Association for Behavior Analysis International

The program chair will provide opening remarks.

The purposes of the Autism Special Interest Group (Autism SIG) are to (1) promote evidence based practices in regard to treatment for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); (2) promote best practices as it relates to procedures/interventions based upon the principles of applied behavior analysis (ABA) as it relates to individuals diagnosed with ASD; (3) help individuals diagnosed with ASD, families of individuals diagnosed with ASD, and consumers to identify components of evidence based practices, quality behavioral intervention, and effective treatments; (4) help protect individuals diagnosed with ASD and their families from ineffective, non-evidence based, and/or potential harmful treatment(s); (5) serve as a scientific and professional reference and networking group for its members; and (6) organize an annual meeting to provide a forum for discussion of the affairs of the SIG. In this talk we will briefly describe recent developments that have occurred within the Autism SIG as well as future plans in the upcoming year.

This interactive panel discussion will focus upon leadership challenges facing women in applied behavior analysis in general and autism service delivery in particular. The panel members will share reflections from their own lives and career and offer strategies for how other scientist practitioners can behave with cultural humility and combat systemic biases facing women professionals.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists, graduate students.

With over 20-years’ experience in the Oil and Gas industry, Eziafakaku Nwokolo retired from her full-time job with Chevron Nigeria Limited in 2014 to pursue a new interest in the field of developmental disabilities. She has an MSc in Applied Behaviour Analysis-Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities and is currently the only resident Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA®) in Nigeria. She is also a Qualified Behavior Analyst (QBA). 

Eziafakaku is the Founder/CEO of Shades of Life Care Limited; a company that provides services to individuals with developmental disabilities. She sits as a member of the International Standards Committee of the Qualified Applied Behavior Analysis (QABA) Credentialing Board and is the Secretary of the Association for Behaviour Analysis in Nigeria (ABAN).

She has given presentations of her work at different conferences – the Association of Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) 44th International Conference in San Francisco and the 5th European International Association for the Scientific Study of Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities (IASSIDD) Conference in Athens, at the inaugural International School for Disability Studies (ISDS) conference for IDD in Abuja, Nigeria and the first-ever Pan African Congress on Autism (PACA) conference in Nairobi, Kenya.

Currently, she is a PhD researcher whose interest lies in validating screening tools for Intellectual Disability (ID) and Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in Nigeria. Her research focuses on screening for ID and ASD in Nigerian adolescents.

She is a mother of three whose middle child has autism.

The epidemic increase in the prevalence or the diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the great demand for skilled therapists who can work effectively and efficiently with young children with ASD, using the principles and the technology of applied behavior analysis, raises the need for optimizing our staff training practices. This presentation aims to present some preliminary findings, and to raise a number of questions, about the therapeutic style of the therapist working with young children with ASD. The first findings in this line of research are interesting and thought provoking. Specifically, they help us to provide answers to the following questions: (a) Why is it important to study the therapeutic relationship between children with ASD and their therapists? (b) How do we define the therapeutic relationship from a behavior-analytic perspective and how does it relate with other aspects of the therapeutic intervention? (b) How do we evaluate the therapeutic relationship and how should we aim to improve it? This line of research developed from the need to optimize staff training practices and offers a preliminary analysis for the systematic study of a variable that is considered to be critical for the therapeutic outcome – that of the therapeutic relationship. There are clear indications, from the evaluation of these preliminary findings, that the concept of a therapeutic relationship can be empirically defined and assessed and can lend itself toward improving our staff training practices for therapists who work with young children with ASD within the epistemological framework of behavior analysis.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Professor at the School of Philosophy, Department of Philosopsy-Pedagogy-Psychology at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece (EKPA). She received her BA in Psychology and Sociology, her master’s degree in Clinical Psychology and her Ph.D. from the “Learning Processes” program of the Psychology Department of the City University of New York. She conducted her Doctoral Dissertation at the Princeton Child Development Institute, in Princeton, New Jersey. She worked in various institutes in the USA and became the director of the Alpine Learning Group, a prominent center for children with autism in Alpine, New Jersey. She also taught as an adjunct professor at the City University of New York. In Greece she started her teaching career at the University of Thessaly, was elected at the University of the Aegean, and since 1998 teaches at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She is the director of the Laboratory of Special Education and Family Counselling. Her research is predominantly in behavior analysis and its applications for early intervention in children with autism spectrum disorder and their families. She was general secretary of the Association of Behavioral Research for 11 years, is an associate of the Institute of Behavioral Research and Therapy, and a founding member and current president of the Institute of Systemic Behavior Analysis. She has served as an elected member of the Senate of EKPA, since 2016 she is a member of the board of trustees of IKY--National Organization of Scholarships, Greece--has been appointed to national committees of the Greek Ministry of Education, and has served on the board of various non-for-profit organizations. She has received several scholarships and awards for distinguished research and clinical practices addressing children with autism and grands from the European Commission and various Greek Ministries and organizations. She has published numerous books, empirical and theoretical articles in peer-reviewed journals, as well as book chapters. The main focus of her current research is in systemic behavior analysis and its applications for children with ASD and their families.  

