The ABA Speech Podcast- Easy Strategies for Speech Therapists, BCBAs, and RBTs

Have you ever had a client exhibit behaviors that you just don’t know how to approach? Dr. Jonathan Fernand has had experiences in the field across many settings that aid in his understanding on intervening with restrictive and repetitive behaviors. Restrictive and repetitive behaviors can mean a variety of behaviors, from high order (compulsive and ritualistic) to low order (self injurious and vo...

Get ready for an inspiring episode. I chatted with Dr. Shahla Alai-Rosales and Peggy Heinkel-Wolfe, who co-authored the book Responsible and Responsive Parenting in Autism: Between Now and Dreams. This comes from Dr. Alai-Rosales’ extensive professional career and over 4 years of experience in the field, as well as Peggy’s personal experience as an Autism mom. The book binds together responsive pa...

Having an autistic adult on the podcast is always an opportunity to learn how we, as practitioners, can do our best for our clients. Joining me today is Larissa Minner, a passionate and experienced disability rights advocate, speaker, and consultant. Burnout is commonly talked about, and I've even done an episode where we talked about professional burnout in the field. Larissa talks about Aut...

My guest today Dr. Cody Morris is an asset to the field, his goals include improving the practice of BCBAs, by Improving assessment and treatment methodologies regarding problem behavior and addressing organization challenges in delivering services. Today we discuss Assent, its importance, and how to gain Assent even when a client is not yet speaking.  Dr. Morris makes a very important comparison...

Welcome to the fourth and final part of my Autism Case Study Series. I am going back over my last 20 years of experience in public education, non-public programs, and teletherapy working with autistic learners. The last learner I want to talk about is a 3 year old boy that I saw in-home with my private practice, ABA Speech. When I first began services, the child had received an autism diagnosis, w...

Welcome to Part 3 of 4 of my Autism Case Study Series. I am going back over my last 20 years of experience in public education, non-public programs, and teletherapy working with autistic learners. Today I am sharing about an elementary learner from a non-public program. He came to me with no communication and unsafe behaviors that were a barrier to his learning, community, and school environment....

Welcome to Part 2 of 4 of my Autism Case Study Series. I am going back over my last 20 years of experience in public education, non-public programs, and teletherapy working with autistic learners.  Today I am sharing about an 8-year-old nonverbal learner I worked with in a non-public program. This learner came to me with no way to communicate with the world and various behaviors that were barriers...

Welcome to Part 1 of 4 of my Autism Case Study Series. I am going back over my last 20 years of experience in public education, non-public programs, and teletherapy working with autistic learners. In this case study, I discuss a middle school learner in public education. He had recently come to the country and was completely nonverbal. I first began with AAC to give him a voice and start communica...

Technology can feel intimidating, but there are so many tools available on your common devices that you might not even consider using them in therapy. Joan Green is an SLP, assistive technology specialist, and online tech advisor. In this episode, she shares 10 tech tips that anyone can use to utilize technology and enrich your therapy sessions.  As SLPs, it's important for us to know and und...

Dr. Hank Schlinger has an extensive list of impressive and valuable contributions to the field. Today he joins me to discuss his brand new book, How to Build Good Behavior and Self-Esteem in Children.  Parenting is so hard and along with it comes responsibility that will span your child’s entire life. Whether your child has an autism diagnosis or not, parenting is parenting. Dr. Schlinger discusse...

Rita Soronen is a National Child Welfare Advocate working with the Dave Thomas Foundation for Adoption (DTFA). She advocates for the abused, neglected, and vulnerable children in the foster care and juvenile justice system. There are 117,000 children in North America freed for adoption and 77% of those children have some sort of medically identified need, including autism. These children belong to...

What a pleasure it was to have Sandy and Ben Hartranft on the show! Sandy is the proud mom of three sons, one of whom is Ben. Ben is 24 years old and was diagnosed with autism at the age of 2. 20+ years ago, Sandy knew something was off, limited speech and no response to his name led her to pursue check-ins with her son’s doctors and an official appointment with a developmental pediatrician. Soon,...

