Emily Varon is a BCBA, a sleep educator, and the founder of Ready Set Sleep. Ready Set Sleep is also home to the Sleep Collective, the first sleep certification program for BCBAs. Emily returns to the podcast to share more of her passion for sleep and give us an update. Since we last spoke, Emily’s certified 111 behavioral sleep specialists and is coming up on the first recertification cycle!

No matter how experienced you are as a BCBA, sleep can be an intimidating task to tackle, and Emily provides a place to receive proper training and guidance. Here, Emily shares some of the current research she’s involved in and details on a new tool she’s developing for BCBAs. She also shares how to take a sensitive approach with parents, tips for breaking down barriers to progress, and advice for new BCBAs just starting to explore sleep.

What’s Inside:

• An update on Ready Set Sleep and the Sleep Collective
• How to take a sensitive approach to sleep with parents
• Advice for new BCBAs 

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Ready Set Sleep
The Sleep Collective

Individuals with trauma histories often feel on edge or misunderstood. As practitioners, it’s important to take trauma into account when designing behavior interventions for our learners. It’s our job to ensure we’re not only shaping behavior but taking an approach that focuses on long-term healing and empathy. Here, we discuss trauma-sensitive behavior interventions and how to incorporate trauma-informed care in our roles as BCBAs.

We talk about the difference between trauma-informed care and trauma-specific services and why the first step in our approach should be acknowledgement. We also discuss the importance of building rapport with our clients and creating a safe environment, real-life examples of a trauma-informed approach in action, and the importance of focusing on skill building.


What’s Inside:

• How to incorporate a trauma-informed approach when designing behavior interventions
• How to build rapport with clients and create a safe environment
• Real-life examples of a trauma-informed approach in action

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Applying Universal Protocols Cheat Sheet
Compassionately Targeting Challenging Behavior with ABA 

Dr. Camille Kolu is a behavioral scientist from Cusp Emergence in Colorado. Dr. Kolu has about 20 years of autism treatment experience and has collaborated with or worked for nonprofits, families, diverse educational facilities, and groups in Texas and Colorado to provide effective autism treatment and support for those affected by developmental or other disabilities.

Dr. Kolu brings together creative service, best practices, and a background in both behavior analysis and behavioral neuroscience to strengthen community fabrics through education, relationships, and behavioral support. She also focuses on TIBA, or trauma-informed behavior analysis, and Shayna recently took Dr. Kolu’s course on trauma sensitivity.

Here, Dr. Kolu shares her career journey and what led her to the work she’s involved in today. We discuss how trauma impacts behavior and the six “buffers” in behavior analysis. Dr. Kolu also shares tips for preventing and managing staff burnout, how the field has evolved around the concept of trauma-informed care, and her advice to new BCBAs in the field.

We’re also hosting a webinar with Dr. Kolu on January 22nd at 3:30pm EST. Head to our website to sign up!

What’s Inside:

• The six “buffers” in behavior analysis
• Tips for preventing and managing staff burnout
• Advice for newly minted BCBAs

Mentioned In This Episode:
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Cusp Emergence Website

Can you believe we’re wrapping up another year? As we approach the end of 2025, we wanted to reflect on some of the highlights of 2024 in a How To ABA year in review. We share some major personal and professional wins and look back on some of the best topics and guests we’ve had on the podcast.

Our favorite highlights include our work with Dr. Alan Schnee, conferences we’ve attended, and our collaboration podcast with ABA Inside Track. Our favorite guests include Dr. Peter Gerhardt, Jenna Mazzillo of ABA Naturally, Dr. Saul Axelrod, Dr. Cody Morris from Behavior Analysis and Practice, and so many others! We also touch on some of our CEUs we’ve offered and what we have in store for 2025.

What’s Inside:

• A look back on How To ABA’s 2024 highlights
• Reflections on our favorite guests and topics
• Our plans for 2025

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Join our Behavior Resource Pro Membership

After our students learn to answer WH questions, the next step is to teach them inferencing skills. Students need to learn how to make inferences, or to predict future events and what will happen next. However, understanding the hidden meaning in stories and social interactions can be challenging, especially for those on the autism spectrum. Here, we discuss the best ways to teach inferencing to these learners. 