Join panelists from the morning session to continue the discussion on women and leadership in ABA. Conference attendees are welcome to drop in and ask questions, have a conversation, or just say "hi."

Following Dr. Stephen Gillaspy’s presentation on reimbursement for ABA services, he will be joined by fellow members of the ABA Billing Codes Commission to answer audience questions related to billing, Medically Unlikely Edits (MUEs), provision of ABA service using telehealth, and other related inquiries. Attendees are invited to join this event to ask questions, meet the members, and learn more about the mission of the ABA Billing Codes Commission to facilitate evidence-based applied behavior analysis by advancing the multi-disciplinary understanding, dissemination, and standardization of the adaptive behavior CPT® billing codes.

The ABAI Career Fair is a valuable opportunity you will not want to miss! Career fairs are a great way to increase your visibility in a competitive field with many qualified candidates. The fair will feature video conferencing with potential future employers in a “meet and greet” setting, as well as the option to set up personal online interviews. If you are looking for the opportunity to polish your resume or practice your networking and interviewing skills, you’ve found it! Registration for the conference includes entrance to the career fair.

Visit the exhibit booths during this time to learn about products and services and meet with representatives via video and text chat.

Feeding issues are prevalent and difficult to treat in individuals with ASD. Escape extinction has been determined to be an evidence based approach for addressing food selectivity and food refusal issues in this population. While this procedure is effective and often necessary, it can also be difficult for patents to tolerate and for caregivers to implement. This presentation will describe the use of alternative procedures that may have merit for treating less serious issues in food selectivity. Specifically, a method for the extension of observational learning procedures to food preferences will be presented, along with the possible utility of this procedure in addressing food selectivity. In addition, a case study utilizing visual cues and positive reinforcement within a remote telehealth model will be reviewed. These procedures will be discussed in the context of effective treatment, with an emphasis on the ethical obligations of practitioners.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students. 

As behavior analysts, we have a great deal of responsibility as autism treatment developers and providers to the people that we serve. Chief among our responsibilities are the ethical and compassionate treatment of the families that we serve, and a dedication to scientifically robust treatment interventions. One other important feature to practice that has recently settled in the forefront of our field’s consciousness is a dedication to cultural competence. In this presentation, I will present on my own experiences that have influenced my research on bilingualism in autism treatment, my own lessons learned and lessons taught to my graduate students in introducing ABA to an underserved community at the border between Mexico and Texas, and my research on training clinical competence in graduate students in behavior analysis.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Visit the exhibit booths during this time to learn about products and services and meet with representatives via video and text chat.

