The How to ABA Podcast

Baseline data is so important and as an ABA professional, it’s key that we know how to use it effectively. Whenever we’re working with a client and we don’t seem to be getting anywhere in terms of changing a behavior, it’s helpful to return to the baseline and compare it to post-treatment. This gives you a really good picture of whether or not that treatment is working. Even when working with a ch...

Robert Schramm is a behavioral analyst and education and parenting specialist who’s really doing some necessary and valuable things for the field of ABA. Robert was an educator first and started out in physical education in California. He then moved into special education and became an occlusion specialist and was tasked with helping disabled children in regular classrooms. Robert eventually found...

Today, we’re excited to be hosting Rose Griffin. She’s a speech-language pathologist (SLP) and BCBA and the founder of ABA Speech. Rose has 20 years of experience and there are less than 500 professionals that are dual-certified. Ever since her graduate placement, she’s really felt the pull to work with autistic children and others who have been deemed hard to reach. Rose realized that this work c...

Today, we’re talking all about verbal operants, as they’re one of the most components parts of work in the field that are often quite confusing. We’ll show you what you might want to teach and in what order. Verbal operants can be tough to understand, especially when you’re new. There are so many components to language, above and beyond the words we’re saying. How we use and understand words play...

Barbara Heidenreich is an expert exotic animal trainer. We met Barbara in Boston at ABAI and we were fascinated by the way she uses ABA and behavioral principles in animal training. Barbara specializes in working with animals and she works mostly with zoos and facilities that care for exotic species. She also works with veterinary professionals and conservationists. Veterinary medicine is now beco...

In behavior analysis, we love our acronyms! Today, we’re talking about what the ABC’s of behavior are. We’ll share how you can take ABC data, why it’s so important, and so much more. All too often, we’re faced with compiling ABC data from a large amount of information, which can be overwhelming. Data is ultimately supposed to make our lives easier and help us do a better job as practitioners. ABC...

Today, we’re talking about what not to do as an ABA practitioner. We’re going to review our top five don’t-dos as a professional in the field. When we were preparing, it was difficult to narrow it down to just five, but we discuss what we believe are the most important things to keep in mind. It’s also difficult to talk about what not to do without speaking about what you should do, so we’ll offer...

Today, we are talking with Michelle Vinokurov, who is a paraprofessional and RBT autistic advocate. She was diagnosed with autism at the age of two and was non-verbal until age six. Michelle’s parents advocated for her early on and got her involved with speech therapy, ABA, occupational and physical therapy. As she got older, she gained a lot more skills, including handwriting, and her services we...

Our guest today is Dr. Hank Schlinger. He’s a professor at California State University in Los Angeles. Hank got into the field through working with kids with autism through his undergraduate program. He practiced ABA techniques, which were then known as behavioral modification, and the results he witnessed in the children he worked with made a lasting impact on him. Today, Hank is a successful aut...

Finding solutions for families who deserve the best treatment is not easy to come by. Ling Ly Tan and Jane Button from the Linggo team are here to share all about the organization. Linggo is a company that makes communication accessible for people who have difficulty speaking. It is an assistive technology that supports the learning of language, speech, and literacy skills through an AAC (augmenta...

So many of us have experienced challenges with sleep and children, whether from personal experience or professionally in the field. Emily Varon is a sleep expert who’s been working in ABA since 2000. Sleep has always been of interest to Emily with her own kids and she saw the opportunity to provide solutions for clients in her job as a practitioner. With the encouragement of her agency, she starte...

We are very excited to have Michael Maloney as a guest today. He’s the founder of Quincy Learning Center and an expert in precision teaching and direct instruction. Along with other professionals, Michael started sharing his methodology with other teachers and practitioners. Today, it’s becoming a sizable force within the field. We’re seeing several challenges related to literacy within the educat...

