ABA professionals play a significant role in helping individuals achieve their goals and improve their quality of life. We should all be aware of what an appropriate level of professionalism is and how we can show it in our roles as ABA therapists, RBTs, and paraprofessionals. Here, we start out by defining professionalism, which goes beyond simply dressing well and having a fancy title. True professionalism is a wide range of attitudes, behaviors, ethical considerations, and more. One of the co...
Oct 10, 2023•17 min•Ep. 119
It’s important to teach our learners new skills. It’s just as important to make sure previously mastered skills are generalized and maintained. Here, we cover the best ways to incorporate generalization and maintenance into our learners’ programming. Generalization is the ability to show the same skill under different conditions, which includes different people, materials, places, and more. Sometimes, we get very specific about the skill we’re teaching, but we forget to diversify the situations ...
Oct 03, 2023•19 min•Ep. 118
ABA is all about data. Here, we dive into why measurement is so important and how to make sure we’re taking and reporting accurate data. Two of the seven dimensions of ABA are to be effective and to be analytic. In other words, we want to make decisions based on subjectivity and something tangible, not just an opinion. This helps us assess whether we’re making real progress with our students, if a program is really helping a family, if behaviors are decreasing, and so on. There’s no right way to...
Sep 26, 2023•19 min•Ep. 117
Working with clients is only one aspect of our job. Communicating with parents and making sure they feel comfortable with us is another key skill to master. Here, we provide insights and guidance into how to do this effectively. The most communication with parents is typically through a paraprofessional, ABA therapist, teacher, or support staff. They have the most interaction with both students and parents, so it’s important that any messaging come across as caring and attentive. Even something ...
Sep 19, 2023•20 min•Ep. 116
RBTs, paraprofessionals, therapists, and aides all work with our learners every single day. We’re introducing a brand-new training course called the Bx Blueprint and it’s been created specifically for these roles. Onboarding new staff takes up a considerable amount of our time as ABA professionals and can often be overwhelming for both new hires and managers. However, our staff is our biggest resource, and we have to put the time in to train them properly. The Bx Blueprint includes everything yo...
Sep 12, 2023•13 min•Ep. 115
Tiny Guidry is the owner of Clinician with a Mission. We first connected with Tina during the pandemic, and we hosted a joint webinar together all about telehealth and setting ourselves up for success. She started her career back in the ‘90’s when she became an advocate for her son, who received a mood disorder diagnosis. Tina’s true passion is helping people with disabilities, specifically, mental health. She’s also published research along with some of her professors and eventually became “acc...
Sep 05, 2023•28 min•Ep. 114
A high-quality ABA program treats clients with dignity and respect. Here, we cover how to make sure that we’re maintaining that dignity in ABA sessions. Simple gestures like knocking on a door before entering go a long way in helping clients feel comfortable and respected. The needs of our learners and clients always come first and we have to think about treating them the way we would want to be treated ourselves. We discuss client assent and getting consent from our clients as a way to maintain...
Aug 29, 2023•13 min•Ep. 113
We recently sat down with Lisa Gelberman, the founder and creator of Literacy Decoded. For the first 15 years of her career, she taught in an elementary school and then went into special education. She became a resource teacher where she pulled kids out for specific subject areas, and she eventually started teaching an ASD community class. There, Lisa began her ABA journey, where she used techniques to help those in her class succeed. For the last four years, she’s been the principal at a school...
Aug 22, 2023•30 min•Ep. 112
Errorless teaching is an instructional strategy that ensures a student responds correctly. Here, we discuss why errorless teaching is important and how we can use it to benefit our learners. It’s essentially a way to prompt before a response so that an error is not made. In other words, the prompting happens right after the instruction, even before the learner can make any kind of response, so they get to the correct one. The goal here is to avoid having our learners practice errors so they get ...
Aug 15, 2023•14 min•Ep. 111
Reinforcement is one of our most common and useful tools, and it’s just as important to know how to fade reinforcement. Reinforcement involves presenting a preferred item or activity that’s delivered after a positive response to increase the future likelihood of that response. One of the biggest misconceptions about reinforcement is that offering something to a learner will make them want it every time. The truth is that many reinforcements fade naturally or intentionally after a behavior is lea...
