An Intro to Feeding Challenges: Session 206 with Melissa Gonzalez

Given both the guest and the topic, I don't know if I can add much to the title of this podcast episode. Pat Friman is arguable the best speaker in our field. I have seen him present at least a 1/2 dozen times throughout my career, and it is remarkable how consistent the quality of his talks are. So in this episode, you'll learn that this is no accident. Pat works hard at his craft, and shares methods that you can start working on right away to improve your public speaking skills. Much of what we talk about comes from an article he published in The Behavior Analyst a few years ago. You can find that here. Throughout this interview, Pat also responds to several listener-submitted questions. In short, there are numerous lessons in this podcast episode, and I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I did. Special thanks to Chartlytics.com and Operantcoffee.com for sponsoring today's show. To get a Precision Teaching starter package (i.e., some really cool free stuff), go to Chartlytics.com/matt. If you want some awesome coffee that is sustainably produced that happens to be 10% off, go to operantcoffee.com/shop and use the discount code BEHAVIORCOFFEE.

22 Des 20171h 20min

So one of my podcasting dreams has now come true! I finally got the chance to interview Russ Harris! If you're not familiar with Russ, he is the best-selling author of The Happiness Trap, and has provided ACT training to over 25,000 health professionals across the globe. In today's episode we discuss the basics of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, Russ' son's Autism diagnosis and treatment, how to manage stress and burnout, and of course, listener questions. Unfortunately we didn't have time to get to all listener questions, so Russ has agreed to come back for a Round 2. So feel free to leave questions in the comments section below. During the interview, we mentioned several websites, so here are the links: thehappinesstrap.com Imlearningact.com actmindfully.com.au contextualscience.org mataraservices.com The last site there is Simcha Charna's website. He was kind enough to orchestrate an introduction, to which I am grateful. Lastly, here is a link for a PDF of the Choice Point diagram Russ talked about at the beginning of the interview: Russ Harris' Choice Point Special thanks to Chartlytics.com and Operantcoffee.com for sponsoring today's show. To get a Precision Teaching starter package (i.e., some really cool free stuff), go to Chartlytics.com/matt. If you want some awesome coffee that is sustainably produced that happens to be 10% off, go to operantcoffee.com/shop and use the discount code BEHAVIORCOFFEE.

10 Des 20171h 2min

Mark Dixon and Dana Paliliunas join me for Session 40 to discuss the new curriculum they just published, which is called Accept, Identify, and Move. In short, it's a curriculum guide to help kiddos by combining Mindfulness, Acceptance and Commitment Therapy, and Applied Behavior Analysis. In this episode, we touch on a wide range of topics, including classroom interventions, school wide supports, the role of Mark's previous works (e.g., PEAK and ACT for Children with Autism and Emotional Challenges), and even disseminating and teaching complex topics to school personnel. So even if you don't work in school settings, or if you are an ACT-skeptic, I think there are plenty of lessons that are contained in this episode. I've had a chance to review excerpts of the book and in short, it looks fantastic. Personally, I can see many applications of this work in my practice as a school-based consultant. It's available right now at the Shawnee Scientific Press website. We also get into tons of listener questions on Mark's PEAK curriculum. In fact, we could probably do an entire Q & A show on PEAK given its popularity. In that segment of the show, we discuss the PEAK ABA YouTube channel and the PEAK ABA Solutions training arm. You can find links to these resources here and here. This episode is supported by Chartlytics. Chartlytics is a single, comprehensive system for behavior reduction and academic improvement through Precision Teaching. It is based on 50+ years of peer-reviewed research and experience in applied academic and behavioral settings. Chartlytics has modernized the science of Precision Teaching by simplifying the data collection, visual analysis and reporting processes. It is fully automated and easy to use. It produces dramatic, rapid and reliable results, with elegant and simple visual displays. Chartlytics offers an intensive 2-day workshop on Precision Teaching and the Standard Celeration Chart at locations throughout the United States. Participants learn how to supercharge their ABA programs using this powerful technology, which can often produce 10 times the change in targeted pinpoint behaviors - academic, skill, or behavior reduction. For more information, please visit Chartlytics.com/events. Finally visit chartlytics.com/matt for an exclusive offer that provides the following: A brief video showing the effects of using Precision Teaching along with the Chartlytics platform in a clinic that serves children with Autism. A free 1-credit Type 2 BACB Continuing Education webinar, which features Drs. Rick Kubina and Amanda Kelly. A free eBook on precision teaching. Thanks for checking out this show! If you get value from the podcast, please consider visiting iTunes to provide a rating and review. Also, if you have a chance to share this podcast (in person, or online) with like minded behavioral folks, that would be awesome too!

