Spring has sprung on us with a bunch of freezing rain. So what better time than now to get set for a cozy crop of new podcasts for April. First up, as visit from our favorite mythical bunny with a grab bag of goodies in the form of new articles to discuss. Then finally wrap up our (winter!) Listener Choice episode with a tutorial on token economies before coming up with new ways to finish our paperwork and create meaningful family supports. Then, for patrons-only, our Spring Book Club looking at the female neurodivergent-supporting book, Divergent Mind. By the time you’ve listened to all of these episodes, the flowers will definitely be in bloom.

Articles for April 2025

Hoppin’ Down the Grab Bag Trail (Spring 2025 Grab Bag)

Nevill, R.E., Crawford, M.F., Zarcone, J.R., Maquera, E., Rooker, G.W., Schmidt, J.D. (2024). A retrospective consecutive controlled case series analysis of the assessment and treatment of elopement in children with autism in an inpatient setting. Behavior Analysis in Practice. doi: 10.1007/s40617-024-00979-1

Santa Cruz, H. A. C.,  MIltenburger, R. G. & Baruni., R. R. (2024). Evaluating remote behavioral skills training of online gaming safety skills. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 17, 246-256. doi: 10.1007/s40617-023-00830-z

Kelly-Sisken, S., Reeve, K. F., McPheters, C. J., Vladescu, J. C, Reeve, S. A., & Jennings, A. M. (2025). Comparing equivalence-based instruction to a PowerPoint video lecture to teach differential reinforcement descriptors to college students. Behavioral Interventions, 40, online first publication. doi: 10.1002/bin.70002

Tutorial: Token Economies (Spring 2025 Listener Choice)

Ackerman, K. B., Samudre, M., & Allday, R. A. (2020). Practical components for getting the most from a token economy.Teaching Exceptional Children, 52(4), 242-249. doi: 10.1177/0040059919892022

Kazdin, A.E. (1982). The token economy: A decade later. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 15, 431-445. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1982.15-431. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1982.15-431

Degli Espinosa, F. & Hackenberg, T.D. (2024). Token economies: Evidence-based recommendations for practitioners. Behavioral Interventions. doi: 10.1002/bin.2051

You Forgot to Do Your Paperwork

Luna, O. & Rapp, J.T. (2019). Using a checklist to increase objective session note writing: Preliminary results. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 12, 622-626. doi: 10.1007/s40617-018-00315-4

Halbur, M., Reidy, J., Kodak, T., Cowan, L., & Harman, M. (2024). Comparison of enhanced and standard data sheets on treatment fidelity and data collection for tact training. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 17, 533-543. doi: 10.1007/s40617-023-00869-y

Brown, K.J. (2022). The use of a pictorially enhanced self-instruction packet ot improve weekly time sheet completion in an ABA clinic. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management. doi: 10.1080/01608061.2022.2063221

Family Supports and Contextualized Treatment Planning

Russa, M.B., Matthews, A.L., & Owen-DeSchryver, J.S. (2015). Expanding supports to improve the lives of families of children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 17, 95-104. doi: 10.1177/1098300714532134

Moes, D.R. & Frea, W.D. Using family context to inform intervention planning for the treatment of a child with autism. (2000). Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 2, 40-46. doi: 10.1177/109830070000200

Guinness, K.E., Atkinson, R.S., & Feil, E.G. (2024). Evaluating social validity to inform intervention development: Qualitative analysis of caregiver interviews. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 17, 870-879. doi: 10.1007/s40617-023-00899-6

Divergent Mind Book Club (PATRONS ONLY)

Nerenberg, J. (2020). Divergent mind: Thriving in a world that wasn’t designed for you. Harper One.

While I doubt any of us would purposefully cheer on ableist behavior in our daily work, what if I told you that you may be secretly promoting ableism every single day? This week we do some tough reflection on the medical model that most of us work within and how it may inherently dismiss the environmental factors at play in determining the impact of disabilities on individuals’ lives. And while we’re boosters of the neurodiversity movement, is it possible that their critiques might be going too far in regards to ABA? Hot buttons will get pressed in this episode!

