[Sharon Baxter]

This ad is being posted on behalf of the Lo family-

Tutoring positions available working with a 11 year old student in the home and community setting, half day sessions; weekdays and weekends available.

Weekly supervision from 2 qualified, BCBA certified, Behavioural Consultants is provided. The successful candidate will be willing to attend biweekly team meetings.

Training will be provided starting before the end of June. The successful candidate will be required to work at least 2 shifts per week. A one year commitment will also be required.

This is a very unique opportunity as the successful candidate will have the opportunity to work with a student whom has received highly individualized curriculum design from the New England Center for Children.

The student and his family live in Burnaby, near Gilmore and Hastings.
Interested candidates please send your reply via email to

yolandalai18@hotmail.com

[Sharon Baxter]

Hi – Please refer to the following message as an update to the post send early last week.

The Children’s Foundation
CAREER OPPORTUNITY:

The Children’s Foundation offers a fantastic opportunity to work with Dr. Richard Foxx, Dr. Glen Davies, Sharon Baxter and ABLE Developmental Clinic in developing and operating a pilot ABA Teaching Home for two youth who have been recipients of ABA therapy but remain with very challenging behavior. This state-of-the-art program has been designed by Dr. Foxx and his colleagues in the United States.

Funding for the pilot project is provided through Community Living British Columbia. Local clinical supervision is provided by ABLE Developmental Clinic. The program is hosted and administered by The Children's Foundation.

Several full and part-time positions are available for experienced behavior interventionists. Compensation and benefits are competitive. TCF has a CUPE Agreement and is guided by that Collective Agreement.

Apply in writing with resume to:

Lisa Lowe, Program Director
The Children’s Foundation
2750 East 18th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
V5M 4W8

Fax: 604-439-9938

Or email: lisa.lowe@childrens-foundation.org

[Sharon Baxter]

CAREER OPPORTUNITY:

A fantastic opportunity is available to work with Dr. Richard Foxx, Dr. Glen Davies, Sharon Baxter and ABLE Developmental Clinic. Funding is available to develop and operate a pilot ABA Teaching Home for two youth who have been recipients of ABA therapy but remain with very challenging behavior. This state-of-the-art program has been designed by Dr. Foxx and his colleagues in the United States. Funding for the development and operation (pending) is provided by the Ministry of Children and Family Development. Local clinical supervision is provided by ABLE Developmental Clinic. The program is hosted and administered by the Children's Foundation agency. Several full-time and part-time positions are available for experienced behavior interventionists. Positions are well compensated in accord with the CUPE contract and include a benefit package.

Apply in writing to Lisa Lowe at:

The Children’s Foundation
2750 East 18th Avenue
Vancouver, BC
V5M 4W8

Fax: 604-439-9938

Or email: lisa.lowe@childrens-foundation.org

[Sharon Baxter]

This is a long article but it is WELL worth the read.

It may also be a usefull tool to give to well-meaning family and friends who are having difficulty understanding why you have choosen to use ABA rather than many of the "other" so called treatment options currently available.

This is from the Pasadena Weekly.

_______________________________________

Mind games
For a public hungry for answers, pseudoscientific efforts at reaching
autistic people prove to be the perfect breeding ground for heartache
and
fraud

By Julie Riggott

In one of this year's Academy Award-nominated films, a severely
autistic
young woman appears to make a miraculous transformation. Tested with
the
mental age of a 2-year-old, Sue Rubin had little ability to communicate
with
the world. When Sue was 13, her mother discovered facilitated
communication
(FC), a technique in which a facilitator helps the autistic person to
type.
Everything changed. Immediately, and for the first time in her life,
Sue
could share her thoughts and feelings with her mother. Eventually, she
was
retested with an IQ of 133 and even enrolled in college – with a
facilitator. A brilliant mind was supposedly freed from its prison of
silence.

This story of hope against all odds sounds like a feel-good Hollywood
drama.
But the lead character in "Autism Is a World" is a real woman, and the
film
was nominated for best documentary short subject.

What the documentary doesn't mention, however, is that FC has a
dramatic and
highly controversial history that reached a climax more than a decade
ago
when it was exposed as a pseudoscience.

