ABA on Tap

Send us Fan Mail In this brewing session, despite a wealth of choices, Dan and Mike focus on the basic ingredients in looking at a medical model in comparison to a social model. As behavior analysts, it's easy to see the stakeholder as the principal agent for change, and overlook our impetus for changing behavior, the surrounding environment. Models of disability take this as their basic kern...

Send us Fan Mail The terms 'empirically validated' and 'evidence-based' get thrown around a lot, specifically in describing the prospects of any given medically-based treatment. ABA is no stranger to the phrasing and enjoys a prominent place on the list of such treatments--namely the top of the list. This, however, does not mean that treatments without empirical validation may...

Send us Fan Mail The terms 'empirically validated' and 'evidence-based' get thrown around a lot, specifically in describing the prospects of any given medically-based treatment. ABA is no stranger to the phrasing and enjoys a prominent place on the list of such treatments--namely the top of the list. This, however, does not mean that treatments without empirical validation may...

Send us Fan Mail ABA on Tap is proud to present a very special, super tasty, full-bodied brew for this episode. It is our honor to host Stephen and April Smith from the 3 Pie Squared--ABA Business Leaders podcast. Dan and Mike were extremely grateful to have appeared as guests on their podcast in November of 2023. Stephen and April cover a variety of topics all under the umbrella of ethically and...

Send us Fan Mail Super craft brew for this episode. Dan and Mike take time to interview a parent, Jess, with her own, very unique experience with ASD and ABA intervention. Jess is a sole-provider with two young children, her youngest on the spectrum. She lends her insight and experiences regarding sibling rivalry, managing extended family attitudes about disability and services, as well as making...

Send us Fan Mail Continuing with the parenting brew, Dan and Mike lean yet again on a recipe from Jeremy Brown and Autism Parenting Magazine (link below). As was the case with the first two episodes of the season, the article provides a perfect blend of basic ingredients for cool, crisp and balanced parenting. This episode reviews all tips and strategies outlined in the article and expands to pare...

Send us Fan Mail Jeremy Brown, author of "11 Things Not To  Do With An Autistic Child," an insightful article easily found online, provides so much to contemplate. that Dan and Mike pulled a second brew from his basic ingredients. To be honest, they simply take ingredients 6-11 from the list for this particular concoction. ABA on Tap is thankful for the author's parenting insight an...

Send us Fan Mail Welcome to Season 5 of ABA on Tap! In an effort to bring more support directly to parents, as well as ABA professionals, Mike and Dan kick off the season with an article review (link below). Right in line with the objective, an article from a parenting magazine about 'what not to do' with autistic children is reviewed for this brew. As has been the recipe on ABA on Tap,...

Send us Fan Mail It has been an incredible run for ABA on Tap in 2023! Mike and Dan take a moment to recap all our discussions and themes. They give some hints about what is to come in season 5. Most importantly, Mike and Dan give THANKS! to all of you out there who collaborate with us and  support the show  in any way. ABA on TAP appreciates YOU! Enjoy this well-rounded ale and CHEERS to the new...

Send us Fan Mail ABA is often seen as home-based in terms of its service location. While this may at times extend to the premise of 'community,' the procedures and protocols can appear very similar from place to place. However, just like behavior, the environment can have a substantial influence on how ABA can be practiced and implemented. One particular environment that presents clear c...

Send us Fan Mail Mike and Dan continue to bubble and brew over the challenges in the field of ABA intervention, and specifically the undervalued role of the RBT. They provide impressions and personal tales regarding their own professional transition from possibly the best reimbursement rates in the history of ABA intervention to a new outfit where said rates will be slashed by 60% and now match th...

Send us Fan Mail Private equity has entered the ABA services game with great fervor, making a tremendous impact on the field as a whole. In this episode, Mike and Dan take a close look at some 'crisis' elements created by the infusion of private equity and an aim to generate revenue, at times at the expense of the quality of services and client outcomes. At the same time, it can be disce...

