Aba Inside Track

If you’re looking for a podcast that describes some vacation activities AND lays out the content of multiple future episodes with citations to research articles, we’re your #1 source! Between describing waterskiing mishaps and Pocono hikes, we’ve got a brand new Listener Choice episode all about speeding up skill acqusition (and a video for patrons!) and our Book Club on Pat Friman’s “Good Night, Sweet Dreams, I Love You” now UNLOCKED for all. Then to wrap up this hot month, the answer a the long-running podcast mystery: Why does Jackie hate DROs so much? And who REALLY got married to Rob? (SPOILER ALERT: Rob’s been a dream ghost this whole time!). Articles for August 2025 Factors Influencing Skill Acquisition (Summer 2025 Listener Choice) Weinsztok, S.C., Goldman, K.J., & DeLeon, I.G. (2023). Assessing parameters of reinforcement on efficiency of acquisition: A systematic review. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 16, 76-92. doi: 10.1007/s40617-022-00715-7 Gureghian, D.L., Vladescu, J.C., Gashi, R., & Ca

One of the most exciting parts of any conference (shout out to BABAT!) is getting to see something new. And this week, we’re bringing that something new to the podcast with a behavioral hypothesis as to how fame-seeking mass shooters develop behavioral repertoires that can lead to tragedy. We’re excited to bring Dr. James Meindl’s work in this area to our audience as an amazing example of how behavior analysis can be supportive in the treatment of socially relevant causes. We review what information exists in the prediction of mass shooting behavior, how many of the reported patterns may function behaviorally, and, most importantly, what this could mean in the prevention of mass shooter behaviors actually resulting in violence. This episode is available for 1.0 LEARNING CEU. Articles discussed this episode: Meindl, J.N., Ivy, J.W, Delgado, D.M., & Swafford, L. (under review). Towards a functional account of mass-shooting: Prediction and influence of violent behavior. Meindl, J.N. & Ivy, J.W. (2018). R

This week we’re revisiting our long-running series on professional collaboration by discussing how behavior analysts can engage in practices to work well with special education teachers. And, as a special treat, we’re joined by long-time friend of the show and special education teacher/BCBA extrordinaire, Carolyn Beaumier. We dig into recent articles on some of the “faux pas” BCBAs often find themselves in when working with educators and hear some tried and true strategies from someone who’s been on both sides of the behavioral consulting role. Plus, first-hand stories of how well (or badly!) Rob actually is as a school consultant. This episode is available for 1.0 LEARNING CEU. Articles discussed this episode: Giangreco, M.F., Pennington, R.C., & Walker, V.L. (2023). Conceptualizing and utilizing board certified behavior analysts as related services providers in inclusion-oriented schools. Remedial and Special Education, 44, 73-85. doi: 10.1177/07419325211063610 Squires, M., Cutrer-Pãrraga, E.A., Morris,

Though we’ve long been huge fans of single-case research designs—what behavior analyst isn’t?—and hold peer-reviewed research papers as one of our favorite genres of non-fiction, is it possible that not every research paper is…on the level? Sadly, for many coplex reasons, not every research paper you read is without risk for following questionable research practices. To help our field put a stop to this, Dr. Matthew Tincani has some ideas on how we can do better by looking at a number of open science practices. This week, Dr. Tincani called out the best and brightest to has out what needs to be fixed (and how we can do it) and is ready to share what might be next for identifying (and stopping) questionable research practices. This episode is available for 1.0 LEARNING CEU. Articles discussed this episode: Tincani, M., Gilroy, S.P., & Dowdy, A. (2024). Extensions of open science for applied behavior analysis: Preregistration for single-case experimental designs. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis. doi: 1

While we’ve been discussing how to move away from just getting parents to buy in to proposed behavioral treatments, there’s still a huge gap between what works, what parents are told could work, and what parents like (when everything works). So we decided to kick off our Special Guest Month by having two experts at parent training, Drs. Roseanne Lesack and Jillian Wilson, help us figure out how to effectively promote better social validity practices when collaborating with parents. We revisit the classic Allen and Warzak article on parental nonadherence and delve deeply into what treatment ideas parents prefer at almost any child’s age. Plus: the secret history of validating statements! This episode is available for 1.0 LEARNING CEU. Articles discussed this episode: Allen, K.D. & Warzak, W.J. (2000). The problem of parental nonadherence in clinical behavior analysis: Effective treatment is not enough. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 33, 373-391. doi: 10.1901/jaba.2000.33-373 Wilson, J.B. & Lesac

