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The Mission of the ABA and PT Podcast is to record and document the work and journeys of major contributors to ABA and Precision Teaching, and thereby stand for incorporating standard measurement and the use of the standard celeration chart into our work and lives. Our pledge is to honour those who have dedicated their life to this field such that my daughter and those that need it, benefit from science and all our field has discovered, that is at risk of getting lost. And the bottom line is that we all need it.
Episodes
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
Wednesday Jul 07, 2021
The ABCs of behavior is an important tool to analyze whether a certain behavior is likely to happen again or not. The key here is that consequence matters. For OTs, it is possible to measure the effectiveness of interventions by hypothesizing and data-taking.
Discussed today is the case of Johnny's rocking and some antecedent (environmental) interventions that could usher in permanent change and affect the consequences of this action. Also discussed today are ways to get assent from clients to help ensure that interventions will have favorable outcomes.
HIGHLIGHTS
02:18 Shoutout to the World Health Organization for developing Self-Help +
04:55 The ABCs: Is it reflexive behavior or is it sensory?
15:02 The consequence matters on whether a behavior will happen again
22:28 Hypothesizing can help OTs measure the effectiveness of interventions
29:20 Case study: Johnny's rocking and implementing antecedent interventions
36:02 Modifying ABCs to improve client progress
40:30 How to get assent from clients
GLOSSARY
Operant behavior - This refers to behavior that can be modeled by its consequences. It often corresponds closely to behavior colloquially called voluntary or purposive. As this behavior is related to its consequences, it is said to be emitted rather than elicited.
Antecedent intervention - A strategy to manipulate an environment prior to the occurrence of a behavior. This is utilized to increase the likelihood of the desired behavior to occur and to decrease the occurrence of maladaptive behavior.
RESOURCES
Join our The ABA and OT Podcast Facebook Group to get access to the following resources:
Facebook group link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/397478901376425
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
Scalable Psychological Interventions for People in Communities Affected by Adversity by the WHO
Dr. Aditi the OT Website
The Databased OT Facebook Group
QUOTES
15:00 "The consequence matters. So when you're trying to determine why is a student doing this thing? Why is this occurring? The first question to look at is what is the consequence? It's the consequence that matters."
15:25 "If the behavior is something we want less of or there is a behavior we want more of, we need to look at what is occurring after behavior to either strengthen or weaken it."
18:01 "If you're going to put interventions in place and look at their effectiveness, don't do it immediately in the presence of behavior you don't want more of if it's potentially a pleasant consequence to that student. Do it prior to the behavior."
29:03 "Are they deprived of something or are they satiated on something? This motivating variable before the behavior, looking at the environment is very important to determine why the student is engaging."
41:54 "Ensuring that you are strengthening and reinforcing behavior that has a student engaged, that it's a pleasant task that's involved, and that great things happen when the student is engaged and involved in the activity."
Wednesday Jun 16, 2021
Wednesday Jun 16, 2021
Using percent correct has become the industry standard in behavior analysis. Dr. Rick Kubina, CentralReach’s Director of Research and Professor of Special Education at The Pennsylvania State University, joins the show today to shed light on a more objective way of looking at data using precision teaching.
Though percent correct is useful in coming up with ratios, it is not always the best measure because of the ease with which the results can be manipulated. Precision teaching looks at the numbers objectively, uses visual charts that document the processes, and provides data-driven context to determine whether interventions are effective or not.
HIGHLIGHTS
Introduction to Rick Kubina
How percent correct became the industry standard
Why fewer ABA's actually practice precision teaching
When percent correct is the right way to measure
The resistance to precision teaching is rooted in human behavior
How to apply precision teaching charts to your discipline
Information on Standard Celeration Charts you can download and use
How Standard Celeration Charts determine when a goal is mastered
GLOSSARY
Dead Person Test - A test that says if a dead person cannot do it, then it is behavior, and if a dead person can do it, it is not behavior.
