Behavioral Skills Training

Annie McLaughlin is a BCBA and IEP advocate. Annie started her career as a special education teacher, where she met a consultant who introduced her to behavioral analysis. From there, she went back to school for her BCBA and got her doctorate in special education. Down the road, she received the opportunity to assist a family navigate the special ed process and became inspired to start a career as a full-time IEP advocate.

Here, Annie shares the specifics of how she helps the families she works with. She does a ton of work outside the actual IEP meeting, which includes helping parents understand the process through education and listening. We also discuss how Annie collaborates with school staff, common challenges BCBAs have in navigating the IEP process, and much more.

What’s Inside:

• How Annie works with families as an IEP advocate
• Why the IEP process is about more than just the data
• Recommendations for families starting the IEP process

Mentioned In This Episode:
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Annie on Instagram
IEP Advocacy Training Website

Payam Moghaddam and Shadi Hortamani are the founders of Behaview, a staff training and supervision solution for ABA providers. Behaview simplifies staff training and supervision for BCBAs with its comprehensive scheduling, remote supervision, data tracking, individualized progress reports, and BCBA fieldwork tracking. Behaview is built with ABA’s unique needs of data collection, supervision, and staff training in mind. All of this allows practitioners to achieve better results, with less effort.

Here, Payam and Shadi share details about their backgrounds and how they were inspired to create Behaview. They walk through the technology they used to develop Behaview and the gaps they aim to close. We also discuss the challenges of training, who Behaview is best suited for, how to use the platform, and more.

What’s Inside:

• How Payam and Shadi created Behaview
• Who Behaview is best suited for
• How to use the Behaview platform

Mentioned In This Episode:
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Behaview Website

It can be tough for our learners to understand what they may have done wrong and how they can do it better. One of the best ways to guide them is with a contingency map. Here, we walk through the ins and outs of ABA contingency maps and how to utilize them in practice. We often use contingency maps in two ways: as a reflection of something that happened in the past and as a way of priming for something that could happen in the future. Using a map gives our students a visual of their options.

We discuss how to create a contingency map and all the elements you want to include. We also talk about how to introduce contingency maps to teachers, when it’s appropriate to use them, why it’s important to understand the function of behavior or triggers, and how to incorporate role play.

What’s Inside:

• How contingency maps are used in ABA
• Tips to create your own contingency map
• Why it’s important to understand the function of behavior or triggers

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Priming Blog - Contingency Map

Steve Ward is back on the show, along with his co-authors, Madelyn Vickery and April Dyal. They’re coming out with their most recent book, which includes over 2,100 inexpensive ideas for play and intrinsic motivation. Steve is the founder of Whole Child Consulting, and his work is mainly focused on social repertoires and shaping behaviors.

We recently received a question in our mentorship group regarding what to do with a child who doesn’t like any of the reinforcers or motivators we provide, and here, we dive into everyone’s thoughts. Our conversation also includes ways to use the environment in motivation strategies, how to expand play and motivation while building interest, and suggestions for new BCBAs to be more creative and engaging.

We’re also co-hosting a webinar with Steve, Madelyn, and April on March 5th at 12pm EST. Head to our website to sign up!
 
What’s Inside:

• What to do when a child doesn’t respond to our reinforcers or motivators.
• How to expand play and motivation while building interest.
• Tips for new BCBAs to be more creative and engaging.

Mentioned In This Episode:
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Whole Child Consulting Website
Good Learner Repertoires on Instagram

Parents are always the experts when it comes to their kids. We get a lot of questions around parent training and how to best approach it, and here we’re sharing some tips and best practices. As professionals, we need to remember to take the parent’s perspective and acknowledge their busy lifestyles and challenges. Although we went to school for many years to master our careers, the concepts we teach are often foreign to parents, so it helps to speak in layman’s terms.

We discuss how to establish a foundation with parents and how to get to know the family’s unique routines and habits. Our main goal when working with parents is to help support them in their goals and leave our own bias at the door. Our conversation also includes how to help parents achieve easy wins with their kids, how to leverage behavior skills training, and why it’s important to start small and build rapport. 