Nothing says “summertime” like visiting friends. And what’s the podcast equivalent of a summer get together? Why a whole month devoted to guest episodes! This July we’re doing a world tour of topics from all over the ABA map. We kick things off with Dr. Roseanne Lesack and Dr. Jillian Wilson updating us on some of the best practices in improving social validity of parent training planning before crossing the country to discuss many of the questionable practices lurking in single-case experimental design with Dr. Matthew Tincani. Next we take a quick trip back home in our ongoing series on professional collaboration with special education teacher/BCBA, Carolyn Beaumier. Finally, , we travel to the other side of the topic world to listen to Dr. James Meindl on his work regarding a hypothetical functional account of mass shooting behavior. It’s a podcast vacation for the ages, and you’re invited to join us for free! The only thing missing is the little bag of pretzels. Articles for July 2025 Social Validity of P

Enjoy a short preview of our latest full-length Book Club episode.  Want to hear the whole thing and get 2.0 CEs for FREE? Subscribe to our Patreon today at the premium $10+ levels for that plus other bonuses! It's the ginormous book that got Book Club Guy, Alan Haberman, to travel to Massachusetts to talk about. But did we have a good time reading the tome that is synonomous with "trauma care"? Our Summer 2025 Book Club choice is the best-selling "The Body Keeps the Score", a go-to reference for anyone interested in learning more about trauma and its treatment. But, because it's us, if you think we're just going to do a happy-little review of what's between the hippy-dippy cover art and fawning back cover references, you really don't know our style. In between describing our favorite examples of "that's really a therapy?" we discuss the controversy over Dr. van der Kolk's work, how much trauma-informed practice has come since the book's publication, and answer the question, "Is this book really appropriate f

As part of the work of a behavior analyst, our ethical code requires us to explain our services in language that can be understood by clients and stakeholders. That holds doubly true when our clients speak a primary language other than English. And just busting out Google Translate isn’t going to cut it! In the next entry in our Tutorial series, we break out the “how to” basics behind following best practices when working with an interpreter in delivering ABA services. From meaningful feedback and collaboration with an interpreter to ensuring a respectful flow of communication between all parties, we’ll get your practice up to speed in no time. Well, at least in the time it takes to listen to this episode. This episode is available for 1.0 CULTURAL (ETHICS) CEU. Articles discussed this episode: Dowdy, A., Obidimalor, K.C., Tinanci, M., & Travers, J.C. (2021). Delivering culturally sound and high-quality behavior analytic services when working with an interpreter. Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice,

It’s Ethicstime, Ethicstime, Eth-eth-ethicstime Ethicstime, Ethicstime, Eth-eth-ethicstime Ethicstime, Ethicstime, Eth-eth-ethicstime ETHICSTIIIIIIIIIIME! This episode is available for 1.0 ETHICS CEU. Articles discussed this episode: Henderson, T.B., Ludden, B.J., & Romero, R.A. (2023). The ethical obligations, barriers, and solutions for interprofessional collaboration in the treatment of autistic individuals. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 16, 963-976. doi: 10.1007/s40617-023-00787-z Shreck, K., Ivy, J. W., & Zane, T. (2023). Teaching behavior analysts to address unethical behavior: Developing evidence based ethics instructional methods. Behavior Analysis in Practice. doi: 10.1007/s40617-023-00845-6 Logue, J. J., Hustyi, K. M., Toby, L M., & Outlaw, E. E. (2023). Promoting ethical and evidence-based practice through a panel review process: A case study in implementation research. Behavior Analysis in Practice. doi: 10.1007/s40617-023-00807-y If you're interested in ordering CEs for listening to

Watching treatment implementation is one of the key determinants behind whether great treatments lead to great results. But, deep down in our hearts, we all struggle to hit that magic 33% of sessions with greater than 80% agreement we all learned about in graduate school. But, what if interobserver agreement didn’t have to be that. What if we were thinking about IOA all wrong? This week we brush up on some of the basics of IOA procedures like “How do I calculate IOA again?” before moving on to more interesting research in the field like training folks to take good IOA and questioning the standard wisdom of how much IOA is good enough. We’ll be watching you! This episode is available for 1.0 LEARNING CEU. Articles discussed this episode: Hausman, N.L., Javed, N., Bednar, M.K., Guell, M., Schaller, E., Nevill, R.E., & Kahng, S. (2022). Interobserver agreement: A preliminary investigation into how much is enough? Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 55, 357-368. doi: 10.1002/jaba.811 Garrity, M.L., Luiselli

What are you still doing listneing to this drop reminding you the book club poll is up? Go vote! Really! You get to pick 3 whole books you want us to read. Quick before it's all over!!

