentation will discuss the role of implicit bias in issues of social justice, specifically, attitudes toward racial issues and gun violence and whether a focus on implicit bias is the answer. The final presenter will describe how the #MeToo movement has changed contingencies for accusers and the accused, in both adaptive and maladaptive ways; it will argue that this movement is a cultural cusp that behavior scientists should be ready to help steer in the right direction. Dr. Christine Hughes, a basic and translational researcher and radical behaviorist, will serve as our discussant.

Anyone in behavior analysis in included in the target audience for this symposium. Behavior analysts in graduate school, professional practice, academia, experimental and applied research, and all other aspects of behavior analysis, from beginning levels to seasoned professors and professionals, would benefit from this symposium.

For better or worse, social media has fostered interpersonal connections in previously unimaginable ways. In recent years, there has been an increasing number of social media groups comprised of behavior analysts committed to fostering a community of humility, inclusion, and respect. Many of these groups have stipulated rules of conduct (e.g., requiring civil discourse, prohibiting discriminatory content) and group administrators who leverage consequences for violating those rules (e.g., reprimands, removing violators from the group). However, even within these social justice-oriented groups, it seems that not all populations are valued equally, as evidenced by the persistent use of posts containing disparaging humor about specific groups of people. Even with explicit consequences outlined for posting discriminatory content, for posts containing disparaging humor, there is often either an explicit or implicit rule to “keep scrolling.” (In other words, ignore the content instead of posting a negative reaction.) So, what jokes will get you banned versus ignored? It depends on who you’re targeting… This presentation will analyze the variables that contribute to the persistence of discriminatory, disparaging humor in otherwise “politically correct” social media groups and the detrimental effects it has on the individual members of the group and the group as a whole.

The #MeToo Movement (initially coined by Tarana Burke in 2006) achieved notoriety in 2017 following Alyssa Milano’s call to women who have been victims of sexual harassment or assault to tweet back or change their social media status to #MeToo. Since Milano’s blog, numerous women have come forward, sharing their experiences with assault and harassment; some have even named their attackers. In many cases, these reports have garnered societal support, and actions were taken against those accused and convicted. Many of the accused and/or convicted have suffered tremendous losses concerning their careers and/or reputation. The #MeToo Movement has, in some cases, altered the contingencies in effect and the available response options for the victims and offenders. From a behavioral standpoint, this may suggest a Cultural Cusp, with changes in the contingencies that may lead to significant social changes. This presentation discusses the role behavior scientists could have in increasing the longevity and significance of the movement’s impact through applications of culturo-behavior science. These options include educational programs and measures of societal, cultural, and organizational change that help to further, sustain, and assure such change.

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) has long been recognized as effective treatment for child problem behavior. Indeed, hundreds of studies demonstrate that ABA is highly effective in reducing aberrant behavior. Often such studies give little consideration to caregiver behavior, despite the fact that caregivers often (a) initiate the process that results in treatment and (b) are responsible for implementing treatment recommendations. In this symposium, we explore aspects of ABA related to clinical outcomes and caregiver behavior. In the first presentation, we will discuss the changing landscape of service delivery for child problem behavior and contingencies that necessitate an emphasis on caregivers. Second, we will present data on caregivers’ goals for treatment as a way to identify barriers to effective treatment outcomes. The third presentation will explore the validity of caregiver ratings for treatment effects. Finally, the fourth presentation will focus on caregiver treatment fidelity, treatment acceptability, and choice of treatment. Together, these presentations will highlight the role caregivers do (and should) play in behavioral treatment.

practicing behavior analysts, behavior analysis researchers, parents of children receiving behavior analysis treatment

Caregivers have a large impact on the long-term effectiveness of any Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) treatment plan designed for their child’s needs. There is a call-to-action to develop more effective training procedures and implement strategies to gain buy-in up front to maintain caregiver adherence. The purposes of this current study were to (1) further evaluate the effectiveness of nontechnical instructions on fidelity in a Behavioral Skills Training component analysis for caregivers with previous exposure to behavior analytic procedures, (2) evaluate whether caregiver choice is impacted by treatment effectiveness alone, or if graphic feedback is needed, and (3) evaluate the preference for and effects of providing choices to caregivers via social validity data. Three caregivers requesting Applied Behavior Analysis services for their child were involved in treatment planning and implementation of protocols in an alternating treatment with initial baseline and final best practice design. Results indicated (1) nontechnical protocols alone were not sufficient in training any of the caregivers to fidelity, despite previous exposure to behavior analytic procedures, (2) treatment effectiveness impacted 2/3 caregivers’ choices of implementation whereas graphic feedback was necessary for 1/3 caregivers, and (3) overall, the study processes were deemed socially valid for all caregivers.

Renewal refers to the return of a previously extinguished behavior followed by a context change (e.g., clinic to home). When the behavior is undesirable (e.g., aggression), renewal can threaten the durability of intervention effects. Therefore, it is particularly relevant to study renewal in applied populations given that context changes are often necessary for intervention generality and maintenance. The purpose of this symposium will be to review recent translational and applied investigations of renewal. This symposium will consist of four presentations followed by comments from Dr. Christopher Podlesnik. First, Dr. Alexis Pavlov will present an evaluation of contextual control during intervention for children with problem behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement. Second, Abigail Blackman will discuss an evaluation of renewal of desirable behavior in a simulated workplace with neurotypical adults. Third, Sarah Haney will present on a mitigation procedure for renewal of inappropriate mealtime behavior during intervention for pediatric feeding disorders. Fourth, Dr. Valdeep Saini will present a translational renewal evaluation and discuss implications of evaluating operant renewal in human subjects for theory and practice.

Practitioners, BCBAs, faculty, graduate students, researchers, and professionals

The reemergence of problem behavior after extinction during context changes is referred to as renewal. Estimates for the prevalence of renewal for problem behavior maintained by social reinforcement indicate that renewal occurs in approximately 42% of observed context changes (i.e., location or person; Muething et al., 2019). However, when examining the reemergence of automatically reinforced problem behavior during the same context changes, extinction may not be an active component of treatment, and therefore any increase in problem behavior cannot be classified as renewal. Rather, contextual control may better explain this phenomenon. In the absence of extinction, context changes could result in increases in the automatically reinforced problem behavior based on different learning histories in different contexts. For example, returning to a home context where the problem behavior was previously observed may result in an increase. This study examined 38 context changes in a consecutive controlled case-series design (Hagopian, Rooker, Jessel, & DeLeon, 2013) for children with automatically reinforced problem behavior in an intensive outpatient program. Reemergence of problem behavior during those context changes was found in 12 of the examined changes (31%).

Renewal is the increase in inappropriate behavior during extinction-based intervention when the intervention context changes. Renewal is likely to occur during intervention for inapapropriate mealtime behavior because children eat in many different contexts (e.g., home, school; Ibañez et al., 2019). In the current study, we tested for renewal and evaluated a renewal-mitigation procedure when we changed the context from a therapist to a caregiver as feeder and from the clinic to the home. We used an ABA arrangement to evaluate the efficacy of our mitigation procedure with 6 children with feeding disorders. We randomly assigned targets to the renewal or renewal-mitigation condition and randomly assigned the order of the renewal test. Context A was function-based reinforcement. Context B was function-based extinction during the renewal condition or function-based extinction with caregiver fading, context similarity, or both during the mitigation condition. The return to Context A was function-based extinction. We observed renewal in the renewal condition for 3 children, and our mitigation procedure prevented renewal in the mitigation condition for 3 children. We discuss the clinical implications of these results and directions for future research.

The purpose of this symposium is to describe recent advancements in research on decision-making in the context of behavioral interventions. The first study will describe a decision tool designed to support behavior analysts and classroom teachers when conducting FBAs to inform function-based interventions. The second study will report results on the effectiveness of an instructional package consisting of a brief online training and a decision-making model on increasing the accuracy of instructional decisions made by preservice teachers and prospective behavior analysts. The third study will review a framework for modifying the objectives and approach of interventions for challenging behavior, based on both in-session and out- of-session outcomes. The fourth study reports results from translational application of probability discounting to evaluate how data accuracy affects the choices practitioners make during visual analysis.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts

Practitioners often decide to continue or modify an intervention using visual analysis of data paths that lengthen from session-to-session. We used a novel, lengthening data path procedure to parametrically assess how reducing data accuracy changed decisions to continue or modify an intervention in 30 students of behavior-analytic graduate programs. Additionally, because of potential similarities between data accuracy and probability, we examined how one probability discounting equation described individual choice. We found that decreasing data accuracy systematically reduced the number of sessions participants waited to modify an intervention for 25 of the 30 participants. When data accuracy was 100%, most participants waited 9-10 sessions before intervening. When data accuracy was below 60%, most participants waited 4-6 sessions before intervening. Lastly, the probability discounting equation described patterns of choice well for 16 participants. Data accuracy influenced most participants’ visual analyses in a systematic manner. However, the degree of influence differed between individuals.

The current symposium is comprised of four talks covering issues related to stimulus control. The first two presentations describe procedures for establishing equivalence classes and assigning either a positive reinforcement or negative puishment function to one member of the class. Tests of transfer of function showed that adult participants' appetitive or avoidance responses, respectively, may be conditioned by other members of the classes. The last two studies describe the possible role of verbal behavior in the formation of equivalence classes, as well as frames of comparison. Both study suggest that participants may engage in some form of problem solving (verbal mediation) to pass derived relations tests.

Basic researchers and clinical directors

The present study evaluated whether transfer of the avoidance response in equivalence classes is produced using the loss of points as the aversive stimulus. In the first phase of the experiment, 11 participants established two equivalence classes with four visual abstract stimuli each (Class 1: A1, B1, C1, D1; Class 2: A2, B2, C2, D2). In the second phase of the experiment, only one visual stimulus (B1) was paired with point loss. An avoidance response to B1 was then established. In the third phase of the experiment, the other stimuli were presented in a transfer of avoidance test. An avoidance response was established for all 11 participants, and the transfer of avoidance occurred for 10 of them. These results indicate that point loss can function as an effective aversive stimulus to maintain an avoidance response and produce transfer of the avoidance function in equivalence classes. The use of point loss may be a valuable tool in human operant research to substitute for other aversive stimuli with undesirable side effects.

Whereas behavior analysts take due pride in the unique characteristics that distinguish us from mainstream psychology, those characteristics also distance us from psychology, cheating us of attention, recognition, support, and employment opportunities. Is it possible to remain true to our behavioral tenets, while improving our communication and presence in the larger intellectual community? If so, how do we go about it? We are fortunate to have Dr. Alan E. Kazdin, an early pioneer of behavior modification and expert in single case (N of 1) research designs in clinical and applied settings. He has succeeded in what we aspire to do--formulating and validating empirically grounded behavioral interventions, in particular for children and teenagers. He has been embraced by psychologists in general, having served as the president of APA and winning the APA gold medal for lifetime achievement. He also has a significant public audience (e.g. https://slate.com/author/alan-kazdin; https://time.com/author/alan-kazdin/ and https://amzn.to/2NiAp4c ). In this panel he will discuss with leaders in our field his thoughts about ways in which we can advance our agenda, and regain a seat at the table of empirically-based behavioral psychology writ large.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

This presentation will examine what the sciences of expertise and professional judgment have to teach behavior analysts about cultivating, maintaining, and expanding professional competencies following training. The topic will be presented in the context of the field’s ethical standards with respect to (a) relying on scientific knowledge, (b) respecting the boundaries of competence, and (c) maintaining and continuously improving professional competence in the complex environments in which we work. This complexity makes our work environments highly conducive to judgment errors that compromise our ability to assure that our clients receive the best-possible treatment. But, the greatest potential source of error lies within the professional who assumes that prior training and experience assures competence. Although the research on professional expertise and judgment has largely been carried on outside the field, our very own principles of behavior and professional practice can be useful to us if we apply them to ourselves properly in managing our professional behavior. The implications for practice of the sciences of professional expertise and professional judgment will be examined in terms of how we behavior analysts can self-manage our professional behavior to assure that we are doing everything within our power to address the needs of our clients.

All behavior analysts.

Interteaching is a behavioral teaching method with growing empirical evidence supporting its efficacy. Over 30 published empirical studies have examined the effectiveness of interteaching in higher education. However, more research is still needed to examine the influence of different interteaching components and the methods used for instructional delivery. The first presenter will acquaint the audience with interteaching and describe results of a study which compared interteaching to standard lecture centered teaching with and without prep guides in an online asynchronous format. The second presenter will share results of a classroom study which compared two different methods of running the discussion component of interteaching. The third presenter will highlight the findings of a series of studies in which interteaching was first compared to another active learning strategy known as the Learning Pathway (LP), and then the addition of Say All Fast Everyday Shuffle (SAFMEDS) to interteaching was evaluated. The final presenter will discuss results of a meta-analytic review on the effectiveness of interteaching. Together, these four presentations illustrate current interteaching research in higher education.

Academics, supervisors, and teachers.

Interteaching is an evidence-based learning strategy that shifts the focus away from a passive learning model found in lecturing to a more active, student-centered learning methodology. It utilizes prep guides, small group discussions, clarifying lectures, and frequent testing. Several classroom studies have demonstrated that interteaching leads to better student comprehension and higher test scores. However, the specific strategy used in these studies vary slightly. The current study used a group design in one undergraduate course over two semesters to investigate how the removal of completed prep guides during the group discussion affected academic success. One group experienced the standard interteaching method, where students completed the prep guide prior to class and referred to their prep guide answers during the group discussion. The second group completed the prep guide prior to class, but then were asked to not refer to their answers during the in-class group discussion. Those in the second group had exam scores that were consistently lower and rated interteaching as less preferable than those who experienced standard interteaching. Results from this study should allow for more effective implementation of interteaching.

The panelists will discuss recent developments at the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB). The most current data on the BACB’s certification programs will be provided: Board Certified Behavior Analyst, Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst, and Registered Behavior Technician. In addition, a number of recent and impending developments at the BACB will be described, including changes to certification standards and the development of new resources.

Behavior analysts with at least bachelors-level training

Functional communication training (FCT) is a common treatment that clinicians often use with individuals who engage in severe problem behavior. Many studies have shown that treatment relapse may occur following successful treatment with FCT when disruptions to treatment occur (e.g., during periods when reinforcement is unavailable). To improve the durability and generality of FCT, it is important for basic, translational, and applied researchers to evaluate procedures to decrease relapse of problem behavior and increase the persistence of appropriate alternative responses. The three presentations in this symposium will discuss recent research on treatment relapse. First, Ashley Fuhrman will present on a translational study evaluating the effects of training one alternative response versus multiple alternative responses on the resurgence of target behavior. Next, Courtney Mauzy will present on the effects of alternative response preference on resistance to change during functional communication training (FCT). Finally, Dan Mitteer will discuss the effects of the combination of contextual changes and procedural integrity errors on target behavior and alternative behavior during a test for relapse.

Practitioners, faculty, graduate students, and professionals

Functional communication training (FCT; Carr & Durand, 1985) is the most frequently used reinforcement-based treatment to reduce problem behavior exhibited by individuals with developmental disabilities (Tiger, Hanley, & Bruzek, 2008). However, less is understood regarding long-term maintenance of FCT effects when treatment disruptions are encountered. Nevin and Wacker (2013) suggested that maintenance might be best defined, based on Behavioral Momentum Theory (BMT), as the persistence of adaptive behavior and the lack of resurgence of problem behavior when challenges to treatment occur. Ringdahl and colleagues (2018) utilized this conceptual framework to evaluate the impact of variables related to response topography, specifically preference for mand modality, on the persistence of appropriate behavior. Results suggested using high-preferred mand modalities identified through a concurrent-operant preference assessment increased appropriate behavior persistence. However, the high-preferred mand contacted more overall reinforcement pairings as a by-product of the procedures used to identify preference. In the current study, we addressed this potential confound by equating the number of response-reinforcer pairings across response alternatives during the preference assessment. Current results indicate high-preferred mands were more persistent than low-preferred mands, replicating the findings of Ringdahl et al., 2018, while controlling for response-reinforcer pairings.