Numerous controlled studies showed clearly that the autistic
individuals
were not actually communicating. Several professional organizations,
including the American Psychological Association, the American Academy
of
Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, and the Association for Behavior
Analysis,
subsequently issued position statements indicating that FC is not a
scientifically valid technique.

Yet Douglas Biklen, professor of Education and founder of the
Facilitated
Communication Institute at Syracuse University, continues to promote
the
technique vigorously. Not surprisingly, he also co-produced this film.

In seeming ignorance of the '90s exposÈ, Newsweek featured the film and
its
star in a sidebar story to its Feb. 28 feature, "Babies and Autism."
The
main article focused on the research being done to improve early
diagnosis.
But early diagnosis does parents little good if they don't find the
most
effective treatment for their children.

Newsweek and its affiliates, MSNBC and "The Today Show," did little to
help
parents make sense of all the treatment options.

With the exception of an ABC Nightline feature, the recent flurry of
publicity about autism has not focused on scientifically validated
treatments. Instead, pseudoscientific approaches with little or no
evidence
of their effectiveness continue to be presented as equally valuable
treatment options. And parents continue to face a daunting array of
approaches without guidance about where to turn. Meanwhile, scientists
already know that the most effective intervention is early, intensive
applied behavior analysis (ABA).

One day at a time

By definition, children with autism have problems with language and
socialization. They either never develop speech or suddenly lose
whatever
words they have learned and exhibit little or no eye contact and
interaction
with people.

They also may rock, flap their hands or engage in other repetitive
behaviors. The additional curse of the disorder is that many autistic
children often appear physically no different than other children; they
don't look like there is anything wrong with them. Though the severity
of
symptoms differs from child to child, the overall effect is one of
isolation
and lack of emotion. Parents often describe their children as
retreating to
their own world with no indication that they understand the one around
them.
In fact, the word "autism" has been around longer than the diagnosis.
It
refers to a state of absorption in mental activity and withdrawal from
reality. Understandably, these social deficits create a highly
emotional
situation for the parents.

Anne Marie was diagnosed with autism at 22 months after she stopped
responding to her parents, saying "mama" and "daddy," or even shaking
her
head yes or no. She sat with a blank expression at her own birthday
party,
didn't smile, and showed no interest in her presents. At other times,
she
could be mesmerized by a piece of dust, staring at it for minutes on
end.
Two years later, Anne-Marie's younger brother, Michel, was also
diagnosed
with autism, plunging the family into an even deeper abyss.

Anne Marie and Michel's mother, Catherine Maurice, said that a list of
symptoms can't do justice to the emotional nightmare that is autism.
"Those
facts convey nothing of what can only be called the anguish of this
time.
They can't convey the searing panic as something begins to steal your
child
away from you. They don't even hint at the shock, the sleepless nights,
the
dry throat and pounding heart, the physical invasion of grief and
fear," she
commented at a presentation to the Cambridge Center for Behavioral
Studies.
Maurice also chronicled the series of "treatments out there that
promise
much and deliver little" that the family tried prior to finding ABA in
her
book, "Let Me Hear Your Voice."

It is an all too common story. Parents caught up in intense emotions
are
desperate to try anything to bring their children back.

Tamara Short of Pasadena, who with her husband Don, has two autistic
boys,
Ian, 7, and Harry, 4, said they have been frantically trying every new
therapy or diet that comes along since the boys were diagnosed, Ian at
age 3
and Harry at 2. Today, both children still have very limited language
and
self-help skills. They even have difficulty knowing how to play with
toys.
Tamara said it's been a constant struggle for progress, with "one step
forward… and two steps back."

"Every parent is longing for a cure," Short said. "I take it one day at
a
time, because if I look at it in terms of forever, I don't think I'd be
able
to get myself out of bed in the morning."

"The problem with the myriad of treatments for autism is that they prey
on
people's hope," said Dr. Sebastien Bosch, clinical director and
co-founder
of California Unified Service Providers and an ABA practitioner. "And
most
consumers are not evaluating the 'product' in an informed manner
because the
promise of the 'quick fix' or the 'what if …' is irresistible, and
rightly
so, for desperate parents."