Dimensional quantity - Something that has dimensional counts or numbers that tell you its characteristics (height, weight, etc)
RESOURCES
Join our The ABA and OT Podcast Facebook Group to get access to the following resources:
Facebook group link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/397478901376425
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
Greatness Achieved Publishing Company
Reflections on Precision Teaching book by Rick Kubina
Standard Celeration Society Facebook Group
The Databased OT Facebook Group
QUOTES
"Let's say, Aditi you are 20 out of 20, Mandy was 1 out of 1, and I was 7 out of 7. You know, we have a pretty big difference Mandy, myself, and you, but it's all going to be 100% correct."
"We in precision teaching have a measure that's called celeration and this measure tells us how fast is the behavior changing. And guess how we report that? We report it in percentage of weekly growth. So someone's behavior is doubling, we say that behavior has a hundred percent growth each week."
"Here's what I would suggest. Just don't convert it to percent. Just use the count. So in this instance, if you have a checklist, having your actual counts even if you don't time it, that's always going to be more informative than when you convert it."
"All of you OTs, the good news is just don't take the step where you convert it to percent and just work with the counts because they'll be more informative to you and you'll be able to understand at a deeper level how well is your client responding to whatever intervention you're applying."
"When you get someone who's been in a system, you're starting from ground zero. What a waste of time for you to figure out. Oh, I have to do this and this again. Whereas, if someone just showed you, here's all the things we tried, then you can try new things."
"Mastery should not be measured in terms of percentage. It should be measured in terms of the frequency that we talked about before."
Wednesday Jun 02, 2021
Wednesday Jun 02, 2021
Taking data vastly improves the performance of both students and teachers alike. ABAs and OTs can determine the best course of action for increasing or reducing behaviors with data to back them up, while students also feel more motivated with their increased awareness.
Discussed today are the practical reasons for taking data, specific steps you can take to start taking data, and the common barriers to taking good data. Data collection goals between ABAs and OTs may also be different, so Mandy and Aditi break down how they view these goals and how they can achieve them.
HIGHLIGHTS
03:24 Shoutout to CentralReach Institute
04:20 Evidence-based interventions and why ABAs take so much data
08:49 OT barriers to data collection
11:23 How to begin collecting data
15:30 OT data collection on goals and strategies to achieve that
25:48 Taking data increases motivation and improves performance
28:30 Using standardized charts to measure fluency
35:13 Case study: Similarities and differences between ABA and OT goals
GLOSSARY
Dead Person Test - A test that says if a dead person cannot do it, then it is behavior, and if a dead person can do it, it is not behavior.
RHUMBA - How Relevant is it, How long, Understandable, Measurable, Behavioral, and Achievable
COAST - Client, Occupation, Assist Level, Specific, and Time-bound
SMART - Significant, Measurable, Achievable, Relates to the person, and Time-based
RESOURCES
Join our The ABA and OT Podcast Facebook Group to get access to the following resources:
Facebook group link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/397478901376425
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
Progress Monitoring and Documentation During Virtual School-based OT Service Delivery via Telehealth
Rick Kubina: Using Precision Measurement to Derive Meaningful Performance Metrics and Analytics
Reading with Precision (Precision Teaching Aims)
QUOTES
04:33 "Ethically, we are required and therefore obligated to demonstrate that our interventions are effective and evidence-based and it's absolutely impossible to do that without data."
13:29 "In order to measure something, you must define first what it is that you're teaching or a behavior that you're trying to increase or some behavior that you're trying to reduce."
23:00 "If you use a Standard Celeration chart and you apply how many opportunities the student performed in a period of time, it'll give you a really good trajectory of how long it's going to take to master that goal."
25:48 "The sheer act of taking data with a student improved their performance. I was like oh my gosh because they are so much more aware of their own performance."
29:59 "It's got a fixed X and Y axes and it's always the same. As opposed to what I call a stretch to fill chart where you can alter the X and Y axes to make your data look better than it really is and data on those types of charts are not comparable."
