BEHAVIORAL BLOGS

Friday
Mar212014

EverNotes from a Radical Behaviorist: ABAI Autism Conference 2014: Catherine Lord: Where Did the DSM-5 Criteria Come from and Where Are They Going to Take Us?

Where Did the DSM-5 Criteria Come from and Where Are They Going to Take Us?

  1. “Amazing things are happening here.”
  2. Lord was on the DSM-4 and the DSM-5 committees for Neuro-developmental Disorders,
    1. One of several DSM committees.
    2. A very complex programming process. 
  3. The DSM makes money for APA who is responsible for the DSMs.
  4. Designed to make sure that no one who needs including in a diagnosis and needs therapy will be excluding,
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Friday
Mar212014

EverNotes from a Radical Behaviorist: ABAI Autism Conference 2014: Dick's Comment

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  1. Behavior Analysis
    1. Understanding in terms of the principles of behavior.
    2. Not research, especially not single-organism research
      1. Good for understanding human beings on an individual level
      2. Especially with huge individual differences 
      3. The detailed processes
  2. Actuarial data collected by group designs.
  3. To impact areas beyond autism
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Friday
Mar212014

EverNotes from a Radical Behaviorist: ABAI Autism Conference 2014: Tiffany Kodak: Instructive Feedback

Instructive Feedback
  1. Enhancing Efficiency of Instruction
    1. Adding secondary targets to learning trials.
    2. Example
      1. Antecedent: Name the sample when presenting it in matching-to-sample.
      2. Consequent: Descriptive feedback.
        1. Before or during the presentation of the reinforcer.
  2. Study (JABA)
    1. Primary Targets: labeling common objects and answering questions
    2. The kids all echoed the secondary words.
    3. And instructive feedback worked very well for three of the four kids.
    4. Also requiring echoing of the secondary target ID without reinforcement may increase the rate of learning the secondary target.
  3. Implementing in the classroom.
    1. If you’re using secondary targets, embed frequent probes, so you can detect and replace the learned secondary targets with new targets. 
    2. You can embed secondary targets in teaching play skills by labeling the objects involved during the play instruction.
    3. All secondary targets are verbal and the secondary response learned is expressive identification of objects. 
    4. Interesting and impressive that the kids ID the probe of the secondary target pictures as readily.
      1. Sort of like getting and knowing the correct answer is its own reinforcer.
      2. Also very impressive instructional control over the kids, in fact better than I have when teaching my grad students 
        1. After the fact, they were her own children and not children with autism.
  4. RWM: Embarrassing presentation.
    1. I tell my grad students they are dumb asses, if they give descriptive praise to non-verbal kids.
    2. Now Tiffany is making me feel like the the dumbass, by showing that kids do learn from verbal feedback.
      1. But her kids are pretty verbal, have echoic behavior and almost by definition, naming. 
      2. But if the kids don’t have those prerequisites, I think doing descriptive praise is probably still questionable.
        1. And that was still my impression, after I talked to her.
    3. BUT LET ME BE MUCH CLEARER THAN I FEAR I WAS AT THE CONFERENCE, IN NO SENSE AM I SAYING TIFFANY IS A DUMB ASS. AND IN FACT, IF I GAVE EVEN A HINT OF THAT IMPRESSION, THEN I DEFINITELY AM ONE.

     

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Friday
Mar212014

EverNotes from a Radical Behaviorist: : ABAI Autism Conference 2014: Mark Sundberg: Verbal Behavior & Everyday Life

Verbal Behavior Instruction in Everyday Life
  1. People are learning behavioral procedures, unfortunately without learning the underlying principles of behavior.
  2. Gates vs. Jobs videos or
    1. Son-Rise vs. ABA on U-Tube.
  3. You can’t learn how to do it on the Internet. 
  4. Evidence-based is now the big self-aclaimed cliche. 
  5. Hypes the VB Map over ABELS because he now uses developmental info.
  6. Check out Lovaas’s Web site to see how the current approach is much different from the original one. 
  7. But we must hang on to the Principles of Behavior on which it’s all based. 
  8. ABAI has a developmental SIG; so ABAI needs to coordinate with them on the ABAI Bijou award.
  9. Traditional developmental psych doesn’t help much. 
  10. RWM: I’m not sure the typical developmental sequence should always dictate our curricular sequence. 
  11. RWM: Mark’s nailing it. 
  12. RWM: Discrete trial at the table is often the most effective, efficient procedure for teaching. And then it’s not that big a deal to get transfer and/or generalization to everyday life, if we just do it. 
  13. You can’t teach a typical kid everything he needs to learn through only incidental teaching.
  14. Marks, hates expressive and receptive, arguing that we need to stick with stick with the VB terms.
    1. RWM: Come on Mark, cut us a little slack. I and some of my coolest PhD students sometimes find it convenient to talk/write in terms of expressive and receptive, without becoming becoming cognitivists.
    2. Verbal Behavior isn’t the f-ing bible.
  15.  Nice video Mark pirated from his little brother, Carl, showing how a huge number of discrete trials can be integrated within away-from-the-table, everyday-ish activities.
    1. Is it fair to the competition to do videos with such cute kids?
  16. Don’t use the DT voice—cute.
  17. Referencing Hart & Risley quite a bit at least at the Wikipedia level. 
    1. Maybe we need to check them out again.
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Friday
Mar212014