Restrictive and repetitive patterns of behavior can be observed in many children with autism through their food selections which may then evolve to feeding difficulties. Food refusal, food selectivity, and refusal to self-feed are three common categories of feeding problems in children with autism. Often times escape extinction is the intervention used to help minimize the feeding problems however this is not always feasible for implementation due to challenging interfering mealtime behaviors and parent concerns with the procedure. Interventions for increasing novel food acceptance without the use of escape extinction or other invasive procedures are important to analyze for implementation of least invasive procedures. Observational learning was implemented to increase novel food consumption and its effectiveness was demonstrated as evident from the participants’ flexible responding. Increasing self-feeding is also vital for health, and therefore, educational outcomes. The use of access to motor stereotypy as reinforcement for increasing rate of meal consumption is also examined.

Graduate students of Applied Behavior Analysis and practitioners

Restrictive patterns of behavior can be seen in many children with autism in their food selections which results in feeding problems. The three main categories of feeding problems observed in children with autism are food refusal, refusal to self-feed, and food selectivity. Interventions that prevent the child’s ability to escape from the food presented has demonstrated an increase in the children’s food acceptance but are difficult for caregivers to successfully implement away from the treatment team. This literature review includes 20 articles with 28 total participants that implemented feeding interventions without the use of escape extinction or punishment procedures have been implemented to increase food acceptance. Each article was analyzed across several dimensions (participants, setting, assessments conducted, experimental design, intervention implemented, and outcome and generalization). From this analysis, information regarding the use of positive practices for feeding intervention is discussed as well as limitations in current literature and suggestions for future research and clinicians.

Research addressing food selectivity has involved intrusive techniques such as escape extinction. It is possible that observational learning methods employed in previous studies could provide the desired results with respect to food selectivity without the need for invasive physical interventions. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an observational learning procedure on the selection of food items of three children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Baseline consisted of a simple task after which a choice was presented between high- and low-preferred foods. The intervention consisted of observing an adult engage in the same task and selecting the low-preferred food while making favorable comments and engaging with the food in novel ways. The results of a reversal design demonstrated that selection of the low-preferred food only occurred following the introduction of the intervention, and all three participants engaged in flexible responding as a result of the intervention.

This symposium will include four data-based presentations on teaching social skills to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The first study evaluated the reinforcing effects of contingent imitation using a concurrent operants zoned-reinforcer assessment. Ten children with ASD and 10 typically developing children were included in the study. Data collected on in-zone behavior and eye contact show differential responding across conditions, with higher responding in the contingent imitation zone. Contributions of this study in relation to developmental intervention packages is discussed. The second study taught two children with ASD to discriminate between socially relevant safe and dangerous stimuli based on instructor facial expression using a social referencing chain. Least to most prompting was used to teach participants to attend to 40 safe and dangerous stimuli, look at the experimenter’s face, and then respond by either reaching for the item or communicating an “all done” response. Results indicated that participants acquired discrimination skills between safe and dangerous items, which generalized to the natural environment, untrained items, and items the child could not see. The third study used a component analysis to identify the effective features of a Social Story. Text, pictures, conversation bubbles, and comprehension questions were evaluated. Results showed that the use of an “enhanced” Social Story was effective in teaching both participants to respond empathetically to a speaker’s emotional state across three topics of conversation, and the addition of written prompts was needed for one participant to reach mastery.

BACBs, graduate students, researchers

Experiential avoidance (EA), or attempts to escape unwanted internal experiences (e.g., thoughts, feelings) at the expense of long-term commitment to personal values, has wide-reaching effects for a variety of socially important problems. This symposium will explore EA in both its existing and potential forms of measurement. The first presentation will cover an analogue study which measures levels of EA by exposing adult participants to aversive sounds in the context of delayed reinforcement. The second presenter will discuss how an existing measure, the Avoidance and Fusion Questionnaire, was used to investigate avoidance as a moderation of sexual prejudice and political affiliation among a college student sample. Both studies found that EA could be measured reliably. The results of the first study prove useful to an Acceptance and Commitment Therapy model, as choices changed from smaller, sooner reinforcement to larger, later reinforcement - mapping on to valuing. The hypothesized moderating role of EA in the relationship between political affiliation and sexual prejudice investigated in the second study was found to be insignificant, and the authors will discuss potential reasons for this finding. Measurement limitations and future directions will be covered.

BCBA, Scientist-Practitioners, participants interested in Clinical Behavior Analysis

Experiential avoidance, which can be functionally defined as choosing short-term negative reinforcement over long-term values-oriented positive reinforcement, has been argued to be at the core of a large variety of socially important problems. Relatively little previous laboratory research has studied these functional relations and this study attempted to develop a laboratory preparation that pits shorter-term avoidance over longer-term positive reinforcement. Participants were exposed to choices between avoidance of an aversive sound (i.e., immediate, smaller negative reinforcement) or listening to an aversive sound for a period of time and accumulating money (i.e., delayed, larger positive reinforcement). Three experiments were conducted that evaluated varying magnitudes of delays to and the value of the positive reinforcer, in order to identify the point at which individual participants’ choices changed from the smaller, sooner reinforcer to the larger later reinforcer and vice versa. The potential applicability of this model is discussed as it relates to behavior problems that appear to involve experiential avoidance at their core. In addition, the implications for evaluating components of acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) are discussed.

Opportunities for the application of behavior analytic principles in public education settings has increased significantly in recent years. Often, resources are limited and not always equitably distributed. The majority of these services have targeted individuals diagnosed on the autism spectrum. As the principles and strategies of behavior analysis are not bound to diagnosis, the utilization of implementation science to create a system-wide model of student support can increase service provision and maximize student outcomes. This symposium examines the application of similar, tiered systems of support to what could appear to be vastly different settings. The first, a small rural elementary public school setting, and the second, the Local Education Agency supporting the only maximum security juvenile justice facility in the state of Virginia. The systematic implementation of both programs will be shared as well as student outcome data and programmatic fidelity measures. Presenters will expand on the sustainability as well as potential replication across settings for their respective programs.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts or Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts who are interested in learning more about the implementation of system-wide interventions in public schools and correctional facilities.

To increase students’ academic engagement and reduce disciplinary removals from an academic environment within a juvenile correctional facility, a Multi-Tiered System of Support (MTSS) through Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (PBIS) was proposed and implemented. The goal of this program was to 1) educate juvenile staff on the principles of behavior analysis, 2) increase students’ academic engagement, and 3) reduce disciplinary removals from class. A token economy and basic classroom management techniques were implemented to provide staff with the opportunity to attempt to reinforce students’ engagement, academic performance, and other appropriate classroom behavior. Results at conclusion of the 2018-2019 school year demonstrated a significant reduction in disciplinary removals from class. The results also demonstrated a significant decrease in the total duration students spent out of class due to school disciplinary removals. This allowed the teaching staff to better support the implementation of their academic curriculum. Based on these results, the program continues to be implemented and calls for a facility-wide behavior management program utilizing evidence-based practices.

In this symposium, three studies will be described related to the application of stimulus equivalence to instructional design. In the first study, researchers compared two training structures (linear series and one-to-many) the effects of training structure on the acquisition of equivalence classes and transfer of function as compared to a condition in which participants were directly taught all possible relations. In the second study, researchers compared different contexts and contingencies and effects on equivalence class formation. Specifically, individualized EBI, group-based EBI with an interdependent contingency, and lectures were compared. In the third study, researchers examined how equivalence-based instruction could be implemented in a peer tutoring context with school-aged children. The researchers also examined how to distribute baseline conditional discrimination among tutors and tutees. Collectively, these studies inform best practices of procedures used to promote emergent responding and equivalence class formation across a broad domain of skill areas.

individuals interested in generative learning

A recent study (Oliveira & Petursdottir, in preparation) found that when comparing equivalence-based instruction (EBI) to complete instruction control (CI) using concurrent training, EBI did not inherently produce faster or better learning than CI. However, the study included only a single EBI training structure. The present experiment (a) evaluated the efficiency of linear series (LS) and one-to-many (OTM) EBI protocols relative to CI, and (b) assessed transfer of function following stimulus class formation. Sixty undergraduate students were randomly assigned to three groups (CI, EBI-OTM and EBI-LS), all of which received training to establish three 4-member stimulus classes. In the class establishment phase (ABCD training), the CI and EI groups were presented with 36 and 9 types of trials, respectively. After achieving mastery, the ABCD test included all possible trial types, with no feedback. After achieving criterion on the ABCD test, participants were taught to execute different motor responses to one stimulus in each class, and then received a transfer of function test with the remaining stimuli in each class. Preliminary results suggest that both EBI groups require fewer trials than the CI group to pass the ABCD test, and all groups perform equally well on the transfer-of-function test.

In an era with low unemployment and wage inequality, meeting the needs in a human services agency is rife with challenges. Direct support professionals make minimum wage for providing evidence based, life preserving and enhancing services. Clinical and administrative staff responsible for training and supporting staff function in multiple roles in response to insufficient funding. Those who chose to work in the field do so not for the money but rather for the mission. In order to provide high quality services with integrity the systems of such agencies should be cybernetic and responsive to the challenges of high turnover and staff vacancies. In this panel attendees will learn how one agency recognized areas for improvements in management and leadership in an attempt to reduce staff turnover, increase staff morale, and improve organizational culture. An outside OBM consultant was enlisted to assist the agency in developing strategies and practices to keep the organization competitive in a competitive market. Through this panel, attendees will learn proactive strategies, tactics and practices implemented to change the behaviors (ie culture) of an agency.

Behavior Analysts Program Directors of behavior analytic agencies Executive directors of behavior analytic agencies

Behavior Analytic research has yielded an undisputed record of both scientific progress and specific applications advancing the effective prediction and control of individual behavior. Analysis of the immediate contingencies of behavior has been applied successfully in virtually countless settings. Newer extensions of behavioral approaches, such as Relational Frame Theory, offer increasing opportunities to extend effective behavioral analyses to broader social contingencies, possibly leading to more precise conceptualizations of behavior change on a societal level. In the current symposium, two papers are presented offering thoughts about how a behavior analytic approach may contribute to our understanding of ethics and the development of societal belief systems. In the first paper, accounts of possible early statements of seminal religious figures are discussed within the prism of selected behavior analytic concepts, with discussion of possible applications and testable hypotheses related to the development of belief systems. In the second paper, the development and various functions of diverse ethical organizational systems is discussed from a behavior analytic framework. These papers are intended to contribute to a discussion of larger societal issues from a behavior analytic framework, with the ultimate goal of the generation of testable research questions and innovative intervention strategies supporting larger-scale behavior change.

Service providers, behavior analysts, clinicians, higher education instructors, school professionals, teachers, people interested in philosophical issues

This panel is a continuation of previous presentations at ABAI regarding Behavior Analysts Who Are Behaving Badly. This year we will focus on the plight of the supervisees and RBTs who work under BCBAs who do not respect their work experience or the conditions under which they provide services. For this panel we have brought together three behavior analysis ethicists who are regularly requested to provide guidance through the ABAEthicsHotline, with regard to the treatment of supervisees and RBTs. To demonstrate the range of approaches used and opinions offered, recent ethics questions from both supervisees and RBT will be presented, each panelist will offer their guidance, we will then debate the merits of our various and sometimes 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 BCBA supervisors who need to learn about inappropriate and unethical practices with their supervisees and RBTs who need to know what to what to do in the case that they are a victim of unscrupulous supervision practices.

Physical activity is topography of behavior that has numerous demonstrated benefits contributing to overall health and wellbeing for individuals of all ages. However, problematic trends with respect to physical activity have recently been reported on a worldwide scale (Guthold, Stevens, Riley, & Bull, 2018). Given the readily apparent social significance of this behavior, it is perhaps unsurprising that a variety of behavior-analytic techniques have been explored for understanding, and promoting, physical activity. This symposium includes recent investigations in physical activity assessment and intervention. Studies include applications of behavior analysis to a variety of physical activity topographies (running, swimming, and playground time) and populations (children and adults). Three studies are aimed at identifying variables that contribute to, or maintain, physical activity by using surveys, functional analysis (FA), and literature review. Two studies evaluated interventions to increase physical activity, including differential reinforcement (DR) based on the results of an FA, and behavioral skills training (BST).

Practicing behavior analysts, applied behavior analysis researchers or students with an interest in health or physical activity.

Acceptance and Commitment Training is a topic that has received substantial increased attention within the applied behavior analytic community in recent years. Among the most common concerns ABA practitioners have is about how to actually implement ACT inside of daily mainstream ABA service delivery. This symposium brings together four presentations that describe practical efforts at incorporating ACT into ABA agencies. The first presentation, by Michelle L. Zube, describes how to become versed in ACT and the ways in which organizations can expand professional development and scope of practice with ACT. The second presentation, by Ehren Werntz, describes the use of ACT as part of caregiver training. The third presentation, by Kate Harrison, describes the utility of ACT on a personal level and with colleagues to help reduce stress. The fourth presentation, by Erin Bertoli, describes the use of ACT with struggling youth, including when, why and how behavior analysts can do so while staying within their scope of practice. The symposium concludes with a discussion by Dr. Stuart Libman.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts. Parents are also welcome!

Students who engage in problem behavior in the classroom setting greatly challenge teachers and diminish the ability to learn (Chafee, Briesch, Johson, & Volpe, 2017). According to Public Agenda (2004), 77% of teachers polled stated their teaching practices would be more effective if they did not have to deal with discipline problems. This symposium will present four papers on improving student behaviors in school-based classroom settings. The first study evaluated the use of the Class Pass Intervention to decrease disruptive behaviors and improve academic engagement for students diagnosed with ADHD. Both the second and third studies focused on improving classroom behavior using self-monitoring combined with either Check In/Check-Out or the Individualized Behavior Rating Scale with students with a variety of disabilities. The final study presents a meta-analysis on the results of Tier 2 interventions used in school-based settings for improving behavior and academic engagement. Dr. Kwang-Sun Blair will serve as discussant.

BCBA's, BCaBA's, Educational Personnel including teachers, RBT's

Findings from previous research has shown that disruptive behavior can impair students’ academic success (Pierce, Reid, & Epstein, 2004), as well as increase teacher’s stress level (Westling, 2010). Class Pass Intervention (CPI) is a Tier 2 intervention designed to decrease disruptive behavior and increase academic engagement, however, thus far research on the effects of CPI has been limited to typically developing elementary and high school students with escape and attention-maintained problem behaviors. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the effects of CPI on problem behavior and academic engagement of children with and without disabilities (i.e., ADHD) and students who engage in multiply-maintained problem behavior. The study used a multiple baseline design to assess experimental control. In the current study, CPI led to a decrease in problem behavior and increase in academic engagement for two students with ADHD and one student at risk of ADHD, all of whom engaged in problem behavior maintained by escape, access to attention, or both. In addition, results of a social validity assessment completed with teachers and students indicated that the intervention was effective and easy, respectively.

School Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) is a three-tier prevention system that helps decrease challenging behaviors with positive behavioral interventions and increase socially significant behaviors (Sailor, Dunlap, Sugai, & Horner, 2009; Sugai et al., 2000). Some students continue to struggle with following school expectations with only tier one supports in place and thus need additional supports. Because of this, tier two interventions have been created to help support these students. Self-monitoring and Check-In/Check-Out (CICO) are both tier two interventions within school-wide positive behavioral support and have been used independently to decrease problem behavior. This study combined these two interventions to teach students to monitor their own behavior and in addition get feedback from their teacher which is already a component of the CICO intervention. A multiple baseline across participants design was used to evaluate the effects of CICO with self-monitoring. Results indicated that CICO with self-monitoring was effective in reducing off-task behavior for one participant while two other participants required the addition of more immediate reinforcement to decrease off-task behavior.

One of the greatest challenges facing school staff is problem behavior in the classroom (Public Agenda, 2004). Children who engage in problem behavior in the classroom setting greatly challenge teachers and diminish the ability to learn. This study evaluated the effects of self-monitoring using the Individualized Behavior Rating Scale Tool (IBRST) on problem behavior and on-task behavior in a classroom setting using a multiple-baseline across participants design. This study also evaluated the extent to which students self-rating on the IBRST correlated with direct observation data. Results indicated that self-monitoring using the IBRST was an effective strategy for increasing on-task behavior and decreasing problem behavior for all three students. Results also indicated that the IBRST may be an accurate and reliable means of measuring data when direct observation data may not be feasible or possible. There were 56/60 perfect agreements, with the other four opportunities being only 1-pt value apart. Limitations and future research will be discussed.