Wednesday May 19, 2021
Wednesday May 19, 2021
Today's episode features Sasha Long, BCBA and Founder of The Autism Helper. There are areas for improvement in the relationship between ABA and OT, so Sasha shares her experiences and tips to help make the work more collaborative and effective.
The differences in approach between the fields of ABA and OT present an opportunity to enhance both practices. By honestly touching on the pain points of this relationship, Mandy, Aditi, and Sasha recognize the benefits that each field brings to the table.
HIGHLIGHTS
Shoutout to Jonathan Amey
Collaborating and misunderstandings with ABAs
Tools for collaboration for effective data collection
Tension, biases, and preferring ABA or OT over the other
Views on ABA and accountability
RESOURCES
Join our The ABA and OT Podcast Facebook Group to get access to the following resources:
Facebook group link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/397478901376425
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
Sasha Long's Website - The Autism Helper
QUOTES
"My goal for this first meeting if I'm meeting a new clinician is not to sell them on my ideas. Because my goal meeting a client for the first time is not teaching a new skill. My goal meeting client the first time is to pair."
"I think asking people's opinion is always really helpful and just really keeping it super simple. Like what do I need to know, not what would I like to know. You got to go like need to know."
"You find connections. Like I tell behavior analysts this a lot, we're data people, when you go into a new meeting with a new parent, with an OT, with an IP team, you should be able to, in that session, find 3 connections with someone."
"The biggest thing, the biggest biggest biggest thing I think we can learn as OTs from ABA is learn how to take data because that's going to change the trajectory of our conversation."
"It can be collaborative, it can be fun, it can be safe, it can be televisable, it can be all these amazing things and that's, if we as a field can continue to move in that direction, I think collaboration will follow a lot more easily."
Wednesday May 05, 2021
Wednesday May 05, 2021
Spitting is a complex ADL that can be a real challenge to teach to kids in the spectrum. Especially when kids are nonverbal or have conditions like pica, ABAs and OTs have to use prompts as imitation and language are simply ineffective.
They discuss the case of Andre and how strategies like TAG teaching and tools like straws were effective in teaching mouth manipulation. They also discuss the many advantages of video modeling as a standardized way of teaching, as well as the best way social stories can be applied in toothbrushing.
HIGHLIGHTS
02:33 Shoutout to OTs who want to include data collection in their practice
03:50 Spitting as an ADL: Challenges for ABAs and OTs
08:23 Evidence-based strategies: What works and what doesn't
13:09 Case study: Teaching Andre to spit
26:46 How to effectively use video modeling, straws, and social stories
GLOSSARY
Hyporesponsive (low proprioceptive awareness) - Not having as much awareness (like your mouth because you cannot see it) resulting in difficulty in imitation skills
RESOURCES
Join our The ABA and OT Podcast Facebook Group to get access to the following resources:
Facebook group link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/397478901376425
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
"How to Brush Your Teeth with Snappy Croc" Book by Jane Clarke
QUOTES
08:06 "Spitting is really important for so many things and it's also sort of a manipulation of the mouth that is important for other skills like speech, etc if you have a child that needs that type of oral motor movement."
23:28 "We have a range of whistles, about 12 different whistles with different intensities and we just ordered a lot of different ones and then we rated them. That is a way of measuring and breaking it down when you're getting increased force in order to make a sound out of a whistle."
25:37 "The great thing about using a clicker is... that when you tag the response, it's immediate and it's the same every time, so it identifies that that's the exact approximation of the skill that you're looking for."
32:44 "Why it is that child might be more proficient in one learning channel like seeing something and saying it or hearing it and doing it, as opposed to other learning channels, is not necessarily that they're better in that channel, they've just had more practice and more reinforcement in that particular area."
38:32 "Maybe where social stories can in is where we're teaching sort of consequences of not brushing teeth well or perhaps the effects of sugar without toothbrushing. So trying to do some education around oral hygiene as opposed to actually how to brush your teeth."
Wednesday Apr 21, 2021
Wednesday Apr 21, 2021
Habitual behaviors can be interruptive on a student's development. In this episode, Mandy and Adito discuss the case of Matt's detrimental nail biting and skin picking and the effective strategies they use to reverse it.
