Shane Finkelstein is one of Shana’s original ABA clients from 20 years ago and is here to talk about his experience with autism. Here, he shares his favorite aspects of ABA, especially weekend outings, which helped him form healthy relationships and thrive in social settings. We also talked to Shane about the skills he’s currently working on and his experience in the workforce.
Erin Porter is a family autism coach from Ontario, Canada who supports parents who have newly diagnosed children with autism. Erin shares her thoughts on the major gaps and challenges she sees. Some of the challenges start before the diagnosis, including how to talk to doctors. We also talk to Erin about how she assists parents through her Guided Autism Program.
All behavior is communication, and they’re two sides of the same coin. Functional communication, or FCT, is a way to decrease problem behavior through teaching effective communication skills. Here, we discuss where to start when teaching mands, how to collect data, and how to avoid developing chains of responses by using transfer trials.
We are rebroadcasting this episode where Ling and Jane join us to explain their AAC platform, Linggo. Communication is a complex concept and requires an interdisciplinary approach while keeping the needs of the child front and center. Linggo is much different than traditional AACs and the company also provides training for both parents and practitioners, which helps with adoption and adherence. For more information on our upcoming CEU event with Ling and Jane, head to our website.
BCBA Kat Savino is the Community Manager at How To ABA. Kat has a ton of supervision experience and here, she talks about what’s lacking in the field and suggestions for improvement. We also discuss the challenges faced by new BCBAs, how leaning on a community can decrease burnout and overwhelm, and Kat’s must-have programming resources.
Dr. Alan Schnee is a Ph.D., BCBA-D, consultant, author, and speaker. Here, we talk to Dr. Schnee all about matching. As professionals, we often teach simple matching skills to our students, but matching can also be used as a vehicle to teach many other things. Here, we discuss when to introduce higher-level matching techniques, how BCBAs can incorporate more creative thinking in our programs, and more.
Life skills are a critical part of the success of our students and help them to grow into independent adults. Here, we cover the best ways to assess life skills and how to make a plan of which skills our learners need to know. We also discuss why it’s important to start at a young age and how to use assessments.
Emily Varon is a BCBA and sleep specialist who has been diving into a new passion: burnout in the field of ABA. We discuss some of the things that contribute to burnout, like a lack of supervision and being stretched too thin. We also talk about how to tap into our reinforcers, the challenges new and seasoned BCBAs face that can lead to burnout, and potential strategies and solutions to ease overwhelm.
How do I get started with ABA? As BCBAs we’re trained to use assessments. However, it can be a challenge to transfer those assessments into curriculum. Assessments are not meant to be curriculum, so we’ve developed a really easy-to-use checklist that we use with a new student as an initial intake.
A behavior contract is a written agreement that outlines expectations, timeframes, and rewards for specific behaviors. Behavior contracts give students ownership over their lives and access to their own reinforcers. We discuss the benefits of this strategy, how to introduce the concept to students, and tips for making your behavior contracts a success.