This meta-analysis synthesized 33 single-subject design studies on Tier 2 behavior interventions implemented within the School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports. Tier 2 interventions are additional programs and strategies that can be implemented for students who require supported in addition to universal supports. The purpose of tier 2 interventions is to reduce the risk of academic or behavioral problems. The results of our meta-analysis indicate that the number of studies reporting Tier 1 treatment fidelity and outcomes for students at kindergarten and secondary grade levels are limited, and that the number of screening methods used for selecting target students is insufficient. Large effects were found for self-regulation, Class Pass Intervention and social skill instruction. Check-in/Check-out, group contingency, and multi-component interventions had moderate effect sizes. Moderator analyses indicated that there were different effect sizes across types of intervention, outcomes, and implementers. Limitations to this study and future research will be described.

Applied animal behavior analysts strive to assess problem behavior in a way that limits fear, anxiety and stress for the animal, and keeps both the animals and the humans safe from harm. Without the advantage of a verbal interview of the animal or of a crystal ball, this can be challenging, and consistent methodologies are needed. These studies investigate new ways to work with owners and adopters to view simulations of past behaviors and to assist in predicting future behavior.

Those Behavior Analysts who are studying the principles of stimulus control as they may be used to assess dog behavior.

Separation-related problem behaviors (SRPB), such as excessive vocalization, defecation/urination, and destruction are a common problem in dogs and a common cause of their relinquishment. Detecting the potential for SRPB in shelter dogs could help shelters provide more targeted behavior counseling and better placement decisions. We tested whether we could predict post-adoption behavior of shelter dogs from an in-shelter test. We tested 27 shelter dogs. After interacting with the dog for 30 min, we left it alone in the room and video-recorded its behavior. We coded behaviors associated with SRPB as well as those not associated with SRPB (e.g., play or passive behavior). We contacted adopters approximately 6 mos after adoption to determine dogs’ at-home behavior. We assessed the time-course of different behaviors of individual dogs across the 30 min test as well as the individual dogs’ time allocation between different behaviors. Comparing the in-shelter behavior with post-adoption reports, we found that increased time engaged in panting and escape-related behaviors were predictive of dogs being more likely to show SRPB after adoption (binary: yes or no), but that the amount of time a dog engaged in a behavior did not predict more continuous variables such as frequency or intensity of SPRB.

When dogs exhibit aggression toward one another, it has an impact on owners’ lives, from reduced ability for conspecific socialization, to limited ability to be in safe proximity to other dogs in public and at home. The level of aggression could be mild, as in a hearty growl, or dangerous enough that another dog could be injured or killed; and humans could also be injured, even killed, trying to break up a fight. Applied animal behavior clinicians and Shelter workers must make the most ethical and safe choices when it comes to evaluating dog-dog behavior. The behavioral principle of stimulus control is valuable in that a plush “stuffed” dog that looks very much like a “real” dog may be introduced to a patient and elicit or evoke behavior as a real dog might. In this study, a methodology was developed in a veterinary hospital whereby stuffed dogs were manipulated in the presence of a patient so their behavior in close proximity to another dog could be assessed safely. The dogs’ owners then confirmed whether the behavior matched what they had seen in the past, allowing the behavior analyst to safely see the patient’s behavior and to design the best treatment.

As the field of behavior analysis continues to grow, increasing numbers of practitioners seek to apply best practices across different clinical populations. A growing need exists to apply the scientific literature to the context of short term and resource-limited outpatient clinical settings. The research presented will provide preliminary evidence for modified assessment (i.e. indirect functional interview, preference, and contingency analyses) procedures targeting pediatric outpatient populations with diverse diagnostic and demographic characteristics. Study 1 replicated a study by Hoffman and colleagues (2018) which used pictures of app icons to conduct preference assessments on a tablet device. Preliminary results suggest that the procedure identified clear preferences and had high rates of social validity. Study 2 evaluated the utility of a structured functional interview (SFI) in identifying function later confirmed by contingency analyses. Results suggested a high match rate between variables identified in the functional interview and the analog analyses. Study 3 compared the SFI to the Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF) questionnaire across variables related to clinical utility and social validity. Results indicated the SFI scored higher on both domains. The current research adds to the growing literature documenting important modifications to increase accessibility of best practices in community settings.

Behavior therapists, behavior analysts, psychologists, educators

Research has established the importance of evaluating individual preference for apps and games prior to implementing function-based interventions. With the increase in use of electronic devices as part of children’s leisure activities, these devices are frequently incorporated into practice as putative reinforcers. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the application of preference assessment methodology (i.e., Multiple Stimulus Without Replacement; MSWO) to apps on a single device. Participants were neurotypical, elementary-aged children whose families are participating in behavioral parent-training at an outpatient clinic. This study replicates procedures described by Hoffman and colleagues (2018). Picture icons of apps (4) were presented to participants to select as part of typical MSWO procedures (selecting an icon provides access to the corresponding app; match to sample validation conducted prior to MSWO). Preliminary data indicate stability with the participant’s first choice selection across three MSWO rounds and variability for the remaining three apps. Additionally, procedures were efficient and feasible (total duration for three MSWO rounds: 20 minutes) and were rated highly in a parental social validity measure (4.7 out of 5.0). Findings have implications to increase the use of efficient MSWO procedures when evaluating children’s preferences for apps on electronic devices.

Research has demonstrated the essential link between experimental functional assessment and effective treatments; however, the amount of time required by these types of analyses can be prohibitive in many outpatient settings. In addition, emerging research has shown that synthesized contingency analyses may provide sufficient precision to lead to meaningful treatment outcomes. This study examined a structured functional interview (SFI) to gather targeted and essential information, including (a) operational definitions of the target behavior, (b) precursor behaviors, (c) antecedents to the target behavior, and (d) consequences of the target behavior. We utilized these essential components of the SFI to inform subsequent contingency analyses, which included either single or synthesized contingencies. The goal of the study was to validate the use of the SFI by comparing data gathered from the interview to the observations from the contingency analysis. Preliminary data support the use of this functional interview to design targeted contingency analyses, with a strong match rate in precursor behavior, antecedents, consequences, and functions. Future research will include replications as well as function-matched treatment analysis.

Experimental functional analysis (EFA) is the established “gold standard” for identification of functional variables maintaining problem behavior. However, EFAs can be impractical or even contraindicated for use in high volume outpatient settings. Indirect functional assessments are a sustainable alternative to EFAs (Tarbox et al, 2009) in that they may be a more efficient use of clinical time while preserving the integrity of patient care. The current study compared an evidence-based indirect assessment, the Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF), to a Structured Functional Interview (SFI). Results of the pilot study suggest that caregivers reported the SFI to be a more thorough assessment of their child’s behavior than the QABF. The SFI also scored higher on levels of caregiver acceptability, as indicated by a social validity measure administered following each assessment. Initial results further suggest that differences in the sensitivity and specificity of either measure were less than 50%. Follow-up contingency analyses generated differentiated rates of problem behavior between test and control conditions for 100% of participants, suggesting a higher level of precision in identification of functional variables for the SFI than for the QABF. Implications and future directions are discussed.

In the 18 months since the 2019 CPT I billing codes for adaptive behavior took effect, members of the ABA Billing Codes Commission have worked to disseminate information, resolve problems, address concerns, and identify next steps. This presentation builds on the information presented in the workshop ABA Billing Codes Commission Presents: Is That Billable? Understanding How to Bill Ethically and Effectively. This presentation will provide an update on the work of the ABA Billing Codes Commission and will address recurrent questions, including the effort to increase uniformity in how the codes are interpreted; the proper use of Medically Unlikely Edits; the process to value codes; and the next steps in the Commission’s effort to bridge the gap between billable services and ABA that reflects best practices.

Behavior analysts

Through a set of exemplars that sample the range of stimulus and response topographies, multiple exemplar training aims to produce the full range of performances. The principle has been widely acknowledged and used in experimental psychology, in the experimental analysis of behavior, and in behavior-analytic applications. Behavior analysts have often referred to a history of multiple exemplar training to account for different generalized performances. Examples of such generalized performances are abstraction and concept learning, responding to relations, identity matching, rule following, behavioral variability, responding to wh-questions, describing past events, learning sets, and continuous repertoires. There is convincing evidence for the usefulness of multiple exemplar training with respect to many types of performances, even performances that involve relations between objects or events. Yet, there appear to be at least two important exceptions, where direct multiple exemplar training does not work well: (1) when there are no physical dimensions at all along which generalized performances can emerge, and (2) when the relation between antecedents and an effective response is complex. General limitations of multiple exemplar training as well as an interpretation of exceptions in terms of behavior-mediated generalization are discussed. Guidelines for more effective training for generalized skills are outlined.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

In their seminal article, Baer, Wolf and Risley (1968), stated that behavior analytic intervention is expected to result in strong, socially important, and generalizable behavior change which, in this case, should mean more positive adult outcomes in ASD. Unfortunately, despite a nearly three decade-long emphasis on evidence-based, behavior analytic intervention in ASD, adult outcomes remain poor “for almost any outcome you choose.” (Roux, et al, 2015, p. 8). While there may be several reasons for continued poor outcomes (including the challenge of simply defining “good outcome”), the potential of behavior analytic intervention to develop more positive adult outcomes has yet to be fully realized. Such outcomes, however, are well within the reach of our behavior analytic technology. But to do that, the contingencies governing our behavior will, most likely, need to shift. For example, we will need to shift from contingencies that reinforce the technical precision of our classroom-based interventions to contingencies the reinforce the somewhat less technical precision of community-based intervention (assuming the target has a fair degree of social validity). This tutorial will identify a number areas, both internal and external to the field, where a “contingency shift” may be necessary if the power of behavior analytic intervention to significantly improve outcomes for adults with autism is to be more fully realized.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

The session will cover the long history of how the outcomes of the BTBC-3 inform intervention and instruction for young children’s language development and success in school. The issues covered are of particular relevance for children on the ASD spectrum. Recent research using the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts-3: Preschool in a behaviorally-based preschool program has identified bi-directional naming as a key factor in the progression of learning, an issue to be explored in the session. The importance of relational concepts as measured by the BTBC for learning across all areas of learning, following directions and more complex problem solving will be presented along with strategies for intervention.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Ann E. Boehm, Ph.D. is professor emerita of psychology and education at Teachers College, Columbia University where she continues to teach a course on early childhood assessment. She is the author of the Boehm Test of Basic Concepts (BTBC) which was the outcome of her dissertation and was seminal in identifying basic relational concepts as an important aspect of language development and essential for success across all areas of school learning. The test, now in in its third edition, consists of a preschool level (ages 3-5) and a school age level (ages 5-7). Outcomes of the test are helpful for identifying learning objectives and monitoring progress, The BTBC-3 is one of the few instruments available at these age levels in raised form and big picture versions for the blind and visually impaired (through the American Printing House for the Blind). She is the author of numerous books and articles. Her current research interests focus on the next version of the BTBC, direction following, intervention activities, and work with students on the ASD spectrum.

Behavior analysts work in various roles with diverse responsibilities, each posing unique ethical quandaries. This symposium combines three presentations emphasizing issues that arise when finding and securing practicum sites for graduate students, common ethical issues that arise when supervising in the community, and how to develop ethical and effective school-based supervision programs. The first presentation will highlight challenges that university programs face when negotiating terms with a potential practicum placement. Examples of what some sites in a metropolitan area are asking for and strategies to navigate these negotiations in an ethical manner to the benefit of the placement, your students, and your university will be explored. The second presentation will examine supervision practices certified practitioners utilize when working in home-based programs and review common ethical issues resulting from inadequate supervision. Practical strategies for alleviating these issues and promoting the provision of adequate supervision will be shared. The last presentation will explore common ethical issues encountered by school-based behavior analysts providing supervision to individuals pursuing board certification and identify practical ways to address these issues without compromising their professional and ethical obligations.

This even would be targeting behavior analysts that are supervising people seeking their BCBA credential across settings.

Preparing a manuscript for publication starts before you have actually engaged in the behavior of writing. You must determine whether your research has contributed something new and interesting as well as what audience might be interested in learning about it. Putting our hypotheses, methodology, and results on paper in a carefully constructed way is not an easy task and requires adequate training. Those who are new to this process—and anyone else for that matter—often find publishing to be an intimidating and daunting task. Thus, the publication process is approached with apprehension and wariness. Our goal is to reduce apprehension and build confidence by providing tips and advice on how to write and submit a manuscript for publication. A panel of experts will cover topics that range from the type of manuscript to submit and how to structure that manuscript to preparing a cover sheet for submission. Topics and questions will be solicited from ABAI members in advance, and time will be allocated for in-person questions.

There has recently been an increased interest in research on complex behavior such as imagining and problem solving. Problem solving is relevant to a variety of social, academic, and employment tasks, but we have little research to guide practices in these areas. In addition, behavior analytic researchers have only recently begun to evaluate the effects of prompting private events, such as imagining, on subsequent overt responding. The three papers in this symposium provide examples of how behavior analysts are pushing the boundaries in research on complex behavior. The authors of the first paper evaluated the effects of teaching skills to solve common social problems, the second sought to teach children with ASD how to imagine to answer complex questions, and the purpose of the third was to determine if there were any effects of instructing imagining on emergent relations.

Behavior analytic researchers or clinicians interested in learning more about recent advances in our understanding of private events and problem solving.

Intraverbals that children learn early in development (e.g., song fill-ins, chains) are often the result of simple stimulus control. As the intraverbal repertoire becomes more complex, it is rare that these responses are controlled by a single discriminative stimulus; rather they are under the control of multiple stimuli. The purpose of this study was to systematically replicate and extend the work of Kisamore, Carr, and LeBlanc (2011) by evaluating the effects of visual imagining training on multiply controlled intraverbals in children with ASD. We programmed for generalization by using multiple exemplars of stimuli and assessed across novel responses and a novel category. We included measures of external validity by including participant scores on several language assessments and we included measures of social validity of our stimuli, procedures, and outcomes. We predicted that there would be an increase in responding to the complex intraverbals following visual imagining training and that responding would generalize both within and across categories. Preliminary data suggest an increase in responding following training and some generalization across categories. However, generalization within categories is not as robust. Additional data collection is ongoing.

Practitioners serving individuals who have interfering behaviors that impact learning and quality of life have an ethical and a legal obligation to assess maintaining variables and to develop a function-based intervention. Conducting a functional analysis has long been considered the gold standard in assessment and treatment of problem behavior. This symposium will present four papers addressing procedural variations of the traditional functional analysis or evaluations of staff training procedures. The first paper will examine the correlation between trial-based and traditional models of functional analysis for adults with autism in community settings. The second paper will present upon the comparative outcomes and social validity measures of trial-based functional analyses (TBFA) to a descriptive data collection method. The third paper will discuss training functional analysis skills with video modeling and video self-monitoring. The final paper evaluated the efficacy of computer-based instruction (CBI) on teaching how to conduct a TBFA with practitioners and evaluated the effects on implementing a TBFA with a confederate. Results are promising that CBI can lead to effective staff training. Collectively, these studies highlight advances in both procedural variations or staff training procedures of functional analyses.

BCBA

Challenging behavior is an often-cited barrier to long-term employment and community-based opportunities for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). While functional analysis (FA) procedures are essential for developing treatment plans to address challenging behaviors, FAs are typically conducted under controlled environmental conditions which do not closely resemble the natural environment. Further, it is possible the function of challenging behavior in controlled environments are different from more naturalistic settings, thus emphasizing the importance of assessing challenging behaviors in the natural environment. Trial-based functional analysis (TBFA) procedures (Sigafoos & Saggers, 1995) may be a more viable method for assessing challenging behaviors in more naturalistic settings where more traditional FA methods may not be feasible. For the present study, TBFAs were conducted for three adults diagnosed with ASD who engage in challenging behaviors (e.g. self-injury, aggression) at their community work and exercise sites. The results from the TBFAs were compared to results of brief (5-minute) FA sessions to determine if the TBFA results align with the more traditional FA methodologies. Further, latency to respond data were collected during TBFAs to further discern behavioral function for unclear results. Results of the TBFAs were then utilized to develop function-based treatments for addressing the challenging behaviors presented by the participants.

