Association for Behavior Analysis International

The conference co-chairs will present opening remarks.

The terms stimulus, response, and stimulus control are derived from the experimental literature. The term "prompt" arose within the applied field. There are many conceptual and logical errors in how trainers use these terms that often lead to ineffectual lessons. Similar problems can be found regarding error correction strategies and those that are described as "errorless." We will review many popular teaching strategies, including fading, most-to-least, least-to-most, etc., several error-correction strategies and a host of strategies described as "errorless teaching." The goal is to shake up many long-held and cherished beliefs about common teaching strategies.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Applied behavior analytic research has traditionally focused on tightly controlled within-subject manipulations that focus on maximizing internal validity. Although this approach is well suited for addressing many important research questions, the influence of this work will continue to be limited without extending it to include questions related to external validity. Thus, clinical research is best served by a comprehensive approach that acknowledges which types of research questions are best addressed by each research approach. Achieving this balance requires flexibility that many disciplines are traditionally averse to, but has tremendous potential to maximize the impact of clinical research on practitioners and thereby the patients and clients who could benefit from its findings.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Please join us for coffee and pastries.

Anna Ingeborg Petursdottir received her Ph.D. from Western Michigan University. She is currently an associate professor of psychology and chair of the psychology department at Texas Christian University (TCU), where she teaches courses and supervises doctoral students in Experimental Psychology. She also holds an appointment as a part-time lecturer at Reykjavik University. Anna is a previous editor of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, a previous associate editor of JABA and a current associate editor of JEAB. She is president-elect of Division 25 of the American Psychological Association, a board member of the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, a member of the ABAI science board, and a past president of the Texas Association for Behavior Analysis. Anna’s research encompasses both basic and applied interests and focuses primarily on verbal behavior acquisition and the relationship between verbal behavior and derived stimulus relations.

Language and communication skills are a major focus of early intervention programs for young children diagnosed with ASD who present with language delays. Based on typical developmental sequences, early curricula emphasized establishing language comprehension before moving to production; operationalized as completing receptive programs prior to the corresponding expressive programs. By contrast, more recent approaches that are rooted in behavioral accounts of language are more likely to recommend mixing receptive and expressive instruction. In this presentation, I will review old and new evidence suggesting that for many learners, the most efficient way to establish both comprehension and production is to focus on expressive instruction, particularly on the verbal operant termed the tact. This may be the case even when the primary goal is to establish another verbal operant, such as the intraverbal. I will present some hypotheses as to why the empirical evidence seems to favor this approach, along with relevant data. Likewise, I will review what is known about potential prerequisites for tact instruction to result in the establishment of additional speaker and listener behavior, and which questions remain unanswered.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Dr. Shillingsburg currently serves as Sr. Vice President of Children’s Services and Training at May Institute. She received her PhD in clinical psychology from Auburn University and completed her predoctoral internship and post-doctoral fellowship at the Marcus Institute. She previously served as the Director of the Language and Learning Clinic at the Marcus Autism Center and held an appointment of Associate Professor at Emory University in the Division of Autism and Related Developmental Disabilities. Dr. Shillingsburg is a licensed psychologist and Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D). Her clinical expertise includes the development of language and behavioral programming to address a variety of behavioral difficulties and social communication deficits associated with autism and other developmental disabilities. She has published over 50 empirical papers and book chapters on interventions for children with autism and related developmental disabilities. She is currently an associate editor for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and Operants, editorial board member of Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, and is past associate editor for The Analysis of Verbal Behavior.

Impairments in social communication and interaction are identified as hallmark characteristics of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Depending on the severity of these challenges, some individuals with ASD may experience difficulties in the development of relationships and positive social interactions. Procedures that promote the development of social interest, social initiations, engagement and play are particularly useful for practitioners designing treatment programs for children with ASD. In this presentation I will provide an overview of the social deficits associated with ASD and present a variety of evidence-based procedures to promote social interactions and social communication with adults and peers. Procedures to enhance motivation for social engagement as well as strategies to teach children to initiate and respond to social partners will be presented.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

In the year since the 2019 CPT® I billing codes for ABA took effect, behavior analysts have encountered a wide array of issues, including contradictory interpretations of the codes, arbitrary hour limits, claims denials, and even accusations of fraud. The ABA Billing Codes Commission was established to work collaboratively and transparently to preserve and expand access to ABA that reflects best practices by identifying and resolving issues arising from the adoption of the CPT I codes. In this presentation, we will review the most common concerns, including concurrent billing, hour limits associated with Medically Unlikely Edits (MUEs), direction of the behavior technician, clinical documentation, and valuation, and provide guidance and resources to support the effort of behavior analysts to implement evidence-based ABA. Finally, we will discuss what comes next and how we can work together to promote positive changes in the interpretation and valuation of the billing codes.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

The conference co-chairs will present closing remarks.