WisABA-Wisconsin Association for Behavior Analysis

Open Seats for Iwata Workshop

2010-03-03T10:31:00.000-08:00

This came in the email this morning (note that this workshop is not sponsored or associated with WisABA):

Dr Brian Iwata will conduct a two-day workshop, “Functional Analysis & Treatment of Severe Behavior Disorders,” March 25-26 in Oak Brook, IL.
All will receive a certificate of attendance. BCBAs may receive 12 Type II CE credits and Psychologists may receive 11 CE Credits. Go to www.bisoxford.com for registration information, forms and fees. Call Walt Antonow at [662] 234-1640 for more information.

For you all who comment -- an apology

2010-03-02T19:58:00.000-08:00

Or a shout-out.

A big thanks to you all who comment, especially to Regina Claypool-Frey for commenting frequently on this blog.

And an apology for my not responding -- I squeeze in posts here and there in the odd moment, and don't often get back to look at the comments like I should. I'll try to get back there more frequently in the future.

2010 WisABA Conference

2010-03-02T19:41:00.000-08:00

The 2010 WisABA Conference is scheduled for August 16 - 18, 2010, at the University of Wisconsin - Madison Memorial Union, Madison, WI.

We're lakeside again for the conference, overlooking beautiful Lake Mendota this year from the Memorial Union right in the middle of the UW-Madison campus. Come for workshops on the 16th and 17th; stay for renowned presenters on the 17th and 18th.

And don't miss the WisABA Social!

Workshop and presenter information is below. Look for updated information, including the conference brochure, on the soon to go-live fully revised WisABA website (www.wisaba.org).

Confirmed presenters

􀁺 Bill Ahearn, Ph.D., BCBA-D

􀁺 Matt Andrzejewski, Ph.D.

􀁺 Lisa Barsness, M.S., BCBA

􀁺 Roger Bass, Ph.D., BCBA-D

􀁺 Andy Bondy, Ph.D.

􀁺 Vince Carbone, Ph.D., BCBA-D

􀁺 Peter Gerhardt, Ed.D.

􀁺 Kevin Klatt, Ph.D., BCBA-D

􀁺 Wendy Machalicek, Ph.D., BCBA-D

􀁺 Ed Morris, Ph.D., BCBA

􀁺 Chris Simler

􀁺 Matt Tincani, Ph.D., BCBA-D

􀁺 Chris Wilkins, A.P.S.W.

􀁺 … and others not yet confirmed!

Topics to include (most will be BACB CE eligible)

􀁺 Two-day PECS training

􀁺 Verbal behavior workshop

􀁺 Functional behavior assessment

􀁺 Comparing ABA & other treatments

􀁺 How to identify effective treatments

􀁺 Dispelling myths about ABA

􀁺 Positive behavior supports

􀁺 Treating feeding problems

􀁺 Developing job-related social skills

􀁺 Ethical issues in behavior analysis

􀁺 Quality of life discussions

􀁺 Epigenetics and operant conditioning

􀁺 Implementing token systems

􀁺 … and more!

Have you really read this far? Well, since you are so diligent, see if you can be the first to answer the following WisABA trivia in the comments: Name, in chronological order, the three lakes WisABA will have had its conference at as of August 16, 2010. Good luck! -- Matt.

Report On Evidence-Based Treatments for Autism

2010-01-26T11:20:00.001-08:00

Maine released its ratings of the treatments for autism with the greatest evidence behind them. Good information to share.

FYI: Functional Analysis Workshop in March

2010-01-13T06:19:00.000-08:00

This was in the emails this morning:

Dr Brian Iwata will conduct a two-day workshop, “Functional Analysis & Treatment of Severe Behavior Disorders,” March 25-26 in Oak Brook, IL [25 minutes from downtown Chicago]. BCBAs may receive 12 Type II CE credits and Psychologists may receive 11 CE Credits. Must attend both days as scheduled – no partial credit. Register early – last 21 workshops sold out quickly. Go to our website www.bisoxford.com for registration information, forms and fees. Call Walt Antonow at [662] 234-1640 for more information.

I attended Dr. Iwata's workshop a while back. It was excellent.

Technical Note: Behavior Observation Software

2010-01-09T18:31:00.000-08:00

When I interned at the BBU/Children's Seashore House in the '90s, we used a simple but effective program there that, I think, had been either written or adapted by Mike Shea in Basic and ran on these super-heavy Grid laptops. I've periodically hunted around for similarly simple, low-cost (i.e., free) software I could use for behavioral observations -- something which would basically record when a key was entered, give me a display at the end of what was entered when on a second by second basis, and give me summaries of what keys were pressed how many times. Ideally, there would be an option for duration as well as frequency recording. Even better would be software working on a handheld device.