What’s Inside:

• How to help parents grasp the concepts we teach our learners
• How to leverage behavior skills training
• Why it’s important to start small and gain parental trust

Mentioned In This Episode:
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Communication Temptations Freebie

As practitioners, we often learn to use assessments to help plan our programs. However, we can also miss the big picture. Here, we’re diving into how to use practical programs with our learners. Kids are multi-faceted and while assessments can be helpful, they can also prevent us from tailoring programs to each unique individual. We cover some of the different ways we can get caught up in the details and how to teach more dynamically.

One challenge with using assessments is that they break out specific concepts, making it harder to teach skills holistically. We discuss how to troubleshoot when a specific program may not be working and how to choose a different path. Our conversation also includes ways to monitor progress and keep track of long-term goals. On February 22nd, we’re hosting a CEU on practical program planning through our membership. For more information, head to our website.

What’s Inside:

• How to use practical ABA programs with learners
• How to avoid getting caught up in details and focus on the big picture
• Tips on how to monitor progress and keep track of long-term goals

Mentioned In This Episode:
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CEU Event – Programming for Progress

Our community offers a private place for you to chat with other practitioners and share what's working and what's not working. Here, we’re giving you an inside look into one of our mentorship meetings for our Pro Members. Each meeting is jam-packed full of helpful tips for ABA professionals. 

In this session, we spent time answering questions on a wide range of topics, including:

• How to transition into a BCBA role on the school side
• A review of ABA assessments
• How to build trust with families and put programs in place
• School-based behaviors and writing FBAs
• Incorporating parent training at home and in a school setting

If you’re interested in joining us at our next meeting, check out our membership by clicking the link below!

What’s Inside:

• A sneak peek into a monthly mentorship meeting
• Our answer to a question about BCBAs in schools
• Our answer to a question on assessments

Mentioned In This Episode:
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Although shaping is a basic concept in ABA, it’s often overlooked when creating behavior plans. Here, we discuss how to use shaping when teaching our learners important skills. Shaping is a key element in our toolbox as practitioners, and it’s really underrated. We often look to reinforcement as our go-to, but we forget to break the skill down into small components to avoid challenging behaviors.

Our conversation includes some examples of how to use shaping, starting with verbal imitation and vocal responding. We also discuss offering reinforcement for trying along the way, how to use shaping with desensitization, and managing challenging behaviors.

What’s Inside:

• The importance of shaping when teaching skills to our learners.
• Examples of how to use shaping.
• How to incorporate reinforcement with shaping.

Mentioned In This Episode:
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Blog – Using Differential Reinforcement in ABA to Shape Behavior
Swallow a Pill freebie

When you hear the term “BST model,” what comes to mind? Typically, we think of staff training or social skills, but in ABA, we can use it for so much more. Here, we cover the various applications of behavioral skills training in more detail. The more you can practice a scenario in a calm, relaxed environment, the better prepared you are to handle it when it comes up in real life.

We discuss the four distinct parts of BST: instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. We sometimes forget how valuable practice is, so we spend time talking about the importance of rehearsal. We also cover how to incorporate reinforcement and feedback and provide some real-world examples of BST in action.

What’s Inside:

• How to use BST outside of staff training and social skills.
• The importance of rehearsal, or practice.
• How to incorporate reinforcement.

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Blog – What is Behavioral Skills Training (BST)
Bx Blueprint

One of the first things we teach our learners is requesting, or manding. As ABA professionals, it’s important to know why teaching manding is important as well as the best ways to do it, especially with beginner learners. If you’ve ever traveled to another country that doesn’t speak your language, the first thing you’ll want to learn is how to get your basic needs met. Teaching manding is similar in this way, and here we dive into how to best approach it.

Teaching requesting leads to further expressive and receptive language development. When you teach a learner how to get their basic needs met, it lays a good foundation and also reduces negative behaviors. We walk through manding terminology and how to work with non-verbal learners. We also discuss how manding and shaping go together, how to incorporate manding into a session, and more.

What’s Inside:

• Why you should begin with teaching manding around basic needs.
• How to teach manding to non-verbal learners.
• How to incorporate manding into a session.

Mentioned In This Episode:
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Transfer Trial Visual
Video: How to Increase Mean Length of Utterance (MLU)