The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

If you're a long-time listener, you've likely heard me talk about the  Verbal Behavior Conference  at various points over the last few years. If you're not familiar with the event, it's a two-day workshop that my friends at the  Central Texas Autism Center  have been putting on for years.  What you're about to hear is the panel discussion from the 2022 event, which was the first post-pandemic live...

I'm really excited to chat with Dr. Paulie Gavoni again on the podcast. As long time listeners know, he's been on the show many times, and always brings a down-to-earth, practical point of view to what we do as Behavior Analysts. In preparation for a talk at the recent Hoosier Association for Behavior Analysis event, Paulie did a deep dive on characteristics of bad leadership. It went over very we...

Editor's Note: I generally publish three episodes a month, but I wanted to share this bonus, fourth episode with you as I know there will be a lot of people embarking on road trips in the coming days. As such, I've chosen one of my earliest interviews to re-release, and it's my first interview with Dr. Pat Friman (originally released in August of 2016!?!?), who as many of you know, went on to appe...

In the 6th installment of the Apollo Case Study Series, I'm joined by my regular conversation partner, Dr. Jim Moore , along with Christina Nylander. Christina is a BCBA who works at Apollo's Lawrenceville, GA clinic. In this episode, Christina opens up quite a bit and describes how she encountered Applied Behavior Analysis, her early experiences as an RBT, the mentoring and supervision she's rece...

In Session 206, I spoke with Dr. Melissa Gonzalez, BCBA-D , about Pediatric Feeding Disorders, and what Applied Behavior Analysis can offer in this area.  Melissa is the Clinical Therapy Director at the Siskin Children's Institute in Chattanooga, Tennessee, arriving there by way of Louisiana State University's Clinical Psychology program and the Kennedy Krieger Institute , amongst other waypoints....

After a long hiatus, Dr. Matt Brodhead returns to Behavioral Observations. In this episode, we discuss the use of punishment in the context of creating effective, ethical behavioral interventions.  Of course, pursuant to the Behavior Analysis Certification Board's  Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts , punishment should only be considered, "only after demonstrating that desired results have not been...

On November 26th, 2019, the first Inside JABA Series podcast was published. This series was the brainchild of Dr. Linda LeBlanc, who at the time was the incoming Editor in Chief, and I have to say, doing these shows has been a highlight of producing this podcast.  As I remind people often, I'm not involved in the production or publication of Behavior Analytic research, so you can imagine how much...

In the world of Behavior Analysis, Rose Griffin is a unicorn of sorts, which is the unofficial mascot of those select few who hold both Speech Language Pathologist and Board Certified Behavior Analyst credentials.  For 20 years, Rose supported students in public school settings, but these days, she is concentrating on taking all the knowledge she's acquired and sharing it in the form of podcasts,...

After a brief hiatus, the Apollo Case Study Series returns to Behavioral Observations for its fifth installment.  In this episode, Dr. Jim Moore shares his approach to modifying existing clinical programs that aren't making progress. More specifically, we talk about the temptation to go out and purchase the 'new shiny thing' (as in curriculum, assessment protocol, data collection systems, etc...),...

Would you rather earn preferred items or get them for free? More technically stated, would you prefer response-contingent reinforcers over response-independent ones (and to further split hairs, if the preferred items are provided response-independently, are they really reinforcers?)? It turns out that there has been some basic and applied research in this area, and some studies demonstrated partic...

I've always maintained that this is a show that is all about the listeners and the guests, and so it is with that in mind that I'm thrilled to share the following interview segments that were nominated by so many of you. We did have many entries, so I couldn't fit all of them in, but I genuinely appreciate all of you who took the time to write in and share your thoughts. While I'm expressing grati...

If your social media consumption is anything like mine, you've likely seen some  feel-good stories in the media  as of late that report on non-speaking students - generally students with Autism - who are graduating from college, giving valedictorian speeches, and so forth.  Unfortunately, what's often underpinning many of these cases is a form of Facilitated Communication, or FC for short. What is...

If you're anywhere in the upper part of the northern hemisphere, you already know that fall is in the air. And with that comes the annual return of students to their community schools.  As such, I thought it would be fun to bring on fellow New Hampshire behavior analyst, Elissa Johnson , to talk about the work she's doing in school settings.  Elissa is the Director of Behavioral Health for  Conste...