I knew Mark Dixon had published on how to program a Pocket PC for this purpose, and had even kicked around the idea of getting a used Pocket PC, but did not want to purchase another device. (I already own a Nokia 810 internet tablet and a couple of old Palm devices, as well as a 10 year old Mac Powerbook.) I also doubted I had the time to learn and to program in Visual Basic.

Well, Whoo hoo! I finally managed to find some software that fits the bill.

It turns out that field researchers in animal behavior (not necessarily behavior analysts) tend to write their own programs for observations, so the following resources, should you go on to check the links, are written about by their authors in that context. However, for free programs, they look capable of doing the job (or have appeared so, so far).

EZ Record and Pen Record are PalmOS-based programs available here. I currently prefer EZ Record because the program creates buttons on the Palm's touch screen which one hits to record when a behavior or other event has occurred. Aside from recording duration, the program accomplishes the functions mentioned above. Pen Review then reads the file produced by EZ Record and produces a second by second record of the session, a summary graph, counts of what keys were hit how many times, a figure showing distribution of events recorded across time in the session, and a matrix showing how often events followed each other. Right now, I'm copying down the length of the session and event frequencies from the screen due to difficultly in exporting the data file.

There are several other observation programs on the site, including Windows-based programs -- please consider trying them out and posting further information in the comments to this post.

The PalmOS-based programs look simple enough to run on older palm devices which may be relatively inexpensive on the used market. Although I have a couple of old Palms, I've been using the programs using a free Palm emulator called GarnetVM. It looks like a Palm emulator for other mobile devices is available here, but I haven't tested it. (Hint, hint.) The same folks may have an iPhone/iPod Touch version in beta.

If you have a Windows or Mac machine, JWatcher looks like another behavior observation software option. JWatcher appears has more functionality than EZ Record, allowing for event and state recording. To be honest, I could get quickly over my head with the various options for sophisticated data recording. I was able to run the program on an older (about 600 mhz) Windows XP laptop and the old Mac Powerbook (266 mhz, OS 10.2). The learning curve and set-up time on this program appear to be higher, as one needs to create related several files and relate those files to each other before observations can start. Although the program is free, the book with detailed instructions needs to be purchased. One might be able to get by with the pdf of less instructions available on the site. Again, comments regarding others' experience with JWatcher are welcome.

Not having an iPhone or iPod Touch, I haven't looked into software on these devices -- so, once again, others' information is not only welcome, but requested.

Hope its been a helpful post!

Facing Autism in NB Highlights Morris on Gernsbacher

2009-12-16T12:44:00.000-08:00

Facing Autism in New Brunswick provides a good perspective on autism and aba from a person who is not an aba-professional nor an aba-focused academic. This recent post highlights Edward Morris' critique of "The Gernsbacher Lectures", which Morris argues misrepresent behavior analysis:

Wednesday, December 16, 2009

Autism and ABA: Morris's (Unanswered) Challenge to Gernsbacher Will Be Featured at CalABA Annual Conference 2010

Edward K. Morris is scheduled to give
what should be a fascinating keynote speech at the 28th Annual Regional
Conference of the California Association for Behavior Analysis. Professor
Morris's topic will be The Gernsbacher Lectures: Cut Aways, Outtakes, and
Bloopers - and Essentialism. The CalABA conference is scheduled for February 18
to 20, 2010 at the Hyatt Regency in Irvine California.
Professor Morris published a scathing article in the Behavior Analyst, A Case Study in the Misrepresentation of Applied Behavior Analysis in Autism: The Gernsbacher Lectures, in which he thoroughly, systematically and candidly dissected and demolished her criticisms of ABA.

To my knowledge Professor Gernsbacher has not provided a public reply to
Professor Morris's challenge .... [click for more]

Another good Kazdin article in Slate

2009-11-15T16:33:00.000-08:00

Dr Kazdin has an occassional series on behavior, especially issues regarding child behavior.

The following does a good job addressing an issue many ABA folks have a hard time addressing -- the roots of many of our treatments in basic (read: often animal" research:

Like a Rat

Animal research and your child's behavior.

By Alan E. Kazdin and Carlo RotellaPosted Thursday, Nov. 12, 2009, at 1:23 PM ET

Psychologists who work with children and families tend to avoid mentioning to parents that the treatments they use are often based on research done on animals. It's no secret that the widely used technique of the timeout was developed in studies on rats or that important early research leading to treatments for anxiety in humans was done on dogs, cats, and other species—but the subject doesn't come up a lot in conversation. We will confess to doing our bit to perpetuate this professional shyness about animal research by tiptoeing around it in our Slate pieces and in the book we wrote together. Why?... (click to continue reading)

Token Economy Spotted In The Wild!

