Materials Articles Behavioral Systems A goal-directed model for the design of human performance systems (Malott & Garcia, 1987) Organizational behavior management: systems analysis (Sigurdsson & McGee, 2015) An integrated approach for conducting a behavioral systems analysis (Diener, McGee, & Miguel, 2009) Ethics/Professionalism From interdisciplinary to integrated care of the child with autism: the essential role…
News and Updates
Doctoral Student Awarded Summer Research Fellowship
Emma Sipila, doctoral student and Lab Coordinator of the ABAC, has been awarded the Summer Research Development Fellowship, offered by the MSU College of Education. This award of $6,000 will support Emma’s summer research activities that will evaluate social skills instruction for children with autism. We are all so proud of Emma, and we look…
Increasing Physical Activity in Adults with Autism
When I was on the faculty at Purdue University, I had the pleasure to work with Melissa Savage, Teresa Taber-Doughty, and Emily Bouck on a fascinating study that compared the effects of in-person and technology delivered praise to help adults with autism engage in physical activity. This was a fun collaborative project, to say the…
Trial-based Functional Analysis and Vocal Scripting
Recently, I published a study with colleagues from Purdue University and the University of South Carolina (USC) that evaluated the effects of a trial-based functional analysis (TBFA) on informing treatment for vocal scripting in three children with autism. Our findings are exciting because they provide further support for the application of the TBFA in autism…
Ethics of Telehealth in Autism Treatment
Given the rapid development of technology, many behavior analysts are turning to telehealth as a modality for delivering treatment. Telehealth has also been hailed as a way for clinicians to reach populations in rural areas. Though technology is getting easier to use by the day (and cheaper), there are still many considerations behavior analysts much…
Activity Schedules Can Improve Meaningful iPad Engagement
I recently published a study with colleagues at Little Star Academy that evaluated how to teach children with autism to vary between different academic applications on an iPad. The study used an activity schedule (a combination of pictures that depicted various activities) and physical prompting to teach kids to do the following: (1) set a…
Visual Analysis of Clinical Data
Congratulations to Kailie for her successful thesis defense! Kailie examined the effects of a clinical decision-making model to assist with visual analysis of data. Kailie produced fantastic results and a very well-written paper. Her presentation was also top notch. Congratulations, Kailie! For those interested in Kailie’s project, we hope to have the paper submitted for…
How to Identify Ethical Organizations
If you’re a behavior analyst who specializes in autism treatment, you can likely pick between multiple potential employers. Wouldn’t it be nice to pick an organization to work for that is more likely to treat you fairly and engage in ethical practices? After all, if you engage in unethical behavior at the request of an…
Behavior Analysts Accept Gifts: So Now What?
Dr. Ben Witts and I recently collaborated on a project that evaluated the extent to which behavior analysts accept gifts from clients during practice. The implications of this paper are interesting because we found that many behavior analysts accept gifts because doing so is culturally appropriate. Check out the full paper/study below!
Science or Snake Oil?
In 2015, I gave a TEDxPurdue talk on the dangers of facilitated communication. For those interested in viewing the video, you can view the video embedded below. You can also click here to view the video.