The full title of Merrill's talk is, "Whitesplaining Racism: Part Deux! Logic, Disproportionality, Avatars, Hate Crimes, and Uncomfortable Feelings." As you'll learn in this episode, Bruce was in the audience for most of Merrill's talk, and was so enthused with it, he wanted him to review its main points here on Behavioral Observations. So we did just that, and Bruce was kind enough to join us as...

If you care about the future of ABA, it's important to understand not only its strengths, but also the myriad challenges the field faces. And to that end, I can't think of a more difficult challenge the field of Applied Behavior Analysis has right now than figuring out how to adequately measure outcome quality, and how this relates to funding ABA services.  My guest for Session 196 is Amanda Ralst...

In the fourth installment of the Apollo Case Study Series, Dr. Jim Moore and I are joined by his fellow Apollo clinician,  Jennifer Freedman . Jen is a newer BCBA, and we spent most of this episode talking about the advanced training and professional development she's received while working in Apollo's unique clinical model.  Apple Podcasts  |  Spotify  |  Google Podcasts  |  YouTube In particular...

According to the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts , Code Element 1.07 states:  "Behavior analysts actively engage in professional development activities to acquire knowledge and skills related to cultural responsiveness and diversity," and that "they evaluate their own biases and ability to address the needs of individuals with diverse needs/ backgrounds..."  In order to provide some direction in...

If you've been tuning into one of the many Inside JABA Series I've done over the last few years, you're undoubtedly familiar with today's guest,  Dr. Claire St. Peter . Claire is a Professor as well as the Director of Graduate Training at West Virginia University.  According to her  university bio , Claire's "primary research interest is the assessment and intervention of challenging behavior. She...

Dr. Jim Moore returns in the third installment of the increasingly popular Apollo Case Study Series (which by the way, is also Session 192).  In this episode, we cover quite a lot of ground, such as: Jim and his team's practical approach for language intervention How Jim encountered Relational Frame Theory by accident How rigid language repertoires can contribute to problem behavior How one does n...

Why do people lie? It's an age-old question that's been asked for perhaps as long as our species has had verbal capabilities.  In this episode, Dr. Corey Stocco from The University of The Pacific joins me to discuss the existing scholarship in this area, as more specifically, the work that he and his colleagues have done in this area. Specifically, we walk through a recent paper that was published...

Have you ever felt the thrill of rolling a 20-sided die? If you're in the general demographic of a Behavioral Observations listener, I'd guess probably not. However, it may not surprise you to learn that being the cosmically uncoordinated and socially challenged kid of the 80s, I certainly have.  Which is why I jumped at the chance to speak with Session 190 guest, Rob Harvey, about how he uses rol...

Oh boy, as the kids these days say, this show is a straight up banger. Dr. Jim Moore joins me again in our second installment in the Apollo Case Study Series, where we go deep into all things functional assessment.  Right out of the gate, I want to note that we do spend time reviewing both functional analysis and treatment data of clients that Jim has worked with in the past. We do the best we can...

This was a fun one for sure. In Session 188, I chatted with Drs. Jill Dardig and Bill Heward about a whole host of topics, including their new book,  Let's Make a Contract: A positive way to change your child's behavior .  In this conversation, we covered: How Jill and Bill discovered Behavior Analysis, especially at a time when it wasn't as ubiquitous as it is now. How they of course met each oth...

In Session 187, Steve Ward joins me to discuss how to help individuals - in particular, individuals with severely limited communicated repertoires - who demonstrate challenging repertoires that are colloquially referred to as Anxiety.  Given that tortured sentence, you can probably already imagine that in this episode, we discuss how Steve conceptualizes what exactly Anxiety is, especially in popu...

In Session 186, I am joined by Chrissy Barosky, Clinical Director for  Bierman Autism Centers . In this episode, we discussed how their organization adopted a Precision Teaching approach for their learners.  You heard that correctly, a large multi-state organization transitioned all of their data collection practices to the Standard Celeration Chart. So in this show, we dive into how Chrissy and h...