The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

How do you get parents to become effective agents of change as it relates to their children's problem behavior? If you're like me, you've struggled to explain the complexities of the functional nature of problem behavior to lay people. Clearly, avoiding our technical language helps with this, but working with parents in particular, it can be difficult to teach how to reinforce desired responses, w...

In session 35, I get a chance to chat with some fellow residents of the Granite State, the husband and wife duo Kim and Tim Heald. In this episode, we discuss the nitty gritty associated with starting an ABA Clinic. Having a clinic is an alluring idea. The obvious benefits include the promise of increased efficiency and quality control. That said, through this discussion, you'll learn there's a lo...

OK folks, it's back to school time in New Hampshire and elsewhere, so I thought it would be timely to bring Dr. Megan Miller of Navigation Behavioral Consulting back on the show to talk about effective strategies for obtaining instructional control, as well as dealing with disruptive behavior without using extinction. These are topics that Megan presents on frequently, and many of these themes can...

The ABA Study Group is a Facebook group that is dedicated to helping people learn about behavior analysis, prepare for the BACB exam, and for those already certified, to maintain fluency with the terminology of our field. As of this writing, they have over 15,000 members so they certainly have found an audience for their work. One of the cool things that the ABA Study Group does is host frequent Z...

Today's show is a little different than they typical episode. On September 30th, 2017, the New Hampshire Association for Behavior Analysis will be hosting its 3rd annual conference (tickets are available here). In order to promote this event, and more generally, highlight the great work that NH ABA does, I put together a sequence of five mini-interviews with all of the conference speakers. This ye...

Session 31 features a guest who has been requested by listeners numerous times since the start of this podcast, and that is none other than Dr. Pat McGreevy. As I explain in the episode, Pat and I have been talking on and off about doing a show for over a year now, and I'm really glad we finally had an opportunity to record this discussion. What exactly did we talk about? Well, Pat describes how h...

It's not everyday that one gets a chance to chat with someone with decades of experience in Behavior Analysis. It is equally rare to do so with someone who helped pioneer the field of Organizational Behavior Management. That's why I'm so excited to share this conversation with none other than Dr. Aubrey Daniels. Before I started this podcast, I drew up a list of potential guests. Aubrey was one of...

If you caught the last few episodes of the podcast, you've heard me talk about our new sponsor, Britton Behavioral Consulting. This is where Dr. Lisa Britton, BCBA-D provides high quality Independent Fieldwork Supervision for individuals seeking board certification. Lisa has been a Behavior Analyst for almost two decades, and given the important role that supervision has in our field, I thought it...

In Session 28 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast, Molly Ola Pinney joins me to talk about The Global Autism Project, an organization she started in 2003. In brief, The Global Autism Project trains teachers to work with children with Autism globally. The organization began this initiative in Africa, but has now branched out to helping people in this way to Central America, India, and beyond. In...

In Session 27 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast, I chat with Dr. Adel Najdowski, BCBA-D about teaching Executive Functioning skills to individuals with Autism and Attention difficulties. Adel is the author of a new book on this subject, Flexible and Focused, and we discuss the idea of Behavior Analysts delving into the realm of more mainstream psychological and educational constructs, and mor...

I sometimes joke around with folks that we Behavior Analysts are perhaps the only people who think nothing of driving one hour to do two hours of work. While that's a little bit of an exaggeration, I find that it's not entirely off the mark either. Obviously there are only so many hours in the day, and from both a clinical and financial perspective, these practices lead to a lot of waste. What if...

I'm going to be honest with you here. This interview could have gone on for over two hours. To summarize, Jim Carr and I had a super fun conversation about the current state of the behavior analysis profession, what it was like when generation X-ers like us came into the field, what worries him about how the field is developing, and conversely, what areas of development is he most excited about. I...

In Session 24, Ryan O'Donnell joins me for a wide ranging discussion. We talk about everything from taking data on your own behaviors, things to consider before setting goals, to operant conditioning of fish! We also talk about some upcoming projects of his, including The Next Gen Revolution Summit, and his forthcoming podcast, "Why we do what we do," (coming in May 2017). During our chat, he ment...