Aug 08, 2023•17 min•Ep. 110
For many, the beginning of a new school year can be an exciting time. For others, it evokes fear and worry. Here, we discuss the best ways to help our learners with autism transition back to school. New classrooms, new faces, and new noises can be a challenge, along with intimidating social situations and unrealistic classroom demands. Not every family sends their kids to structured programs throughout the summer, so the back-to-school transition for these children can be extra tough. Getting ba...
Aug 01, 2023•18 min•Ep. 109
Trips to the doctor or dentist are hard for any kid. They’re especially tough for our learners with autism and other delays. Here, we dive into how to make these experiences easier for these learners and their families. A lot of the kids we work with may need multiple medical procedures, which sometimes creates an avoidance to anyone touching them or coming close. Desensitization to the experience is key, and we need to be careful and gentle. Taking a step-by-step approach to desensitization whe...
Jul 25, 2023•16 min•Ep. 108
Kids with advanced language skills may be ready to have conversations with others, but how do we teach these skills? Here, we’re diving into what conversation skills are and how we can best teach them to our learners. Authentic conversations go beyond simple questions and answers. If we want kids to benefit from conversations and form genuine relationships, we must help them understand that true conversation is a mutual sharing of information. In our own lives, the conversations we tend to enjoy...
Jul 18, 2023•12 min•Ep. 107
In ABA, we use lots of different assessments to determine our learners’ strengths and where they may need more help. Here, we cover the most common ABA assessments and how to know which one to use. The purpose of assessments is to provide us with a starting point and create a baseline. When you’re clear on where you’re starting from, you can then create a successful intervention. Assessments also help us look at the big picture and help our learners meet their goals along the way. One of the big...
Jul 11, 2023•29 min•Ep. 106
Through effective prompting, we’re able to help our learners succeed. Here, we dive into the hierarchy of prompting so we can use it in the best way possible. We use prompting in our everyday lives, like when we use calendar invites to keep us on track and remember important events. In the world of ABA, prompts are a way to guide our learners to the correct response. Prompts come after the introduction of the stimulus and before the learner's response. They’re typically based on prior history, a...
Jul 04, 2023•16 min•Ep. 105
ABA is an evidence-based, effective approach for teaching skills, especially for individuals with autism. Here, we’re diving in deeper and discussing what ABA is. There’s a lot of information out there about ABA, some of it true and some of it not. ABA stands for Applied Behavior Analysis and it’s really just breaking skills down into smaller components. Then, a type of reinforcement is used to master each step and move on to the next until you reach your end goal. We also often begin with an as...
Jun 27, 2023•16 min•Ep. 104
In ABA, a task analysis can be used to break down larger, more complex skills into smaller steps or actions. This makes them more manageable for our learners. To run our business, we use a project management system to make sure everything runs smoothly. It functions like a task analysis in that anyone on our team can follow the same steps to keep things consistent. In the field, skills like hand washing and bathing can be taught using task analysis, which helps practitioners teach learners all s...
Jun 20, 2023•16 min•Ep. 103
According to the latest data from the CDC, one in 36 children is diagnosed with autism in the United States each day. Worldwide, one in 100 is diagnosed. In the late 90s, the numbers were more around one in 1,000, and people weren’t quite sure what autism was. To put it simply, autism is a different way of thinking and viewing the world. We’ve encountered some amazing people with autism throughout the years and many have incredible strengths. Here, we dive into the technical definition of autism...
Jun 13, 2023•17 min•Ep. 102
Play is a skill that a lot of our learners need to be taught. It doesn’t come as naturally to kids with autism or other developmental delays. Some children don’t like natural play because it’s unstructured. Here, we discuss how to teach play and the best way to help learners develop these critical skills. Teaching play skills is essential to success, as children learn so much through play. Many daycares and preschool programs carve out significant time for unstructured play, so it’s important th...
Jun 06, 2023•15 min•Ep. 101
In this very special 100th episode, we’ve rounded up some of the best professional advice our guests have ever received. Whether it’s building a community around you, learning to regulate yourself and staying calm in the moment, or fine-tuning your communication skills, being a BCBA requires constant learning and growth. We’ve hosted some amazing ABA professionals on our podcast; many of them have flourished, excelled, and became experts in their particular areas of service. We thought it would ...