Mandy shares her own struggles with nail-biting and her own personal strategies to extinguish this behavior. Mandy and Aditi also dive into the deeper reasons behind these automatic behaviors and how the differences between attention-maintained behaviors, habits, or something else can modify the best approach to replace them.
HIGHLIGHTS
03:57 Shoutout to Dr. Rick Kubina
06:01 Matthew's nail picking: Strategies to address nail biting
16:53 Mandy's strategies for nail-biting habit reversal
30:28 Applying reinforcement and environmental strategies
GLOSSARY
Comprehensive model of behavioral management - Has 5 categories: sensory, cognitive, affective (emotional), motor, and place and environment.
Automatic escape maintained behavior - Any behavior that primarily happens to avoid, delay, or end something unpleasant. Over time, the behavior is maintained or persists because it was effective at escaping or avoiding the unpleasant thing in the environment.
RESOURCES
Join our The ABA and OT Podcast Facebook Group to get access to the following resources:
Facebook group link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/397478901376425
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
QUOTES
09:29 "We're talking about, in this episode, about behavior that is automatically maintained or habitual in nature which means they're not doing it for someone's attention or to get out of demands but it is repetitive and embedded behavior that the individual's no longer aware of."
12:28 "When you are engaging that behavior, it stops you thinking about something unpleasant for periods of time. That's one. So a behavior analyst would call automatic escape maintained behavior."
24:29 "If a behavior is not reinforced it will extinguish so having someone do something else that is a replacement behavior can result in extinction of that original behavior."
37:33 "His behavior was very much attention-maintained. So yeah, that's another thing to look at. Is the behavior maintained by something else occurring in the environment, not just habit."
38:43 "You allow the student to engage in a behavior and you provide different consequences so you run sessions of it being reinforced with escape from a demand or reinforced with attention. Or the student is just left on their own and you look at the rates of that behavior in that session time and you see where the rates are at their highest."
Wednesday Apr 07, 2021
Wednesday Apr 07, 2021
Telehealth consultations have unique problems that are magnified when addressing challenging behaviors in kids. From distraction to motivation to parent training, we discuss the most common problems and tangible tips to improve student engagement.
It is critical to first teach parents the basics of reinforcement for them to follow through with the necessary changes that make virtual consultations effective. Kids act very differently at home so learning how that environment is like is also necessary information for OTs and ABAs who have to maximize the effectiveness of telehealth.
HIGHLIGHTS
01:29 Shoutouts to the OT profession, Autism Awareness Month, and Dr. Jana Cason
07:28 ABA challenges with telehealth
10:27 Case study of Lena: Parent training and motivation
20:45 Strategies to create a motivating environment
27:27 Basic tips for reinforcement
35:16 Virtual learning, environment, and scheduling
GLOSSARY
Extinction burst - The phenomenon of a previously reinforced or learned behavior temporarily increasing when the reinforcement for the behavior is removed.
Behavioral momentum - Reinforce easier tasks followed by a harder task and then reinforce the completion of that harder task.
Variable-ratio schedule - A schedule of reinforcement where a response is reinforced after an unpredictable number of responses.
Behavioral contrast - A change in the strength of one response that occurs when the rate of reward of a second response, or of the first response under different conditions, is changed.
RESOURCES
Join our The ABA and OT Podcast Facebook Group to get access to the following resources:
Facebook group link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/397478901376425
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
"25 Tips to Increase Student Engagement in Telehealth" Ebook by Dr. Aditi Mehra
QUOTES
12:24 "Begin with parent training because you can put parents in a very, very difficult situation where they're going to strengthen and worsen behaviors because they don't have the skills to take instruction from a therapist over a computer screen."
15:27 "Motivation being something either a process of deprivation, in other words, to make a student more motivated is to deprive them of something that they like or to satiate which makes them less likely to want something."
21:27 "When you create an environment that the deprivation of that thing is contingent to doing a behavior then you can increase somebody's motivation. If they get it for free all of the time, then they're unlikely to want to do anything for it."
