ABA Inside Track

Just because something is popular doesn't make it right. And this week we talk about the most unethical example of this in reviewing the costs and dangers of fad treatments. While we spend a good deal of time discussing sensory integration, the hypothesis behind it as a treatment, and its effectivness (or lack thereof) in behavioral treatment, we also review some of the other fad treatments we've...

Happy 2024, y'all! And boy are we coming in hot with the latest fads in treament and your ethical responsibility to respond skeptically to them. After that we chat with Dr. John Guercio about what's new with effective programming curricula for adults with disabilities and take a dive into the latest in error correction research. Then it all goes off a cliff with our most dramatic Grab Bag episode...

It's our annual year-end wrap up show with our podcasting pal, Matt Cicoria from Behavioral Observations ! And boy, is there a lot to review from 2023. First, a somber start with a remembrance of some of the amazing behavior analysts the field lost this past year. Then a discussion of some of the biggest issues facing our profession: Supervision! Ed reform! Public Policy reform! Plus, nonsense end...

While we've talked about organizational behavior management for business and leadership and and collaboration in the behavior analytic world, what if we put it all that research together and applied it to the school setting? I bet you'd get something like this week's episode. Add in special guest Dr. Bruce Tinor leading the conversation with additional experience as a school principal and behavior...

Let's get down to some nuts and bolts treatment updates this week with one of the most common maintaining variables for problem behavior: escape! We'll start off with a podcast favorite in the form of a treatment-choice flowchart then add in our combined near-60 years of experience with some illustrative case examples to model how to judge which treatment is right for your client. It's like a day...

Between sharing our Christmas Movie watching habits and preparing for the coldest months with a warm book club, we haven't a moment to lose in sharing out this month's episodes. But we're opening a gift early because we've finally been able to catch up with special guest, Dr. Bruce Tinor, to share about leadership in the schools before having a little debate about the best escape-maintained behavi...

When you think of dog training, do you usually think of movie stunt dogs like Lassie and the dog from Frasier ? Well, dogs do a lot more than cinematic tricks and the science of behavior has a lot to add to the science of assessing and treating dog behaviors. This week Ran Courant-Morgan and Dr. Stephanie Keesey-Phelan from the Dog Behavior Institute take a walk over to the podcast to share what b...

Working with other professionals is hard. And sometimes it may be because your organization doesn't really know how to support meaningful collaboration outside of the traditional practice of reminding you to stay in your BCBA lane. This week special guest and SLP, Rose Griffin , joins us to kick our ideas for collaboration into the next level. Like, did you know that multidisciplinary and interdis...

Since we all spend about 6-8 hours doing it every day, most of us take the ability to fall and stay asleep for granted. But for many families, getting everyone to sleep is a constant source of stress. This week, Emily Varon of Ready, Set, Sleep stops by to share where research on sleep treatment has brought the field and what the practice of supporting sleep habits can add to working with autistic...

Because you demanded it, and because Rob begged for it, we're FINALLY talking all about Direct Instruction. For our Fall Listener Choice episode we dig into the key features that make Direct Instruction earn those capital letters including what makes DI so effective, tips for running killer DI lessons, and some ways that any BCBA can start to dip their toes into this fabulous teaching technology....

Between wrapping up spooky season and Diana's high school friends tracking her down, we're sure thankful to have the time to discuss all the episodes coming out in this long-ish month. First, we finally get to talk about Direct Instruction, thanks to our awesome patrons . Then we discuss new ways to think about collboration, behavior analysis in the training of dogs, and treatment of sleep problem...

It's been a while since we've recorded audio from a poster session. But, by golly, Rob decided to bust out his portable recorder and make nice with the students at the Thompson Center for Autism 2023 Conference. We love getting to hear about research in its early days from special education to autism treatment to neuroscience. We had so much fun, we didn't even get to use all of our complimentary...

A nice young man took pity on old-man Rob at this year's BABA conference and gave him a quick tutorial on how to use standard celeration charts. And he was so nice, he agreed to come on the show to do the same for everyone else. This week Jared Van (yes, with the awesome TikToks on education and ABA) plots our listen-speak fluency on precision teaching, effective uses of the SCC, and gets us talki...