This episode is available for 1.0 TRAUMA-INFORMED CEU.

Articles discussed this episode:

Kapp, S.K., Gillespie-Lynch, K., Sherman, L.E., & Hutman, T. (2013). Deficit, difference, or both? Autism and neurodiversity. Developmental Psychology, 49, 59-71. doi: 10.1037/a0028353

Graber, A. & Graber, J. (2023). Applied behavior analysis and the abolitionist neurodiversity critique: An ethical analysis. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 16, 921-937. doi: 10.1007/s40617-023-00780-6

If you're interested in ordering CEs for listening to this episode, click here to go to the store page. You'll need to enter your name, BCBA #, and the two episode secret code words to complete the purchase. Email us at [email protected] for further assistance.

While most of us engage with goal writing, have you ever stopped to think whether the goals you’ve proposed to your client are…pointless? If so, put down your bopy of “101 Great Trigonometry Objectives” and join us and special guest, Dr. Shanna Bahry, to explore resources for crafting goals with your clients that might actually lead them to a productive, happier adulthood. We review some useful tools from Dr. Bahry, some pointers for how to use (and NOT use) many popular assessments, and discuss where and when those trigonometry goals could meaningfully come into play. Yes, there’s a time and place for every goal.

This episode is available for 1.0 ETHICS CEU.

Articles discussed this episode:

Bahry, S., Gerhardt, P.F., Weiss, M.J., Leaf, J.B., Putnam, R.F., & Bondy, A. (2022). The ethics of actually helping people: Targeting skill acquisition goals that promote meaningful outcomes for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 16, 672-695. doi: 10.1007/s40617-022-00757-x

Bahry, S., Gerhardt, P.F., Weiss, M.J., Driscoll, N.M., Leaf, J.B., Ayres, K.M., & Cauchi, J. (2024). Improving outcomes for adults with ASD by targeting meaningful skill acquisition goals: A review of the literature and available assessments and curricula. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi: 10.1007/s40489-024-00441-6

Bahry, S., Gerhardt, P.F., Weiss, M.J., Leaf, J.B., & Ayres, K.M. (2024). Improving goals written for individuals with autism: Preliminary results on assessing meaningfulness and relevance to adulthood. Behavioral Interventions. doi: 10.1002/bin.2006

If you're interested in ordering CEs for listening to this episode, click here to go to the store page. You'll need to enter your name, BCBA #, and the two episode secret code words to complete the purchase. Email us at [email protected] for further assistance.

Since you can only get so far with surveys of how frequetly registered behavior technicians want to quit their jobs due to burnout, we wondered, is it possible to gather more relevant, actionable research questions? Enter Dr. Nicole Gravina who, with her colleagues, used qualitative analysis research design to dig deeper into more of the “whys” behind how burnout develops for RBTs in Florida, and what supervisors can do to help. Put down your calculators and get out your dictionaries for this episode: We’re looking at words in research!

This episode is available for 1.0 LEARNING CEU.

Articles discussed this episode:

Nastasi, J.A., McGarry, K.M., Peters, K.P., Leon, Y., Bacotti, J.K., & Gravina, N. (2024). A qualitative analysis of variables contributing to the Registered Behavior Technicians’ burnout and turnover in Florida. Behavior Analysis in Practice. doi: 10.1007/s40617-024-01033-w

Nastasi, J.A., Green, V., Te, P.J., & Gravina, N.E. (2024). “Everybody needs to take breaks”: A qualitative analysis of Registered Behavior Technicians’ experiences with taking breaks at work. Behavior Analysis in Practice. doi: 10.1007/s40617-024-00973-7

If you're interested in ordering CEs for listening to this episode, click here to go to the store page. You'll need to enter your name, BCBA #, and the two episode secret code words to complete the purchase. Email us at [email protected] for further assistance.