Adults with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) displaying problem behavior face the additional challenges of limited funding and access to effective treatment, along with increased severity of problem behavior, when compared to children. Consequently, questionably effective descriptive assessment methods, such as ABC data, are frequently used. In a broader study evaluating effective treatment of severe problem behavior displayed by adults with ASD, trial-based functional analyses (TBFAs) were conducted to identify the reinforcing variables of problem behavior and guided effective functional communication treatments. Results and social validity of the TBFA were compared to the more common assessment approach used in settings providing treatment to adults engaging in problem behavior, ABC data collection, which many presume to be as effective and efficient, or more, than functional analyses. The two assessment approaches yielded inconsistent functions. Social validity questionnaires resulted in mixed overall preference; however, ABC data scored higher in ease/practicality and TBFA scored higher in objectivity/ effectiveness. These results support the use of TBFA, compared to ABC data, to effectively and efficiently assess problem behavior in adult settings.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts have an ethical obligation to first conduct a functional assessment (PECC, 2014, 3.01a) to identify the controlling variables for reducing challenging behaviors. The Functional Analysis (FA) yields more accurate results than other types of functional assessment (Iwata & Dozier, 2008), making this type of assessment an important practitioner skill to acquire. Despite being considered a gold standard for training a variety of skills, behavioral skills training (BST) is often very time intensive on the part of the trainer (Iwata et al., 2000). Video self-monitoring (VSMN) may be an alternative, effective way to train students to implement FAs (Field et al., 2015). This study evaluated the efficacy of several training strategies on student implementation of FA skills, including interventions featuring instruction plus video modeling (IVM), and VSMN, with and without feedback. Results revealed that IVM produced a notable, but insufficient, improvement in performance. All participants showed further performance improvement with the addition of VSMN and VSMN plus feedback.

Although standard functional analysis (FA) can be integral in the design of interventions for challenging behavior, FAs are rarely used. Reasons vary, but often include the amount of challenging behavior FAs evoke, ecological validity, and resource constraints. One viable alternative is trial-based FA (TBFA). TBFAs are conducted through a distributed-trial format, which limits the amount of challenging behavior that can be evoked. Further, TBFAs are typically conducted by indigenous implementers (e.g., teachers) in natural settings (e.g., schools). These simple adaptations address many concerns with FAs and with systematic approaches to intensive intervention (generally). This symposium highlights research, which expands the accessibility and utility of TBFA and trial-based intensive intervention. The first talk highlights a multitiered professional development curriculum aimed at training teachers to implement TBFAs and function-based interventions. The second talk demonstrates potential for establishing expertise on TBFA with minimal resources, using a partially automated training employing the behavior-skills training framework. The third talk extends this work by demonstrating that a similarly formatted training on trial-based FCT can facilitate effective intervention by caregivers with no formal training in behavior analysis. The final study highlights an approach to data analysis that appears to improve efficiency without sacrificing the accuracy of TBFA.

Practitioners

The trial-based FA can identify functions of challenging behavior in applied settings when resources needed to conduct standard FAs are unavailable. Previous research has demonstrated the potential of partially automated training packages to teach professionals to implement trial-based FAs with fidelity. In our study, we extend this work by using a partially automated training package to teach five caregivers to conduct trial-based FAs in their homes, summarize and interpret the data they collected, and independently identify the functions of the challenging behavior of their own children. We evaluated this training’s effectiveness using a multiple-probe across skills design. All participants mastered targeted competencies. These results might inform decisions about who is qualified to conduct FAs, and under what circumstances

Functional communication training (FCT; Carr & Durand, 1985) is ideal for addressing the problem behavior of individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities because it increases functional communication while simultaneously reducing problem behavior. By adapting FCT to mirror trial-based FA formats described above, we may increase the feasibility of this highly effective intervention in naturalistic settings. In our study, we used a partially-automated training package, employing BST, to teach caregivers of children with IDD and challenging behavior to implement trial-based FCT. Using a withdrawal design, we analyzed the impact of caregiver-implemented trial-based FCT on the latencies of challenging behavior and functional communication. We also evaluated the extent to which caregivers could implement the intervention with fidelity. Preliminary results suggest caregiver-implemented trial-based FCT can be conducted with fidelity and can effectively reduce problem behavior in home settings. This finding suggests that, with limited support from trained professionals, it can feasible and effective to train indigenous implementers to conduct FCT in their homes.

Behavioral treatments are significantly effective in reducing problem behavior in individuals with developmental disabilities (Campbell, 2003). Common treatment components following a functional assessment such as a functional analysis include: extinction, functional communication training, differential reinforcement or noncontingent reinforcement. These components are well studied and empirically supported. However, some problem behavior is maintained by idiosyncratic functions or require variations to common treatment components. This symposium will present recent research on variations to treatments for problem behavior. Extinction, while common, may present an ethical dilemma or may not be feasible depending on a variety of factors. Some treatment components may be included that increase the feasibility of the intervention such as a variable momentary differential reinforcement procedure of other behavior procedure. Finally, treatments for idiosyncratic functions such as social avoidance may require variations in order to successfully reduce problem behavior. Taken together, the results of these studies present important variations for idiosyncratic presentations of problem behavior that may increase success of the intervention and fidelity of implementation.

RBTs, BCBAs, BCBA-Ds

Individuals with an Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) often engage in problem behavior (Horner, Carr, Strain et al., 2002) that may limit access to traditional social and education settings, impact their health, and pose a risk to their safety and the safety of others. One of the most common interventions used to treat problem behavior is differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA), which is often used in combination with extinction (Shirley, Iwata, Kahng, Mazaleski, & Lerman, 1997). Implementation of extinction may pose an ethical dilemma and may not be feasible depending on the setting, topography of problem behavior, and/or size of the client. Therefore, we identified participant’s relative sensitivities to reinforcer parameters (i.e., quality, magnitude, delay) and used results to inform a functional communication training (FCT) intervention to treat problem behavior for four individuals with ASD. Results showed that both FCT conditions were effective at decreasing problem behavior and increasing communicative responses, but treatment effects were more robust when the most sensitive reinforcer parameter was manipulated.

Functional communication training with extinction is a common intervention to treat problem behavior. However, there are some instances when an extinction component may not be recommended (e.g. intensity of behavior, safety of program staff, etc.). The purpose of this study was to evaluate an FCT intervention without an extinction component for a child who engaged in stereotype behavior and self-injurious behavior. Researchers conducted a functional analysis that identified the child’s stereotypical behavior was automatically maintained (subtype 1). A second functional analysis identified the self-injurious behavior was evoked when access to the stereotype behavior was not available. Researchers then implemented FCT with manipulation of the parameters of reinforcement (e.g. immediacy and quantity) to favor the functional communitive responses verses the self-injurious behavior. Researchers then implemented schedule thinning and manipulated parameters of reinforcement to favor engagement in competing activities during the FCT schedule thinning. Results suggest that FCT with parameters manipulation can be utilized to decrease challenging behavior and increase appropriate behavior without the use of extinction.

This symposium is comprised of four data-based presentations evaluating the implementation of augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) with individuals with various developmental disabilities (i.e. Rett syndrome, autism spectrum disorder, and Down syndrome) and verbal operants in the context of home and school. The four applied studies sought to evaluate critical aspects of high- and low-tech AAC including accurate and independent responding, navigation, comprehension, and vocal development. Emily Unholz will present first on the effect of device type (low-tech vs. high-tech) on accurate and independent responding with individuals with Rett syndrome trained via telecommunication. Next, Shawn Girtler will present findings from a study with similar participants evaluating the effects of behavior chaining, prompt delay, and prompt fading on AAC navigation. Following, Emily White will present on the effects of low-tech AAC (i.e. Picture Exchange Communication Training) and delay to reinforcement on vocal development in the context of an all day preschool program. Lauren Pierson will present the closing paper evaluating the effects of parent training on parent implementation of AAC training and correct language comprehension responding following a story. Finally, Jay Ganz will discuss the presentations in terms of implications for practice and future research.

scientist-practitioners, researchers, BCBAs, BCBA-Ds

There is emerging evidence that individuals with Rett syndrome (RTT) can learn to use alternative and augmentative communication (AAC) devices. The purpose of the current study is to evaluate the use of behavior chaining with a prompt delay and prompt fading on acquisition of software navigation skills with three individuals with RTT using both low-tech and high-tech AAC devices. For one participant, navigation was taught utilizing a high-tech AAC device. For the other two participants, navigation was taught utilizing both a high-tech and low-tech AAC devices. We used both changing criterion and multiple probe designs across contexts to evaluate independent and accurate responding. All sessions were conducted in the participant’s home by their parents with remote coaching from a research assistant via telecommunication. Results indicated that for two participants, prompt delay was an effective procedure to teach navigation using both a high-tech and a low-tech AAC device. For the other participant, behavior chaining with a prompt delay was an effective procedure to teach navigation using a high-tech AAC device. Future research should use experimental methods to expand on navigation to include page-linking for multiple word phrases.

Although behavior-analytic treatments are often effective in achieving initial reductions in a target behavior, target behavior may relapse due to changes in reinforcement or stimulus conditions. Renewal occurs when changes in the stimulus context following treatment produce relapse of extinguished behavior. Researchers typically examine renewal using a three-phase arrangement. After reinforcement of target behavior in Context A followed by extinction in Context B, the organism transitions to Context A (ABA renewal) or a new context (ABC renewal), and extinction continues. This symposium presents four basic and translational renewal studies that demonstrate the varied applications of the renewal paradigm. Our first presenter will present a study conducted with rats that compared ABA renewal after extinction or omission training in Phase B. The second presenter will describe two studies conducted with rats: the first using an ABC renewal preparation, and the second examining the effects of discriminative training on ABC renewal. The third presentation details a series of translational studies modeling renewal of problem behavior in dual-language homes and by multilingual individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities. The final presenter will speak about a translational renewal study conducted in an analog organizational setting.

Researchers interested in the experimental analysis of behavior, translational research, and relapse research will be an appropriate target audience. Practitioners interested in understanding the behavioral mechanisms of relapse of undesirable behavior may also be appropriate.

Insights from extinction research have been useful to researchers and clinicians in the domain of Applied Behavior Analysis. Behavioral treatments are effective for producing initial reductions in problem behavior; however, relapse after treatment is common and a major barrier to treatment efficacy. It is possible that relapse might be influenced by the specific response elimination technique and that different treatments for problem behavior might be differentially susceptible to relapse. The present study compared ABA renewal after responding was eliminated by extinction or omission training in rats. In this experiment, lever pressing was reinforced with food pellets in Context A and then eliminated with either extinction or omission training in Context B. The response was then tested in Contexts A and B in either the presence or absence of free food pellets delivered on a random time schedule. All rats showed higher responding when tested in Context A than Context B, and there was little evidence that omission training attenuated this ABA renewal effect. Also, noncontingent pellets increased responding after extinction but not after omission training. The results provide new information about factors creating relapse after omission training.

In this symposium the authors will discuss research aimed at evaluating various procedures for decreasing disruptive behavior or improving academic performance of students in a variety of educational settings. The first presenter will discuss procedures for decreasing problem behavior associated with transitions. The second presenter will discuss the impact of active student response modalities on academic performance and disruptive behavior. The third presenter will discuss the impact of alternative seating on in-seat and on-task behavior. The fourth presenter will discuss the impact of video modeling and behavioral skills training on math quizzes. Finally, the symposium will conclude with a discussant who will summarize the research and suggest avenues for future research.

Behavior analysts working in schools or clinical settings

Children with autism spectrum disorder often engage in problem behaviors that impede their ability to attend to tasks leading to disruptions in daily academic and social life. To address and prevent problem behaviors from occurring, antecedent interventions can be implemented to increase a child’s on-task and in-seat behavior. Antecedent interventions, such as alternative seating, have previously been studied within classrooms to evaluate the rate of engagement of children within an instructional setting. However, alternative seating, such as stability ball chairs, have not been previously studied within a clinic setting with a younger, more diverse group of participants to evaluate the effect that alternative seating can have on both on-task and in-seat behavior. This study used an alternating treatments design with an initial baseline phase to evaluate the effects of the stability ball chair on the on-task and in-seat behavior of children with autism in a clinic setting. Results indicated al three participants had slightly higher on-task behavior while using the stability ball chair compared to a standard chair. With regard to in-seat behavior one participant engaged in higher levels while using the stability ball chair but the other two participants have variable data. Social validity data indicated the therapists felt the balls improved participants’ behavior and they would use them in the future.

Research has indicated video-based interventions are successful at teaching skills to individuals with varying types of disabilities. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding video-based intervention, such as video modeling, as an evidence-based practice for academic skills. As technology becomes more integrated into U.S. classrooms each year, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions. Teachers in class often use Khan Academy videos as a resource for students. The purposes of this study were to evaluate if viewing Khan Academy video models would increase math quiz performance for elementary age students with disabilities when used as a supplement to teacher instruction, to determine if Khan Academy video models would decrease the total time required to complete a math quiz, and to evaluate the effects of behavioral skills training when Khan Academy was not effective. Using a multiple baseline design, Khan Academy videos resulted in an increase in performance for two participants and were ineffective for four others. Duration to complete the quiz did not decrease with the implementation of Khan Academy videos. All 6 participants required behavioral skills training to increase their performances to mastery levels.

Providing training is a required component of effective treatment for individuals with developmental and intellectual disabilities. In the training literature, caregivers, educators, and staff have successfully been taught a variety of behavioral technologies through various types of training and performance management procedures. However, continued research is needed to address training barriers and enhance the dissemination of our behavioral technologies and understanding of the natural contingencies that may interfere with correct implementation of these technologies. To this end, this symposium includes four papers related to staff and caregiver training. In this symposium, the first paper will review reinforcing contingencies that influence desirable and undesirable caregiver behavior. The second paper will evaluate the influence of active and nonactive response requirements during technology-based approaches to training staff. The third paper will discuss use of an interactive-computerized training to teach natural language paradigm techniques to educators. Finally, the fourth paper will evaluate the influence of a technology-based self-monitoring intervention on staff’s positive interactions with consumers in group homes.

certified behavior analysts; graduate students

It is important that human service staff receive optimal training to ensure that behavioral technologies are implemented correctly. Two commonly used staff training techniques include video modeling, which does not require active responding during training, and computer-based instruction, which does require active responding during training. The present study sought to evaluate the influence of active and nonactive requirements when training staff to implement behavioral technologies. College students were randomly assigned to the active responding group, nonactive responding group, or a control group. Participants in the active responding group completed computer-based training modules, which required them to answer questions after viewing clips of an individual implementing a behavioral technology. Participants in the nonactive responding group viewed a video model depicting the same information as the active responding group, but the video showed the correct answers to questions without requiring responding from participants. Data demonstrated that training with and without the active responding requirement resulted in improved staff performance. The results of this study may provide implications for clinical practice and directions for further research.

Although interventions based on the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA) are recommended as treatment for autism spectrum disorder (ASD), the scarcity of trained professionals can make access to intervention difficult for families. Interactive computerized training (ICT) can be a valuable dissemination tool for training educators to implement ABA interventions (Pollard, Higbee, Akers, & Brodhead, 2014). ICT is a treatment package that includes a combination of narrated instruction, voice-over video modeling, competency checks, and interactive activities. The natural language paradigm (NLP; Koegel, O’Dell, and Koegel, 1987) is a naturalistic play-based intervention that has been successfully implemented by educators and parents to increase spontaneous and imitative language in children with ASD (Gillett and LeBlanc, 2007). The ICT for NLP was used to increase the percent procedure following in three educator-student dyads. Furthermore, a corresponding increase in contextual student comments was also observed.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Domesticated cats may engage in a variety of problem behaviors that adversely affect their lives and the lives of humans that adopt them. While some problem behaviors can be relatively minor, human-directed aggression can cause potential harm to owners and others, which may be more likely to lead to shelter relinquishment or euthanasia. Additionally, cats that engage in problem behavior like human-directed aggression may be less likely to be adopted from shelters. If identified, effective behavioral interventions may decrease the likelihood of future pet relinquishments and increase adoption rates, and in doing so, euthanasia rates may decrease. Functional analysis (FA) is an empirically based method for identifying the function of problem behavior, which can then be used to develop effective, function-based treatments to reduce problem behavior. While FA has been heavily studied in humans, there is a small but growing literature base supporting its use in identifying the function of problem behavior non-human animals. This symposium will present two studies that used FA methods to identify the functions of human-directed aggression in domestic cats in foster homes and shelters and develop function-based treatment. Implications of the application of FA and animal welfare will be discussed.

The target audience for the symposium are behavior analysts interested in the application of functional analysis methodology to new populations and species.