28 Nov 20171h 19min

Precision Teaching (PT), and the Standard Celeration Charting that goes along with it, is an area of Behavior Analysis that I've never really understood. In fairness, I never really took the time to learn it either. That said, since the inception of this podcast, I have had numerous emails from listeners asking me to interview Rick Kubina on this very topic. For various reasons that I describe in our interview, I was scared reluctant to do so, but I'm so glad that Rick and I finally carved out time to record this show. Rick, with Captain James Tiberius Kirk In this episode, Rick covers the basics of PT, why the Standard Celeration Chart is a superior measurement tool, and answers numerous listener questions. Throughout our conversation, we mentioned a few articles and other resources, which can be found here: Rick's YouTube channel, which has some nice primers on the SCC The Chartlytics website and YouTube channel The Precision Teaching Book, by Kubina & Yurich (2012) The Standard Celeration Society's website and Facebook page A cool study (Datchuk & Kubina, 2017) on using these strategies for improving sentence writing Kubina et al. (2015). A Critical Review of Line Graphs in Behavior Analytic Journals So when you listen to this episode, you'll hear me profess my ignorance on all things PT. However, I will be taking action to remediate this by attending Rick's 2-day PT workshop that's coming up in Las Vegas. Rick, and the company he co-founded, Chartlytics, also have workshops that are coming up in Miami and Pittsburg, with more to be scheduled. If you are interested in diving into PT like I am, but can't get away to attend one of Rick's workshops, the folks at Chartlytics have put together a comprehensive online learning package that includes 30 hours of instruction, the Kubina & Yurich textbook, and a very special bonus that you'll have to see to appreciate. To sweeten the deal, they are offering a huge discount for listeners of The Behavioral Observations Podcast. You can check out the deal by clicking the here.

10 Nov 20171h 35min

Hi Folks, I am on day 2 of not having any power (huge windstorm hit New Hampshire on Sunday night/Monday morning), so please excuse the lack of show notes for this episode. I'll update as soon as I can. So here's the Twitter version: I speak with five out of the seven or eight speakers at the 2017 NextGen Revolution Summit Conference, which is being held in Miami, FL on 11/11/17. It is also available to live stream on the interwebs! If you're interested in checking it out, and you want to save a few bucks, use the promo code MATT at checkout. It's well worth checking out, so if you want more details, head over to https://nextgenrevolutionsummit.com/ for more info!

31 Okt 201755min

Do you want to hear a cool story about using Behavior Analysis to improve the environment? Glad you asked! Dr. Amanda Kelly returns to the podcast to discuss her #nostrawforme campaign. What started out as essentially a self-management intervention is evolving into movement to reduce the usage of disposable or single-use items. Personally, I rarely use straws, but this conversation prompted me to think about other ways in which I consume single-use items, such as paper towels, aluminum cans, and so forth. I hope you find this conversation just as thought provoking. And feel free to share these thoughts in the comments! Here are some links to things Amanda talked about: The Lonely Whale Foundation ABAI's Behavior Analysis for Sustainable Societies SIG A paper from Dr. Scott Geller's early seat belt work The Behavior Analyst's special edition on sustainability Research Gate If you enjoy this episode, please take a minute to head over to iTunes and leave a rating and review. In-person referrals to like minded behavior-folks are always appreciated as well! This podcast is sponsored by Britton Behavioral Consulting. Dr. Lisa Britton, BCBA-D specializes in providing independent fieldwork supervision in a remote context. If you listen to Session 29, you'll learn that she has a wealth of experience in both the practice of Behavior Analysis, as well some great processes in place for mentoring soon-to-be BCBA's. I have corresponded with previous mentees of hers, and to a person, they sang her praises as a supervisor. Also, if you need BACB Type 2 continuing education, why not earn them while you're on the go? How does this work? Again, glad you asked. Click here to find out more.