2009-08-31T17:00:00.000-07:00

SAT., AUG 29, 2009 - 10:14 AM

'Behavior bucks' bloom into garden at school entrance

By GAYLE WORLAND
608-252-6188

gworland@madison.com

When students at Lindbergh Elementary enter their building Tuesday for the first day of school, they’ll pass by new flowering plants and prairie grasses that, in a way, they grew with their own generosity.

It all started with “behavior bucks,” small green slips of paper that serve as currency at the North Side school.

Invented last year by Lindbergh staff, the bucks were designed to curb discipline problems. And the program worked. For a gesture of kindness, children earned a buck on the spot. Perpetual rule-breakers won a buck for obeying the rules. Some made a buck simply by paying attention in a class they normally disrupted ....

Now, I don't know if its a perfect implementation, although the ability to donate 'bucks' to charity is a neat idea. In any case, (apparent) effective use of structured motivational systems by non-behavior analysts deserves support (such as letters to the editor of the State Journal or encouraging emails to the school, hint, hint).
--mjw

ARTICLE URL: http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/463770

Children With Disabilities Spanked More Often

2009-08-11T05:49:00.000-07:00

As a behavior analyst, how would you talk about this with coworkers, parents, or teachers?

Disabled Students Are Spanked More
By SAM DILLON
Published: August 11, 2009
More than 200,000 schoolchildren are subjected to physical punishment each year, and disabled students get a disproportionate share, according to a new study.

Applied behavior analysis and evidence-based practice

2009-05-21T06:35:00.000-07:00

Facing Autism in New Brunswick often posts commentary regarding autism treatment from a parent's perspective, and is a strong proponent of applied behavior analysis as an evidence-based treatment. The current post examines the difference between evidence-based treatments and those lacking evidence -- and the attraction of the latter.

Readers may find Facing Autism thought provoking. The posts are generous in their openness -- please, check it out. (The blog also presents strong opinions on issues like vaccinations and autism and neurodiversity advocates; WisABA does not currently have a position on these issues.)

Behavioral Parenting How-To's

2009-03-27T11:24:00.000-07:00

Alan Kazdin, Ph.D., wrote a fine book on single-subject research design and is a past president of the American Psychological Association. More importantly, he writes well and knows what he's talking about.

Slate (the online magazine) is running a series of articles on parenting and problem behaviors written by Kazdin for the general reader (these are not research articles, which is great). Two of the articles are "The Messy Room Dilemma" and "Tiny Tyrants". Please, check them out!

Autism research blog

2009-03-25T06:45:00.000-07:00

As most folks reading this are probably aware, autism is an active area for behavior analysis -- for both research and clinical work. I subscribe to the Autism Research Blog: Translating Autism partially because new behavioral research is likely to pop up from time to time. The latest post concerns research into using "cognitive-behavioral therapy" for children diagnosed with autism and anxiety (note that the participants were labelled "high-functioning", suggesting that children without the verbal skills thought necessary for CBT were not involved in the study).

Click here to read about it.

Precision Teaching

2009-03-20T21:14:00.000-07:00

For those who keep hearing the term and want more info: http://precisionteaching.pbwiki.com/

So, precision teaching folks out there -- is this a good resource or not? Go ahead and comment.

Welcome to the WisABA Blog

2008-11-17T11:09:00.000-08:00

WisABA (Wisconsin Association for Behavior Analysis) has grown greatly in the last year. We have more members, an annual conference that was extremely well received, and are busily working on the 2009 conference, holding regular meetings to plan next year's activities, and will be sponsoring a series of WisABA Socials where members and interested parties can share their interest in Behavior Analysis.

Parents, educators, clinical psychologists, business managers--anyone dealing with behavior, and that's all of us--have a stake in the ability of behavioral scientists to deal with the challenges that our culture confronts. Just a few of the many that Behavior Analysis has already addressed include:

*Autism--a devastating problem that Behavior Analysis has addressed more successfully than any other approach.

*Education--effective instructional practices are known and stand ready for use.

*Medicine--many of today's health problems are behavioral (e.g., weight control, smoking, exercise, etc.)

*Basic research--we now know more about the causes of problematic behavior than ever before.

*Parenting--effective parenting is within reach. Families needn't struggle with many of the problems that cause discord.

In short, we have positive, effective techniques for dealing with many of the problems that seem intractable.

WisABA wants you to join us in advancing humane, effective methods for improving our quality of life.

Roger Bass, PhD

Past President, WisABA