It all started with a post about graduations vs. termination of services. This week Landria Green joins us to discuss her thoughts on the matter and how it related to clinical comfort in supporting clients and families. And don't think that's a synonym for competence either! Join us for a great discussion of the next frontier of BCBA professional reflection. This episode is available for 1.0 LEARN...

As Will Smith once said, "Parents just don't understand." But maybe that's because our parent training practices aren't good enough to support their ability to learn behavioral and instructional methodologies. This week we revisit our own practices and what recent research tells us about improving them. We chat about supporting social skills, academic instruction, and behavioral interventions all...

We're starting off the month having returned from a great trip to the Thompson Center for Autism 2023 Conference. Hurricane Lee even gave us another day to spend in Missouri to ponder all the exciting episodes coming your way. First, we revisit strategies for improving your parent training methods. Then we're joined by special guests Landria Green  and Jared Van to discuss scope of comfort (NOT co...

As a special treat for Supervision September, we're re-releasing last year's Fall Book Club pick, "Crucial Conversations" in the original full 2 hour audio. Interested in earning these 2 CEs for FREE as well as other discounts, early access to episodes, and a chance to vote on topics? Join us on Patreon ! To celebrate the joys of supervision, we read the popular business book, "Crucial Conversatio...

Free for everyone, it's our Supervision September Book Club episode! And, because it was offered for free by Dr. John Austin this past summer, we decided to check out "Results". But did we think the book gave us everything we needed to supervise a crack team of BCBAs to maximum productivity? Or were we left feeling penniless and psychologically unsafe in a metaphorical office of despair? Either wa...

This week we've got bona-fide ABA business owner and BCBA supervisor, Kim Heald, joining the show to discuss scaling up your supervision systems within your organization. And, if that wasn't enough, Kim shares a new type of business behavior assessment and gives us our results. Can you guess which one scores the highest in loud-mouthed jerkitude? This episode is available for 1.0 SUPERVISION CEU....

It's SUPERVISION SEPTEMBER! By listening to all of our episodes this month, you'll be able to accrue all your supervision continuing education requirements in your BCBA cycle. And, supervision talk is always a bunch of fun. We kick this month off by calling a meeting to tell everyone that your meetings are terrible and no one wants to go to them anymore. What's an enterprising supervisor BCBA to d...

Rob and Diana are sad to end summer vacation but are beyond pumped to start Supervision September! All the episodes you need to complete your Supervision CE requirements are here including: a Supervision Book Club on "Results" by Dr. John Austin, running awesome meetings, setting up supervision for your organization (w/ ABA boss, Kim Heald ), and a review of Sellers et al., 2016 from so many diffe...

As voted on by patrons, our Summer 2023 Listener Choice episode is all about working with our clients to support effective IEP services related to transition planning. Given the continuing need to support clients, parents, and educational teams in creating meaningful and rewarding adult outcomes after school ends, we take a look at ways this planning can be done best and with a focus on the self-d...

UNLOCKED from our Patreon page , it's the "Street Data" Book Club! Interested in more Book Clubs? Want to vote on what we read next? Feeling FOMO at getting this a full year late? Wish your 2 CEs for listening to the episode were FREE??? Join us on Patreon to get all of our episodes a week early, access to these bonus episodes, plus other goodies. As the summer wraps up and school begins in the U....

While we enjoy a little time off in the sun, here's the recording of our talk from the fall 2022 Thompson Center for Autism Conference on quality of life. We review the definitions, measurement systems, and meaningful ways to include QoL into your clients' treatment goals and plans. Interested in a visual support? Feel free to have a look at our slides from the talk using the link below. Presentat...

To celebrate our 250th episode, we wanted to take a look back—-WAAAAAY back—into the history of behavior analysis. To help us delve into the dusty storage closets of the past, Dr. Mirari Elcoro joins us to examine a less-known chapter from Dr. Murray Sidman's career when behavior analysis and neuroscience teamed up. Then we review one way to learn from history using all the old junk your unversity...