The late Carl Sagan addressed the serious problem of pseudoscience in
his
1997 book, "The Demon-Haunted World: Science as a Candle in the Dark."
Pseudosciences, he explained, appeal to our emotions rather than our
intellect. They are also easier to present to the public than science,
because of their relaxed standards of evidence, so a culture lacking
knowledge of scientific methods is easily swayed.

While some pseudosciences, such as astrology, ESP and "ufology," are
more
obvious, those cloaked more deceptively in the terms of science, for
example, in medicine and psychology, are more difficult to detect.
"Pseudosciences purport to use the methods and findings of science,
while in
fact they are faithless to its nature – often because they are based on
insufficient evidence or because they ignore clues that point the other
way," wrote Sagan.

"It is no coincidence that many promoters of 'quick fixes' avoid
rigorous
scientific scrutiny of their treatments, and use emotionally-laden
language
to promote those treatments," said Dr. Gina Green, lecturer in public
health
and special education at San Diego State University. "Put simply,
pseudoscience has always sold better than science. So those who promise
that
autism can be cured or ameliorated substantially with a pill, a
vitamin, a
diet, some sensory stimulation, some exercises for the ears or eyes or
brain, or some play time with their parents or typical children find a
large
and eager market for their services and products."

Green has worked in treatment and research involving people with autism
and
other developmental disabilities for about 30 years. "Autism," she has
found, "is the perfect breeding ground for pseudoscience."

'Candle in the dark'

One reason for the abundance of untested and ineffective therapies in
autism
is that the disorder is shrouded in mystery.

In 1943, Dr. Leo Kanner at the Johns Hopkins Hospital described the
symptoms
as a distinct disorder from childhood schizophrenia and named it "early
infantile autism."

In 2004, researchers still don't know the causes and haven't found a
cure.
Prevalence estimates vary between 1 in 500 and 1 in 1,000 births per
year.
Whether diagnoses have skyrocketed due to better understanding of the
symptoms or there is truly a new epidemic is thus far unclear.

Nonetheless, autism is a serious health problem. The National Institute
of
Mental Health's (NIMH) investment in autism research has quadrupled
over the
past seven years from $9.4 million to $36.2 million.

"Almost any situation where there is a lot of uncertainty tends to
invite a
lot of speculation," said Green. "Thus there have always been many
theories
about what causes autism and what might be helpful for treating it."

Therapies claiming to treat autism range from biomedical and
nutritional to
psychological and emotional. Most have not been subjected to scientific
testing. Of those that have, "the overwhelming majority proved to have
no
beneficial effects, while others were shown to have harmful physical
and
emotional side effects," said Green. "Just a few examples are
patterning and
other therapies, sensory and auditory integration therapies, various
psychoactive drugs, secretin and FC."

Yet most of these treatments or variations of them are still being
promoted
by many mainstream organizations and the media. Millions of dollars are
spent every year on treatments for autism, many of them ineffective. FC
keyboards can cost as much as $4,300, according to People magazine,
which
also gave a largely glowing and uncritical account of the supposed
wonders
of FC. Then there's the cost of hiring a facilitator.

There are numerous other treatments without scientific merit, including
colored-lens therapies, music therapy, dolphin therapy, and
occupational
therapy, including the "squeeze machine."

Dr. Patricia Krantz is executive director of the Princeton Child
Development
Institute, which was featured in "The Today Show's" recent series on
autism.

She said, "It is not possible to say that different approaches work for
some
and not for others because applied behavior analysis is the only
approach
that has a body of data about effectiveness." In reference to other
programs
that "The Today Show" highlighted, Krantz said, "TEACCH [or Treatment
and
Education of Autistic and Communication Handicapped Children] and Floor
Time
have little or no data about effectiveness."

The bottom line, said Krantz, is that "marketing contingencies compete
with
science."

There are many reasons why pseudoscience gets more publicity than
science.
Robert Park, professor of physics at the University of Maryland and
author
of 2000's "Voodoo Science: The Road from Foolishness to Fraud,"
explained in
his book: "New results and ideas are argued in the halls of research
institutions, presented at scientific meetings, published in scholarly
journals, all out of the public view. Voodoo Science, by contrast, is
usually pitched directly to the media, circumventing the normal process
of
scientific review and debate. … The result is that a disproportionate
share of the science seen by the public is flawed."

