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Pretend play skills start to develop around 2½ to 5 years old, but how are these skills taught if they are not naturally occurring? How can pretend play impact other areas of learning? Nancy Champlin and Melissa Schissler overview their research on independent and sociodramatic play in relation to other developmental domains.

Collaborating with school personnel is not easy. There are many other parameters, schedules, and opinions to consider. Creating and implementing an effective Individualized Education Plan (IEP) can be confusing for parents, behavior analysts, and teachers alike. Nicole Postma will review the Positive Behavior Interventions and Support (PBIS) tier model that many local school districts use.

When implementing changes based in behavior analysis in an organization, it is important to take a holistic approach to best achieve results. You must be able to tie your intervention with outputs and actualized business results, especially when attempting to gain buy-in from management. It is also important to recognize the many associated factors with an intervention, some of which include time, audience, budget, and objectives.

We’re all on a journey. We may be at different points in that journey, but we’re constantly learning from the people around us. In this Continuing Education offering, Corey Robertson gives personal examples of what supervision, mentorship, and leadership mean.

Practicing behavior analysts are tasked with sharing and promoting behavior analysis with others. We have an ethical responsibility to engage in the effort of promoting public awareness of our field. Dr. Newman really focuses on making sure you understand the reasoning behind the rules that we follow and not just the rules themselves.

Primary care physicians, psychiatrists, specialists . . . OH MY! Working within the field of clinical behavior analysis includes working with clients that could be seeing multiple professionals for a variety of reasons. It is not always included in training, but it is important that behavior analysts have an understanding of the types of treatments their clients could be given from other health care professionals.

Public shaming may be seen as justifiable, whether it be through bully shaming, child shaming, or even dog shaming. Social media has risen to be the most prevalent medium in which to shame others. Judges, schools, parents, and others use it as a consequence to punish behavior; however, there may be additional side effects from using shame.

OBM seems to be such a mystery to many of us. In this Continuing Education course, Kelly Therrien demystifies OBM and recounts her experiences in the field. You’ll learn what OBM is, how it fits into behavior analysis, and you’ll even get practice using a couple of helpful tools within the field.

Onboarding staff is important in all job settings, both inside and outside the field of behavior analysis. Gaps in training can stem from several issues. Perhaps training for an entry-level position includes training videos, but no real-life component, or perhaps supervisors teach the necessary skills once and do not ensure that these skills are mastered.  

Why do people make bad choices? The answer can be found within the schedules of reinforcement that are occurring for that person. Bud Mace provides a refreshing review of all the simple and combined schedules of reinforcement. He further explains different features of combined schedules and how those can be understood through analyzing behavioral results.

Approximately 50 million people worldwide are diagnosed with Dementia. According to the World Health Organization (WHO), this number is expected to grow by 10 million new cases every year, which gives Dementia the status of public health and social priority” (WHO, 2016). Given the prevalence of this diagnosis, behavioral research and practice has gained influence over the last decade, focusing on Antecedent manipulation, communication training, satiation, and deprivation.

Verbal behavior is a topic that is most associated with a clinical setting. One of the main targets for clinicians, particularly for early intervention, is teaching mands (likely related to snacks or iPads), tacts, and intraverbals. However, the concepts of verbal behavior are present in everyday interactions and impact how we communicate with others.

Skinner’s Verbal Behavior may be a difficult read for some. The content is complex but unpacks all aspects of verbal behavior. One can gain a lot of insight from his book if completely understanding it. In part 1 of this analysis, Mark Sundberg explains how language is typically measured and how Skinner suggests language should be measured, and in what units to measure it.

How many times have you felt the need for better assessing staff or being fairly assessed? Have your expectations always been clearly stated at first? Do leaders have all the right tools to do so? Organizational Behavior Management (OBM) might have some answers. Dr. Byron Wine describes the basis of OBM, its impact on our daily lives, and how to better understand and measure it.

Released in 2009, in a historically significant interview with Dr. Jack Michael, conducted by Tate McGhee, Dr. Michael recounts his time before behavior analysis as both a student and a soldier, then explains the chance events that moved him into the field of behavior analysis.