ABA Inside Track

Though Rob may prefer to hit PAWS when it comes to talking about canines, Jackie and Diana have a howling good time on this week's episode all about dog behavior and behavior analysis.  Wondering how functional analysis methodology can be used to treat dog challenging behavior? Or how shelter workers can actually be taught to train dogs on the cheap? Curious if Rob writes little stories about the...

To celebrate America's birthday, we're finally giving Jackie her wish and doing an entire episode devoted to puppies.  Specifically, dog behavior analysis.  After a montage of dog pictures featuring sad Sarah Mclachan music, dry your tears to prepare for some summer reading assignments in Errata.  Do you have ideas for ABA Inside Track episodes? Email us! Articles for next episode: Feuerbacher, E....

Not a day goes by that the treatment and care for children with autism and their families isn't in the news.  Sadly, many recent headlines have focused on the alarming challenges that these families face in looking for effective treatment (i.e., ABA) even with the sweeping changes to insurance coverage of autism treatment signed into law in nearly all the U.S.  Luckily, we had an amazing opportuni...

Ah, the beautiful summer weather is finally upon us.  And what better time to talk about how hard it is for some students to attend school.  Is it bad teaching? Permissive parents? School anxiety? How the heck are we supposed to find out the function of school refusal behavior? Fortunately, Dr. Christopher Kearney and colleagues have been studying the assessment and treatment of school refusal beh...

So, when does, "Mommy, I don't wanna go to school" move beyond a frustrating way to start the day to a serious problem? Next week, we're talking all about the phenomenon of school-refusal behavior and what you can do to help.  In the meantime we bring up some life-affirming quotes and get a glimpse at Rob's most prized possession. Articles for next episode: Kearney, C.A. & Silverman, W.K.  (1990)....

This week we're researching the age-old question: Will I be happier by doing stuff or just waiting for the world to reward me? In behavioral terms, we're discussing whether humans prefer contingent or noncontingent reinforcement.  After going over two excellent research articles exploring this question through the use of the ever-popular concurrent-chains procedure, Jackie and Diana expose their c...

You enter a hall full of all of your favorite things.  The old knight of the Crusade beckons you to him.  "Among you are the greatest delights known to humanity.  You may engage in whip-cracking tricks to earn them.  Or, I can give you one every now and again.  You must choose...but choose wisely."  And in that moment, you realize: you should have listened to that episode of ABA Inside Track about...

This week we're running the gamut of issues facing older adults with dementia.  We've got an article about hoarding items, an article about running a functional analysis, and an article about making people feel happy.  Spoiler alert: ice cream shops are an evidence-based way to bring joy.  But we could have told you that.   Articles discussed this episode: Donaldson, J.M., Trahan, M.A., & Kahng, S...

We're going beyond our years for next week's discussion all about research on behavioral gerontology.  But first, in errata, it's the return of the language master! And Diana is going nuts for a new eco-friendly straw. Articles for next episode: Donaldson, J.M., Trahan, M.A., & Kahng, S.  (2014).  An evaluation of procedures to increase cooperation related to hoarding in an older adult with dement...

Ever feel like college and graduate classes are too boring for our modern times? Wish there were a way to improve the lecturing experience? Well, you're in luck because special guest Dr. James Soldner agrees and visits the show to share the magic of Interteaching.  We'll run down his research on the subject and get a crash course on how this behavioral teaching methodology can be implemented for m...

Two big things to keep in mind as we prepare for a full-length episode on interteaching with special guest, Dr. James Soldner.  First, we find out the results of April's Autism Awareness fund drive to raise money for Autism Compassion Africa.  Let's just say that we don't think Whitney's school in Ghana will be running low on chairs anytime soon! Second, Rob goes Hollywood and takes the rest of th...

From vocal tics to biting nails, we've got you covered in this week's episode on the use of habit reversal.  Rob shares what might be the ultimate resource guide to this nifty treatment package while Diana and Jackie describe the long, hard road behavior analysis took to make habit reversal an accepted intervention for Tourette disorder.  That means, we're talking randomized controlled trials, peo...