This isn’t the first time we’ve talked about Assent on the show. But today we’re focusing on what it is. Why is it important? And how do you know if you’re using an Assent Based Model? Liz Lefebre is a precision teacher and BCBA passionate about high quality behavior and educational services. So what is Assent? The goal of an Assent Based Model is a person-centered approach to assessment, interven...

Dr. Kelle DeBoth Foust is one of my best friends; we’ve been friends for over 15 years. She is an Occupational Therapist and an Associate Professor of OT at Cleveland State University. She has a passion for working with children with autism and other developmental disabilities and today she shares her wealth of knowledge with us. What is Occupational Therapy? No, it has nothing to do with helping...

It’s May, and it can be a time when a lot of stress and overwhelm can be occurring. How do you know when you’re headed toward burnout? What do you do? Jasmine Yepez, The ABA Lady, is passionate about burnout and mental health advocacy for professionals and shares with me today her journey to healing after experiencing burnout. Burnout can be caused by a variety of things, like unhealthy boundaries...

You may have heard of the term "ACT," or Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, before, but this is a new topic for the show! I was so excited to learn about this impactful therapy approach from BCBA Kody Harms.  What is ACT? Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is all about accepting that variables and challenging things will occur in life, but developing mental flexibility through positive va...

Whether you are a seasoned professional, parent, or brand new to the field, IEP meetings are a reality when it comes to school based settings. With over 20 years of experience, I have 5 top tips to keep you positive, prepared, and confident no matter the tone of the meeting.  Have your special education director or administrator present - Sometimes lawyers and advocates are going to attend the mee...

One of my big goals with ABA Speech and The Autism Outreach Podcast is to disseminate information to help professionals stay in touch with the latest research and information in our field. When the article, Examining Core Vocabulary with Language Development for Early Symbolic Communicators , written by Dr. Allison Bean and Dr. Bethany Frick showed up in a professional Facebook group, I knew I had...

When you are post-certification and become a practitioner, it can be difficult to stay in touch with the latest research. Dr. Amber Valentino, Chief Clinical Officer at Trumpet Behavioral Health, discusses some of the ways to break beyond the barriers of research as a clinician and make ABA research more accessible. Dr. Valentino wrote a paper with her colleague, Jessica Juanico, on the barriers t...

Have you ever met a provider, with a “Sit down! Do your work! Kids need to listen!” mentality? Jennifer Posey is a BCBA and adjunct professor at Endicott College. In this episode, she shares about her new tool, the Joy Index, which is currently in the research and peer review process. The Joy Index is a tool that measures assent, autonomy, embedded choice, and relationship building. It involves 32...

Don’t Wait! That’s the advice from Zulekha Williams when it comes to taking action for concerns with your child’s development. I met Zulekha over on TikTok; she is a great mom who is fighting for the needs of her children and sharing her journey along the way. As a member of the helping profession, Zulekha wasted no time when it came to getting support for her son when she started noticing early s...

“In all communication, aim first to understand”. This is the first bullet from Leanne Page’s Parent Training Checklist. Leanne is a BCBA, parent coach, author, continuing ed provider, and mom of 2. In this episode, she is sharing some impactful points on this step to step guide for Compassionate Parent Training. Did you know that a study showed just 40 seconds of compassion from a doctor drastical...

We all know collaboration can be tricky when it comes to working across many fields of expertise, especially with a shared tool like AAC. Today I am delighted to have Barb Weber as my guest. Barb is an SLP, BCBA, author, and AAC specialist.  When it comes to AAC, especially considering the differences in AAC training for SLPs and BCBAs, navigating collaborating can be hard. Barb emphasizes the imp...

In this conversation with Pediatric SLP Cindy Watson, you can just see the passion she has for helping young learners communicate and find their voice. When Cindy first receives a new Early Intervention case she calls on the parent to talk through the reasons and concerns that led them there and another simple but IMPACTFUL thing…what does the child like? These things establish rapport and give Ci...

I am speaking with Rachel Archambault, the PTSD SLP. Rachel was present on Valentine's day 2018, when a mass shooting occurred in her workplace, Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland Florida. This experience led her to curate and cultivate resources for her trauma-affected students, and provide therapy with Trauma Informed Care. Trauma Informed Care hallmarks on: Realizing trauma i...