The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

Many behavior analysts have experienced the frustration of teaching a skill successfully in one setting only to discover that it doesn't transfer to the situations where it actually matters. In this episode, I sit down with  Kristina Montgomery  and  Emily Beal Wilkinson  of Victory Academy to discuss how Essential for Living (EFL) and event-based teaching can help bridge that gap. Kristina and Em...

How do we determine when a learner has truly mastered a skill? In behavior analysis, performance criteria such as "80% correct across two sessions" have become nearly ubiquitous. Yet despite their widespread use, many practitioners may be surprised to learn that these criteria have relatively little direct empirical support. In this episode, I'm joined by Drs. Sarah Richling and Dr. Daniel Fienup...

In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Jenny Demark , Conrad Leung , and Dr. Linda Reinstein to talk about their new book, Complex Kids, Simple Solutions: How to Raise Resilient, Confident, Likable Kids . These are clinicians who've spent years working directly with families dealing with everything from emotion regulation challenges, to childhood anxiety, to severe behavioral challenges, and what I li...

In Session 331, I sat down with  Dr. Ben Seifert  to talk about some of the most challenging — and important — work happening in applied behavior analysis today: supporting individuals with severe problem behavior. Ben shared his journey into the field, beginning with his early experiences at Lindamood-Bell and later at  BACA  under the mentorship of Carl Sundberg and others who helped shape his c...

In this episode, I'm joined by Drs.  Brandon May  and  Maggie Pavone , and  Kate Heersink  to talk about how we can better support healthier lifestyles for individuals with developmental disabilities. We start by digging into how each of them came to this work. Maggie shares some early experiences working as a direct support professional, where she began to notice patterns between food-related var...

In Session 329, I'm joined once again by  Dr. Nick Green , Ph. D., BCBA-D, who's been doing some really interesting work at the intersection of fitness and behavior science. In this episode, Nick walks us through the basics of heart rate training zones and why simply "working out" isn't always enough. We talk about the general recommendation of 150 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity per week...

Episode Summary In this episode, I'm joined by Dr. Daniel Fienup , Dr. Kate Loomis , and Lilian Morales to discuss their recent paper in JABA, Turning the Page: Increasing children's preference for looking at and engaging with books . In this episode, we explore how books can function as powerful reinforcers for young children, especially in early learning and ABA contexts. We discuss how to ident...

Comportamiento, espacio y algoritmos: Análisis de la conducta recargado En este episodio de  Espacio y Comportamiento , Miguel Avila conversa con Alejandro León sobre una dimensión del comportamiento que históricamente ha sido poco explorada en nuestro campo: el espacio. Más allá de medir cuándo ocurre una conducta o cuántas veces se presenta, esta conversación propone mirar dónde ocurre, cómo nos...

Thanks for joining me for Session 326 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast. This episode was recorded live at the 2025 Verbal Behavior Conference, where I had the honor of moderating the annual panel discussion. If you haven't attended a previous Verbal Behavior Conference, you're in luck, because the next one is coming up in just a few short weeks. The  2026 VBC  will be held on March 26th and...

In this episode, I talk with Dr. Alice Shillingsburg about her work on rapport building and pairing procedures in applied behavior analysis for children with autism. We explore how building therapeutic rapport goes beyond simply "liking someone," emphasizing the importance of establishing trust and engagement to facilitate learning, especially when tasks are challenging. Alice explains the nine-st...

In Session 324, Dr. Paulie Gavoni and Steve Ward join me to discuss what resilience actually looks like from a behavior science perspective — and why many well-intentioned adult responses can unintentionally teach avoidance instead of persistence. We center our conversation around their book,  S.H.I.T. Happens: Building Resilient Children in a Fragile World , which reframes resilience not as a per...

In this episode of the Behavioral Observations Podcast , I'm joined by Kim Dean , founder of Apollo Behavior , and Kristen Vaughn , Vice President of Clinical Operations, to talk about what it really takes to build and sustain clinical excellence in autism services. We discuss Apollo's decision to launch in Georgia, their highly selective hiring process, and how values alignment plays a central ro...

