by Matt Cicoria
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria is an interview-based show that features conversations with innovative scientists and practitioners in the field of Behavior Analysis. The podcast covers topics such as Autism, Functional Behavioral Assessment, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Functional Communication Training, Verbal Behavior, and more!
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Publishing Since
2/21/2016
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April 16, 2025
<p class="">Steve Ward returns to the podcast to talk about a paper he recently published with co-author Teresa Grimes, titled, "<a href= "https://www.davidpublisher.com/Public/uploads/Contribute/67ca89e8e5f04.pdf">50 Practical Ways to Alter the Relative Efficiencies of Behaviors</a>."</p> <p class="">In this conversation, we review the highlights of this paper, and discuss things like The Matching Law, making desired behavior more efficient in generating reinforcement, making problem behaviors less efficient, and how altering reinforcement parameters like delay, magnitude, and schedules can enhance learner progress.</p> <p class="">We also talk about the work that Steve does with his company, <a href="https://wholechildconsulting.com/">Whole Child Consulting</a>, as well as a Q & A he will be doing on this topic that's coming up on <a href= "https://www.facebook.com/photo/?fbid=10234596302746929&set=gm.2387550264946310&idorvanity=1002010610166956">April 23rd, 2025</a>.</p> <p class="">Steve is the author of <a href= "https://amzn.to/4jFOJkN">Teaching Good Learner Repertoires</a>, <a href="https://amzn.to/4cGbKBW">What You Need To Know About Motivation And Teaching Games: An In-Depth Analysis</a>, and other popular texts relevant to Behavior Analysts working in a variety of settings.</p> <p class="">If you'd like to work with Steve or find supplementary materials on the things he likes to talk about, check out his website, <a href="https://wholechildconsulting.com/">Whole Child Consulting</a>.</p> <p class="">Resources discussed in this podcast:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li class=""><a href= "https://www.davidpublisher.com/Public/uploads/Contribute/67ca89e8e5f04.pdf"> Ward and Grimes (2025)</a>. 50 Practical Ways to Alter the Relative Efficiencies of Behaviors.</li> <li class=""><a href= "https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC5352626/">Ward, Parker, and Perdikaris (2016)</a>. Task as Reinforcer: a Reactive Alternative to Traditional Forms of Escape Extinction.</li> <li class=""><a href= "https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/22478391/">Perone (2003)</a>. The Negative Effects of Positive Reinforcement.</li> <li class="">Steve's earlier appearances on the BOP in <a href="https://behavioralobservations.com/the-case-for-humor-in-behavioral-interventions-session-111-with-steve-ward">Session 111</a> and <a href= "https://behavioralobservations.com/how-to-help-individuals-with-anxiety-session-187-with-steve-ward">Session 187</a>.</li> <li class=""><a href= "https://behavioruniversity.com/product/506/bcba-ceu-anxiety-aba">Anxiety? ABA has something for that!</a> (Steve's Behavior University webinar, use promo code PODCAST at checkout to save $$$).</li> </ul> <p class="">Please note that we had some internet disruptions during our recording but I don't think they detracted from the overall intelligibility of the conversation.</p> <p class="">This podcast is brought to you by:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li class=""><a href= "https://fronterahealth.com/demo/">Frontera</a>. Consider taking a <a href="https://fronterahealth.com/demo/">demo</a> of Frontera's Assessment Builder and see how the ethical application of AI technologies can help you serve clients and save you time! Your first assessment report is free. And if you use code <strong>BOP25</strong> you’ll get an additional five assessments for just $100. So head to <a href= "https://fronterahealth.com/">fronterahealth.com</a> to check it out!</li> <li class=""><a href= "https://behavioralobservations.com/get-ceus">CEUs from Behavioral Observations</a>. Learn from your favorite podcast guests while you're commuting, walking the dog, or whatever else you do while listening to podcasts. New events are being added all the time, so check them out <a href= "https://behavioralobservations.com/get-ceus">here</a>. </li> <li class="">The Behavioral Toolbox. Check out our courses for school-based and other behavioral professionals, including our newest one, <a href= "https://thebehavioraltoolbox.com/courses/empowering-change-motivational-interviewing-for-behavioral-consultants/">Motivational Interviewing: Getting Educator Buy-In</a>.</li> <li class=""><strong><a href= "https://behavioruniversity.com/observations">Behavior University</a>.</strong> Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings, including their <a href= "https://behavioruniversity.com/bcba-supervisor-training">8-hour Supervision Course</a>, as well as their <a href= "https://behavioruniversity.com/rbt-online">RBT offerings</a> over at <strong><a href= "https://behavioruniversity.com/observations">behavioruniversity.com/observations</a>.</strong> Don't forget to use the coupon code, PODCAST to save at checkout!</li> </ul>