Instead of relying on scientifically proven procedures,
pseudoscientific
treatments often depend on anecdotal evidence in the form of success
stories
or testimonials from users and purveyors. They often ignore scientific
facts
and research that contradicts their claims. Parents should especially
be
skeptical when the only group to admit the effectiveness of a given
treatment is the one that stands to make money from it.

Beware, said J. Grayson Osborne, professor of psychology at Utah State
University, of "faux fixes" that have no research and no data to prove
that
they work. And avoid programs with poorly defined or measured goals and
no
program evaluation.

Autism is a pervasive and chronic disorder, and no magic can claim to
solve
the problem quickly. "Be skeptical," Osborne warned, "when someone is
about
to wave a wand."

The antidote to pseudoscience is, as Sagan suggested, skepticism and an
understanding of the methods of science. With this "candle in the
dark,"
parents can better recognize pseudoscience.

Potential danger

There are organizations that parents can rely on for scientific and
accurate
information. The Association for Science in Autism Treatment (ASAT)
thoroughly discusses various treatments including auditory integration
training, FC, the Miller Method, Sensory Integration, the Son-Rise
Program
and TEACCH, a statewide program in North Carolina, on their Web site
(http://www.asatonline.org). It found that none of these programs have
peer-reviewed, scientific studies or evaluations of their
effectiveness.

The Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies (http://www.behavior.org)
is
another good resource for parents looking for research articles and
links to
reliable resources.

The NIMH Web site says that the efficacy and safety of dietary
interventions, vitamin supplements, and secretin "have not been proven
in
clinical trials." It also recommends various questions that parents can
ask
when evaluating treatment options. Some of those are: "How is progress
measured?" and "Will my child's behavior be closely observed and
measured?"

Furthermore, the NIMH Web site states that, "to be accepted as a proven
treatment, the treatment should undergo clinical trials, preferably
randomized, double-blind trials that would allow for a comparison
between
treatment and no treatment."

Applied behavior analysis is based on experimentally discovered
principles
with decades of validated and replicated scientific research to support
it.
Therefore, the NIMH lists ABA as the only documented effective
treatment for
autism. It also cites "Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General,"
which confirms that "thirty years of research demonstrated the efficacy
of
applied behavioral methods in reducing inappropriate behavior and in
increasing communication, learning, and appropriate social behavior."

The ABA experts in this story convened in Dana Point in February at the
annual meeting of the California Association for Behavior Analysis, a
regional branch of the international Association for Behavior Analysis.
A
point reiterated during the conference was the importance of ensuring
the
availability of qualified ABA practitioners. According to many of these
psychologists, demand for ABA treatment is currently much higher than
the
supply of qualified practitioners – a problem hopefully being remedied
by
the Behavior Analyst Certification Board.

The Maurice family's story has a happy ending – not because of a
miracle
cure, but because of intensive ABA.

Anne Marie and Michel went from withdrawn and silent to "empathetic and
engaging." They performed well in school, developed good social skills
and
live normal lives with no obvious signs of autism.

Ian and Harry are currently in an ABA program. They have also seen
benefits,
though possibly less dramatic because they came to the treatment later
than
some. "I have found the greatest improvements to Ian started when we
started
[ABA and] discrete trials. He had a huge leap forward," Short said.
"Harry
also responded really, really well." She hopes that continued publicity
for
autism can help parents get early diagnosis and intervention.

Not all stories end as well. One of the obvious dangers of
pseudoscience in
autism is that time is wasted when intervention is most crucial and
there is
the best chance for recovery.

"We have a sense of emergency because the children are most malleable
between the ages of 2 and 4," said Bosch of California Unified Service
Providers.

Another problem is that time and money spent on false promises are
diverted
from legitimate research and progress. Of course, there is also the
potential for emotional and physical harm.

"Probably the most dramatic illustration of the dangers of
pseudoscience in
autism … is the worldwide public health crisis that has been created
by
the pseudoscience behind the vaccine scare," said Green.

The theory that the low levels of mercury in thimerosal, a preservative
used
in vaccines, caused autism has not been proven, and the authors of the
original study retracted their claims. The NIMH reports this
information on
its Web site, but the belief that there is a link between mercury and
autism
is pervasive. So much so that the latest pseudoscientific trend in
autism
treatment is based on this misconception. Chelation therapy is a
process
that involves removing metals from the person's body through
intravenous
infusions, transdermal creams or other methods.