May 30, 2023•39 min•Ep. 100
Some students have difficulty learning words and manding with flash cards at a table. Sometimes the natural world is a much better learning environment, and that’s where incidental teaching comes in. Incidental teaching is a strategy that uses ABA principles to provide structured learning opportunities in the natural environment, and it’s all about motivation. Through incidental teaching, you utilize the child’s natural interests and initiation while still contriving situations. Some of the misc...
May 23, 2023•10 min•Ep. 99
As ABA practitioners, we have many teaching procedures in our toolbox. Here, we’re discussing precision teaching, which is also called fluency-based instruction, and how we can use it to benefit our students. Many of us remember having to memorize multiplication tables in elementary school. While it was an intimidating task, chances are we still know all the tables by heart as adults, because we learned them to fluency as children. In today’s classrooms, math is taught in a much different manner...
May 16, 2023•18 min•Ep. 98
BCBA Steve Ward has been working as a behavior analyst since the mid 1990’s. As the lead behavior analyst for a center school, Steve conducted more than 100 functional assessments and wrote behavior plans to address a wide range of behaviors. He has also worked as a consultant, where he has designed programming for a wide variety of repertoires, including verbal behavior, daily living skills, and academics, among a host of others. Today, he runs Whole Child Consulting along with his partner Terr...
May 09, 2023•38 min•Ep. 97
As students become more proficient at manding and move to an intermediate requesting phase, their mean length of utterance should increase. The types of mands they use should also expand. Intermediate learners are those who can use phrases of three or more words. When a student moves into a more intermediate phase, we often focus on pre-academic skills and forget to expand their manding repertoire. These learners have a decent receptive vocabulary, but still get stuck on certain aspects of langu...
May 02, 2023•18 min•Ep. 96
BCBA and play consultant Kaylin Moss is one of our members. She works in the field of early intervention and natural environment teaching. Kaylin started her career as a teacher at a local charter school for children with autism. She was inspired by the behavioral analyst at the school, who was a big resource and began looking into her line of work. Kaylin then began education for behavioral analysis, and her partner at the school became her mentor and supervisor. At first, she focused on behavi...
Apr 25, 2023•29 min•Ep. 95
Functional assessments are the gold standard of behavior analysis. They’re the best technology we have to show the effectiveness and the function of our antecedent and consequence manipulation. Conducting functional assessments in a school setting comes with its own set of unique challenges, and behavior analyst Matt Cicoria is joining us at our next live CEU event to cover just that. The event takes place on Thursday, April 20th at 12:00pm EST. Matt also hosts the Behavioral Observations Podcas...
Apr 18, 2023•10 min•Ep. 94
Shane Finkelstein is one of Shana’s original ABA clients from 20 years ago and is here to talk about his experience with autism. Ever since Shane was young, he had several social problems and was having trouble fitting in with people outside his family. He was diagnosed with autism at the age of two, which is also when he began ABA therapy. ABA helped Shane develop good social skills as well as a good work ethic. He attended several public schools where he excelled academically, but struggled so...
Apr 11, 2023•21 min•Ep. 93
Erin Porter is a family autism coach from Ontario, Canada. As a teacher, she noticed some gaps in the school system and began to fill them in. She also noticed there was a parental piece missing, so she applied everything she knew about teaching and programming to supporting parents who have newly diagnosed children with autism. Erin helps parents fill in their own gaps while they wait for funding or to come off waitlists so they can get started with early intervention. Receiving a diagnosis can...
Apr 04, 2023•30 min•Ep. 92
Functional communication, or FCT, is a way to decrease problem behavior through teaching effective communication skills. Shira once had a student who had a ton of language. He would talk all the time in sentences and communicate what he wanted to do, but he didn’t request things. He sometimes engaged in negative attention-seeking behavior but didn’t know how to appropriately get attention. She taught him how to mand for attention by using text cues, which is an FCT technique, and he stopped enga...
Mar 28, 2023•16 min•Ep. 91
In preparation for a CEU event we’re hosting all about how to use AAC devices, we are rebroadcasting our Linggo episode with Ling Ly Tan and Jane Button. They are from Linggo, a company that makes communication accessible for people who have difficulty speaking. Linggo is an assistive technology that supports the learning of language, speech, and literacy skills through an AAC (augmentative and alternative communication) platform. Ling’s a BCBA and has been working in the field for almost two de...
Mar 21, 2023•27 min•Ep. 90