Human-directed aggression is a common problem, which can often lead to re-homing or relinquishing the cat and can cause injuries and infections for the human. Methodology exists to determine the function of problem behavior in humans and has been applied to various topographies of problem behaviors. The current study applied this methodology to assess human-directed aggression exhibited by cats during petting and implement function-based treatment. Results suggested that aggression during petting for all three cats was maintained by escape from petting. Extinction and providing the functional reinforcer (i.e., escape from petting) contingent on the absence of aggression was implemented with all three cats, which decreased aggression for each cat.

This symposium will include two data-based presentations on establishing stimulus control of stereotypy in children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. The first study evaluated the effects of a multiple schedule arrangement and RIRD with three preschoolers with autism spectrum disorder. In the RIRD component, the sleeve was worn, and stereotypy resulted in RIRD. In the “free access” component, the sleeve was not worn, and free access to stereotypy was provided. Multiple exemplar training and an arm sleeve were used to program for generalization. Generalization was assessed with novel activities. Following discrimination, the sleeve was systematically faded to a bracelet, and follow up probes were conducted. This arrangement resulted in a decrease in the percentage of the RIRD components with stereotypy. The second study was a comparison of the effects of a multiple schedule and chain schedule arrangement on the motor stereotypy of an adolescent with autism spectrum disorder. In contrast to previous research, results showed similar effects of both arrangements on motor stereotypy. Our discussant, Dr. Megan Deshais, will review these studies.

BACBs, graduate students, researchers

Clinical behavior analysis is amongst the only approaches to understanding talk therapy that has direct implications for understanding and intervening on in-session behavior in such a way as to change behavior out of session. How it is that this occurs has been discussed in terms of nonlinear contingencies, verbal behavior, rule governed behavior, derived relational responding, and other conceptualizations of complex human behavior. The development of clinical behavior analysis as a subdiscipline, however, has been limited by the branding of specific treatment packages that move away from common behavioral terms. This panel will include clinical behavior analysts with expertise in Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT), Functional Analytic Psychotherapy (FAP, Interpersonal Behavior Therapy (IBT), and Nonlinear Contingency Analysis (NCA). Panelists will analyze sample video recordings of a talk therapy session in terms of behavioral principles that comprise a common ground for clinical behavior analytic approaches. Implications for comparing and contrasting clinical behavior analytic interventions will be discussed, along with questions from the audience.

Behavior analysts, clinicians, higher education instructors, service providers

In a variety of settings, the requirements of funding sources (such as CMS and State Medicaid authorities) are increasingly enforcing the use of evidence-based practices where public funding is provided. The creation of the RBT credential which was accredited by the NCCA in 2016 created a great opportunity to improve the lives of persons receiving care in adult day settings, whether that be residential, vocational or of a day treatment model. The presenters are actively working in the I/DD and Autism space of human services, implementing "evidence-based practices" in a variety of states and settings. During the course of the past few years, the ability to train direct service staff in ABA principals has greatly reduced both staff turnover and injury on the job for the two agencies represented by the presenters. We will review where and how we began, with the assistance of Dr. Brian Iwata and how we continue to seek to train staff to competency in a field that previously had little evidence based practice despite decades of funding.

BCBAs and BCaBA seeking to understand how to implement an increased proficiency in existing (and planned) human service and health care organizations.

The climate crisis challenges all of us to step up our sustainability efforts as soon as possible: The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change urges that global greenhouse gas emissions be cut by nearly 50% by 2030. How can we best accomplish change using behavior-analytic principles? High-profile studies by the American Psychological Association have found that two of the major behavioral barriers to more individual climate action are the motivation challenge of futility, and the transition challenge from old wasteful habits to green ones (e.g., the influential 2009 report from the Task Force on the Interface Between Psychology and Global Climate Change). Both of these are areas where behavior analysis can provide major contributions. How can we build on what we have already accomplished in climate action, and transfer what has worked in our related areas of strength? Each of the panelists is experienced in behavioral sustainability, and will offer a few suggestions. Opening the floor to the audience, we will attempt to put together a plan of action.

All

This symposium will be comprised of three papers, each of which investigated one of three behaviors in children with ASD. The first, entitled “The Effects of the Social-Listener Protocol on the Empathetic Behavior of Children with ASD” examined whether children with ASD demonstrated empathy, followed by an intervention designed to establish peer reinforcers and test whether participants would them demonstrate empathy. The second paper examined the reinforcing effects of social attention versus tokens for a performance task for preschool children with ASD and found that results were related to children’s level of verbal development. The third paper investigated mothers’ delivery of instructional antecedents and consequences and their children’s subsequent compliance during a cleanup task. The study further compared children’s compliance with mothers’ reports of self-efficacy.

Target audience includes students, practitioners, and researchers.

Empathy has not been widely studied by behavior analysts, most likely due to the variation in the literature in regard to definition and measurement. In 3 experiments we tested whether children with an educational classification of ASD would demonstrate empathy in an unfair play scenario and, if empathetic behavior was absent, whether the Social Listener Reinforcement (SLR) Protocol intervention would result in the emergence of empathy. The results from Experiment I, consisting of 11 typically developing students and students with ASD, showed that, overall, participants with ASD demonstrated fewer observing behaviors and answered fewer empathy-related questions correctly when compared to their typically developing peers. In Experiments II and III we employed a multiple probe design to test the effects of the SLR intervention on the demonstration of empathetic behaviors. Following Experiment III, the results showed an increase in vocal verbal operants and sharing behavior for 4 of the 6 Participants.

We conducted a descriptive analysis on the effectiveness of how mothers communicate with their children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) during a compliance task, and whether their observed effectiveness related to their self-reported, self-efficacy score. Participants consisted of 37 mother-child dyads in which the children were preschool-aged and were categorized according to their level of verbal behavior development (e.g., prefoundational versus independent listener). Data were collected on the form (vocal, non-vocal, or mixed) and frequency of mother’s antecedents and consequences, whether consequences were contingent, and the children’s responses to antecedents. Analyses indicated that there was no statistically significant relationship between mothers’ communication form or use of contingent consequences as related to child’s verbal behavior development. Additionally, mother’s reported self-efficacy was not correlated with her child’s correct or incorrect responding. This study indicates the need for parent training regarding a child’s level of verbal behavior development and the use of contingent teaching practices.

The discipline of behavior analysis is experiencing rapid growth, which is especially noticeable in recent the increase of university programs offering training in behavior analysis. There are currently two mechanisms for university training programs to be recognized: accreditation of degree-granting programs and verification of course sequences. This panel will present these systems, including their procedures for obtaining and maintaining recognition along with their respective goals. This session is designed for current VCS coordinators, program directors of ABAI-accredited programs, and those interested in applying for either system of recognition

Part of the mission of radical behaviorism is to increase control over behavioral variability in all domains of human activity, and perhaps especially those in which activity is seen as constrained by invariant traits. One such “invariant trait” is intelligence, a concept long understood to represent a mentalism. However, it is only recently that behavior analysts have made progress in providing a functional-analytic model of intelligence that was sufficiently progressive to produce targeted interventions that can increase intellectual skill fluency to the point where large and reliable gains are observable on standardised tests of intelligence. In this talk Dr. Bryan Roche of Maynooth University, Ireland, will outline the rationale behind one such intervention method, known as SMART training (Strengthening Mental Abilities with Relational Training), which has emerged from a Relational Frame Theory account of derived stimulus relations. The talk will also outline evidence of the positive effects on intellectual functioning of the SMART intervention, and argue that for pragmatic, ethical, and now empirical reasons, psychologists’ traditional conceptualization of intelligence needs to be revised.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students. 

This presentation will address the question of effective practices for the treatment of individuals with autism spectrum disorder, from both an epistemological and a therapeutic perspective, and suggest the importance of a synthesis of two paradigms—behavior analysis and general systems theory—as a means of optimizing our assessment of the needs and the services provided to people with disabilities. Despite the development and the use of a wide array of behavior analytic practices that help all children with ASD to reach their full potential, a question that remains under-researched has to do with the effort expected from the child and his/her family and whether this effort can be somehow lessened without compromising the benefits. The answer to that question led to investigating the properties of another epistemological paradigm—general systems theory—its merits, its compatibility, and its complementarity to the discipline of behavior analysis. This presentation aims to demonstrate that the two paradigms are compatible and complementary and that their combination may lead to optimizing the therapeutic and pedagogical outcomes of behavior analytic practices. If we are to adapt a systemic perspective, according to which the joining of two or more systems leads to an outcome that exceeds by far the additive effects of those systems, it will be interesting to assess the potential emergent benefits of the synthesis of two compatible and complementary epistemological paradigms and how those translate into therapeutic outcomes.

Researchers and therapists in the field of autism spectrum disorder.

Angeliki Gena is Professor at the School of Philosophy, Department of Philosopsy-Pedagogy-Psychology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece (EKPA). She received her BA in Psychology and Sociology, her Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology and her Ph.D. from the “Learning Processes” program of the Psychology Department of the City University of New York. She conducted her Doctoral Dissertation at the Princeton Child Development Institute, in Princeton, New Jersey. She worked in various institutes in the USA and became the director of the Alpine Learning Group, a prominent center for children with autism in Alpine, New Jersey. She also taught as an adjunct professor at the City University of New York. In Greece she started her teaching career at the University of Thessaly, was elected at the University of the Aegean, and since 1998 teaches at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her research is predominantly in the area of Behavior Analysis and its applications for early intervention in children with Autism Spectrum Disorder. Was general secretary of the Association of Behavioral Research for 11 years, is an associate of the Institute of Behavioral Research and Therapy, and a founding member and current president of the Institute of Systemic Behavior Analysis. She has served as an elected member of the Senate of EKPA, since 2016 she is a member of the board of trustees of IKY – National Organization of Scholarships, Greece – has been appointed to national committees of the Greek Ministry of Education, and has served on the board of various non-for-profit organizations. She has received several scholarships and awards for distinguished research and clinical practices addressing children with autism and grands from the European Commission and various Greek organizations. She has published numerous books, empirical and theoretical articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as book chapters. The main focus of her research is in systemic behavior analysis and its applications for children with ASD and their families.  

Higher education programs offer courses in a variety of formats, including face-to-face, fully-online, and hybrid. With such diversity in formats, it is essential to assess what components are most effective for student learning across these formats. There are a variety of methods to deliver content, ways to facilitate learner engagement, and approaches to effective feedback application. The multiple modalities allow for variation of instruction across each mode often allowing multiple methods within one course. This panel will review the different methods of delivering instruction and report on student learning measures. Presenters in this panel are experienced educators who have used and evaluated all of these varied practices in past and current higher education coursework. Each panelist will discuss one of the modalities and offer an assessment of the advantages and disadvantages of practices utilized in each based on professional experience. Panelists will take questions from the audience and the moderator.

The target audience is faculty in higher education programs teaching behavior analysis or related content.

Training caregivers to apply evidence-based Applied Behavior Analysis is an essential component of professional work and a key component of effective services. Research over the last 30 years has demonstrated the effectiveness, efficiency and acceptability of Behavioral Skills Training (BST) to teach skills, promote generalization of teaching skills and sometimes produce important changes in child behavior. As research in this area becomes more differentiated, one important aspect has been the application of BST to young children, including training family members and staff in integrated settings. This workshop will present three papers on applying BST to train parents of a child at risk for Autism Spectrum Disorders via telehealth, training parents to teach joint attention skills to their children, and training special education teachers to improve the integrity of function-based interventions to increase child classroom engagement. These studies demonstrate that BST can readily be extended to working with caregivers of young children with disabilities, improve caregiver behavior and produce socially important changes in child behavior.

Masters and doctoral level practitioners; advanced graduate students; psychologists; service supervisors;

Children with developmental disabilities are at increased risk for social communication deficits, including early and pivotal social communication skills. One such skill, response to joint attention, is a behavioral cusp for later developing social communication and play. Joint attention is coordinated shared attention between two individuals and an object or event. The current study investigated the effects of a train-the-trainer approach where parents were trained to teach siblings to be proficient interventionists on the response to joint attention behavior of their siblings with developmental disabilities. Results indicate an increase in parent task fidelity following a modified behavior skills training procedure during home visits, as well as an increase in sibling task fidelity following parent training using a social narrative and prompting procedure. Target child data indicate an increase in level of response to joint attention behavior following parent training and parent training of sibling. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

Special education teachers are often implementers of behavior intervention plans; however, a shortage of teachers in any field is only magnified in special education. Studies have looked at the use of behavior skills training (BST) in training teachers and caregivers in the intervention techniques prescribed for individuals and groups. This study extends research on teacher training using the BST model. This study was also designed to evaluate the relation between teacher integrity to a functional assessment-based interventions (FABI) suite of strategies and the effect on student on-task performance. The participants were a special education teacher and two elementary-aged students, each classified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The students engaged in off-task, often disruptive behavior while receiving special education services in a general education classroom. This study was conducted in three phases. Each phase consisted of BST to teach a subset of interventions. A single-subject changing criterion design was used to evaluate the effect of BST on teacher integrity and student performance. Results showed that BST improved teacher integrity through each phase and teacher integrity improved student on-task behavior. Limitations to this study will be discussed as well as directions for future research.

Alarmingly, nearly half of children with autism elope or bolt, and more than half of these children go missing for a concerning duration of time and/or enter into dangerous situations. Caregivers often do not feel prepared to address these serious concerns. This study evaluated the effectiveness of behavioural skills training (BST) for teaching caregivers how to also use BST in conjunction with a tactile prompt to teach their children with autism help-seeking behaviour. Participants included a total of six dyads, caregivers and their children with autism ages 5-10. We used a concurrent multiple baseline design across two dyads with three replications. The children’s safety responses were measured using a point system: (1) calling out for their caregiver in a louder than conversational voice, (2) locating a store employee, and (3) informing the employee that he/she was lost. Results indicate that four children met mastery criteria (a safety score of 3 across two consecutive trials), and the caregivers were able to successfully fade the tactile prompting device. Data collection with the final two dyads is currently in progress. This study contributes to the limited empirical research on caregiver training using BST to teach help-seeking behaviour to children with autism.

A wide variety of principles and teaching strategies exist for establishing new skills in the repertoires of children with autism. Each of the studies in this symposium extends previous research in this area with a focus on improving the overall efficacy and efficiency of intervention through the use of novel measurement strategies or through the refinement of specific procedural variables. Topics investigated include the use of continuous (all trials) versus discontinuous (probe) data collection, evaluating prompt dependence when teaching behavior chains, the role of task interspersal in error correction procedures, and the use of a screening condition to predict treatment efficacy when teaching response to name. Findings from these studies have implications for clinical practice and future research in the area of skill acquisition for children with autism.

Clinicians, researchers, students

Response to name (RTN) is an early developmental milestone, deficits in which are associated with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The current study extends previous research on this target behavior by evaluating an abbreviated assessment and treatment model for RTN with thirteen children with ASD. In phase one, a naturalistic social baseline was conducted with all participants. In phase two, a series of treatment conditions involving the use of tangible reinforcement was evaluated with all children for whom RTN did not meet mastery criteria in phase one. In phase three, treatment components were removed, schedules of tangible reinforcement were thinned, and generalization to other people was assessed. Results indicate that tangible reinforcement procedures can produce rapid increases in discriminated response to name, sometimes without the addition of response prompts. The total number of trials to mastery was reduced in the current study relative to previous research. This study also investigates whether baseline patterns of RTN from phase one could be used to predict the treatment that was ultimately necessary in phase two. Results provide preliminary evidence to suggest that using this sort of baseline as a screening to predict treatment effects could further reduce trials to mastery.

Humans are a eusocial species, especially sensitive to social contingencies. This sensitivity is observed at the earliest stages of development and persists throughout the lifespan, even in the presence of late-life neurodegenerative impairments. While social reinforcers are the most common reinforcers utilized in clinical applications, the behavior analytic literature is relatively sparse in its analysis of the quality of these reinforcers as they naturally occur and vary in a wide variety of interactions. This symposium will address social reinforcers from multiple vantage points: a review of the experimental analysis of social behavior, thought-provoking observations of parent-child interactions during acquisition of verbal skills, social histories as confounds within applied work in behavioral gerontology, and the challenge to measure interpersonal repertoires and the effects of social contingencies in clinical behavior analysis. The goal of the symposium is to draw attention to the ubiquitous nature of social reinforcers and social histories, identify gaps in knowledge, and discuss areas of future exploration for experimental, applied, and clinical research.