Quackwatch.com is a Web site devoted to investigating health-related
frauds
and myths. Here parents can find information about chelation, among
other
autism treatments that have no scientific validity. Quackwatch, which
boasts
a 152-member scientific and technical advisory board, reports that
studies
from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the
Institute of
Medicine confirmed that there was no link between thimerosal and
autism.

Another study published in the British medical journal The Lancet
concluded
that "administration of vaccines containing thimerosal does not seem to
raise blood concentrations of mercury above safe values in infants."

Furthermore, thimerosal has been removed from many vaccines, and "none
of
the vaccines now used to protect preschool children against 12
infectious
diseases contain thimerosal as a preservative," according to
Quackwatch.

Surprisingly, the MMR vaccine, which is most often blamed for causing
autism, never contained thimerosal in the first place. Still, many
parents
are refusing to give their children vaccines, and others are trying
chelation.

Given that it is based on a disproven theory should be reason enough to
avoid it, but chelation is also expensive and dangerous. It has caused
physical harm and death in some cases. Because it is called a
biomedical
therapy and is promoted and practiced by a few physicians, parents may
be
less skeptical than they should be.

Clever Hans

The FC debacle reveals just how dangerous pseudoscience can become.

In the early 1990s, FC was hailed by practitioners and the media as a
miracle that allowed disabled people to share their thoughts and
feelings
for the first time. In many instances, the facilitator holds the
autistic
person's hand and helps them to type out a message on a keyboard with
one
finger. People diagnosed as mentally retarded or autistic took their
facilitators to school and suddenly became model students and began
writing
poetry and short stories.

Parents and teachers were swept up in the frenzy of the sudden and
newfound
verbal skills of their autistic children and students. Then the
phenomenon
took a strange turn. An inordinate number of children and their
facilitators
started accusing their parents or others of sexual abuse. Parents and
caretakers were arrested, children were placed in foster care, and many
lives were ruined.

Not until it reached this level of controversy did people begin to
question
some obvious inconsistencies. For instance, often the autistic people
did
not even look at the keyboard, while the facilitators never took their
eyes
off of it. And it is well known that typing with one finger without
looking
at the keyboard is impossible.

Also, autism does not typically cause physical disability or fine motor
difficulties, so why would autistic individuals need physical
assistance?
And how did people who did not know how to read or write suddenly type
sophisticated, grammatically correct sentences?

When scientists stepped in, more than 50 controlled studies and blind
tests,
in addition to numerous controlled tests conducted in legal cases,
revealed
FC as a hoax. These studies showed, without a doubt, that the FC
messages
were controlled by the facilitators, not the disabled people.

In some double-blind tests, for example, the facilitator was shown one
picture and the disabled person another. Without fail, the disabled
person
then typed what the facilitator saw. But to the untrained observer, the
technique, like other pseudoscientific therapies, appeared to work.

Sometimes, the influence of the facilitator is less obvious, because
the
facilitator might not hold the person's hand, but support their arm or
touch
their shoulder – or even simply observe the typing.

"Naked-eye, informal observations and facilitators' reports absolutely
cannot be relied upon to reveal control [by the facilitators] because
the
cues provided by facilitators are often very subtle, and facilitators
typically deny it even in the face of evidence," explained Green of San
Diego State, who consulted with families involved in lawsuits during
the FC
debacle.

The obvious or subtle influences of facilitators were shown to be the
equivalent of the Ouija board effect or the Clever Hans phenomenon.
While
the Ouija board obviously uses hands-on control to move a device across
a
board, the story of Clever Hans shows that touch is not even necessary.

As explained in the "Skeptic's Dictionary," in the late 19th century, a
man
believed that his horse, Clever Hans, could solve mathematical
equations by
tapping his hoof the correct number of times. It was eventually
discovered
that Hans was responding to unconscious subtle movements from his owner
that
caused him to start and then stop tapping his hoof at the right time.
When
Hans couldn't see his owner or his owner didn't know the correct
answer,
Hans could not answer correctly either.