28:05 "Reinforcement is a process whereby something that has consistently been provided after behavior, some sort of change in the environment, has resulted either in a behavior increasing or reducing. So we know that consequence is functioning as a reinforcer."
39:24 "The first thing is really assessing that environment, parent interview, asking them what they normally do in that type of occurrence because work refusal over a screen, that's not the only time that student is going to be engaging in work refusal."
Wednesday Mar 24, 2021
Wednesday Mar 24, 2021
One of the most effective ways to teach kids with limited skills is with activity schedules. These can be checklists or simple visual stimuli that allow kids to match activities to tasks that need completing.
Recent studies reinforce its effectiveness and Mandy and Aditi's own personal experiences provide you with actionable tips that you can apply to your own clients. Activity schedules are flexible and you can program them based on the skill levels of your students with high rates of reinforcement.
HIGHLIGHTS
02:18 Shoutout to Bethan Mair Williams
04:40 Activity schedules promote independence at home
12:47 Instructional control allows effective application of activity schedules
22:11 Activity schedules: Examples that work
28:39 Reinforcement and difficulties in scheduling activities
38:00 Programming activity schedules based on the student's skills
GLOSSARY
Instructional control - ABAs may also call this compliance, engagement, and history of pleasant experiences such that a person feels motivated to complete tasks for you.
Premack's principle - A theory of reinforcement that states that a less desired behavior can be reinforced by the opportunity to engage in a more desired behavior.
RESOURCES
Join our The ABA and OT Podcast Facebook Group to get access to the following resources:
Facebook group link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/397478901376425
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
"Activity Schedules for Children with Autism: Teaching Independent Behavior" Book by Lynn E. McClannahan
"A Review of McClannahan and Krantz's Activity Schedules for Children With Autism: Teaching Independent Behavior: Toward the Inclusion and Integration of Children with Disabilities" by Ruth Anne Rehfeldt
University of Kansas Princeton Child Development Institute - McClannahan and Krantz are faculty members at this institution
QUOTES
07:03 "The activity schedule is a really good way of being directed independently, not so much by him, but for him, he was reading at this stage so a written schedule to complete activities. And he actually loved it."
10:36 "The actual skill of observing, looking at some stimuli, either a shape or picture of the item, it can be anything that matches an activity to something that has to be completed, and complete that activity and then move on."
31:30 "It doesn't stay in place very long if it's not working... that's probably the hardest part is to make sure you have enough crossover with parents or a method of them getting help if they need it."
36:54 "What often comes up is you have kids that really want to complete an activity and so you have to teach flexibility around leaving tasks not completed. For instance, do a jigsaw puzzle for 10 minutes where the puzzle's not completed."
37:39 "You can vary and build in flexibility time into it. You can get them to self-check some work that they previously did or complete a homework task or do their spell words. So yeah, you can really use them in a lot of different ways depending on the skill level."
Wednesday Mar 10, 2021
Wednesday Mar 10, 2021
Shoe tying is particularly tricky to teach to kids who are on the spectrum. This episode shares strategies to overcome obstacles in teaching this ADL, as well as adaptations you can use with students.
Mandy and Aditi share the various component skills needed for shoe tying and the effectiveness of using precision teaching, tag teaching for instructing without distracting, and video modeling.
HIGHLIGHTS
01:48 Shoutout to the Complete Anatomy App
03:33 Recap on Sam's fine motor, fluency, foundation skills
08:59 OT and ABA perspectives: Prerequisites and strategies for shoe tying
23:09 Teaching component skills of shoe tying
33:13 Tag teaching: Extremely useful for shoe tying and much more
37:53 Video modeling: A case-specific medium for tighter delivery controls
GLOSSARY
TAG (Teaching with Acoustical Guidance) - TAGteach is a teaching and training technology based on the application of the science of behavior that focuses on the structured application of positive reinforcement.
