Posted in ABA Business Matters, tagged ABA Connecticut, ABA Florida, ABA Provider, ABA Therapy, Applied Behavioral Strategies on September 4, 2020| Leave a Comment »
Cheers to ABS as we celebrate 10 amazing years!
Thank you to all of our families who have selected us as your ABA provider and for teaching us along the way!
Thank you to all of our employees, whom we refer to as the ABS family! We are so proud of the work that you do day after day. Thank you for helping us grow and for giving us feedback on how to be a better employer for you.
Cheers!
Posted in Assessment, tagged Applied Behavioral Strategies, assessment, BCaBA, BCBA, behavioral assessment, FABA, FABA 2018, Missy Olive on September 17, 2018| Leave a Comment »
It was another great FABA! I’ve made so many friends and I keep meeting more each year.
Nikki’s presidential address was definitely my favorite. I really enjoyed hearing about big data for the closing session as well. It gives me food for thought.
I enjoyed my workshop and my panel but I seriously thought our talk on assessment rocked. Too bad we were competing against big names like Merrill. None the less, we need to get this published!
If you missed FABA this year, hopefully you will make it next year in Jacksonville.
Posted in ABA, autism, tagged Applied Behavior Analysis, Applied Behavioral Strategies, Autism, BCaBA, BCBA, RBT, Tennessee on October 5, 2016| Leave a Comment »
We are registered to do business in Tennessee! We are so thrilled to be expanding and to soon be offering services to children with behavioral challenges and their families.
Posted in ABA, What Works Wednesdays, tagged ABA, Applied Behavior Analysis, Applied Behavioral Strategies, BCaBA, BCBA on January 30, 2013| 2 Comments »
Parents and professionals working together
Hi and Welcome to What Works Wednesday! where the focus is usually the description of a successful case story. The general public is slowly beginning to learn and appreciate the fact ABA works. However, in an ongoing comprehensive ABA program for individuals, more than just good ABA is required. Parent and professional collaboration is an essential ingredient. In ABA teams at Applied Behavioral Strategies, the BCBAs work to ensure that every case has 4 hours of parent-professional contact at a minimum each month. Collaboration occurs in a variety of contexts.
In a comprehensive program, it is important for the team to meet frequently to guarantee that the team is implementing programs correctly and that programs are modified so that the child will continue to make progress. In most cases, the team meets twice per month for 2 hours. The first order of business at every meeting: parent concerns. The team includes all therapists, the supervisor (BCBA), the parents, and other outside professionals.
During the team meetings, detailed notes are taken so that team members may review them before therapy. Everyone receives a copy of the notes, including the parents. The notes are also placed in the child’s program book so they are handy for team members.
In cases where the child receives therapy in a setting where the parent is not present, therapists and supervisors keep a detailed communication log that is sent home with the child each day. These logs keep the parents informed about the child’s day and serves as another way to build cohesive team communication.
Supervisors at Applied Behavioral Strategies make themselves available by phone. Supervisors are extremely busy but a great time to return calls is between appointments when driving from place to place (don’t forget to use your headset!). Parents, if you need to speak to your supervisor, let him/her know so that time can be made for the call.
Finally, email is another way to remain in close contact with parents. Emails can be returned at any time of day; especially when talking by phone is not possible. Emails also provide a written record of your requests and decision making.
In summary, professionals be diligent to ensure parent-professional collaboration. Parents, do not be timid. Partner with your BCBA and team to help propel your child’s progress to its maximum potential.
Posted in Ask Missy Monday, Ethical Issues, tagged Applied Behavior Analysis, Applied Behavioral Strategies, BCBA, Behavior Analysis, Data collection, ethical issues, ethical issues for behavior analysts, Ethics, Missy Mondays on January 28, 2013| 8 Comments »
Hi and welcome to Ask Missy Mondays where I respond to a question from readers. Today’s question was posted on a list serve for parents and family members of individuals with autism. The mom wrote,
“As far as data collection, I hear about the BCBA doing it but I have never seen it nor heard specific results. I requested the data and the BCBA told me that as an outside consultant she is not allowed to provide it.“
Having taught a course on Ethics and Professional Issues for behavior analysts, and in addition to offering on-going coursework related to ethical issues for Board Certified Behavior Analysts, hearing things like this really upsets me.