In Session 23 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast, Mark Dixon visits with us again to discuss the PEAK assessment and curriculum. Specifically, he tells us about how he first got into working with individuals with Autism, what he saw that was lacking in the assessment and curricular tools at that point in time, and the related circumstances that inspired the creation of PEAK. Also, because our...

Dr. Linda LeBlanc joins me today to provide a primer of sorts on behavioral approaches to supporting the elderly, using solid behavioral principles to run organizations, and embedding ethics into everyday clinical decision making. She ends the show by sharing some great advice for BCBAs who are new to the field. Linda is the president of LeBlanc Behavioral Consulting, as well as the Executive Advi...

I am honored to be joined by Dr. Gina Green in Session 21 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast. In this show we talk about some current events in the practice of ABA, including the role of professional organizations, and the lessons that have been learned as states contend with the licensure of our practice. Gina's CV is uniquely impressive. Just her bio-sketch alone is longer than most resumes,...

In Session 20, Greg Hanley returns to The Behavioral Observations Podcast for an unprecedented third time! The first two podcast episodes with Greg (Session 1 and Session 7) were so popular that they have, as of this writing, been downloaded almost 18,000 times! Given the intense interest in this topic, a few months ago, I asked Greg if he'd like to come back on the show to answer questions from t...

Several weeks ago Dr. Gina Green posted an impassioned request to support the Association for Professional Behavior Analysts on Facebook, noting, among other things, that the organization is uniquely suited to advocate for the needs of both practitioners and clients in this unpredictable world of ours. One of the ways that she suggested supporting APBA was to attend the annual conference. Well, he...

In Session 18, Manny Rodriguez, Shannon Biagi, and Dan Sundberg join me to discuss their OBM Applied!  book series. In this episode we cover the following topics: Why they wrote OBM Applied! Who the intended reader is What sort of outcome a reader can expect The Florida Institute of Technology OBM Certificate program In addition to these, we talk quite a bit about the process of writing itself, wh...

What does risky sex, drug use, and even indoor tanning have in common? Fortunately Dr. Derek Reed, BCBA-D, joins me in Session 17 to provide a tutorial of sorts on behavioral economics, which helps to explain what these (and many other) "problems of consumption," are influenced by behavior-environment relationships. Derek runs the Applied Behavioral Economics Laboratory at the University of Kansas...

Pat Friman returns to The Behavioral Observations Podcast in Session 16. In this episode, we talk about things that we as Behavior Analysts typically avoid, namely things like depression, anxiety, and stress. Specifically, he provides an overview of these concepts using, of course, a behavior-analytic lens. At the same time, Pat also notes that our particular professional jargon can be quite off-p...

Rich Brooks has the distinctive honor of being the first non-Behavior Analyst to come on the show. Don't let that temper your enthusiasm for this episode though. In Session 15, Rich and I talk about the importance of marketing ABA services, mainly from the digital perspective. Specifically, we talk about the following: Options for setting up your own website Optimizing your site so people can find...

Dr. Mark Dixon joins me in Session 14 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast. Mark is a prolific researcher who has published over 150 peer-reviewed studies. He has published articles on a wide array of topics, including gambling, relational frame theory, and educational interventions for children with Autism. In this episode, we talk about his book, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Children...

Session 13's guest on The Behavioral Observations Podcast is Dr. Megan Miller from Navigation Behavioral Consulting . In this episode we talk about a range of issues that are relevant to many practicing behavior analysts, such as providing services over long distances, determining what makes a practice "evidence based," and the practitioner's need for life-long-learning. All in all, it's a fun con...

Session 12 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast features an in-depth conversation with Mary Lynch Barbera, BCBA-D. In this episode, we talk about a wide range of topics including, but not limited to,   Her pre-ABA career as a nurse (which actually involved quite a bit of OBM work!). How she learned about behavior analysis, and how her advocacy for her son led her to becoming a BCBA. The motivati...