Maybe it’s the lousy Smarch weather, but we’re in a bit of a mood to start of this month. Not because our special guests aren’t awesome. We had so much fun learning about qualitative analyses in exploring RBT burnout with Dr. Nicole Gravina and how to be more ethically responsible in creating meaningful goals for autistic adolescents and adults with Dr. Shanna Bahry. And not because we’re not reviewing tough issues like turnover in human services, deconstructing ableist practices in the medical model, and respectfully disagreeing with the abolitionist neurodiversity critique. Now that I’m writing about all the awesome episodes coming out this month, I can’t even remember why we sound so crabby.

Oh, right…the state of the United States political system. And rude emails.

Articles for March 2025

Qualitative Analysis of RBT Burnout w/ Dr. Nicole Gravina

Nastasi, J.A., McGarry, K.M., Peters, K.P., Leon, Y., Bacotti, J.K., & Gravina, N. (2024). A qualitative analysis of variables contributing to the Registered Behavior Technicians’ burnout and turnover in Florida. Behavior Analysis in Practice. doi: 10.1007/s40617-024-01033-w

Nastasi, J.A., Green, V., Te, P.J., & Gravina, N.E. (2024). “Everybody needs to take breaks”: A qualitative analysis of Registered Behavior Technicians’ experiences with taking breaks at work. Behavior Analysis in Practice. doi: 10.1007/s40617-024-00973-7

The Ethics of Meaningful Goals w/ Dr. Shanna Bahry (ETHICS)

Bahry, S., Gerhardt, P.F., Weiss, M.J., Leaf, J.B., Putnam, R.F., & Bondy, A. (2022). The ethics of actually helping people: Targeting skill acquisition goals that promote meaningful outcomes for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 16, 672-695. doi: 10.1007/s40617-022-00757-x

Bahry, S., Gerhardt, P.F., Weiss, M.J., Driscoll, N.M., Leaf, J.B., Ayres, K.M., & Cauchi, J. (2024). Improving outcomes for adults with ASD by targeting meaningful skill acquisition goals: A review of the literature and available assessments and curricula. Review Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. doi: 10.1007/s40489-024-00441-6

Bahry, S., Gerhardt, P.F., Weiss, M.J., Leaf, J.B., & Ayres, K.M. (2024). Improving goals written for individuals with autism: Preliminary results on assessing meaningfulness and relevance to adulthood. Behavioral Interventions. doi: 10.1002/bin.2006

Ableism and the Medical Model of Diversity (TRAUMA-INFORMED)

Shyman, E. (2016). The reinforcement of ableism: Normality, the medical model of disability, and humanism in applied behavior analysis and ASD. Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, 54, 366-376. doi: 10.1352/1934-9556-54.5.366

Kapp, S.K., Gillespie-Lynch, K., Sherman, L.E., & Hutman, T. (2013). Deficit, difference, or both? Autism and neurodiversity. Developmental Psychology, 49, 59-71. doi: 10.1037/a0028353

Graber, A. & Graber, J. (2023). Applied behavior analysis and the abolitionist neurodiversity critique: An ethical analysis. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 16, 921-937. doi: 10.1007/s40617-023-00780-6

We’re pretty social people, and we love working with other professionals to support client outcomes. But we’ve also learned that collaboration goes way beyond five-minute consult sessions and a few friendly emails. This week we’re bringing the research and our professional practice together to make a delicious cake of transdisciplinary goodness focusing on the ethics of great collaboration. Because what’s a BCBA without friends?

Bonus: See the whole episode with our slide deck as a video on our YouTube channel. It’s like our podcast but with lots of pictures!

This episode is available for 1.0 ETHICS CEU.