Scientist practitioners, BCBA-Ds, BCBAs, BCaBAs

Reading instruction in schools in the United States varies widely in theory, implementation and evidence of effectiveness. Students with special needs are more likely to struggle to read than their typical peers. Despite this, they often receive less instruction than their peers in reading and have less access to effective reading programming. Teachers of all types report a lack of understanding about effective reading instruction and little support to improve their understanding. Recent media attention to reading via multiple reports from American Public Media has inspired Haugland Learning Center(HLC) in Columbus, Ohio and Bright Futures Learning Services (BFLS) in Winfield, West Virgina to focus on applying knowledge about reading instruction to educational programming for students with all types of autism. in an attempt to ensure the best possible reading outcomes for all students. This symposium aims to discuss how building evidence- based critical components of reading including decoding, phonemic awareness, vocabulary, and comprehension and avoiding reading pseudo- science in favor of proven curricula and methods rooted in behavior analysis can ensure success with reading. Data from service delivery at both HLC and BFLS will be shared, analyzed and discussed with the intention of sparking conversation, sharing knowledge and driving future programming.

BCBAs, Teachers, BCABAs, RBTs

Reading is a critical skill, and while several curricula exist for verbal learners, the path to reading for users of Augmentative and Alternative Communication (AAC) devices is far less clear.Bright Futures Learning Services in Winfield, West Virginia serves students on the autism spectrum who use ACC devices in their center- based program.This presentation will outline the successful approach utilized to bring one exceptional learner from a baseline Verbal Behavior Milestones and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) score of 3.5 to not only the successful reading of sight words and accurate spelling, but comprehension as well. Discussion will include the specific scope and sequence of highly individualized programs utilized to achieve such an outcome in less than one year through intensive one on one services employing discrete trial training as part of a comprehensive program in a clinical setting. Although the methods and techniques utilized in this case should not be considered a “one size fits all” solution, it can be adapted to each individual learner, potentially creating a roadmap for AAC users to become readers.

Behavior analysis and other fields of study have identified a number of variables that influence student learning. These include writing clear behavioral objectives, active student responding, and requiring mastery of the material. Although studied extensively in traditional classrooms (i.e., brick and mortar), these variables have not been studied much in the distance-learning online environment. There are numerous journals devoted to so-called research on how to effectively teach in a distance format, but a review of that literature shows most published studies utilize poor or no research designs and focus mostly on qualitative measures. It is clear that more systematic research needs to be conducted in higher education in the booming online teaching platform, since several sources predict that online teaching will continue to grow at an exponential rate. Evaluating higher education instruction through a formal behavior analytic approach would begin to provide solid answers to many vexing problems and questions about how best to instruct students using online platforms. The papers in this symposium will focus on different teaching strategies that should promote student learning in the online environment.

Professionals teaching in higher education.

The current symposium addresses procedural variables that may produce generative responding. The first study assessed the effects of varying non-critical features of stimuli during auditory-visual matching with adult participants to reduce variability and increase the likelihood of correct responding to untrained exemplars. The second study utilized instructive feedback, lag schedules, and naturalistic behavioral interventions to promote emergent language in children. The third study assessed the different outcomes associated with multiple exemplar instruction, namely, the interdependence between speaker and listener repertoires, and stimulus generalization across exemplars. Finally, the fourth study utilized a joint control intervention to establish bidirectional naming in children with autism. Taken together, these studies have important implications for those teaching language to individuals with disabilities.

practitioners, verbal behavior researchers

Technology has been used to facilitate the education and treatment of people with developmental and intellectual disabilities for many years. As technology continues to improve (e.g., reduced cost, increased portability and more versatile software), assistive technology-based interventions become more accessible, adaptable and potentially more impactful. This symposium will present two intervention studies that used assistive technology in innovative ways to improve academic performance, decrease challenging behavior and increase spoken communication. In study 1, Ledbetter-Cho et al evaluated the effects of a teacher-implemented video-schedule intervention on academic skills and challenging behaviors of five elementary-school students with autism. In study 2, Muharib used a speech generating device to increase the spoken (non-SGD) functional communication of three children with autism. Together, these two studies highlight recent advances in technology and demonstrate the utility of these devices on socially valid dependent variables.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts working in school and/or clinical settings with children with developmental and intellectual disabilities

Behavioral intervention packages in combination with speech output technologies have been used to increase communication skills of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and other developmental disabilities. This study extended previous research (Gevarter et al., 2016; Gevarter & Horan, 2018) by examining the effects of backward chaining in combination with least-to-most prompting and differential reinforcement on the acquisition of functional communication skills in a multiple probe across participants design. Three male children (ages 4 to 8 years) with ASD or developmental disabilities and minimal vocal communication skills participated. Children were taught to mand for preferred items in three categories (edibles, videos, and videogames) and discriminate between icons on each page. The first page showed “I want to” and a distractor”, the second showed “play,” “eat,” and “watch,” and the third page showed 10 icons of different items within each of the three categories. The results indicated that the intervention was effective in increasing both three-step iPad-based manding and three-component vocal manding (e.g., “I want to eat raisins”) of all participants, two of whom were able to maintain vocal manding after the termination of the intervention. All three children showed some generalized responding across classroom teachers.

Many students with autism display deficits in academic performance and often receive interventions that include one-to-one prompting in the classroom. This study evaluated the effects of a teacher-implemented video-schedule intervention on the academic skills and untargeted challenging behaviors of elementary-school students with autism. Results from a multiple baseline across participants indicated that the intervention was effective in improving participants’ academic performance. A decrease in challenging behaviors and stereotypy was also observed for participants following the introduction of intervention. Additionally, participants demonstrated generalization across academic problems and to a small group setting, suggesting that this technology-based intervention may be efficient and aid teachers in maximizing instructional time. Future research examining a variety of academic skills and intervention implementation by additional practitioners (e.g., teaching assistants) is warranted.

Individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) have limited opportunity to engage in leisure activities, including physical, social, and informal activities. Additionally, these skills often need to be explicitly taught to these individuals. The overall goal of this symposium is to examine behavior analytic approaches to increasing the participation in and usefulness of leisure activities for individuals with ASD. The first study assesses leisure activities across several dimensions to determine which types of activities learners have preference and aptitude for in order to select appropriate leisure activities for individuals with ASD who require significant support. The second study uses Behavioral Skills Training to teach individuals with ASD how to take photographs, and provides an example of how to teach new leisure skills to individuals with ASD. The third study evaluates the instructional setting in which leisure activities are taught and provides empirical support for embedding social skills instruction within the leisure activity context. Overall, this symposium promotes the acquisition, assessment, and evaluation of leisure activities as an important set of functional skills for individuals with ASD across the lifespan.

The target audience of this symposium are behavior analysts, clinicians, practitioners, and graduate students who work with individuals with autism spectrum disorder in a skill acquisition context.

Individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have limited opportunity in choosing novel and engaging leisure activities, and behavior analysts need guidance in identifying leisure activities their clients may prefer. Four adult clients participated in a leisure activities assessment in three phases. During Phase 1 concurrent operant arrangements were used to develop a client profile for each of three critical leisure skills components: social interaction versus no interaction; electronic versus non-electronic tasks; and stationary tasks versus those that require movement. Figure 1 shows the percent of session learners engaged with each of the three component comparisons. Data revealed clear patterns for 3 of 4 participants. Phase 2 compared client on-task behavior for a leisure activity matched and a leisure activity unmatched to the profile generated in Phase 1. Clients were on-task more often for activities matched to profile (Figure 2). Phase 3 assessed client preference for the matched versus the unmatched activity using another concurrent operant arrangement. Clients showed preference for the matched activity (Figure 3). Overall, this study presents a user-friendly leisure activity assessment that considers both client preference and aptitude in determining appropriate leisure activities for individuals with ASD who require significant support.

Children and adolescents with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) seldom participate in leisure activities including social, physical, and informal activities (Matson, Hattier & Belva, 2012). However, participation in such activities can allow children and adolescents an opportunity to increase social and communication skills, increase social acceptance, and increase independence and overall quality of life (Garcia-Villamisar & Dattilo, 2011). The present study used a multiple baseline design across 8 participants to assess the effectiveness of teaching simple photography skills. Using behavioral skills training, all 8 participants learned how to use a digital camera to take pictures. For the six participants who met mastery criterion, photography skills maintained at follow-up. Findings from the current study may yield implications for leisure skill interventions for children and adolescents with ASD.

Physical play is a natural context for children’s social and language development. Unfortunately, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are less likely to engage in physical play and are more socially isolated on playgrounds and at recess than peers without ASD. Although much of typically developing children's socializing occurs on playgrounds, the majority of behavioral social skills groups for children with ASD take place in classrooms or therapy settings, with limited generalization to natural play settings (Bellini, Peters, Brenner, & Hopf, 2007; Kasari & Locke, 2011). Therefore, this study used a multiple-baseline across-participants design to compare the effects of two intervention settings, physical play-based (e.g., playground games) and classroom-based (e.g., board games and collaborative arts & crafts activities), on several spontaneous social behaviors of six children with ASD. Results indicate that all children engaged in more spontaneous talking, eye contact, play, clowning, and happiness behavior, and displayed fewer inappropriate behaviors during physical play-based intervention sessions compared to baseline or the classroom-based sessions. The present findings suggest several implications for incorporating physical play into developmental language research and practice for children with ASD.

The assessment and intervention of social behavior are often relevant to many individuals with whom behavior analysts work. Curricula and literature may guide behavior analysts who embark on this task; however, there is much room for refined analyses to identify appropriate goals and reinforcers which maintain social behavior. Also, more research is needed on the methods of instruction that facilitate generalization of social behavior to interactions with peers. First, Hood, Beauchesne, Fahmie, and Aquino will present data from a descriptive assessment of behaviors that occur during one-on-one conversations between friends who are adults of typical development and present without social deficits. Next, Clubb, Toussaint, Bergmann, Rodriguez, and Sanchez will describe how preference for items affects sharing and the consequences, identified via functional analyses, which reinforce sharing. Finally, McKeown, Luczynski, Lauvetz, and Lehardy will extend the research on the Preschool Life Skills curriculum by targeting prosocial skills to promote friendship and assessing generalization to same-aged peers. The topographies of social behavior, conditions under which it may occur, and the consequences which reinforce social behavior will be discussed. Implications of findings for research and practice will be incorporated throughout the symposium.

Board certified behavior analysts

Individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) often have deficits in prosocial behaviors, such as sharing. However, research on assessing and teaching sharing is relatively limited. The purpose of the current research is to extend the previous research on sharing by evaluating environmental variables that may influence sharing. First, we evaluated if the latency to sharing is altered by a child's engagement with high vs. low-preference items. Next, we evaluated the contingencies that evoke and maintain sharing through a functional analysis. Functional analyses have traditionally been used to identify the function of maladaptive behavior. However, we have extended this assessment process to identifying the function of sharing behavior as the maintaining consequence is frequently presumed to be social attention. Our findings suggest that children with autism emit longer latencies to sharing if they are engaged with a high-preference item. In addition, results of the functional analyses suggest that this methodological approach is relevant to understanding sharing, and results suggest that sharing is often maintained by attention for preschoolers with and without autism. Collectively, these findings advance our understanding of when sharing is likely to occur and may inform methods of how to functionally teach sharing to individuals with ASD.

To date, the preference assessment literature has primarily focused on identifying leisure and edible stimuli. There has been relatively little research assessing participants' preference for various types of social interaction. Most recently, Morris and Vollmer (2019) found that social interaction of various types functioned as reinforcers for individuals diagnosed with ASD. This finding is potentially useful given the common characterization of children with ASD as being socially avoidant (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). Due to the clinical relevance of identifying reinforcing social interactions and increasing the number and efficacy of such interactions for individuals with ASD, there are several avenues for additional research. Given these implications for further research focused on social interaction, the current symposium will share research 1) evaluating the function of social interaction, 2) evaluating the relationship between schedules of attention and preferences for social interaction, and 3) evaluating the paired-stimulus preference assessment for identifying social reinforcers. Clinical implications and future directions across all studies will be discussed.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students

The assessment and treatment of feeding disorders has a research basis in applied behavior analysis (ABA); however, the research has often been conducted in specialized intensive feeding clinics or outpatient programs where participants are medically stable enough to receive a lower level of outpatient care (e.g., Rivas et al, 2014; Patel et al, 2002; Mueller et al, 2003). At times, pediatric patients require acute hospitalization for medical stabilization due to dehydration, food refusal or acute weight loss which puts them at risk for additional medical complications. When these patients are admitted to the hospital the initial goal is nutritional rehabilitation and medical stabilization. The availability of a multi-disciplinary team can change the course of a typical medical hospitalization for this population. The multi-disciplinary team includes physicians, psychologists, psychiatrists, clinical social workers, and nursing, and behavior analysts serve as a consultant to the team to incorporate behavioral principles into treatment. This panel will discuss the treatment of Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID), the treatment of anorexia nervosa and exercising behaviors using behavioral technology, and the individualization of standardized medical clinical pathways to increase patient outcomes.

Behavior analysts who provide consultation in home, in clinic, or in hospital settings.

In terms of an interbehavioral point of view, Ribes (1990) proposed a conceptual formulation and a methodological approach to identify consistent modes of people interaction with different situations, distinguishing individuals. He suggested that these particular and idiosyncratic modes of interaction, denominated interactive styles, could be modulated by the imposed criteria in a particular situation. But it also seems feasible that the criteria compliance could be modulated by the individuals’ interactive style. While this asseveration has proved relevance in the context of individual task performance, we propose to transpose it to the teamwork level. Nowadays, most of the tasks demanded in educational, academic, and occupational contexts involve teamwork. However, teams do not always perform successfully even when members have the proper disciplinary knowledge and the required skills to achieve the assigned goal. In collaboration with Muñoz, Mejía, Peña & Torres, we conformed an interdisciplinary group interested in the identification of the factors that participate in the establishment of effective teams for software development. The result has been a model in which, besides the disciplinary knowledge and individual skills to achieve products of high quality, it is necessary to take into account the way in which each individual faces situations and how these interactive styles complement with the others. Additionally, we have considered that this model could be applied in other areas.

Students and people interested in building effective teams in applied contexts.

Applied Behaviour Analysis is rapidly gaining recognition in Australia as a result of new university training programs and the increased demand for behavioural supports in the context of the National Disability Insurance Scheme. A transdisciplinary approach is central to contemporary disability services, healthcare and educational policy in Australia, and there is an increased national movement towards the delivery of services for people with disability through transdisciplinary teams. For behaviour analysts to effectively disseminate applied behaviour analysis in Australia, they must learn to work effectively with team members from allied health and education disciplines. However, integrated and collaborative work across disciplines may be challenging, particularly when team members possess different knowledge and technical skills. This may result in ethically complex situations. In this session, a clinical psychologist, speech and language pathologist, and board certified behaviour analyst will discuss how they work as members of transdisciplinary teams when delivering applied behaviour analysis services in Australia. Each will present an ethically complex situation that they have encountered, and how they resolved it. Throughout the discussion, we will highlight how the inter-professional aspects of ethical decision-making may lead to both better teamwork and potentially improved client outcomes in diverse settings.

BCBAs, BCaBAs, Allied Health Professionals, Teachers, School Leaders

Sleep problems are often reported among children with developmental disabilities, such as autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and rare genetic developmental disorders, such as Angelman, Williams, and Rett Syndromes. Without treatment, these problems can cause cascading effects on the functioning and development of the child. The use of behavioral interventions is well founded in the literature for the treatment of sleep problems in these populations. Utilizing a functional behavior assessment can help determine the reinforcement contingencies that are prolonging the sleep problem and help guide the intervention selected for treatment. As such, this symposium contains a series of presentations that evaluate behavioral treatments for sleep problems as follows: (a) analysis the current literature on behavioral interventions to treat sleep problems in children with autism, (b) the efficacy of personalized and assessment-based behavioral intervention on the sleep problems of children diagnosed with ASD, and (c) the evaluation of circadian manipulations and function-based interventions for sleep problems in children with rare genetic developmental disorders.

BCBAs, BCBA-Ds

Sleep is an essential activity for human development. Often, children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) are affected by a lack of sleep due to various types of sleep problems. We identified and analyzed studies that were aimed at utilizing sleep interventions for children with ASD. A systematic search of databases, reference lists, and ancestral searches identified 18 studies for inclusion. Studies were summarized in terms of (a) participants, (b) targeted sleep problem and measures, (d) intervention components, (e) research design and rigor, and (f) results. The aim of this review was to analyze the literature by evaluating the most commonly treated sleep problems, the various treatment components, and strength of the results using a between case parametric effect size estimate. The most commonly treated sleep problems were night wakings and bedtime disturbance. For interventions, all the studies incorporated multiple treatment components, most often including the use of a consistent bedtime routine. Effect size calculations indicated a moderate effect size, however, limited due to the small number of studies. Results suggest the overall effectiveness of behavioral interventions for the treatment of sleep problems for children with ASD. Based on our analysis, suggestions for practitioners regarding current practices and future directions for research are discussed.