Now that we’ve got some vacation time coming up in our near futures, we can sit back, relax…and make our listener’s choose our episodes for us! That’s right. We’ve got not one but TWO polls for listeners this month that will determine our summer Listener Choice topic as well as the next year’s worth of Book Clubs. Excited to vote? Well, only patrons (at ANY level) will have access to the LC and Book Club polls so, if you haven’t signed up yet, better get on it before everyone else chooses your books for you. Oh, and we have a full month of episodes all about IOA, working with an interpreter, and a whole grab bag of ethics! So, by vacation, we meant podcasting wearing sunglasses and shorts. Listener Choice Poll Book Club Poll Join the Patreon! Articles for June 2025 IOA Hausman, N.L., Javed, N., Bednar, M.K., Guell, M., Schaller, E., Nevill, R.E., & Kahng, S. (2022). Interobserver agreement: A preliminary investigation into how much is enough? Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 55, 357-368. doi: 10.100

As we come to the end of another school year in the US, we take a moment to ponder the question: What is it that a BCBA is supposed to do when they work in a school context? And to help us answer that question, we’ve enlisted the help of the other half of one of our favorite behavior analyst duos, John Staubitz! John walks us through all the stuff about comprehending the school ecology that you didn’t learn in grad school—unless you went to teacher grad school—like the laws and regulations that mandate policies and the do’s and dont’s of providing services to students. If you haven’t set foot in a public school since you grabbed your old principal handed you a diploma, you’re about to take the first step into a larger world. This episode is available for 1.0 LEARNING CEU. Articles discussed this episode: Stevenson, B.S. & Correa, V.I. (2019). Applied behavior analysis, students with autism, and the requirement to provide a free appropriate public education. Journal of Disability Policy Studies, 29, 206-21

Since time immemorial BCBAs have looked at their seven-item array of candies and asked, “Why can’t I do a preference assessment with huge items or unavailable activities?” Well, now you can with pictorial and/or video-based preference assessments! But don’t take my word for it. Or, do take my word for it, but my word paired with the word of all the research on the subject. And if you’re already using this technology in your preference assessments, shouldn’t you better double-check that you’re actually following the evidence-based guidelines. Or did you just assume that the picture of hanging out with friends playing on the iPad must be equivalent to the real thing? This episode is available for 1.0 LEARNING CEU. Articles discussed this episode: Heinicke, M.R., Carr, J.E., Pence, S.T., Zias, D.R., Valentino, A.L., & Falligant, J.M. (2016). Assessing the efficacy of pictorial preference assessments for children with developmental disabilities. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 49, 848-868. doi: 10.1002

UNLOCKED from our Patreon page, it’s the “Activity Schedules for Children with Autism” Book Club! Interested in more Book Clubs? Want to vote on what we read next? Feeling FOMO at getting this a full year late? Wish your 2 CEs for listening to the episode were FREE??? Join us on Patreon to get all of our episodes a week early, access to these bonus episodes, plus other goodies. For our Spring 2024 Book Club we decided to read something a little lighter that could lead right into some new practice options. And, boy did we hit gold with McClannahan and Krantz’s “Activity Schedules for Children with Autism”! We gush profusely about the majority of the book’s content for a while then dive in with a review of the basics of teaching a child to independently use an activity schedule…with some modern quality-of-life suggestions where things get a little dated. Listen and learn nearly everything you need to know about creating and teaching activitiy schedules. Coming soon: Our Language Master-compatible recording on 1