En este episodio, Miguel conversa con  María Sánchez , una profesional con un impacto notable en la formación de analistas de conducta en España y Latinoamérica. La charla gira en torno al  Behavioral Skills Training (BST)  o  Entrenamiento de Habilidades Conductuales : qué es, cómo se aplica en la práctica y por qué sigue siendo una de las herramientas más efectivas para entrenar tanto a profesio...

In this episode, I'm joined by John Guercio for a wide-ranging and practical conversation about leadership through a behavioral lens . John and I dig into what it actually means to lead in applied behavior analysis, especially when so much of the existing leadership literature is vague, mentalistic, or disconnected from observable behavior. We start by talking about the need to operationalize lead...

In Session 320 , I sit down with Landon Cowan and Tiffany Kodak to talk about an area of behavior analysis that doesn't get nearly enough attention: professional (or "soft") skills . We spend a lot of time in our field teaching and refining technical, clinical, or "hard" skills —and for good reason. But far less time is devoted to the interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills that u...

Don't adjust your podcast player folks, you have the right show. Welcome to Session 319 of the Behavioral Observations Podcast. If you've been listening for a bit, you know what's coming. If you're new to the show however, first, welcome and thanks for listening. Every year, I team up with my friends from the ABA Inside Track Podcast to do a Year In Review episode. We've tinkered with the format o...

In this episode, I sit down with Dr. Sarah Frampton , who conducts research on, amongst other things, improving how we teach, learn, and organize information using behavior-analytic strategies. We explore her career journey, her research on  graphic organizers  and the  Cover, Copy, Compare (CCC)  strategy, and the broader implications for  stimulus equivalence , educational technology, and effect...

In Session 317, I sit down with Dr. Francesca Delia Espinoza to revisit one of the most foundational—but often misunderstood—topics in behavior analysis: eye contact. We explore why eye contact shouldn't be treated as a simple objective, but instead understood within its broader social and developmental context. Francesca explains how eye contact is better re-framed as "eye-looking," and why behav...

Episode Overview In this special episode of the  Behavioral Observations Podcast , I had the honor of celebrating the  25th installment of the  Inside JABA Series . This one was particularly meaningful because it also marks the final appearance of  Dr.   John Borrero  in his role as Editor-in-Chief of  The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis . I invited John to reflect on his three-year tenure—wh...

Thanks for joining me in Session 315 of  The Behavioral Observations Podcast . In this episode, I spoke with Drs.  Gabi Morgan  and  David Adams  to dive deep into trauma-informed behavior analysis. Gabi brings her 30-year journey in the field—from undergrad roots to professorship at  Bay Path University —while David shares his evolution from child and family therapy to clinical psychology, with a...

If you follow Behavioral Observations on  Instagram , you might recall that I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel to the 20th Annual  Hawaii Association for Behavior Analysis  conference to give the closing Keynote Address. I could devote an entire podcast episode to talking about all the wonderful people I met, the fun experiences I had, and the amazing sights I was able to take in....

In Session 313, Dr. Cody Morris from Salve Regina University , and the newly re-launched All Things Behavior podcast (please also see The BAPcast Podcast ), joins me to dive into a topic that has merited quite a bit of discussion in Applied Behavior Analysis. These days, you pretty much have to be living under a rock in ABA circles to not have noticed the increased focus on assent practices in tre...

In this episode of  The Behavioral Observations Podcast , I talk with  Grant Sickle , former Amazon product leader and current head of product at  Frontera , a company building AI-powered platforms to improve autism care. Grant shares how his team is developing  assessment  and  diagnostic  tools to shorten waitlists, streamline reporting, and support clinicians in delivering more efficient ABA th...

In Session 311, I sit down with  Christina Nylander  and  Leah   Hussain  from  Apollo Behavior  to talk about  culturally sensitive approaches to Autism intervention . We dive into  three case studies  that show how flexible, individualized care can make a huge difference in building the rapport that's so important in our clinical work. Along the way, we share strategies for gaining parent buy-in...

In this episode of the Inside JABA Series podcast, we dive into a fascinating discussion on health-related routines for adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) . Dr. Katie McHugh, Dr. Claudia Dozier, and Editor-in-Chief Dr. John Borrero share insights from their recent study, Synchronous Reinforcement Schedules Promote Tolerance of Health-Related Routines for Adults with Disa...