The prevalence of sleep problems in children with Rare Genetic Neurodevelopmental Disorders (RGND) such as Angelman, Williams, and Rett Syndromes, far exceeds that observed in typically developing children. These problems are commonly attributed to biological and circadian rhythm abnormalities and, consequently, are predominantly treated medically/pharmacologically. While biological and genetic factors are important, this should not preclude considering the role of the environment and learning in the etiology and maintenance of the sleep problem. We present the results of a single-case, multiple baseline design study that investigated the effectiveness of multi-component interventions for up to six children with RGND and sleep problems. Phase 1 of intervention consisted of the manipulation of sleep-wake times, including faded bedtime procedures. Phase 2 consisted of the introduction of function-based interventions following functional-behavioral assessment. Short- and long-term follow-up data is also reported. Preliminary analysis indicates that circadian manipulations alone may be sufficient to reduce sleep problems in children with RGND, though in some cases, function-based interventions were also required. The implications of these findings for clinical practice and research will be discussed.

Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities often engage in challenging (e.g., self-injury, aggression, disruption) and repetitive behaviors. For a subset of these individuals, the behavior is maintained by automatic reinforcement. Behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement presents several challenges in assessment and treatment. The current symposium includes three studies that address some of these challenges. The first study presents data from assessments and treatments of repetitive behaviors maintained by automatic reinforcement, with an emphasis on predictions made by classification following assessment based on the three subtypes of automatically maintained behavior that have been previously studied with self-injury. Second, we will present outcomes from extended alone and ignore assessments, a common evaluation conducted to determine whether behavior is automatically-maintained. Specifically, this study will present on differences in the rate and variability of behavior when conducting alone compared to ignore assessments and differences across topography of behavior. The last study highlights potential safety concerns associated with the assessment of automatically maintained self-injury. An evaluation of solutions to decrease safety risks associated with assessing these behaviors is discussed.

Target audience includes practitioners and applied researchers with a BCBA or BCBA-D. It is also appropriate for psychologists who conduct behavioral assessments and treatments. This should also qualify as psychology CEUs, but I did not see this option listed above.

Hagopian and colleagues (2015/2017) have suggested that self-injurious behavior (SIB) that is automatically reinforced presents as three subtypes. Subtype 1 consists of differentiation between the alone/no interaction and the play control conditions. This form of SIB is generally responsive to alternative reinforcement alone. Subtype 2 SIB consists of a lack of differentiation between those FA conditions and is not generally responsive to alternative reinforcement. Subtype 3 is Subtype 2 SIB that presents with self-restraint. This study aimed to prospectively identify, from standard functional analyses (FA), whether similar subtypes present with stereotypic behavior. Two types of treatment evaluations followed the FAs of stereotypy. In one, an Augmented Competing Stimulus Assessment (A-CSA), which assessed competing stimuli to stereotypy. In the other, the effects of prompting and reinforcement for appropriate behavior was examined in four classroom contexts where stereotypy was observed to occur. There are currently 12 participants across the two experiments. Subtypes have emerged and treatment effects have and have not been obtained with alternative reinforcement. Treatment results will be discussed with the Subtyping obtained in the FA as context. Interobserver agreement data were collected in all experimental conditions and mean IOA was consistently above 85% for all dependent measures.

Extended alone or ignore assessments are often conducted to determine whether challenging behavior is maintained by automatic reinforcement. The current study conducted a consecutive case series analysis of over 60 children and young adults who completed extended alone or ignore assessments as part of their admission to an intensive treatment center for challenging behavior. We evaluated the variability and average level of targeted behavior across topographies of challenging behavior and assessment types (alone or ignore). Minimal differences were identified when comparing variability in alone vs. ignore assessments. Across topographies, some behaviors were associated with less variability across sessions compared to others (e.g., pica was generally exhibited with very little variability across sessions). Results are presented in the context of guidelines for what clinicians should expect when conducting extended alone or ignore assessments as well as future research directions for identifying aspects of reinforcement history that might contribute to differing patterns of responding in these types of assessments.

Functional analyses are assessments that demonstrate cause and effect relationships. As such, the gold standard when applying behavior analytic services should be the use of this methodology regardless of applications (e.g., to reduce problem behavior or to teach appropriate behavior). In this symposium, we have three papers that will be looking at functional analysis methodology and data analysis: 1) to assess and develop intervention to treat aggression exhibited by individuals with a traumatic brain injury; 2) to provide a decision model with respect to conducting functional analyses of problem behavior in practice and 3) regarding interpretation of functional analysis data. Each presentation will elucidate the unique variables associated with application of functional analysis methodology as well as discuss implications for practice and future research.

BCBAs

This panel will present a model for conducting functional analysis of proximal direct-acting and generative effects of taught and emergent operant and higher-order operant competencies and capabilities extending over developmental and habilitative timeframes.

Practitioners and researchers interested in the design and management of complex curriculum based paths of treatment for the verbal behavior/cognitive habilitation or advancement of individuals presenting with learning challenges and deficits

Verbal Development Theory (VBT) has focused on which cusps and capabilities are related to and/or necessary for the devlopment of advanced verbal repertoires. Also of interest are the relations between and among different types of complex verbal relations. This current body of research extends the findings supporting VBT. In the first paper, the author investigated the relations between gradients of bi-directional naming (BiN) and the emergence of arbitrarily applicable relations in young children. The author of the second paper investigated the aquisition of BiN in both monoloingual children and children who were English language learners. In the third paper, the author investigated whether an intensive tact procedure was effective in increasing joint attention responses in preschoolers who previously did not demonstrate the initiation of joint attention. The results of this research expand on what we know about the acquisition of complex verbal behavior.

Behavior Anlayst Supervisors, advanced practioners

There is growing interest in children’s acquisition of complex language repertoires across domains of behavior analysis. In three experiments, I studied the sources of reinforcement for bidirectional naming (BiN) and the implications of the naming continuum on the emergence of arbitrarily-applicable relations (AAR). In Experiment 1, I tested the correlation between repeated pairings of auditory and visual stimuli (defined by the presentation of naming experiences using a storybook) and emergence of BiN. Listener responses significantly increased across three repeated experiences, suggesting the emergence of unidirectional naming (UniN); however, speaker data remained low. In Experiment 2, I tested the role of echoics on the emergence of BiN. The data suggested that echoic responding was not significantly related to BiN. I then tested the effects of the proximity of visual and auditory stimuli on the emergence of BiN using repeated stimulus pairings (tact experience). While the degree of BiN was not reliably affected by proximity conditions, results of the study showed the emergence of untrained language relations. I discuss these findings with regards to the relation between the joining of listener and speaker responses, the establishment of BiN, and the emergence of AAR.

In this study, I assessed the bidirectional naming (BiN) capabilities of 16 English Language Learners (ELL) and monolingual English preschool-aged students. Participants were divided into 2 group and assessed for the presence of BiN, in English and Spanish, using novel familiar stimuli. Group I consisted of ELL students while Group II was made up of native English-speaking students. Preliminary results showed that all only 1 participant demonstrated the presence of BiN across both languages, while all others, regardless of their native language, demonstrated higher degrees of unidirectional naming (UNi) or BiN in English. Subsequently, these students were matched based on levels UNi and underwent a repeated probe procedure using a simultaneous treatment design. The experimenters used novel sets of familiar stimuli during each intervention session to test the effects of this procedure and to compare the degree of BiN across ELL and monolingual English students. Results showed increases in untaught listener and speaker responses for monolingual English students and variable levels of responding for English Language Learners.

This symposium involves three presentations, each of which pertain to Kantor’s interbehavioral field construct and its relevance to behavior analysis. The first of these presentations pertains to the field construct itself. The presentation will describe the fundamental features of the field construct and address potential misunderstandings related to various aspects of it. The second presentation builds upon the first, and focuses on the implications of the field construct for both research and application. Indeed, the implications of the field construct for the research and practice areas of behavior analysis are often less clear, and therefore specific attention is given to these areas. Examples of contemporary research and popular areas of practice are provided and considered in field perspective, and implications for future field-based research and practice are provided. Finally, the third presentation focuses on Relational Frame Theory, and especially on recent conceptual developments within this area of research. Current models of conceptualizing derived relational responding are described, and the relationship between these models and the interbehavioral field construct are highlighted. Taken together, these presentations build upon each other and highlight how the field construct may be relevant to the ongoing development of behavior analysis.

This presentation is an intermediate/advanced level and appropriate for BCBA's interested in learning about conceptual advances/development in the field - including both researchers and clinicians. Graduate students may also be interested in the presentation as it pertains to their educational development, research interests, etc.

One might say that the treatment that launched applied behavior analysis began with a commitment to help little Dicky, a 3 ½ year old boy with autism (Wolf, Risley & Mees, 1964). The treatment was an amazing story of a successful marriage of science and clinical wisdom. Now, over 50 years later, it is evident that applied behavior analysis has both expanded and shrunk. Expansion is seen in the 2018 Annual Report of the Behavior Analysis Certification Board: 35,286 professionals certified to practice behavior analysis and 51,507 technicians registered to assist them. Most of the recipients of these practices are children and adults with autism and developmental disabilities. Among the costs of taking behavior analysis to scale has been the shrinking of what it means to be an applied behavior analyst. Both science and clinical wisdom seem to have moved to the margins and other considerations have taken center stage. We will examine some of the changes that appear to have occurred, including ossification of protocols, training and supervision in decontextualized environments, and a focus on structural rather than functional approaches to treatment. We will also examine what appears to be a misunderstanding or misapplication of what constitutes evidence-based practice. Finally, we will consider contingencies at work in the current culture that may account for many of these changes; and we will offer some observations on how the field might recapture what has been lost as it continues moving forward.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Complex mission-oriented operational environments such as space exploration seem incompatible with the rigor and control that define the behavior analytic approach. Yet, the inherent risks, strategic value, and public investment in these missions require applying the best science available to enable success. This presentation will describe the parallels between behavior analytic principles and spaceflight operations, review selected historical and recent applications of behavioral science in astronauts and other teams in isolated, confined, and extreme environments, and describe opportunities for applied behavior analysis as part of integrated multidisciplinary efforts to enable future mission success and support those who work, live, serve, and explore on the final frontier.

Scientists, lab/department/program directors, agency program administrators

Dr. Pete Roma is Senior Scientist and Director of the Behavioral Health & Performance Laboratory at NASA Johnson Space Center. He also holds adjunct appointments at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, the University of Kansas, the University of California—Irvine, the University of Texas at Austin, and Rice University. Prior to joining NASA, he trained and worked with space research pioneer Dr. Joseph V. Brady and behavioral economics pioneer Dr. Steven R. Hursh studying individual and environmental influences on cooperative behavior in high-performing teams. At NASA, the BHP Laboratory specializes in multidisciplinary longitudinal research and countermeasure development to support individual and team behavioral health, performance, and adaptation in isolated, confined, and extreme operational environments. Through support from NASA’s Human Research Program, Space Biology Program, and Systems Maturation Team as well as the US Army Medical Research and Materiel Command (MRMC) and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), recent and ongoing efforts include integrated investigations of human physical and behavioral health, performance, and biopsychosocial adaptation over time in NASA’s Human Exploration Research Analog (HERA) and 20-ft Chamber facilities, the Hawai’i Space Exploration Simulation and Analog (HI-SEAS) habitat, the Russian Institute for Biomedical Problems’ SIRIUS/NEK chamber, Concordia and Neumayer Stations in Antarctica, and the International Space Station.

With the current high demand for BCBAs, we have also seen an increase in university programs offering applied behavior analysis (ABA) programs at the undergraduate and graduate levels. To ensure quality education and preparation for clinical services, program curriculums should be aligned with the theoretical background of ABA as well as best practices for training essential skills. This symposium will explore important aspects that should be considered when teaching and supervising undergraduate- and graduate-level students in ABA programs. First, Isvânia Alves will present the conclusions of a project that identified controversies and disagreements related to basic principles and concepts among behavior analytical textbooks and field experts. In addition, Isvânia a will present a decision-making model to assist in selecting objectives when teaching and providing supervision to undergraduate students. Next, Maegan Pisman will discuss potential strategies and guidelines for effective and ethical remote supervision for students in university practicum courses. Maegan will conclude with possible areas for research related to online teaching and supervision. Darlene Crone-Todd will serve as the discussant.

Instructors, BCBAs providing remote supervision, VCS of ABA programs

One of the roles a supervisor might have within applied behavior analysis regards the assurance that the decision-making process for interventions is conceptually sound. In the past few years our group has developed, implemented, evaluated, analyzed and redesigned a decision-making model aimed at content and behavioral objectives selection for teaching undergraduate students. In our last analysis-redesign iteration, we found inconsistencies, controversies or disagreements in regard to what defines some basic behavioral concepts and principles, such as environment, behavior, operant behavior, respondent behavior, antecedent, among others. Additionally, when we submitted these concepts and principles analysis to be reviewed by behavior analysts (i.e., content experts), the conceptual controversies appeared in some of the suggestions they made. The purpose of this paper is to present our decision-making model in its latest form, present and discuss a few of the controversies we found during our analysis, and highlight the importance of performing a concept or principle analysis when selecting content in areas in which conceptual disagreements might hinder or decelerate student learning and affect the decision-making process for interventions, if these disagreements are not explicit or discussed.

Different models of intervention and their effectiveness and efficacy have been studied a lot in USA. Most of them focused on the intensity measured by the numbers of hours of service children with disabilities received. In this symposium we will look at several different packages and intensity of ABA interventions across different settings and countries. Europe has different systems of health, education and social care compared to USA so in some countries the systems and services like early intervention may be completely missing for children with ASD and other developmental disorders. In addition to those differences, even when existent, eclectic models compared to evidence-based and specifically ABA programs, are prevalent. These papers will talk about evidence-based possible models, comparing different intensity and application across various settings. In addition, we will talk about the process and the time a child with developmental disorder needs to go from detection to reach intervention, and provide some research- based insight on how to improve that and then, what type of intervention is the most effective.

Service providers, supervisors, academics

Obtaining a reliable and timely diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a large problem in most Low-and-Mid Income Countries (LMIC). The problem lies mostly in the lack of trained professionals and access to reliable screening/diagnostic tools which are often to expensive and culturally inappropriate for those countries. Bosnia and Hercegovina (B&H) is such a county, where children with ASD often stay undetected and without appropriate intervention. We analyzed medical documentation and tested 126 children ages 23 to 94 months, with detected severe developmental delays. Although parents reported developmental problems in their children on average at the age of 17 months, it took 812 visits to professionals (>6 per child) over several months (mean 16.8, range 2-52) to get the diagnosis. Only 8 children (6.3%) of our sample received a diagnosis referring to autism. However, when these children were tested with the Childhood Autism Rating Scale (Second Edition), 68 of them (54%) were rated in the severe autistic range. In order to solve such high rates of undetected and undiagnosed children with ASD in B&H we developed the EDUS Protocol for Autism Screening which is a functional behavioral screening tool created by following the DSM-V diagnostic criteria and aimed to help professionals in diagnosing autism in B&H. We will discuss the barriers to an early childhood diagnosis of ASD in B&H and the development of the EDUS Protocol for Autism Screening as the first step forward to an early diagnosis of ASD enabling access to early intervention programs.

The ABAI Task Force on International Education has been working since January to create a model to improve educational opportunities and develop formal recognition of behavior analysts that could be adapted for individual countries. Constituents from Brazil, Italy, Mexico, South Africa, and Spain will provide an update on the task force’s progress.We welcome the attendance of all those interested in this effort.

Francesca degli Espinosa has worked with children with autism for more than 20 years. Her longstanding clinical and research interests are in advanced applications of contemporary analyses of verbal behavior (Horne & Lowe, 1996; Lowenkron, 1998, 2008; Michael, Palmer, & Sundberg, 2011) as a basis for teaching generalized verbal repertoires and, thereby, as a means of minimizing the need to teach specific individual verbal responses. She was the lead clinician for the Southampton Childhood Autism Program at the University of Southampton, the first UK-based EIBI outcome study (Remington et al., 2007), results of which formed the basis of her Ph.D. She currently runs a small diagnostic, behavioral, and skills assessment clinic in Southampton and teaches applied behavior analysis in the graduate program at the University of Salerno, Italy, her home country, where she also continues to mentor Italian BCBAs.

