Steve Ward returns to the podcast to talk about a paper he recently published with co-author Teresa Grimes, titled, "50 Practical Ways to Alter the Relative Efficiencies of Behaviors."

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.

We also talk about the work that Steve does with his company, Whole Child Consulting, as well as a Q & A he will be doing on this topic that's coming up on April 23rd, 2025.

Steve is the author of Teaching Good Learner Repertoires, What You Need To Know About Motivation And Teaching Games: An In-Depth Analysis, and other popular texts relevant to Behavior Analysts working in a variety of settings.

If you'd like to work with Steve or find supplementary materials on the things he likes to talk about, check out his website, Whole Child Consulting.

Resources discussed in this podcast:

• Ward and Grimes (2025). 50 Practical Ways to Alter the Relative Efficiencies of Behaviors.
• Ward, Parker, and Perdikaris (2016). Task as Reinforcer: a Reactive Alternative to Traditional Forms of Escape Extinction.
• Perone (2003). The Negative Effects of Positive Reinforcement.
• Steve's earlier appearances on the BOP in Session 111 and Session 187.
• Anxiety? ABA has something for that! (Steve's Behavior University webinar, use promo code PODCAST at checkout to save $$$).

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.

This podcast is brought to you by:

• Frontera. Consider taking a demo 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 BOP25 you’ll get an additional five assessments for just $100. So head to fronterahealth.com to check it out!
• CEUs from Behavioral Observations. 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 here. 
• The Behavioral Toolbox. Check out our courses for school-based and other behavioral professionals, including our newest one, Motivational Interviewing: Getting Educator Buy-In.
• Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings, including their 8-hour Supervision Course, as well as their RBT offerings over at behavioruniversity.com/observations. Don't forget to use the coupon code, PODCAST to save at checkout!

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.

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 Lee Specialty Clinic and a Behavioral Consultant at Kramer Behavioral Health. In these roles, Brandon has implemented various interventions to help individuals with intellectual disabilities access routine medical and dental care.

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.

In this podcast, we get into the following:

• Common phobias associated with medical treatments.
• Brandon's personal experience with aerophobia (the fear of flying), and what he did to improve it.
• The basics of desensitization strategies.
• How he and his team members use these strategies to improve the rate of successful medical appointment visits.
• And finally, the research on this topic that he is doing for his dissertation.

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 LinkedIn.

• Here's all of Brandon's contact info.
• Here's all the desensitization resources you could ask for.

This podcast is brought to you by:

• Frontera. Consider taking a demo 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 BOP25 you’ll get an additional five assessments for just $100. So head to fronterahealth.com to check it out!
• The Profound Autism Summit. 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.
• HRIC Recruting. 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. 
• CEUs from Behavioral Observations. 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 here. 
• The Behavioral Toolbox. Check out our courses for school-based and other behavioral professionals, including our newest one, Motivational Interviewing: Getting Educator Buy-In.

This is not a show about teaching eye contact. We'll get to that in a bit.

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.

Back to this episode. Drs. Danny Conine and Jenn Fritz join me to discuss a paper Danny wrote with his colleagues called, "Evaluating a screening-to-intervention model with caregiver training for response to name among children with autism."

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.

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.

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.

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!

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!

Resources discussed in this podcast:

• Conine, et al. (2025). Evaluating a screening-to-intervention model with caregiver training for response to name among children with autism.

• Conine, et al. (2020). Assessment and treatment of response to name for children with autism spectrum disorder: Toward an efficient intervention model.

• Conine, Vollmer, and Bolívar (2019). Response to name in children with autism: Treatment, generalization, and maintenance.

• BOP Session 212 with Tim Hackenberg.

• Luczynski and Hanley (2013). Prevention of problem behavior by teaching functional communication and self-control skills to preschoolers.

• The Verbal Behavior Approach, by Dr. Mary Barbera.

• Links to Danny's faculty page, Research Gate profile, LinkedIn, and his lab's Instagram.

• Jenn's faculty page, Research Gate profile, LinkedIn, and the UHCL ABA Program page.

If you enjoy this episode, please consider sharing with friends and colleagues!

Drs. Ilene Schwartz and Beth Kelly joined me to discuss the never ending conundrum of navigating ethical dilemmas. As Ilene points out in the podcast, most people know right from wrong, but the types of dilemmas BCBAs encounter are what she calls 'right vs. right' dilemmas...

Therefore, ethical practice requires a continuous decision making process. And in my guests' view, this is not a matter of decontextualized rule-following. In this podcast, we get into these nuances, using Ilene and Beth's newly published book, Ethical Decision Making in Applied Behavior Analysis.

We also discussed a framework for articulating one's values and principles that you might find helpful in your work setting.