RESOURCES
Join our The ABA and OT Podcast Facebook Group to get access to the following resources:
Facebook group link: https://www.facebook.com/groups/397478901376425
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
Complete Anatomy App Android Download
Complete Anatomy App Apple Download
Clicker Training by Karen Pryor
Association for Science in Autism Treatment (ASAT)
QUOTES
13:05 "This signal is a very distinct cue to say this is where you need to look right now. And then, when you are instructing them around the shoe, the pencil or signal goes down to the shoe and go this is where your eyes need to be right now."
21:14 "Incorporating that fluency piece made a world of difference because for that 10 minutes what we would do I would tell them, alright, Johnny, you've got 10 trials. I want you to get through 10 of step 1 and then you get to play with Playdoh, whatever, and he was so motivated."
29:41 "Actually, kids love it because you can set them a personal best, right? And say, last time you did this 10 times and if you do this 11 times this time, you get a token or clicks or a break. So that was step 1 and 2."
35:51 "You can use it for anything where you don't want to stop instruction and go, oh I love the way you said that. You just go tag and they know that they got it right. So there's a million uses for tag teaching but particularly with shoe tying it is awesome."
38:17 "Video modeling is effective because it allows more tighter control over the delivery of instruction. What did they call it, antecedent instructional prompting, and then videos can obviously be produced, edited, re-edited, based on what they need."
Wednesday Feb 24, 2021
Wednesday Feb 24, 2021
Teaching basic activities of daily living (ADL) to children with autism requires a more involved and understanding approach. This was the case with Sam whose progress in fluency was positively impacted by applying the Big 6 + 6.
In the beginning, Sam exhibited many errors in component skills but instruction with the Big 6 quickly improved his ability to play and manipulate objects. Teaching these component skills enabled Sam to engage with his environment and practice higher-level skills used in ADL's.
HIGHLIGHTS
02:09 Shoutout to Abigail B. Calkin
06:01 Sam's development: What didn't work and fluency targets
17:32 The Big 6 + 6: Improving fine and gross motor skills for ADL's
28:05 Working with Johnny: Introducing awareness of his thumbs
35:18 Training to fluency: Teaching component skills for higher-level skills
GLOSSARY
Forward chaining - A data-driven technique that reaches a goal using the available data
Backward chaining - A goal-driven technique that starts from the last component of the skill and reaches the initial state
Bilateral integration - The ability to use both sides of the body at the same time which is important in performing ADL's
The Big 6 + 6 - Six fine motor skills to assist in ADL's, (reach, touch, point, place, grasp, and release) with the plus six (push, pull, shape, squeeze, tap, and twist) which are gross motor skills to assist in manipulating larger objects.
Learning channels - Refers to what sensory input and output a skill is using
RESOURCES
Join our The ABA and OT Podcast Facebook Group to get access to the following resources:
EXTERNAL RESOURCES
Inner Behavior: Empirical Investigations of Private Events by Abigail B. Calkin
The Effects of Fluent Levels of Big 6 + 6 Skill Elements on Functional Motor Skills with Children with Autism by Twarek, Cihon and Eshleman
Peak: Secrets from the New Science of Expertise Book by Anders Ericsson
QUOTES
09:19 "We took baseline data on many of the component skills that look at hand strength and your ability to successfully engage in things like buttoning and shoe-tying and feeding yourself, etc."
18:53 "We started by teaching him the Big 6 and, all of a sudden, it was so exciting, he started manipulating objects and we were able to teach him cause and effect, which then reinforced him playing with things like pushing money into a money box."
27:49 "Pointing is obviously culturally a very important skill to be able to say, even if you can't talk, I see something that's of interest to me that I want to draw your attention to. So pointing is such an important skill within our culture."
31:50 "In free operant instruction, fluency-based instruction, the instruction is given once so the expectation is raised once, and then the learner engages freely in that and gives them a lot of opportunity for a lot of practice without any prompts."
36:16 "If you have identified that this is a component skill of a higher-level skill, you can train the lower-level skill but check the higher-level skill to see if your teaching is showing up in higher-level skills."