Emily Varon is a BCBA and a sleep expert who offers CEUs to companies and ABA professionals. We discuss the importance of using non-extinction behaviors when addressing sleep issues. We also talk about co-sleeping, blue light exposure, and tips for ABA practitioners working through sleep problems with clients.
Michael Maloney is an expert in direct instruction and precision teaching. His work addresses the growing literacy problem, which he refers to as a global pandemic. We talk with Michael about the Follow Through Project, why the system won’t address the literacy problem, and what we can do as practitioners to make a difference.
In this mentorship sneak peek, we discuss a question from a community member around reinforcement. It’s easy to associate reinforcers with physical objects like toys and snacks, but there are plenty of non-tangible reinforcers that are intrinsically motivating. Using a little creativity when uncovering reinforcers goes a long way.
We’re discussing burnout with one of our members, Julie Tewell, a clinical BCBA based out of Louisville, KY. As a newly minted BCBA, it’s important to stick to your values and never settle for a toxic job when you can find one that better suits you. If you’re new to the field, lean on your network and don’t be afraid to ask for help.
Kailani Bartley is one of our members and she’s currently working at CABS in Chicago. She just graduated with her master’s and is sitting for the BCBA exam in August. We chat with Kailani about supervision, creativity, and how to succeed as a newly minted BCBA.
One of our audience members brought a question to us about automatically reinforced behaviors. It’s important to identify the function first and why the behavior is so appealing. Then, you can work on introducing replacement behaviors and a strategy that works.
Collecting data around a problematic behavior is one of the key duties of a behavior analyst. Defining the behavior first and being as specific as possible helps everyone stay on the same page. We cover how to make the data collection process easier, including when to focus on frequency or duration and when to use partial interval recording.
We’re giving our listeners another sneak peek into what it’s like in our mentorship meetings. We discuss how to use role playing and replacement skills when working on manding. We also talk about balancing discrete environmental teaching with natural environment teaching and when it’s appropriate to use one over the other.
We take on another question from one of our community members. Teaching asking and answering questions is very important but you have to know where and when to start. We discuss manding and tacting skills and repertoires to assist in teaching asking and answering questions.
Dr. Laura Cesaroni is the Clinical Director at FERN in Toronto. She focuses on self-regulation in children, parents, and educators. We can’t always control the stressors that we’re faced with, but we can control how we manage them. Stress greatly affects behaviors, so it’s important to factor them in when coming up with treatment solutions for clients.