Happy Earth Day, everyone! While we know not everyone will be spending today completely updating their lifestyle to be more eco-friendly, you can at least listen to one of our older episodes to hear a discussion of some research ideas on how you might go about being a bit kinder to the planet going forward. This episode was originally broadcast on April 26, 2017. Articles discussed this episode: C...

It's not quite RIRD; it's not quite CBT.  It's: Habit reversal! And it's what we'll be talking about in our full-length episode next week.  In the meantime Rob fears he's being entrapped by the BACB and we remind listeners to get CEs so we can donate all our fees to Autism Compassion Africa.   Only two weeks left in April so listen, listen, listen!!! Articles for next episode: Miltenberger, R.G.,...

As part of Autism Awareness Month, ABA Inside Track is donating all money from CE processing fees to Autism Compassion Africa , a nonprofit group dedicated to improving the treatment of individuals with autism in Western Africa.  Diana and I spoke with one of the organization's founders, Whitney Hammel, about the work so far, about the newly founded school in Ghana, and about the challenges and re...

Are you ok? Would a podcast all about teaching empathy skills make you feel better? What if I told you that this week's discussed articles have fun puppet videos? Strange face prompting? How about really promising results in mastery of identifying and showing empathy among participants with an autism diagnosis? Yeah, yeah, it'll be fine.  ABA Inside Track is here for you with a great big podcast-y...

Next week's episode will be all about teaching empathy.  And who better to help us kick off this preview episode than some very special guests: puppets! After that, we share an excerpt from our upcoming interview with Whitney Hammel of Autism Compassion Africa to highlight the work of her and her staff in bringing treatment of individuals with autism to Ghana.  We're so motivated to help out that...

We're back with another full-length episode on the subject of ethics in the workplace.  This week, we're all convinced that you probably need an ethics guru to steer your ship with best practices.  And it'd be great if they understood confidentiality laws too, otherwise, your files might end up at the mercy of a data hamburglar! While you start hiring this magical individual, we'll do our best to...

Put down that Facebook! Drop those Twitters! You can't risk a moment more on social media without first listening to this important episode on the ethics of social media.  Think it's ok to share pictures of your fellow BCBAs relaxing on the beach on Instragram? What about Snapchatting with colleagues to discuss possible solutions a client with SIB? Y'know what: Don't even try to answer without lis...

Because one episode wasn't enough, we've got TWO big ethics episodes coming up throughout the rest of March.  And not just any ethics! We're going to dive deep into the pitfalls inherent in social media and technology.  How the heck can I post inappropriate pictures online and stay on the right side of my ethical obligations (answer: you can't!) and is it possible to teach my staff and co-workers...

This week I had the pleasure of interviewing Katherine McLaughlin of Sexuality and Developmental Disability Workshops , creator of a sex education curriculum for individuals with disabilities.  We talk about how she came to this topic, the process of developing her curriculum, the challenges educators face in bringing up sex education, and why it's about time sexuality is being discussed in specia...

We're celebrating 50 episodes of ABA Inside Track by going where BCBAs are wary to tread: mental health! We discuss why ABA and mental health stopped getting along and discuss ideas as to how behavior analysis can make a difference in treating mental illness.  Then we save a nice chunk of time for Rob to go full hippy in his tear down of Big Pharma.  But, can any of this content help Diana get ove...

Next week we're doing an historical dive into the past of behavior analysis to discuss just why it is that ABA isn't "cool" when treating mental illness and to figure out just what ABA has to offer the field of mental health.  But first, it's Wilford vs. Willard, BCBAs vs. outdated New York laws, and Rob's ranting vs. Rob's raving in a no-holds barred edition of Errata. Articles for next week: Har...

Take a deep dive into the Matrix...Training research world with special guest Cormac MacManus.  Find out everything you needed to know about this efficient and powerful teaching tool but were afraid to ask.  In addition to learning the inside scoop about Cormac's matrix training/video modelling mash-up research, we'll explore the origin story of Irish Batman, Jackie's slow descent into podcasting...

::RING RING:: Hello, we know you're out there.  We can feel you now.  We know that you're afraid.  You're afraid of efficient teaching methodology.  I don't know the future.  I didn't come here to tell you how to train individual exemplars.  I came here to tell you about matrix training.  I'm going to hang up this phone, and then I'm going to podcast to BCBAs what you don't want them to hear.  I'm...