The Behavior Analyst Certifying Board (BACB) has developed a set of Guidelines that BCBAs and BCaBAs must follow. These guidelines are called the Guidelines for Responsible Conduct and they may be viewed here. One of the guidelines states that “the behavior analyst has the responsibility to operate in the best interest of the client“. When the client is a minor or incapacitated (i.e., unable to make decisions for him/her self), the client’s parents or guardians become the client.
In the case above, the BCBA is claiming that her responsibility lies with the school district who is paying her salary. Unfortunately, the school district is a third-party payer. While the BCBA has responsibilities to her employer, those responsibilities cannot override her primary responsibility to the client. In fact, the guidelines address this issues.
This guideline has two parts. First the guideline states that “When a behavior analyst agrees to provide services to a person or entity at the request of a third-party, the behavior analyst clarifies to the extent feasible, at the outset of the service, the nature of the relationship with each party. This clarification includes the role of the behavior analyst (such as therapist, organizational consultant, or expert witness), the probable uses of the services provided or the information obtained, and the fact that there may be limits to confidentiality.”
The guidelines go on to state that “If there is a foreseeable risk of the behavior analyst being called upon to perform conflicting roles because of the involvement of a third party, the behavior analyst clarifies the nature and direction of his or her responsibilities, keeps all parties appropriately informed as matters develop, and resolves the situation in accordance with these Guidelines.”
So, while the district is paying for the services, the client is the child and his/her guardian. When he client requests their data, the behavior analyst must make those data available.
Posted in ADD/ADHD, Research Review, tagged ABA, Applied Behavior Analysis, Applied Behavioral Strategies, classwide peer tutoring, CWPT, peer tutoring on December 13, 2012| 1 Comment »
Here at Applied Behavioral Strategies, the mission is to improve the quality of life through effective intervention. One way we hope to do that is by reviewing research articles for our readers. Today’s research review continues the discussion this week on using principles of ABA to address ADHD. See Monday’s post and Tuesday’s post for additional information.
Researchers from a variety of institutions collaborated to author “Peer Tutoring for Children with ADHD: Effects on Classroom Behavior and Academic Performance“. Authors included: George DuPaul, Ruth Ervin, Christine Hook, and Kara McGoey. The Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) published the study. Readers may download the entire article here.
Children with ADHD need two types of intervention. First, teachers and parents must provide reinforcement for appropriate behaviors and research has shown this to be effective. However, reinforcement alone is not enough. Teachers and parents must also concurrently address academic behaviors. One method for addressing academic behaviors is peer tutoring. Peer tutoring consists of two or more students working together on an activity with one student providing assistance, instruction, and feedback to the other. Various models of peer tutoring have been studied by great educational researchers such as Charlie Greenwood and Doug and Lynn Fuchs.
One model of peer tutoring is Classwide Peer Tutoring (CWPT). Classwide Peer Tutoring is an evidence based instructional practice based on principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (e.g., prompting, reinforcement, modeling). In CWPT, students work together in pairs taking turns tutoring each other. Students address skills that have been previously taught by their teacher. The teacher also develops appropriate teaching materials for the students to use. This approach provides students with more opportunities for asking questions and getting answers.
The purpose of the study was to examine the effects of CWPT on the task engagement, activity level, and academic performance of children with ADHD and children without ADHD.
Participants. Eighteen students with ADHD who were not taking medication participated in the study. Children ranged between 6 and 10 years of age. Additionally, 10 comparison children participated in the study. These children were matched to the other children on age, gender, and class (i.e., in the same class as one of the targeted students).
Measures. Researchers measured classroom behavior (on task, off task, and fidgety) using a 15-second partial interval recording. Researchers also measured academic performance using teacher-developed pre- and post-tests each week. Finally, researchers also measured social validity by asking teachers and students to rate the intervention at the end of the study.
Design. Researchers used an ABAB (or reversal) design to determine intervention effectiveness. In this design, researchers measure behaviors with no intervention. Then they measure behaviors during intervention. Then the intervention is terminated while researchers continue to measure behaviors. And finally, the intervention is reinstated while behaviors continue to be measured.
Study Validity. The researchers took two additional steps to measure the validity of the study. First, they monitored accuracy of implementation using fidelity checks. Second, the researchers measured inter-observer agreement to ensure that data collection was consistent and accurate.