Articles discussed this episode:

Bowman, K.S., Suarez, V.D., & Weiss, M.J. (2021). Standards for interprofessional collaboration In the treatment of individuals with autism. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 14, 1191-1208. doi: 10.1007/s40617-021-00560-0

Gasiewski, K., Weiss, M.J., Leaf, J.B., & Labowitz, J. (2021). Collaboration between behavior analysts and occupational therapists in autism service provision: Bridging the gap. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 14, 1209-1222. doi: 10.1007/s40617-021-00619-y

LeBlanc, L.A., Onofrio, O.M., Valentino, A.L., & Sleeper, J.D. (2020). Promoting ethical discussions and decision making in a human service agency. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 13, 905-913. doi: 10.1007/s40617-020-00454-7

Brodhead, M.T. (2015). Maintaining professional relationships in an interdisciplinary setting: Strategies for navigating nonbehavioral treatment recommendations for individuals with autism. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 8, 70-28. doi: 10.1007/s40617-015-0042-7

If you're interested in ordering CEs for listening to this episode, click here to go to the store page. You'll need to enter your name, BCBA #, and the two episode secret code words to complete the purchase. Email us at [email protected] for further assistance.

As voted on by our patrons, a new (hopefully) long-running mini-series turning research directly into updated practice: Tutorial! This month, we’re looking at research to up your procedural integrity process. Just what should go into your PI checklists? How do you turn your observations into meaningful fidelity data instead of a series of “yeses” and “nos”? And just what good are training manuals, anyway? So, listen in! Your supervisees and clients will thank you.

This episode is available for 1.0 LEARNING CEU.

Remember, Patrons get access to the video version of this episode AND a free CEU for this episode. Not a patron? Join today!

Articles discussed this episode:

Bergmann, S., Harman, M.J., Brand, D., & Vladescu, J.C. (2024). A survey of procedural-fidelity data collection in behavior-analytic practice. Behavior Analysis in Practice. doi: 10.1007/s40617-024-00995-1

Morris, C., Jones, S.H., & Oliveira, J.P. (2024). A practitioner’s guide to measuring procedural fidelity. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 17, 643-655. doi: 10.1007/s40617-024-00910-8

Al-Nasser, T., Williams, W.L., & Feeney, B. (2019). A brief evaluation of a pictorially enhanced self-instruction packet on participant fidelity across multiple ABA procedures. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 12, 387-395. doi: 10.1007/s40617/018-00282-w

If you're interested in ordering CEs for listening to this episode, click here to go to the store page. You'll need to enter your name, BCBA #, and the two episode secret code words to complete the purchase. Email us at [email protected] for further assistance.

UNLOCKED from our Patreon page, it’s the “Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Behavior Analysts” Book Club! Interested in more Book Clubs? Want to vote on what we read next? Feeling FOMO at getting this a full year late? Wish your 2 CEs for listening to the episode were FREE??? Join us on Patreon to get all of our episodes a week early, access to these bonus episodes, plus other goodies.

While we've covered acceptance and commitment therapy a few times before, we'd never really dug too deeply into exactly HOW ACT is behavior analytic. As in the exact mechanisms by which the fabulous steps of the hexaflex "work" as described in 100% behavioral terms. Now, thanks to our listeners (and book authors Dixon, Hayes, and Belisle), we can! Join us as we learn about ACT from theory to practice in our two-hour discusion of "Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Behavior Analysts". Plus, you'll finally get to discover which branch of the hexaflex is our all-time favorite! Is it acceptance? Committed action? Self-as context? No, no one likes self-as context.

This episode is available for 2.0 LEARNING CEUs.

Content discussed in this episode:

Dixon, M.R., Hayes, S.C., & Belisle, J. (2023). Acceptance and commitment therapy for behavior analysts: A practice guide from theory to treatment. Routledge.

If you're interested in ordering CEs for listening to this episode, click here to go to the store page. You'll need to enter your name, BCBA #, and the two episode secret code words to complete the purchase. Email us at [email protected] for further assistance. Want these CEs for FREE? Just subscribe to our Patreon at the $10+ levels and go to the original post for a discount code.