Psychologists have long known about the phenomenon of such "unconscious
cuing" in humans, and FC proved to be another example.

Even in the face of overwhelming evidence showing FC to be a hoax,
Biklen
continues to promote it. There still are no scientific data supporting
the
validity of FC, even from Biklen's Facilitated Communication Institute
at
Syracuse University.

Considering FC's controversial history, the publicity surrounding the
Academy Award-nominated documentary is less than encouraging evidence
about
the longevity and appeal of pseudoscience.

Said Green, "This film and the hype surrounding it are hitting a new
generation of parents of children with autism who are largely unaware
of the
history of FC and again are likely to be vulnerable to the seductive
claims
being made about it."

[Sharon Baxter]

Hi All,

Bobby Newman recommended a book during his talk titled 'Controversial Therapies for Developmental Disabilities – Fad, Fashion, and Science in Professional Practice', Edited by John Jacobson, Richard Foxx, and James Mulick. These editors are among the most highly regarded Behaviour Analysts in the field.

I also highly recommend this book for parents and professionals. The book discusses the allure of unproven, unscientific treatments for autism.

In light of the recent discussions around scientifically proven treatment for autism I think that this book will put the issue into perspective for many readers of this board.

Here is a sample of some of the first chapters in the book –

Ch. 1 Where Do Fads Come From?
Ch. 2 Sifting Sound Practice From Snake Oil
Ch. 3 The Nature and Value of Empirically Validated Interventions
Ch. 4 The Appeal of Unvalidated Treatments

The ISBN # is 0-8058-4192-X, call 1-800-926-6579 to order by phone or go to the website at http://www.erlbaum.com

The book can also be ordered at any local bookstore.

Sincerely,
Sharon Baxter

[Sharon Baxter]

Hello All, An important new book has just been published. It is written for students of Applied Behavior Analysis but since many of you have become students by necessity I think you will find the book useful. It is titled 'Designing Teaching Strategies : An Applied Behavior Analysis Systems Approach', 2002. It is written by R.Douglas Greer, a professor at Columbia University. Dr. Greer is the founder of the Comprehensive Applications of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS) system. The book is published by American Press.

Sharon Baxter

[Sharon Baxter]

I wanted to respond to the post regarding the link between autism and MMR. I just completed a paper in which I researched both sides of the argument. I could find almost no research in peer reviewed journals supporting the claim that there is a causal link. However, I was able to find a large body of evidence, in peer reviewed journals, against the claim that there is a link. If you are interested I found good information by going to webcrawler.com, health, child health and searching MMR and autism. The CDC (Center for Disease Control) website also has a good fact sheet on this issue. If you want to look for scientific journals search psycinfo and medline.

Sharon Baxter

[Sharon Baxter]

This post is written in response to the post from Anonymous relating to decreasing aggressive behavior. The consultant's intervention was to use extinction, compliance and to increase reinforcement. As the therapist was seeking additional solutions I will assume these interventions, once implemented were not effective. There are many reason why these interventions may have not been effective. These reasons relate to the application of the interventions and not to the science of ABA in which these interventions were derived. Some of the reasons include:

1- The intervention procedures were not operationalized, and therefore the interventions were not implemented properly.

2-Accurate data was not taken.

3-The function of the behavior was not accurately identified and the intervention did not address the variable that was maintaining or increasing the behavior.

As a former senior therapist, I worked as a senior therapist in the Vancouver area for 7 years, I learned (through trial and error) how to effectively implement the interventions programmed by the consultant. Here are some suggestions on how to seek and implement behavioral interventions from your consultants.

A) As soon as a behavior begins to occur start taking baseline data.
Record the antecedent (what happened before the behavior), the behavior (describe the behavior, define the behavior in objective terms, hitting- one hand open palm striking another persons or object), and the consequence (child was removed from table, or instruction stopped while child told to stop hitting)

Record when the behaviour occurred, specific program, and who was instructing the child at the time.

Record the frequency or the duration of the behavior.

Graph the data immediately after each session.

2) Talk to the behavioral consultant. Fax the graph or describe the trend of the data, variable trend, ascending trend (increase in behavior), or descending trend (decrease in data). Describe the behavior in objective terms. Also include any information that is not included in the data. As Sara described therapists who are working daily with a child have insight that is valuable.