Resources for this podcast:

• Ethical Decision Making in Applied Behavior Analysis.
• Rosenberg and Scwhartz (2018). Guidance or Compliance: What Makes an Ethical Behavior Analyst?
• Kelly, Greeny, Rosenberg and Schwartz (2020). When Rules Are Not Enough: Developing Principles to Guide Ethical Conduct.
• Dr. Schwartz's faculty page.
• Dr. Kelly's faculty page.
• BOP's CEUs, with many Ethics events.

This podcast is brought to you with the support of:

• The Profound Autism Summit. 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.
• CEUs from Behavioral Observations. 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 here. 
• The Behavioral Toolbox. Check out our courses for school-based and other behavioral professionals, including our newest one, Motivational Interviewing: Getting Educator Buy-In.
• The Verbal Behavior Conference. Whether you attend in-person in Austin, TX, or online via BehaviorLive, you're going to love this year's Verbal Behavior Conference! Click here to get all the details!
• Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings, including their 8-hour Supervision Course, as well as their RBT offerings over at behavioruniversity.com/observations. Don't forget to use the coupon code, PODCAST to save at checkout!

Many years ago, a wise principal once told me that good instruction is the best classroom management tool teachers have at their disposal. In Session 293, Dr. Todd Haydon joins me to discuss the practice of increasing the rate of students' opportunities to respond (OTR), which is an instructional practice that has been shown to improve classroom behavior.

In doing so, Todd and I did a deep dive on his dissertation work, which culminated in the study, Haydon, Mancil, and Van Loan (2009). This study began with a referral to help students who engaged in disruptive and off-task behaviors. Rather than conduct several individual FBAs, Todd and his colleagues coached the teacher to increase the rate of posing academic questions to the class.

The results spoke for themselves, and the rest is history. So tune in to learn how this practice works, and maybe it can be something that will help you in your practice!

Oh, and by the way, he concludes the podcast with a very memorable story, so be sure to tune into the entire episode!

Resourced discussed in this podcast:

• Today's ABA (Hanley, Session 160, CEU Available).
• How to Improve Classroom Management with the Good Behavior Game (Donaldson, Session 171, CEU Available).
• Pat Friman, No such thing as a bad boy (Inside JABA 7, CEU Available).
• Deconstructing Compassionate ABA (Hanley, Session 183, CEU Available).
• How to Use Group Responding (Heward, Session 260, CEU Available).
• Clinical Interviewing book (How to get "permission" to give advice).
• Classroom improvement courses from The Behavioral Toolbox.
• Using Opportunities to Respond in a General Education Classroom: A Case Study (Haydon, Mancil and Van Loan, 2009).
• Managing Negative Countertransference when Working with Children Exhibiting Externalized Behaviors: A Single-Case Design (Guest et al., 2025).
• Key and Peele substitute teacher skit.
• Remedial and Special Education.
• Tootling: current research and future considerations for school practitioners (Whitefield and Harry, 2024).
• PAX: The Good Behavior Game.
• Todd's Research Gate page.
• Numbered Heads Together.
• Todd's UC Faculty Page.

This podcast is brought to you with the support of:

• Frontera. Consider taking a demo 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 BOP25 you’ll get an additional five assessments for just $100. So head to fronterahealth.com to check it out!
• The Profound Autism Summit. 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.
• HRIC Recruting. 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. 
• CEUs from Behavioral Observations. 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 here. 
• The Behavioral Toolbox. Check out our courses for school-based and other behavioral professionals, including our newest one, Motivational Interviewing: Getting Educator Buy-In.
• The Verbal Behavior Conference. Whether you attend in-person in Austin, TX, or online via BehaviorLive, you're going to love this year's Verbal Behavior Conference! Click here to get all the details!

En este episodio, regresamos al importante tema de la Evaluación Práctica Funcional (PFA por sus siglas en inglés) y el Tratamiento Basado en Habilidades (SBT por sus siglas en inglés), esta vez explorándolo a través de un estudio de caso. Ana María Méndez-Vides nos guía con claridad y detalle por cada etapa del proceso, desde la evaluación hasta la implementación del tratamiento y sus extensiones.

A lo largo de la conversación, Ana comparte su experiencia clínica y su profundo conocimiento, abordando las preguntas más comunes que surgen al conocer este proceso en mayor profundidad. Además, nos brinda una perspectiva enriquecida por su juicio clínico, su experticia, su cercanía con la fuente de esta tecnología y, sobre todo, su sensibilidad cultural.

Este episodio no solo ofrece un repaso esencial, sino también una inmersión en la aplicación práctica de este enfoque, destacando la presencia de más líderes en Latinoamérica que están transformando la manera en que apoyamos a personas con desafíos en el desarrollo y problemas severos de conducta.