Before we start to teach inferencing, it’s important to look for certain prerequisite skills which we cover also cover here. We also discuss sequencing and using scenarios, teaching to mastery, linguist systems, and reading comprehension.

What’s Inside:

• How to teach inferencing skills
• How to identify prerequisite skills in learners
• How to teach inferencing skills to mastery

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Book – Verbal Reasoning
WH Questions eBook

Attention-seeking behavior is quite common; however, our learners often don’t know how to wait to receive attention. They also may not know how to properly seek attention, and it’s our job to teach them. Here, we discuss the value of attention and effective strategies to teach our learners how to request and gain attention.

We start by defining attention-seeking behaviors and how to assess them, including how to identify more subtle behaviors and the importance of identifying the function of the behavior. We also discuss how to introduce replacement skills, request attention programs, proper use of reinforcement, and how to use role play and practice scenarios.

What’s Inside:

• Strategies to teach our learners how to request and gain attention
• How to introduce replacement skills
• How to use role play and practice scenarios

Mentioned In This Episode:
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Functions of Behavior Cheat Sheet

Sequencing is an intermediate language skill, and it can be found in just about everything we do. In ABA, you’ll find sequencing skills on lots of different assessments, including the ABLES. Sequencing also helps learners with other skills, including how questions, before and after, telling stories, predicting, and remembering household tasks. 

Here, we discuss the best ways to teach sequencing to our learners. We start by defining sequencing and talking about how it shows up in our everyday lives. We then break down all the different components of sequencing and teaching across operants. We also share practical examples of how to teach sequencing, prerequisite skills to identify, and strategies to use when creating sequencing programs.

What’s Inside:

• How to teach sequencing and develop programs
• Prerequisite skills needed before teaching sequencing
• Practical examples and strategies

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Expanding Language Skills

Many of our students struggle with initiating language and conversation. Because of this, we usually place a strong emphasis on teaching requesting, or manding, in an ABA program. Here, we discuss how we can teach more advanced manding skills using WH questions. If our learners can mand a request for their wants and needs, it helps reduce challenging behaviors and motivates them to talk.

We discuss the prerequisite skills a learner needs before teaching manding with WH questions. We talk about some of the common mistakes we might make and how to troubleshoot. We also discuss where to start when introducing WH questions, how to keep learners motivated through fun, and practical examples of teaching WH questions.

What’s Inside:

• How to teach manding with WH questions
• Prerequisite skills needed before introducing WH questions
• How to keep learners motivated through fun

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WH Requesting Ideas

Chris Topham is a behavior scientist and the owner of Celeration ABA. Along with his wife, who is also a BCBA, Chris founded Celeration ABA in 2020. At first, they mostly focused on supporting families through the COVID-19 pandemic by providing telehealth ABA and academic support while their children weren’t in school. Within a few years of launch, they’ve grown to become a profitable ABA company focused on delivering high-quality, personalized ABA to families in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Here, Chris shares his background and how he became focused on precision-based teaching. He also shares how to use a celeration chart and walks through how to use it to measure manding. We also discuss celeration charts and fluency-based instruction, using precision-based teaching in task analysis, why Chris uses a one-tier model at Celeration ABA, and advice for those new to the field of ABA and precision teaching

What’s Inside:

• How to use a celeration chart
• Using precision-based teaching in task analysis
• Why Chris uses a one-tier model

Mentioned In This Episode:
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Celeration ABA Website
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Celeration ABA on Instagram

Intraverbals are one of the most challenging concepts for our learners. They can also be the hardest to teach. Here, we cover some of the best ways to teach intraverbals so we can set our learners up for success. Ideally, we want our learners to have the comprehension and ability to hold information in their heads and answer questions correctly without visual support.

We discuss why intraverbals are so important for conversation skills and the appropriate age at which to teach them. We talk about why we shouldn’t jump to teaching intraverbals too quickly and how to teach across operants. We also discuss how to be flexible in our teaching and how to incorporate WH and safety questions.

What’s Inside:

• How to teach intraverbals to our learners
• The importance of intraverbals for conversation skills
• How to incorporate WH and safety questions

Mentioned In This Episode:
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