April 7, 2025
<p class="">Brandon Franklin returns to the podcast after a very long hiatus. You'll have to go back to Session 36 to hear his first appearance as a matter of fact.</p> <p class="">It turns out that he's been doing a lot of innovative clinical work in that time. Currently, he is the Chief Behavior Analyst for the <a href="https://leespecialtyclinic.com/">Lee Specialty Clinic</a> and a Behavioral Consultant at <a href="https://kd.health/">Kramer Behavioral Health</a>. In these roles, Brandon has implemented various interventions to help individuals with intellectual disabilities access routine medical and dental care.</p> <p class="">If you're not familiar with this topic, it might sound pretty mundane, but as you'll hear, these populations really struggle to attend and participate in routine medical appointments, which, not surprisingly, has downstream negative health consequences. As such, interventions that improve on the current statistics can truly be considered life-saving.</p> <p class="">In this podcast, we get into the following:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li class="">Common phobias associated with medical treatments.</li> <li class="">Brandon's personal experience with aerophobia (the fear of flying), and what he did to improve it.</li> <li class="">The basics of desensitization strategies.</li> <li class="">How he and his team members use these strategies to improve the rate of successful medical appointment visits.</li> <li class="">And finally, the research on this topic that he is doing for his dissertation.</li> </ul> <p class="">Brandon has generously compiled a list of references, which you can find here. He's passionate about this topic and is willing to talk with anyone about it, so feel free to hit him up on <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/brandon-franklin-64225494/">LinkedIn</a>.</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li class="">Here's all of Brandon's <a href= "https://dot.cards/brandonfranklin">contact info</a>.</li> <li class="">Here's all the <a href= "https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1CWUPdYDyJOwxhldBHuaH8rhCwHhMIjuo?usp=drive_link">desensitization resources</a> you could ask for.</li> </ul> <p class="">This podcast is brought to you by:</p> <ul class="wp-block-list"> <li class=""><a href= "https://fronterahealth.com/demo/">Frontera</a>. Consider taking a <a href="https://fronterahealth.com/demo/">demo</a> of Frontera's Assessment Builder and see how the ethical application of AI technologies can help you serve clients and save you time! Your first assessment report is free. And if you use code <strong>BOP25</strong> you’ll get an additional five assessments for just $100. So head to <a href= "https://fronterahealth.com/">fronterahealth.com</a> to check it out!</li> <li class=""><a href="https://www.profoundautismsummit.org/">The Profound Autism Summit</a>. The Profound Autism Summit is a two-day conference taking place on April 10th and 11th in Boston, MA. Following on the massive success of the 2024 Summit, the 2025 event brings together leaders from the areas of research, medicine, treatment, advocacy, and education to discuss the needs and support of those with Profound Autism across disciplines and throughout the lifespan.</li> <li class=""><a href="https://www.hricolorado.com/">HRIC Recruting</a>. Cut out the middleman and speak directly with Barbara Voss, who's been placing BCBAs in great jobs all across the US for 15 years. </li> <li class=""><a href= "https://behavioralobservations.com/get-ceus">CEUs from Behavioral Observations</a>. Learn from your favorite podcast guests while you're commuting, walking the dog, or whatever else you do while listening to podcasts. New events are being added all the time, so check them out <a href= "https://behavioralobservations.com/get-ceus">here</a>. </li> <li class="">The Behavioral Toolbox. Check out our courses for school-based and other behavioral professionals, including our newest one, <a href= "https://thebehavioraltoolbox.com/courses/empowering-change-motivational-interviewing-for-behavioral-consultants/">Motivational Interviewing: Getting Educator Buy-In</a>.</li> </ul>