¡No te lo pierdas! 🎧✨

Recursos:

• ABA Center Guatemala.

• Contacto Ana.

• PFA/SBT recursos en Español.

• Estudio de caso con Ana (video con Ana).

🎙️ Practical Functional Assessment & Skill-Based Treatment: A Case Study with Ana María Mendes-Vides 📢

In this episode, we revisit the important topic of Practical Functional Assessment (PFA) and Skill-Based Treatment (SBT)—this time through the lens of a case study. Ana María Méndez-Vides takes us through the entire process with clarity and detail, from assessment to treatment implementation and its extensions.

Throughout our conversation, Ana shares her clinical expertise and deep knowledge, addressing common questions that arise as one becomes more familiar with this process. She enriches the discussion with her clinical judgment, extensive experience, direct mentorship from the source, and, most importantly, her cultural sensitivity.

This episode is not only a great refresher but also an opportunity for a deep dive into the practical application of this technology, highlighting the growing presence of leaders in Latin America who are transforming the way we support individuals with significant behavioral challenges.

Don’t miss it! 🎧✨

Resources:

• ABA Center Guatemala.

• Contacto Ana.

• PFA/SBT recursos en Español.

• Estudio de caso con Ana (video con Ana).

I'm thrilled to announce a new special series for Behavioral Observations! I've partnered with Frontera to bring you a series of podcasts on using AI to support and enhance ABA therapy.

To be candid, I've been a bit behind the curve on learning about AI. Sure, I've played around with ChatGPT, but unless you've been living under a rock, you've likely seen many AI solutions that have been brought to bear to Behavior Analytic services.

And while I've been wanting to produce content in this area for a while, I've struggled to find an outlet to do so. Until now.

In this inaugural series, I interview Amol Deshpande. Amol is an engineer, an entrepreneur, and an autism dad. He also is the founder and CEO of Frontera.

What does Frontera do? They develop AI technologies that help BCBAs work efficiently, creating more access for their patients. In doing so, Frontera helps clinics see more patients through improved operations and better productivity, all while reducing turnover and burnout.

As you'll hear in this interview, Frontera's technologies accelerate the time to treatment for children and families. And they believe AI, applied correctly at the right time, can create more precise and personal treatment plans that improve children’s outcomes.

Along the way, you'll learn about Amol's personal commitment to the field, as well as the values of transparency and open-access that Frontera delivers.

If you've been skeptical of AI in the ABA space, this podcast is for you.

Speaking of transparency, I want to disclose that Frontera will be sponsoring several upcoming BOP episodes. I hope that long time listeners know that I do not undertake these relationships lightly.

I've not only spoken with Amol, but also with many other of Frontera's clinicians and staff. To a person, they are committed to making ABA treatment more efficient, effective, and person-centered.

If you're interested in learning more about Frontera's technologies, you can explore their easy-to-use Assessment Builder and Diagnosis Builder features at fronterahealth.com.

What do these tools do? For starters, they'll help you cut down the time it takes to complete initial client assessments from 8-10 hours to 3-4 hours. This saves time and lets you begin treatment and help your clients sooner rather than later.

Your first assessment report is free. And if you use code BOP25 you’ll get an additional five assessments for just $100. So head to fronterahealth.com to check it out!

Here are some links if you're interested in learning more about Frontera:

• Business Wire press release announcement of Frontera's funding (see here also).

• Frontera on Instagram.

• Frontera on LinkedIn.

• Frontera on Facebook.

• Reach out to Amol on LinkedIn.

• Demos available here (don't forget to use promo code BOP25).

Welcome to Session 290 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast. In this episode, I'm joined by Armando Bernal and Andy Bondy. Andy is a known entity both in the field, and to the audience as well, and therefore needs little in the way of introduction.

Armando is the founder of Autism International Consulting, which is the only Autistic-owned ABA provider in the Houston, TX area. He shares a truly inspiring story of how he went from not speaking at all, up through the present day, where he and his team provide ABA services.

In this show, we discuss:

• Armando's family's response to his diagnosis. 
• How his mother single-handedly directed his early treatment.
• His work as a special education teacher.
• A surprising story - to me at least - of how he first learned about ABA.
• His work at Autism International Consulting.
• How he and Andy began collaborating.
• How Armando's unique perspective informs his practice.
• Current topics in ABA, including assent and compassionate care.
• How Armando learned to accept his diagnosis.
• Navigating controversies in the field and the related role of social media.

Links to resources discussed:

• Armando's company, Autism International Consulting.
• Reach out to Armando on LinkedIn.
• Autism International Consulting's IG account.
• Lestremau Allen, Mellon, Syed, Johnson & Bernal (2024). Neurodiversity-Affirming Applied Behavior Analysis.
• Armando's appearance on Dr. Mary Barbera's podcast.