EverNotes from a Radical Behaviorist: ABAI Autism Conference 2014: Robert Pennington: Behavioral Intervention in the Public Schools

  1. Good news on the horizon
    1. Increased emphasis on 
      1. Data and accountability
      2. Research-based practice
    2. Behavior analysts are getting on to special ed faculties.
      1. In KY they will have four BCBA-prep programs.
  2. Whenever you can get on non-behavior analysis boards, do it.
  3. Be available for free consultation.
  4. Consultants must work with the administration and teachers, not just the kids.
  5. You can’t just tell the teachers what to do and then split.
  6. Go for low-hanging fruit to grab the staff.
  7. Think small.
  8. Train to fidelity
  9. You’ve got to hang in and make sure it’s working.
  10. RWM: Does consulting actually work; and if so, do the effects maintain?
    1. I don’t think the natural outcomes of using effective behavior technology maintains the difficult work of implementing that tech.
    2. What do the data show?

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Monday
Jan072013

EverNotes from a Radical Behaviorist on Judge Rotenberg Center

JRC is a special needs school in Canton, Massachusetts serving ages 3-adult. For 41 years JRC has provided very effective education and treatment to both emotionally disturbed students with conduct, behavior, emotional, and/or psychiatric problems and developmentally delayed students with autistic-like behaviors. Read more to hear about Dr. Malott's recent visit!

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Tuesday
Sep182012

More on Dr. Malott's Distinguished Teaching Award! 

Saturday
Sep082012

2012 Distinguished Teaching Award 

Congratulations to Dr. Malott on winning the 2012 Distinguished Teaching Award!

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Thursday
May172012

Sven's Thesis 

Dumbassery in Europe

Here’s a story two friends who went to grad school together told me. I suppose as a “friend of a friend” story it’s suspect but a good story nonetheless. Their friend finished collecting his thesis data and went to their professor to present it. This is what he presented.

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Friday
Apr202012

Single Mothers who have Children with Autism

At the suggestion of Mapy Chavez I visited Alcanzando on facebook where I discovered this link. Check it out, especially the photos section with all their smart sayings, and especially if you're an autism mama, single or not.

Wednesday
Nov162011

In Memory of Dr. Jerry Shook

Jerry, “Shoes for industry.” “Is this thing on?” “This is Principal Poop.” And all the other Firesign Theatre lines you WMU Psych undergrads memorized and joked around with during the late ‘60s. Thanks for helping me start the First Fly-by-Night Underground College of Kalamazoo, when you were an undergrad; it continues on as the Behavior Analysis Training System. Thanks for being one of the few grad students who understood, appreciated, and actually used the behavior systems analysis approach I vainly championed in Psy 651 and 652. Thanks for playing such a major role in making Croyden Avenue School a great school for children with disabilities, where so many fledgling behavior analysts acquired the skills that would allow them to go out into the world and help so many others. It continues on as the Woods Edge Learning Center, continuing to serve the Kalamazoo community and continuing to transform fledgling behavior analysts into skilled professionals who move on to help the world community. Thanks for the BCBA that’s causing behavior analysis to be a major force for helping others worldwide. Thanks for the visit to Disney World. Thanks for the mellow times we had. And, yes, my tears flow. But always remember, “Shoes for industry."--Dick

Friday
Sep162011

Kalamazoo Autism Center Fundraiser: Thanks To Jen Nap

Friday
Sep022011

BATS: PSY 357 Final Feast Summer 2011

Monday
Aug292011

BATS: Psy 357 Final Feast: KAC Summer 2011 

Friday
Aug262011

BATS: Behavioral Boot Camp: Shirted up & Ready For Action

Friday
Aug262011

BATS: Behavioral Boot Camp Final Feast 2011

Friday
Aug262011

Article about Autism Work In WMU Magazine

Monday
Jul182011

Kalamazoo Art Hop, July 2011

Monday
Jul182011

Mertens Magical Mind Meddling

Sunday
Jun052011

Charlie & Her Favorite Book

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