By Allison Bickelman, M.S., BCBA; Ksenia Kravtchenko, M.S., BCBA, LABA; and Wafa A. Aljohani, M.S., BCBA, LABA
In early March, the Institute for Behavioral Studies of the Van Loan School at Endicott College had a strong presence at the 14th Annual Connecticut Association for Behavior Analysis (CTABA) conference. Both faculty and doctoral students presented on a variety of topics, including ethical practice, the development of effective social skill groups, different teaching strategies and methodologies, and considerations in providing behavior analytics services outside of the United States.
CTABA invited Justin Leaf, PhD, BCBA-D to deliver a talk sharing his extensive work with developing and studying social skills groups for children diagnosed with autism. Dr. Leaf shared his recent research on the use of social skills groups and the component of successful social skills groups and how clinicians can implement them. Dr. Leaf is currently an Endicott Adjunct Professor and Doctoral Advisor.
Michael F. Dorsey, PhD, LABA, BCBA-D, Director of the Institute for Behavioral Studies and Mary Jane Weiss, PhD, LABA, BCBA-D, Director of Graduate Program in Autism and ABA Studies, led an invaluable discussion regarding the challenges that many behavior analysts face regarding adhering to ethical practice while working in the field, while also providing the audience with strategies to address these common concerns. Both directors have extensive experience in the area of ethics, including organizing the annual Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies/Endicott College Professional Ethics conference, held at Endicott College every August.
Doctoral student Paul Mahoney, BCBA, LABA, presented in a symposium on the implementation of Positive Behavior Support (PBS) at an adult services provider serving individuals with developmental disabilities. The presentation was a longitudinal quantitative study of the application of PBS across 200+/- individuals in 40+/- residential group homes over a two-year period. The study empirically demonstrated the positive impact of staff-training and rigorous employee feedback to change staff behavior to follow a PBS service model.
Bryan Blair, PhD, BCBA-D currently serves at an Assistant Professor of Education, and the Associate Director of The Institute for Behavioral Studies in the Van Loan School at Endicott College. Dr. Blair conducted a workshop that reviewed the history of the use of stimulus equivalence methodology and provided practical applications for equivalence-based instruction. Additionally, Dr. Blair demonstrated the use of a web-based training “application” which then allowed the participants to develop a training application of their own.
In their panel discussion, doctoral students Allison Bickelman, M.S., BCBA; Ksenia Kravtchenko, M.S., BCBA, LABA; and Wafa A. Aljohani, M.S., BCBA, LABA shared their experiences working abroad providing behavioral analytic services to different international partnerships with the non-profit organization Global Autism Project. Each of the panelists shared her personal experience working in different countries. They discussed some of the challenges working in different cultures, such as the stigma of the autism diagnosis, the limited resources, and language barriers that may affect the delivery and quality of the behavioral services, in addition to the some of the considerations when providing supervision to non-English-speaking individuals.