Send us Fan Mail From vertically-oriented wall schedules to PECS to token and choice boards--ABA practitioners love their so-called 'visuals'. In this brewing session, Mike and Dan dissect the idea of these strange technologies to understand what is meant by 'visual,' especially if all parties involved are 'sighted' individuals. Taking the ideas of joint attention and...

Send us Fan Mail In observation of Autism Acceptance and Awareness Month, Mike and Dan examine a very poignant and sharp criticism of ABA intervention strategies (link is below). Reviewed exactly as published on the website ' autisticscienceperson.com ,' the current brew integrates several points of disapproval, as written by an author that identifies as autistic. While ABA on Tap welcom...

Send us Fan Mail Beginning with one of the most foundational ingredients available for this brew, Mike and Dan lean on hearty handfuls of Diana Baumrind's nominal research on parenting styles from back in the 1960s. Fresh off a healthy pour on 'Parent Education,' it makes perfect sense for the behavioral brew to examine styles of parenting. Many new flavors and 'hints' of...

Send us Fan Mail ABA on Tap is proud to introduce Jennifer Stephens, a BCBA and clinical counselor, in this latest installment of our behavioral brew. Jennifer is owner/operator of the Stephens Consulting Group in Kentucky and also a long time listener of ABA on Tap. She took inspiration from our inaugural episode 'Why 40-hours?' and has graciously agreed to join as a guest and continue...

Send us Fan Mail In considering traditional approaches to ABA intervention and the importance of imitation as a key building block in learning, you have probably heard the directive (discriminative stimulus) 'Do This' as an essential part of so-called non-verbal imitation programs. In this episode, Mike and Dan take some time to examine the premise of non-verbal imitation, its role in mo...

Send us Fan Mail For this brew, Dan and Mike take time to incorporate some recent events with policing and the challenges faced by said institutions in providing training and support. Given current discussions and criticism of ABA methods and treatment, your hosts draw comparisons and parallels between the ideas of ABA intervention and policing as it relates to behavior management to  preserve an...

Send us Fan Mail Parents are an integral part of any successful ABA-based intervention protocol. The simple fact is, given a least restrictive level of services, parents should be enjoying a much greater amount of time with their children than the ABA provider is spending. Historically, this has seen a very necessary and natural evolution, moving from the idea of parent 'training' in ABA...

Send us Fan Mail ABA has essentially become synonymous with treatment of ASD, and medically speaking, nothing else despite a wide-array of possibilities. Insurance mandates have now existed in many states across the United States for 10 or more years, but are specific to ABA as a recommended treatment for ASD. In this episode, Mike and Dan guide us through the idea of 're-specialization'...

Send us Fan Mail What goes up must come down--after a two-part series on the idea of an 'escalation cycle,,' Dan and Mike could only follow up with a discussion on de-escalation. In this follow-up episode, Dan and Mike continue to utilize the notion of 'crisis' or 'assaultive' behavior and its management as a means to better understand and elucidate strategies for add...

Send us Fan Mail As promised, a continuation of the discussion on the escalation cycle as filtered through the idea of crisis and so-called 'assaultive' behavior, and further how this model can be aptly utilized in considering challenging behaviors from day to day. While we often consider the child or person emitting the undesired behavior, Dan and Mike take time to include the responder...

Send us Fan Mail In this episode, Dan and Mike tackle a very important and dense topic--the idea of a cycle of escalation as it pertains to behavior management. Starting from the perspective of crisis management, the premise is to consider not just the outward behavior itself, but perhaps more importantly, the internal antecedents and correlates from a brain and behavior perspective. In this first...

Send us Fan Mail As ABA professionals, we are often called upon to reduce the occurrence of so-called 'maladaptive' behaviors. Terms like protest, tantrum, elopement or escape are all too common though they don't provide clean description of the behavior or its function. Often times, what we mean is that a child or client spent a certain amount of time crying, for example, and sudde...

Send us Fan Mail Following the two part series on Joint Attention, Dan and Mike extend the discussion to include verbal behavior. Dan takes a lead to expand and make an important distinction between verbal and vocal behavior. Herein comes a strong connection with joint attention given that eye gaze and pointing for example, are both fundamentally sound verbal behaviors. While at times we focus on...