If podcasts are a box of chocolates and behavior analysis is flowers, I guess that makes you our Valentine. We kick off the shortest of months with a check-in with the crew and a review of what’s coming out in time for President’s Day. First, after a year in the vault, our last year’s book club on ACT is unlocked and on the loose. Then the listener’s take the stage with their vote for an episode on procedural integrity. Finally, we try something different with a brand new recording of one of our previous conference talks on the ethics of collaboration. It’s like you were at the conference…but now it’s a podcast episode!

Articles for February 2025

(UNLOCKED) Acceptance and Commitment Therapy Book Club

Dixon, M.R., Hayes, S.C., & Belisle, J. (2023). Acceptance and commitment therapy for behavior analysts: A practice guide from theory to treatment. Routledge.

(LISTENER CHOICE) Tutorial - Procedural Integrity

Bergmann, S., Harman, M.J., Brand, D., & Vladescu, J.C. (2024). A survey of procedural-fidelity data collection in behavior-analytic practice. Behavior Analysis in Practice. doi: 10.1007/s40617-024-00995-1

Morris, C., Jones, S.H., & Oliveira, J.P. (2024). A practitioner’s guide to measuring procedural fidelity. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 17, 643-655. doi: 10.1007/s40617-024-00910-8

Al-Nasser, T., Williams, W.L., & Feeney, B. (2019). A brief evaluation of a pictorially enhanced self-instruction packet on participant fidelity across multiple ABA procedures. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 12, 387-395. doi: 10.1007/s40617/018-00282-w

The Ethics of Collaboration

Bowman, K.S., Suarez, V.D., & Weiss, M.J. (2021). Standards for interprofessional collaboration In the treatment of individuals with autism. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 14, 1191-1208. doi: 10.1007/s40617-021-00560-0

Gasiewski, K., Weiss, M.J., Leaf, J.B., & Labowitz, J. (2021). Collaboration between behavior analysts and occupational therapists in autism service provision: Bridging the gap. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 14, 1209-1222. doi: 10.1007/s40617-021-00619-y

LeBlanc, L.A., Onofrio, O.M., Valentino, A.L., & Sleeper, J.D. (2020). Promoting ethical discussions and decision making in a human service agency. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 13, 905-913. doi: 10.1007/s40617-020-00454-7

Brodhead, M.T. (2015). Maintaining professional relationships in an interdisciplinary setting: Strategies for navigating nonbehavioral treatment recommendations for individuals with autism. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 8, 70-28. doi: 10.1007/s40617-015-0042-7

Can you believe we made it all the way to episode 300? Well, we decided to cap off the event by revisiting a topic that was in the headlines way back when the three of us started in the field of behavior analysis…and sadly is STILL a topic of discussion: Vaccines and autism. And while the findings are in the title (they don’t), we review the research as to why there is still any discussion on the matter and reflect on whether approaching the anti-vaccine debate from a purely scientific findings lens might be playing into an ableist narrative that paradoxically feeds the misinformation discourse.

Thanks to everyone for supporting our show for all these years (and special thanks to everyone who joined us at our live recording!).

This episode is available for 1.0 LEARNING CEU.

Articles discussed this episode:

Ahearn, W.H. (2010). What every behavior analyst should know about the “MMR causes autism” hypothesis. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 3, 46-52. doi: 10.1007/BF03391757

Deer, B. (2011). How the case against the MMR vaccine was fixed. The BMJ, 342:c5347. doi: 10.1136/bmj.c5347

Taylor, L.E., Swerdfeger, A.L., & Eslick, G.D. (2014). Vaccines are not associated with autism: An evidence-based meta-analysis of case-control and cohort studies. Vaccine, 32, 3623-2629. doi: 10.1016/j.vaccine.2014.04.085

Alvik-Harju, C. (2024). Finding more constructive ways forward in the debate over vaccines with increased disability cultural competence. Med Humanit, 49, 9-16. doi: 10.1136/medhum-2021-012342

If you're interested in ordering CEs for listening to this episode, click here to go to the store page. You'll need to enter your name, BCBA #, and the two episode secret code words to complete the purchase. Email us at [email protected] for further assistance.