While Jackie’s away (and stuck in an elevator) Rob and Diana will play…podcast hosting duties for the month. This month last spring’s Book Club choice, “Activity Schedules for Children with Autism” gets released to the free feed (with free CEs for Patreon subscribers!) with new episodes on preference assessments and practicing within a school context. And speaking of pairs of awesome behavior analysts, special guest, John Staubitz, gives us the rundown on special education laws and what BCBAs really need to know about the scope of schoolwork. Now’s the time on podcast when we dance! Articles for May 2025 (UNLOCKED) Activity Schedules for Children with Autism Book Club McClannahan, L.E. & Krantz, P.J. (1999). Activity schedules for children with autism: Teaching independent behavior. Woodbine House. McClannahan, L.E. & Krantz, P.J. (2010). Activity schedules for children with autism: Teaching independent behavior. (2nd ed.). Woodbine House. Rehfeldt, R.A. (2002). A review of McClannahan and Krantz's

Though the steps involved in developing a good, evidence-based treatment plan are well documented on our podcast, what good is any of that hard work if the families you purport to use it with kinda, sorta hate your plan. Well, this week, rather than complaining about how unappreciated your procedures are, why not take a step back and ask yourself, “How can I better learn from families I work with what will meet their needs?” We take a run down to explore the ever-confusing and complex world of family services, take a qualitative look at social validity in treatment planning, and review some key contexts that spell the difference between a good plan and a plan that works. This episode is available for 1.0 CULTURAL (ETHICS) CEU. Articles discussed this episode: Russa, M.B., Matthews, A.L., & Owen-DeSchryver, J.S. (2015). Expanding supports to improve the lives of families of children with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 17, 95-104. doi: 10.1177/1098300714532134 Moes, D.

“WAZOWSKI! YOU DIDN’T FILE YOUR PAPERWORK LAST NIGHT!” is a line that resonates with all of us (and we make about 50 times in this episode). But, despite a fear of our own personal Rozes at work, most of us still tend to let those pesky piles of papers slip our minds as we go about the important business of being a behavior analyst (the direct helping of others). But, as with most skills, there’s got to be a better way and, this week, we take that mantra all the way to the In Box with research on how you too can become a paperwork pushing master. This episode is available for 1.0 LEARNING CEU. Articles discussed this episode: Luna, O. & Rapp, J.T. (2019). Using a checklist to increase objective session note writing: Preliminary results. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 12, 622-626. doi: 10.1007/s40617-018-00315-4 Halbur, M., Reidy, J., Kodak, T., Cowan, L., & Harman, M. (2024). Comparison of enhanced and standard data sheets on treatment fidelity and data collection for tact training. Behavior Analysis

We’re finishing up our two-part Listener Choice episodes highlighting tutorial articles that give you the “how to” when it comes to important BCBA skills. And if you enjoyed our episode on procedural integrity, you’re going to LOVE this tutorial all about using token economies. We dive into some token economy history, basic set up, application, and come to the conclusion that WE’VE BEEN DOING TOKEN ECONOMIES WRONG! Or, at least not as well as we could be. If you’ve ever laminated Sponge Bob stickers, you owe it to yourself to listen to this episode. This episode is available for 1.0 LEARNING CEU. Articles discussed this episode: Ackerman, K. B., Samudre, M., & Allday, R. A. (2020). Practical components for getting the most from a token economy.Teaching Exceptional Children, 52(4), 242-249. doi: 10.1177/0040059919892022 Kazdin, A.E. (1982). The token economy: A decade later. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 15, 431-445. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1982.15-431. doi: 10.1901/jaba.1982.15-431 Degli Espinosa, F. &

Here come Research Cottontail. Hoppin’ down the ABA trail. Hippity hoppity, Grab Bag’s on it’s waaaaaaaay! Bringing every behavior analyst Baskets full of discussion panelists Things to make your Grab Bag podcast greaaaaaat!   This episode is available for 1.0 LEARNING CEU. Articles discussed this episode: Nevill, R.E., Crawford, M.F., Zarcone, J.R., Maquera, E., Rooker, G.W., Schmidt, J.D. (2024). A retrospective consecutive controlled case series analysis of the assessment and treatment of elopement in children with autism in an inpatient setting. Behavior Analysis in Practice. doi: 10.1007/s40617-024-00979-1 Santa Cruz, H. A. C.,  MIltenburger, R. G. & Baruni., R. R. (2024). Evaluating remote behavioral skills training of online gaming safety skills. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 17, 246-256. doi: 10.1007/s40617-023-00830-z Kelly-Sisken, S., Reeve, K. F., McPheters, C. J., Vladescu, J. C, Reeve, S. A., & Jennings, A. M. (2025). Comparing equivalence-based instruction to a PowerPoint video lecture