March 31, 2025
<p>This is not a show about teaching eye contact. We'll get to that in a bit.</p> <p>First though, I should note that the 22nd installment of the Inside JABA Series is coming out comically late. I apologize for getting us off schedule. The good news is that we already have a great paper to discuss for the 23rd Inside JABA episode that I think you're going to love, so I hope to have that one out later on in the spring.</p> <p>Back to this episode. Drs. Danny Conine and Jenn Fritz join me to discuss a paper Danny wrote with his colleagues called, "<a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jaba.2931">Evaluating a screening-to-intervention model with caregiver training for response to name among children with autism</a>."</p> <p>There are so many great things about this paper, and listeners will be able to tell this from my enthusiasm in discussing it with Danny and Jenn.</p> <p>As I noted above, this is not about teaching eye contact, but rather, a more generalized repertoire of responding to one's name (RTN). We get into why these two things are different, and, as Danny tells it, RTN repertoires have many benefits that directly impact learning and safety.</p> <p>In this paper, he describes an elegant assessment and intervention that his research team implemented to develop RTN in the study's participants. In carrying out this study, they also employed a simple and effective assent withdrawal component, which we get into.</p> <p>Then, they took what the skills they developed in a clinic setting, and taught the participant's caregivers to implement RTN procedures at home. As such, this paper provides a great example of how to generalize skills across settings. Very cool!</p> <p>Along the way, Danny provides practical tips clinicians can consider for their own practice. All of this to say, I'm hoping you'll agree that the wait for this episode will be worth it!</p> <p>Resources discussed in this podcast:</p> <ul> <li> <p><a href= "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/jaba.2931">Conine, et al. (2025)</a>. Evaluating a screening-to-intervention model with caregiver training for response to name among children with autism.</p> </li> <li> <p><a href= "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jaba.737">Conine, et al. (2020)</a>. Assessment and treatment of response to name for children with autism spectrum disorder: Toward an efficient intervention model.</p> </li> <li> <p><a href= "https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/jaba.635">Conine, Vollmer, and Bolívar (2019)</a>. Response to name in children with autism: Treatment, generalization, and maintenance.</p> </li> <li> <p><a href= "https://behavioralobservations.com/downloads/session-212-token-economy-101-considerations-for-research-and-practice-2"> BOP Session 212</a> with Tim Hackenberg.</p> </li> <li> <p><a href= "https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257648045_Prevention_of_problem_behavior_by_teaching_functional_communication_and_self-control_skills_to_preschoolers"> Luczynski and Hanley (2013)</a>. Prevention of problem behavior by teaching functional communication and self-control skills to preschoolers.</p> </li> <li> <p><a href= "https://www.amazon.com/dp/1843108526?bestFormat=true&k=the+verbal+behavior+approach+by+mary+barbera&crid=17P5NDI1MCKQY&sprefix=mary+barbera+ver&linkCode=sl1&tag=behavioralo08-20&linkId=9e4d48c80a61efba12f3e234221dbeeb&language=en_US&ref_=as_li_ss_tl"> The Verbal Behavior Approach</a>, by Dr. Mary Barbera.</p> </li> <li> <p>Links to Danny's <a href= "https://education.gsu.edu/profile/daniel-conine/">faculty page</a>, <a href= "https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Daniel-Conine">Research Gate profile</a>, <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/danielconine/">LinkedIn</a>, and his lab's <a href= "https://www.instagram.com/gsubehavioranalysis">Instagram</a>.</p> </li> <li> <p>Jenn's <a href= "https://www.uhcl.edu/human-sciences-humanities/faculty/fritz-jennifer"> faculty page</a>, <a href= "https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jennifer-Fritz-2">Research Gate profile</a>, <a href= "https://www.linkedin.com/in/jennifer-fritz-94893469/">LinkedIn</a>, and the <a href= "https://www.uhcl.edu/human-sciences-humanities/departments/psychological-and-behavioral-health-sciences/behavior-analysis/"> UHCL ABA Program page</a>.</p> </li> </ul> <p>If you enjoy this episode, please consider sharing with friends and colleagues!</p>
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