During baseline, students with ADHD were on-task about 29% of the intervals. This increased to 80% of intervals during intervention. When the intervention stopped, this behavior decreased down to an average of 21% of intervals but when the intervention was reinstated, it increased again to 83%. Changes in fidgety behavior were observed in some but not all students. It is important to note that even without intervention, the occurrence of fidgety behaviors was low (i.e. 6% of intervals). Pre-and Post-test scores improved with intervention for almost half of the students with ADHD. Finally, the intervention received high marks of satisfaction across both teachers and students.
In the discussion section of the paper, the authors note how the results of their study compared to the results of studies on stimulant medication. Essentially, effective instructional practices work just as well as medication without all the side effects. The authors also noted that anecdotal data suggested that student engagement increased as well. Use of stimulant medication does not necessarily result in increased engagement. Interestingly, the comparison peers also showed improvements in on-task behaviors and academic performance.
Readers, do any of your children engage in CWPT? Behavior analysts, is this an intervention that you teach others to use in classrooms? Teachers, how difficult is it to implement CWPT in your class?
Posted in ABA, autism, Challenging Behavior, Discipline, Parenting or Step-Parenting, tagged ABA, Applied Behavior Analysis, Applied Behavioral Strategies, challenging behavior, feeding therapy, Google, Google Alerts, Google Reader, RSS, Syndication and Feeds on December 4, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Last week, I (Missy) shared information about the Congressional Hearings on autism and I questioned why the news media had not picked up on the story. Clearly, they had more important things to talk about:
Clearly, relying on television news media is not the best
Image via CrunchBase
way to keep current on all things autism. For those of you who want to be in the know but who lack endless hours in front of the computer, I will share a few of my tricks with you.
One way to keep current, is to find your favorite webpages and set up RSS feeds so that you are alerted each time there is a change. I like to set up my RSS feeds right in my Outlook calendar so they appear like emails. You can also use Google to help you.
I have several Google alerts set up including alerts for autism and applied behavior analysis. This is super easy! Visit this website and enter the term or terms that you are interested in. You will then receive alerts when those news items appear. Please note that you can set up weekly alerts and daily alerts and so forth.
Several Twitter programs are available to assist you with information on Twitter. I tend to lean towards TweetDeck. I can set up columns on topics such as Step Parenting, Parenting, Autism, and behavior analysis. Within those columns I can read the twitter feed on that topic. You can also set up lists so that you organize your Tweeps by topic or content. I have a list on autism, GFCF, and behavior analysts. I have also written more in depth on Twitter and you can read about that here.
So, don’t feel overwhelmed as you try to keep up with the latest on your favorite topic. Many resources are available at your fingertips!
Posted in ABA, Education, tagged ABA, Applied Behavior Analysis, Applied Behavioral Strategies, Autism, autism conference, conference, Dubai, UAE on November 11, 2012| Leave a Comment »
We recently received the call for proposals for the upcoming conference in Dubai. If you will recall, we went last year and had a wonderful experience. The upcoming conference is going to focus on behavior analysis. We are super excited to submit something and we hope that our colleagues will as well. Here is the call for abstracts. Please share it with your colleagues! Due date extended to November 15th.
Posted in Intervention, Research Review, tagged Applied Behavioral Strategies, Autism, greetings, initiating greetings, initiations, social narratives, social stories on November 8, 2012| 1 Comment »
Here at Applied Behavioral Strategies, our mission is to improve the quality of life through effective intervention. One way we hope to do that is by reviewing research articles for our readers. Today’s article is titled “Brief Report: Increasing Verbal Greeting Initiations for a Student with Autism Via a Social StoryTM Intervention”. Brian Reichow and Edward Sabornie authored the article and The Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders published the article.
It is a known fact that children with autism spectrum disorders have social deficits. One intervention that has been used is Social Stories. While social stories are widely used, the research on the effectiveness has been limited. Thus, the authors set out to determine if a Social Story could be used to increase appropriate verbal greeting initiations.
The authors enrolled an 11-year-old male with autism in the study. “George” as he was called, had an average IQ and he had above average grades on his report card. While he attended a social skills group at school, his social skills did not seem to be improving.
The authors developed a story according the guidelines recommended by Carol Gray. We discussed some of the differences between Social Stories TM and social stories or social narratives earlier this week.