22 Okt 20171h 14min

How do you get parents to become effective agents of change as it relates to their children's problem behavior? If you're like me, you've struggled to explain the complexities of the functional nature of problem behavior to lay people. Clearly, avoiding our technical language helps with this, but working with parents in particular, it can be difficult to teach how to reinforce desired responses, what behaviors to attend to, what disruptive events to ignore, and so on. As Pat Friman and I discussed in Session 10, sometimes we as Behavior Analysts have trouble applying our training to our own parenting as well. Thankfully, Brandon Franklin stops by the podcast to talk about the parent training program he and his colleagues at Clinical Behavior Analysis are using. They've developed a program called RAPID training (not to be confused with Rapid Prompting ;-) ) that they've found great success with (click here for their handout on this program). This program was adapted from a book by Drs. Rex Forehand and Nicholas Long called Parenting the Strong-Willed Child: The clinically proven five week program for parents of two to six year olds. I had the chance to read much of it before the interview, and I think it's a great book that most parents will get a lot out of. In the interview, we even joked about handing the book out to random people in the street, in grocery stores, certain friends who struggle with parenting, and so forth. Not to turn this post into a review per se, but the book is well worth checking out. In this episode, you will learn the specific steps to the RAPID program, specifically the components of Rewarding, Attending, Providing Breaks, Ignoring, and Direction Giving. You will also learn about the various populations and settings in which the folks at CBA have used this intervention. Because parent training is such a hot topic in our field right now, I received tons of listener questions, so Brandon and I spend some time going through those as well. I hope you enjoy this conversation as much as I did. Brandon and his colleagues at CBA are doing some really great things in our field. They're expanding quite a bit right now, so if you're wondering what it would be like to work CBA, you can reach out to them here (for transparency sake, there is no sponsorship arrangement here). Speaking of sponsors though, this podcast is sponsored by Britton Behavioral Consulting. Dr. Lisa Britton, BCBA-D specializes in providing independent fieldwork supervision in a remote context. If you listen to Session 29, you'll learn that she has a wealth of experience in both the practice of Behavior Analysis, as well some great processes in place for mentoring soon-to-be BCBA's. I have corresponded with previous mentees of hers, and to a person, they sang her praises as a supervisor. Also, if you need BACB Type 2 continuing education, why not earn them while you're on the go? How does this work? Glad you asked. Click here to find out more.

6 Okt 20171h 34min

In session 35, I get a chance to chat with some fellow residents of the Granite State, the husband and wife duo Kim and Tim Heald. In this episode, we discuss the nitty gritty associated with starting an ABA Clinic. Having a clinic is an alluring idea. The obvious benefits include the promise of increased efficiency and quality control. That said, through this discussion, you'll learn there's a lot more to operating a clinic than finding the ideal location. The Healds open up about the challenges of running a clinic, such as putting together an effective team, establishing a common organizational culture, coaching staff performance, and even working together as a married couple. During this interview, Tim and Kim mentioned a few resources, and as promised, here are the links to them: The Lean Startup by Eric Reis William Abernathy's Pay for Performance compensation systems Click here to learn more about Constellations Behavioral Services. In other podcast-related news, on September 27th, at 8 PM Eastern Daylight Time, Megan will be joining me and the members of The Behavioral Observations Membership group for a Zoom meeting. In this meeting, members will have the opportunity to ask Megan about instructional control, alternatives to escape, the PEAK ABA curriculum, and anything else (ABA related, of course!). We will also have none other than Greg Hanley joining us sometime in November (date TBA). If you're interested in learning more, then click here. This podcast is sponsored by Britton Behavioral Consulting. Dr. Lisa Britton, BCBA-D specializes in providing independent fieldwork supervision in a remote context. If you listen to Session 29, you'll learn that she has a wealth of experience in both the practice of Behavior Analysis, as well some great processes in place for mentoring soon-to-be BCBA's. I have corresponded with previous mentees of hers, and to a person, they sang her praises as a supervisor.

14 Sep 201758min