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant disruption in established models of autism treatment. With that disruption also came an opportunity to dismantle the status quo in order to rebuild a more effective and equitable model of autism service delivery. The purpose of this presentation is to describe one such model and its initial outcomes. The presentation will also discuss issues of ethics and equity in “reimagining” autism treatment, as well as how values rooted in equity may guide the evolution of autism treatment throughout the 21st Century.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

Asopormen is a non-profit institute working on behalf the people with learning and physical disabilities since 1965. It was founded by a group of visionary and responsible citizens who wanted to provide a possibility for the empowerment and improvement of the life quality for people with disability in a region of Colombia where there were not both facilities and professionals in the field. Thence Asopormen came to make a change and transform their reality, to convert the panorama of rehabilitation of our population into a possible scenario for a new way of life of the people with disabilities, their families and social environments; transforming the perception of the common people about diversity, aiming to lessen the levels of discrimination and disrespect for their rights while generating awareness towards a needed change on the health public policies, education, urban planning and assistance.

As the number of cases of people with autism increased in Colombia and there was not an institutional answer to approach their requirements at the time, Asopormen was a pioneer to offer a therapeutical service exclusively tailored for the population with ASD 15 years ago. Inviting experts from overseas whose experience and knowledge helped us to train our professional team and families and therefore being able to convince healthcare insurances and national government healthcare agencies to set up the first regulation that established a national program that attempted to meet autistic population requirements.

Nowadays the number of ASD cases in Colombia have grown. Several studies have demonstrated difficulty in collecting practices supported by evidence in the country. This presentation will outline the main components of intervention for children with ASD in Colombia. Also, several variables that impact or represent barriers to access treatment and options for an integral inclusion such as economic disparities, current political climate, the public health system in Colombia, among others. The presenter will also review information from an assessment of 35 institutions in 8 different cities in Colombia that provide services to children with ASD.

In 55 years of existence we have proposed and executed around 200 projects with public, private and international entities bound for different programs that are developed in the comprehensive care for our children, youth, adults and their families, making this part of the population visible for all. Intending that everyone becomes in guarantor of their rights as well as pursuing for their welfare and betterment of their life quality. Daily more than 800 children are beneficiaries of our programs.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students. 

Component-composite analysis is vital to the success of teaching and building academic skills. These procedures break down higher level, real world, composite performances into their components and tool skills, which guide the teacher to the appropriate place to begin instruction: with the learner’s entering behavior. When instruction begins at the learner’s entering behavior level, their escape and avoidance behaviors and the need for behavior reduction procedures are minimized. This presentation will provide many examples of component-composite analysis, and identify key areas for completing component-composite analyses in reading, writing, and math. It is also important to sort academic skills into those that teach procedures and those that teach concepts. This presentation will outline the necessary components for teaching a concept in any domain. Once these components are created, a teacher is ready to develop an instructional sequence tasks that include context-setting descriptions, rules, examples, and non-examples.

Board certified behavior analysts; licensed psychologists; graduate students.

The program chair will provide closing remarks.

Dr. Kent Johnson would like to meet and greet you all after his talk and answer questions. He will also further describe his new book, The Morningside Model of Generative Instruction: Building A Bridge Between Skills and Inquiry Teaching, co-authored with long-time co-writer Dr. Elizabeth Street, as well as Morningside Academy Directors Andrew Kieta and Joanne Robbins. At over 500 pages, this comprehensive work provides a thorough overview of how best practices in behavioral education can bridge the seemingly endless divide between educators who build basic skills and those who aim to teach inquiry and thinking. This is a must-have for those interested in expanding from direct instruction and fluency-based instruction into higher order thinking and problem solving, as well as teachers looking to build solid foundations from which to continue inquiry-based approaches.

Meet board members of the Autism Special Interest Group and others interested in autism and applied behavior analysis to discuss research, ask questions, or just say "hi." Members will have an opportunity to have an open discussion with other members about the endeavors that the Autism Special Interest Group has in store for the next couple of years and provide feedback and suggestions for additional endeavors. Come and join us for games, prizes, great conversation, and fun!