The authors used a withdrawal design to demonstrate experimental control. Basically, in this design, an intervention is implemented. If the intervention is effected, it is removed to determine if the behavior would return to pre-treatment levels.
The authors merely counted the number (or frequency) of verbal greeting initiations. Waves and gestures did not count, only verbal greetings (e.g., hi, hello, good morning).
In baseline, George reported to his home room, picked up his schedule, and went about his day.
During intervention, George picked up his schedule (which included “read your Social Story”) and then read his social story before heading out to classes. The authors faded the social story and moved to a simple “cue card”.
During baseline, George had zero verbal initiations. During intervention, George had an immediate increase in verbal greeting initiations. Specifically, he initiated greetings between 2 and 6 times a day; including greetings to peers! However, when the intervention was “withdrawn”, George stopped initiating greetings. When the intervention was reinstated, his initiations increased again to 2 to 4 initiations per day; including initiations to peers. When the social story was faded and the cue card was taught, the verbal initiations continued.
As we have discussed, this intervention is effective. Also as we have discussed, all interventions should be developed on an individualized basis. This is not a one size fits all approach. This individualization means that teachers, behavior analysts, and other practitioners will need to spend time developing the materials that will be used to teach the skill(s).
Posted in autism, Intervention, What Works Wednesdays, tagged ABA, Applied Behavior Analysis, Applied Behavioral Strategies, Autism, Connecticut Office of the Healthcare Advocate, health care advocate, OHA on November 7, 2012| Leave a Comment »
Hi! and welcome to What Works Wednesdays where we share a success story from our clinical files. We usually focus on the use of ABA and its effectiveness for our clients. Today, we are going to share a resource that works. The resource is the Office of the Health Care Advocate (OHA). We have one in Connecticut. Here is the website: http://www.ct.gov/oha/site/default.asp
Here is the contact information:
Mail To:
Office of the Healthcare Advocate
P.O.BOX 1543
Hartford CT,06144
Phone: Toll Free at: 1-866-HMO-4446
FAX: (860) 297-3992
E-mail: Healthcare.advocate@ct.gov
On October 17th, the OHA held a public hearing on barriers to access to mental health and substance use services. I (Missy) went to testify. Here is my testimony:
Hi and thank you for taking the time to listen to consumers, providers, and advocates. I am here today as a behavioral health provider. I am a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and my company, Applied Behavioral Strategies, LLC provides Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) therapy services to children with autism under Public Act No. 09-115.
Under Public Act No. 09-115, children under the age of 15 are eligible to receive ABA therapy if their parents have certain types of health insurance.
While I have only been in business 2 years, you will be pleased to know that all of the children on my caseload who receive services through mandated insurance coverage have made growth as a result of ABA therapy. For example:
Those case studies illustrate how state policies improve the quality of lives for individuals with behavioral health challenges. But unfortunately, a group of clients exist who are not eligible for these services because they don’t have the right type of insurance, or their insurance originates from a different state, or even worse, they are too financially disadvantaged to have insurance and are covered by Husky.
It is for these clients, I am begging for your ear. These clients and their families will never share joys described to you previously because they will not receive the ABA therapy. They cannot afford to pay for it out of pocket so they do without. Even as I write this, it feels like I’m writing about a different century or a third world country. How can this be? These clients and their families have just as many needs, if not more, than the clients who are receiving therapy. But as a result of not receiving therapy, their behavioral health needs worsen which only serves to exacerbate the mental health needs of their parents. And all of this costs more in the long run.
But even worse than not having the appropriate insurance, are the clients who have the right insurance but cannot find a provider because there are not enough providers who accept insurance. Let me tell you why providers do not accept insurance:
The Office of the Healthcare Advocate has been extremely helpful for me and my clients as staff (Vicki and Jody) have assisted my clients (and many others that are not my clients) in obtaining the coverage to which they are entitled. I am extremely grateful for their assistance over the past two years.
In closing, I feel fortunate that ABA services are available to children in this state. Thirty years ago, these services were not available to my brother. I cannot help but wonder where he would be today, had he received the services that my clients receive today.
Thank you for taking the time to listen to us today and please do not hesitate to contact me if you have questions regarding this testimony.
If you want to watch the entire hearing, you can do so here:
If you live in CT, be sure to use your OHA. If you do not live in CT, check your state’s resources to see if you have an OHA in your state.
Applied Behavioral Strategies 