Ilana Gerschlowitz lives in Johannesburg, South Africa, and is the mother of three boys. She completed her B.Com (LLB) (commerce and law degree) in 1998 at the University of the Witwatersrand and was subsequently admitted and practiced as an attorney. In 2004 when her oldest son, David, was diagnosed with autism at the age of 20 months, she immersed herself in research to find solutions.

In 2009 she hosted the landmark Challenging Children Conference, which successfully provided a platform for the introduction of ABA to South African parents and professionals.

Ms. Gerschlowitz is the founding director of the Star Academy (Star), an affiliate of the US-based Center for Autism and Related Disorders. Now 10 years old, Star has provided access to ABA programs to more than 230 children around the country with autism or related disorders, as well as to children in Ghana, Zimbabwe, Rwanda, Mauritius, and Zambia. Other Star projects include providing ABA instruction to underprivileged children in Johannesburg and a program called Catch Up Kids, which helps children overcome learning challenges, including those with ADHD.

In 2015 Ms. Gerschlowitz was recognized for her work in education with the CEO Global Award for Africa’s Most Influential Woman in Business and Government in the Education and Private Sector for Region, Country, and Continent. In 2018 she was a finalist for the Europcar Jewish Women in Leadership Award. She is the author of Saving My Sons: A Journey With Autism, published in 2019 and which helps light the way for many parents coping with autism or learning difficulties in Africa.

Dr. Agustín Daniel Gómez Fuentes has a degree in psychology from Universidad Veracruzana, a master’s in psychology (behavior analysis) from Western Michigan University, and a doctorate in behavioral science from the University of Guadalajara. Dr. Gómez Fuentes has been recognized as a National Level I Investigator by the Mexican National System of Investigators of the National Council of Science and Technology. In addition, he has a PROMEP profile and has been director of more than 80 theses on psychology and education, as well as published more than 16 articles in specialized scientific journals on those same topics. Additionally, he has published 10 book chapters and 3 specialized books on behavioral science and education. His research interests are mainly focused on linguistic modes and their relationships, as well as historical and philosophical analysis of psychological concepts.

Dr. Gómez Fuentes was a member of the program committee for the 2013 ABAI International Conference in Mérida, Mexico, and truly instrumental to its success and subsequent positive effects encouraging the growth of behavior analysis in Mexico. He promoted the conference and its call for papers among his colleagues at Universidad Veracruzana, gave a talk as part of a symposium, and chaired two other sessions.

Gladys Williams leads the program on autism and verbal behavior at David Gregory School in New Jersey. She is the founder and director of Centro CIEL in Barcelona and Oviedo, Spain, and of LearnMore, Inc., an institution that promotes effective teaching strategies. She earned her doctoral degree in special education and behavior analysis from Teachers College, Columbia University, where she was a recipient of the Fred S. Keller Research Grant to study language development and autism. She has won several awards for her contributions to the field of applied behavior analysis. Dr. Williams has published 18 articles in peer-reviewed journals such as the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, the American Journal on Mental Retardation, Teaching Exceptional Children, and others. She has been a guest reviewer for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Behavior and Social Issues, and The Behavior Analyst. She is a frequent guest speaker in Europe and South America. Dr. Williams’s main objective is to implement effective strategies to teach functional verbal language to nonverbal children and to investigate strategies and techniques to facilitate social skills and functional language acquisition. Her quest is to use behavioral technology to benefit children around the world.

Dogs are described as “man’s best friend” and dog ownership is at an all-time high. Nevertheless, the nature of the human-dog bond has only recently been explored and much work in this field focuses on the structure of the relationship. While this might describe what the relationship looks like, it does not address what maintains the relationship nor does it identify the variables we can manipulate to produce, maintain, or enhance that relationship. Taking a behavior analytic approach, our research has sought to identify the functions maintaining human-dog interactions from the dog’s perspective. This talk will highlight our work investigating dogs’ preference for different human interactions, what stimuli typically function as reinforcers for dog behavior, and how we can use those to address behavioral issues, such as separation-related problem behavior in owned dogs and kennel reactivity in shelter dogs. Audience members will learn about the current state of knowledge of dog social behavior, how behavioral science can help enhance the human-dog relationship by taking the dogs’ perspective through preference and reinforcer efficacy tests, and how that knowledge can be applied to solve common behavioral issues in companion and shelter dogs.

Board certified behavior analysts, applied animal behaviorists, graduate students, dog owners and enthusiasts.

Dr. Feuerbacher is an Assistant Professor of Companion Animal Behavior and Welfare at Virginia Tech and director of the Applied Animal Behavior & Welfare Lab in the Department of Animal & Poultry Science. She earned her Ph.D. in Psychology at the University of Florida in the UF Canine Cognition and Behavior Lab and her Masters in Behavior Analysis at the University of North Texas in the Organization for Reinforcement Contingencies with Animals. Prior to joining Virginia Tech, she was an Assistant Professor at Carroll College in Helena, MT, where she led the canine program in which students trained foster dogs during the academic year. She has worked as a shelter behavior consultant, offered group dog training classes and private behavior consultations, and is co-founder of the Shelter Dog Institute. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and a Certified Professional Dog Trainer. Her research at Virginia Tech focuses on understanding dog behavior and learning from a behavior analytic perspective, using applied behavior analysis to solve behavioral issues, and identifying interventions that improve shelter dog welfare. She has earned several awards for her behavior analytic research and her dedication to the theoretical foundations of behavior analysis. She is passionate about humane, effective animal training, and working with owners, trainers, and shelter staff to improve our interactions with animals through behavior analysis.

The authors of the three studies presented in this symposium evaluated effects of consequence manipulations on skill acquisition in children and adults with autism. Valencia and her colleagues investigated effects of various combinations of differential reinforcement magnitude for prompted and unprompted correct responses and found that in some cases, acquisition was more rapid with differential reinforcement. Breeman and her colleagues observed that clinicians commonly made errors of omission of prescribed consequences, and compared effects of low-integrity and high-integrity treatment conditions on skill acquisition. These researchers found that acquisition was almost twice as rapid when teaching procedures were implemented as programmed. Finally, Paranczak and Fisher compared rate of independent manding and acquisition of novel mands across two conditions: with and without a lag schedule requirement. The lag schedule led to the acquisition of novel mands with both participants. Each of these studies addressed practical considerations that should be made by those designing and managing programs of instruction for individuals with autism.

Behavior Analysts involved in the education of individuals with autism and developmental disabilities.

For the past thirty years Early Intensive Behavioral Intervention (EIBI) has been implemented in Norway and other European countries. In most countries it has been a challenge to deliver EIBI according to suggested minimum standards. The most common challenges have been to have properly trained staff implement the intervention, to get parents involved, and to provide intensive intervention (a minimum of 20 hours per week). As a result of this, outcomes have generally been moderate. However, outcomes of EIBI have been much better than “treatment as usual”. We will present two-year outcome data from a group of 30 children that were provided 10 hours a week and a group of 30 children that were provided 20 hours a week. We will also present data from another site were user satisfaction was evaluated in a reversal design across seven cases that received video-based supervision.

BCBAs, supervisors in EIBI programs.

We have developed a quality standard based on the logic of the Periodic Service Review to evaluate and improve quality of individual EIBI programs. The programs are provided through in the two largest cities in Norway, Bergen and Oslo. Based on the core elements of EIBI we have made a 36-item checklist that we consider to represent an optimal EIBI program. Some of the items are given a higher weight (such as intensity of intervention and therapist training). The standards have measurable targets (done/not done) for all involved parties (supervisors, therapists, parents, community staff). We report quality data from 60 individual programs collected over a two year period and discuss what we have found to be the most common challenges we face in providing EIBI of high quality.

We compared the use videoconference with on site supervision of EIBI cases in a reversal design. Supervision was provided either on site or using video conference every second week. Questionnaires were developed to evaluate to what degree videoconference influenced the perceived quality of supervision. The questionnaires consisted of 12 items that were scored on Likert scales and measured program supervision, registrations/data collection, preparedness, and technical quality. Both the supervisor and the supervisees evaluated their experiences across the supervision modes. We discuss our findings in terms of the perceived quality of supervision, potential for saving travel time saved and implications for caseload capacity.

Individualized treatment based on sufficient pre-treatment assessment is a feature of high-quality behavior analytic (BA) service delivery. The identification of effective reinforcers is a fundamental aspect of treatment intended to improve the adaptive behavior of BA service recipients. Evaluation of client choice and preference is a necessary initial step toward designing effective, individualized treatment. Two applied studies are presented that highlight methods for customizing treatment based on the evaluation of client choice and preference for individuals with autism. In the first study, Badger and Huntington (2019) demonstrated a reduction in vocal stereotypy using matched stimulation with high-preference music (e.g. hip-hop). This non-contingent matched stimulation music intervention was designed following the evaluation of participant preference with a competing stimulus assessment for different types of music via an alternating treatment design. The results indicated a reduction of vocal stereotypy during leisure activity time in the participant’s classroom setting. The second study investigated the role that client choice plays in selecting interventions with social validity. Huntington and Schwartz (2018) conducted video preference assessments with three service recipients prior to treatment commencing. Subsequent reversal designs demonstrated a reduction in target behavior levels when treatments were informed by the results of video preference assessments. Practices for optimizing treatment outcomes based on creative assessment of client choice and preference are considered.

Behavior Analysts

This study explores the use of noncontingent access to various samples of music stimuli (from 3 distinct music classes) as a strategy to reduce the immediate engagement of vocal stereotypy for a child with autism spectrum disorder. The use of noncontingent access to high preference music (NCM) as matched stimulation to effectively reduce the occurrence of vocal stereotypy has been demonstrated across multiple studies in behavior analytic research. This study examined the effect of this strategy on the levels of vocal stereotypy during unstructured free time in an attempt to enable greater access to socialization opportunities and reinforcement in the one participant’s natural environment. Results from an alternating treatments design comparing 3 distinct music treatment conditions (two neutral conditions and one high-preference condition) during unstructured leisure time showed a decrease in immediate levels of behavior across all conditions, with high-preference music emerging as the most effective treatment in reducing behavior in experimental and generalized settings. Implications for future research applying noncontingent access to music to skill acquisition and social engagement opportunities are discussed.

The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction is based on five pillars: Assessment, Curriculum, Instruction, Precision Teaching, and Generative Responding. This session will focus on how three different schools - Morningside Academy, Haugland Learning Center, and the Judge Rotenberg Center - have designed classroom management strategies, that when combined with effective coaching and Precision Teaching practices, produce significant learner outcomes. First, Hannah Jenkins, an elementary teacher at Morningside Academy, will describe how she modified elements of the evidence-based Good Behavior Game to promote positive reinforcement and teach cooperation and community building. Then, Pat Billman will detail how coaches at Haugland Learner Center have developed a school-wide, systematic modification of the Good Behavior Game to improve student academic and social-emotional behavior outcomes. Lastly, Jill Webber will describe how the Judge Rotenberg Center has worked with coaches from Morningside Teachers' Academy to develop a staff coaching model that focuses on effective classroom management and Precision Teaching procedures to improve student outcomes and shift the educational culture.

Teachers, Behavior Analysts, Psychologists

Good classroom management is a key factor in student success in all settings but can be especially important in classrooms that serve students with special needs. The Good Behavior Game is widely recognized as an evidence- based classroom management strategy. Haugland Learning Center(HLC), based in Columbus, Ohio, serves students with autism and other disabilities and uses variations of the Good Behavior Game to set students in a variety of classroom settings up for behavioral and academic success. This presentation will discuss how the use of the Good Behavior Game affects progress and outcomes, how HLC trains and coaches staff to implement effective classroom management strategies using the Good Behavior Game and how data are monitored to ensure continuous progress for individual students, classroom groups, and teachers. Our data indicate that students and staff perform better and reach more optimal academic and behavior outcomes when the Good Behavior Game is used consistently and reliably. Specific examples of student, classroom, staff and school academic and behavior data will be analyzed and discussed.

The Judge Rotenberg Education Center(JRC) is a residential school for students with severe disabilities. For the last two and a half years, JRC has had the privilege of learning from Morningside Teachers Academy(MTA) via onsite vists from MTA consultants. Work with MTA has focused on the Morningside Math Facts program, classroom management, and staff coaching. After the introduction of the Morningside Math Facts program, data demonstrated grade level equivalency gains of 1.8 years growth during the first 8 months. Additionally, staff coaching data show improved classroom management and increased student participation in the Morningside Math Facts program. Data collected during coaching sessions in the classroom have shown an increase in the amount of group responses and teacher praise statements and many staff and students report a pleasant change in the classroom environment. This presentation aims to discuss how the use of well- sequenced learning materials combined with application of good classroom management strategies inspired change in our educational department and continues to lead to better outcomes for our students and the lessons we've learned along the way.

The role of human behavior in climate change is well established—as is the core mission of behavior analysis—to impact behavior of social significance. Despite overwhelming evidence, an exhaustive review of the literature has shown that only a small portion of the published research topically related to climate change included an experimental evaluation of strategies to reduce emissions-producing behavior. Even if, “we reduce GHG emissions...consequences for people and their livelihoods will still be challenging but potentially more manageable…” (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, 2019 p.1). These findings call for effective, scalable strategies for impacting climate-relevant policy and behavior at all levels of community and organization. The promise of behavior analysis can be realized through unified mobilization of our efforts. This talk will provide overview of a strategic plan for greatly increasing collaborative efforts within and across behavioral science organizations. Actions that ABAI members can take as researchers, practitioners, and citizens will be pinpointed and listeners can identify how they might contribute to these efforts in collaboration with the task force. A subsequent symposium and panels will give additional insight into the efforts of the Climate Change Task Force for a coalition of behavior science organizations.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Private events and behavior-analytic perspectives concerning them has been in discord with traditional psychological accounts for decades. Interestingly, however, behavior analysis hasn't wavered much in its conceptualization of them as predominantly verbal in nature. To that end, the present symposium takes a unique look into the interestingly-sparse empirical literature relative to private events and subsequently posits progressive approaches to changing our relation to private events given a delay discounting empirical investigation. Findings are discussed and a trajectory of ABA relative to private events is provided.

beginner-intermediate

Previous research has suggested that impulsivity is character trait and thus, cannot be changed. However, recent research has demonstrated that Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) can change how people make choices when given selections between smaller-immediate vs. larger-delayed rewards. No research to date has evaluated the effect of ACT interventions on choice making when given a choice between avoidance vs. engaging in an aversive activity to access a reward. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effects of defusion exercises on participants’ choice making on a computer task which presented choices between a negative reinforcer (i.e., avoidance of an aversive sound) or a positive reinforcer following the presentation of an aversive stimulus (e.g., access to money following the presentation of an aversive sound). Defusion is a behavior analytic procedure that trains participants in how to respond in more flexible ways to aversive private events, rather than engaging immediately in previously negatively reinforced behavior. In this study, a multiple baseline design across participants was used to measure change in discounting before and after a brief ACT session (data in this submission is presented as discounting curves but will be presented as both curves and as a multiple baseline in the conference presentation). In general, participants discounted less steeply (i.e., selected to listen to the sound in order to earn money more often) following defusion training when compared to baseline.

Children can communicate through gestures (like pick-me-up or pointing) even before they begin to speak. Some gestures likely develop through social learning (like waving hello). Researchers have argued that other early gestures, like the pick-me-up gesture, cannot be learned through social learning (since adults do not gesture to be picked up). They have therefore proposed that these gestures are learned through ontogenetic ritualization, a kind of learning that critically involves role and dyad specificity. Ontogenetic ritualization is thought to differ from operant conditioning. In this presentation, on the basis of videotaped interactions between parents and children between six and twelve months of age, I argue that these early communicative gestures are likely learned through operant conditioning. I also discuss the possible developmental origins of pointing, ranging from operant conditioning to species-typical behavior. It is important to entertain the possibility that simple and well-established learning mechanisms account for children’s early gestures.

Anyone interested in the early communication of typically developing infants and toddlers as well as practitioners interested in designing interventions with clinical communication-disordered populations.