3) Have the consultant operationalize the intervention procedure. Ask for a step by step description of how to implement the program. Ask lots of questions. Visualized the program being implemented with the child, make sure you know what to do at each step. Anticipate problems; ask for instructions on how to deal with each. Clarify with the consultant; verbally repeat what you understand to be the procedure.

If a consultant tells you to deal with behaviour by putting it on extinction, go through the above steps. DO NOT ASSUME you know what a consultant intending.

3) Have the consultant complete a written behavior plan and data collection procedure. If your consultant will not do so, the senior therapist can write out the plan from the consultant's vocal description. The senior therapist should fax or email the plan for approval from the consultant.

4) During a team meeting the senior therapist should demonstrate the implementation of the intervention and have each therapist demonstrate implementation to show understanding.

5) For complicated procedures, video each therapist implementing the intervention and send the video to the consultant for critique.

6) Data should continue to be taken throughout each session, and graphed at the end of the session.

If the behavior does not decrease or changes topographies (form), the consultant will use the above data to refine the intervention. ABA is a science and requires the skillful implementation of procedures to be effective. I hope the above information will be helpful!!

Sharon Baxter

PS Happy Mother's Day

[Sharon Baxter]

This post is written in response to the post from Anonymous relating to decreasing aggressive behavior. The consultant's intervention was to use extinction, compliance and to increase reinforcement. As the therapist was seeking additional solutions I will assume these interventions, once implemented were not effective. There are many reason why these interventions may have not been effective. These reasons relate to the application of the interventions and not to the science of ABA in which these interventions were derived. Some of the reasons include:

1- The intervention procedures were not operationalized, and therefore the interventions were not implemented properly.

2-Accurate data was not taken.

3-The function of the behavior was not accurately identified and the intervention did not address the variable that was maintaining or increasing the behavior.

As a former senior therapist, I worked as a senior therapist in the Vancouver area for 7 years, I learned (through trial and error) how to effectively implement the interventions programmed by the consultant. Here are some suggestions on how to seek and implement behavioral interventions from your consultants.

A) As soon as a behavior begins to occur start taking baseline data.
Record the antecedent (what happened before the behavior), the behavior (describe the behavior, define the behavior in objective terms, hitting- one hand open palm striking another persons or object), and the consequence (child was removed from table, or instruction stopped while child told to stop hitting)

Record when the behaviour occurred, specific program, and who was instructing the child at the time.

Record the frequency or the duration of the behavior.

Graph the data immediately after each session.

2) Talk to the behavioral consultant. Fax the graph or describe the trend of the data, variable trend, ascending trend (increase in behavior), or descending trend (decrease in data). Describe the behavior in objective terms. Also include any information that is not included in the data. As Sara described therapists who are working daily with a child have insight that is valuable.

3) Have the consultant operationalize the intervention procedure. Ask for a step by step description of how to implement the program. Ask lots of questions. Visualized the program being implemented with the child, make sure you know what to do at each step. Anticipate problems; ask for instructions on how to deal with each. Clarify with the consultant; verbally repeat what you understand to be the procedure.

If a consultant tells you to deal with behaviour by putting it on extinction, go through the above steps. DO NOT ASSUME you know what a consultant intending.

3) Have the consultant complete a written behavior plan and data collection procedure. If your consultant will not do so, the senior therapist can write out the plan from the consultant's vocal description. The senior therapist should fax or email the plan for approval from the consultant.

4) During a team meeting the senior therapist should demonstrate the implementation of the intervention and have each therapist demonstrate implementation to show understanding.

5) For complicated procedures, video each therapist implementing the intervention and send the video to the consultant for critique.

6) Data should continue to be taken throughout each session, and graphed at the end of the session.

If the behavior does not decrease or changes topographies (form), the consultant will use the above data to refine the intervention. ABA is a science and requires expert implementation of procedures to be effective. I hope the above information will be helpful!!

Sharon Baxter

PS Happy Mother's Day

[Sharon Baxter]

Hello Everyone, I am looking for the recipe for "Goo". I looking for the recipe that includes borax, white glue, and paint. I have made it before but have lost the instructions. It's an excellent reinforcer!!!

Thanks Sharon Baxter

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