This podcast is brought to you with the support of:

• The Profound Autism Summit. 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.
• HRIC Recruting. 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. 
• CEUs from Behavioral Observations. 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 here. 
• The Behavioral Toolbox. Check out our courses for school-based and other behavioral professionals, including our newest one, Motivational Interviewing: Getting Educator Buy-In.
• The Verbal Behavior Conference. Whether you attend in-person in Austin, TX, or online via BehaviorLive, you're going to love this year's Verbal Behavior Conference! Click here to get all the details!

This is a recording of the 2024 Verbal Behavior Conference Panel Discussion, which I had the honor of moderating along with VBC founder, Kelle Rich. The participants included Drs. Patrick McGreevey, Eb Blakely, Alice Shillingsburg, Mirela Cengher, Hank Schlinger, and the incomparable Lina Slim.

As you'll hear, this was a lively conversation, and what I love about this event is that there was not only lots of audience participation, but we had tons of people chiming in from the BehaviorLive virtual feed.

In this panel discussion, we discussed the following:

• Dr. Patrick McGreevey's thoughts on mastery criteria.
• Dr. Eb Blakely's discussion of a case study for a learner who's reinforcers include signs of damage.
• Collaboration, rapport building, and consultation skills with public school teachers and SLPs.
• Considerations for manual signs vs. picture selection.
• Echoic skill development for children of non-hearing parents.
• Dr. Slim's thoughts on Gestalt Language Processing.
• Whether Standard Celeration Charting is making a comeback.
• And lots more!

If this kind of event sounds like fun for you, please consider joining us for the 2025 VBC. This year's VBC is taking place March 27-28 and will feature talks from Drs. Pat McGreevy, Tiffany Kodak, Judah Axe, April Kisamore-Hunter, Barbara Esch, and Caio Miguel. The day before the conference will feature a full day workshop from the aforementioned Dr. Barbara Esch.

The conference itself provides 13 CEUs, and when combined with Dr. Esch's workshop, it's 19 CEUs total.

As always, the in-person event is in Austin, TX. If you decide to go in person, expect to have many opportunities before and after the talks to interact directly with the presenters. It always amazes me how generous these folks are with their time.

If you can't make it to Austin, we'll certainly miss you, but the virtual experience provided by BehaviorLive is second-to-none. I think this comes through, again, as evidenced by the virtual audience's participation in these panel discussions.

If you want to check out all of Behavioral Observations' past VBC content, click here.

This podcast is brought to you by:

• ACE Approved CEUs from .... Behavioral Observations. That's right, get your CEUs while driving, walking your dog, doing the dishes, or whatever else you might have going on, all while learning from your favorite podcast guests!
• The Behavioral Toolbox. thebehavioraltoolbox.com is a new education and training site that my colleagues Anika Costa and Dr. Paulie Gavoni and I have been working on for over two years. Check out our latest course, Motivational Interviewing: Getting Educator Buy-In as well as the hugely popular When Not to FBA: 5 Quick Strategies for Improving Behavior in Classrooms.
• Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings, including their 8-hour Supervision Course, as well as their RBT offerings over at behavioruniversity.com/observations. Don't forget to use the coupon code, PODCAST to save at checkout!
• If you'd like to get BOP episodes a little earlier than everyone else, with no ads... just the interview itself, consider supporting the show with a Patreon subscription.

I'm not sure about you, but I did not get a lot of training in self-management when I was a graduate student (but cut me some slack... I was in an EAB program!).

If you're in the same boat as I am, then you're in luck. In Session 288, I'm joined by Katie Croce and Jamie Salter, and in our conversation, they provided their unique strategies for fostering self-management using the Self and Match system.

We get in to how they developed their unique approach to self-management, how they've refined it over time, the relationship between self-monitoring and accountability, research supporting these practices, and lots more.

If you want to learn more about this approach to supporting individuals to become more independent, sign up for their mailing list, or consider picking up a copy of the Self and Match manual.

• All things Self and Match.
• Research supporting self-management/self-monitoring.
• Katie's dissertation.
• Bulla, A. J., & Frieder, J. E. (2017): Self and Match applied to Vocal Stereotypy.
• The Self and Match Manual (use discount code BOP2024; valid until the end of the 24/25 school year).
• Self-management resources at Intervention Central (along with tons of other great stuff!).
• Dr. Ed Shapiro.
• Dr. Saul Axelrod (one of my personal heroes FWIW).
• Croce and Salter (2022). Beyond the Walls: Establishing Classroom Expectations in a Virtual Classroom.
• Join the Self and Match mailing list to get more free resources!