One of our community members asked a question about reinforcement, and we discuss it in today’s mentorship sneak peek. Even though the term “reinforcement” is used often and seems simple, it can be tough to figure out what a good reinforcer is. This member’s client is a little verbal but barely communicates, and his main behavior is task avoidance. The functions of the behavior are mostly escaped...

Today, we’re discussing burnout with one of our members, Julie Tewell. She’s a clinical BCBA in Louisville, KY. Julie works with kids ranging from two to twelve years old. She originally wanted to be an occupational therapist but stumbled into the field after getting the opportunity to shadow at a clinic from a family member who worked in ABA. Her favorite thing about working as a BCBA is the conn...

Today, we’re hosting one of our members, Kailani Bartley. She’s a case manager at CABS, the Chicago Autism and Behavior Specialists. Kailani landed in the field sort of by accident. She originally wanted to become a music therapist, but after working at a tech job for a year while she was in college, she decided she wanted to work within ABA. Today, Kailani just graduated with her master’s degree...

A member of our audience brought a situation to us that involves a three-year-old non-speaking autistic child. He has a tendency to open and close sliding doors and also a tendency to hurt other children. He’s the same across all environments. This type of behavior is worth targeting, especially since other kids are being injured. Based on the details we have, it seems like the behavior is getting...

As behavior analysts, we have to know what the function of a problematic behavior is and why the client is doing it. When you’re confronting challenging behavior, you’re going to be capturing it in a behavior plan. It’s important to understand the data collection process around behavior reduction goals. The first step should be defining the behavior you’re looking to collect the data on and gettin...

We’re giving you another sneak peek into our mentorship meetings where we share some questions from our members. One member is working on spontaneous manding with a three-year-old student. The student has an advanced verbal repertoire and is strong in several areas but doesn’t always verbally request items. The child also has trouble calming down in public settings and the member asked if ACT or A...

In our community, we get a lot of questions from our members and the question for this episode is: “When would be a good time to teach a client to ask questions, or what are some of the prerequisite skills before teaching to ask questions?” There are a couple of options you want to look at which usually are asking questions and answering questions. If you’re teaching the latter, you need to make s...

Dr. Laura Cesaroni is the Clinical Director of FERN in Toronto. FERN stands for Family Education Resource Network. They assist parents, grandparents, and teachers who require specialized resources for teaching, managing, and parenting children who experience challenges. Laura saw a number of children in her practice that were dysregulated and started seeking out effective strategies to deal with b...

Today, we cover all things related to staff hiring and training. When hiring, sometimes personality means more than what’s on a resume or how many years of experience a person has. How someone presents themselves and how prepared they are going a long way. Asking the right questions in an interview is key. When interviewing for a new job, try your best to let your personality shine through. As an...

We’re answering another question from the community regarding our opinions on ACT and AIM. ACT stands for Acceptance and Commitment Therapy. It’s a branch of behavioral psychology that’s been adopted by the field of ABA. AIM is an acronym for Accept, Identify, Move, which is an ABA curriculum that’s based on the principles of ACT. We’re no experts on these modalities, but we’ve used them in the fi...

We received a question from a member on echolalia and scripting and wanted to share our thoughts in this episode. They were wondering if there were any practical tips to help reduce scrolling responses, as their current treatment methods weren’t working. First, it’s important to identify if the behavior is associated with specific operants. Therapist responses are important to note as well. With i...

One of our members came to us for advice on how to address separation anxiety with a client. The anxiety turns aggressive while the mother is leaving, but then subsides and the session can continue normally. The data they collected indicated that the problem was attention maintained, but the emotional component seems very compelling. We discuss similar situations we’ve encountered in our own pract...

Leticia Moreno is the Clinical Director and CEO of Within Me Therapy in Maryland. Before becoming a BCBA, she was a special education teacher working in an early intervention setting. Her aunt introduced her to ABA, inspiring her to blend it with early learning in her own practice. She works to incorporate the natural environment into her treatment strategies and helps parents continue the learnin...