Clinical Applications for Applied Behavior Analysis

1. Clinical Applications for Applied Behavior Analysis Nathan Call, Ph.D., BCBA

2. Applied Behavior Analysis • Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968) • Applied • Behavioral • Analytic • Technological • Conceptually Systematic • Effective • Generalizable

3. Applied Behavior Analytic Research (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968) • Applied • “Teaching teenagers with autism to seek assistance when lost” • “Teaching safety skills to children to prevent gun play” • “Delay discounting by pathological gamblers” • “Social antecedents of children’s eyewitness testimony” • “A half century of scalloping in the work habits of the United States Congress”

4. Applied Behavior Analytic Research (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968) • Behavioral • More concerned with what people can be brought to do than what they can be brought to say • Analytic • A believable demonstration of the events responsible for the occurrence or non-occurrence of the behavior in question • Demonstrate a functional relationship (or the closest approximation thereof): necessary & sufficient

5. Applied Behavior Analytic Research (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968) • Technological • Given a reading of a description of the methods, could a typically trained reader replicate the procedure well enough to produce the same results? • Conceptual Systems • Descriptions of procedures are relevant to behavioral principles • Shows the reader how similar procedures may be derived from basic principles

6. Applied Behavior Analytic Research (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968) • Effective • Must produce large enough effects for practical value • What is enough? • How much did that behavior need to change? • Generality • Durable over time • Appears in a wide variety of possible environments • Spreads to a wide variety of related behaviors

7. A Day in the Life of a Behavior Analyst • Universities • Professors, researchers • Education • Consultants, school psychologists, special educators • Industry • Safety/efficiency consultants, sports psychologists, military consultants • Private practice psychologists • Counselors, parent training specialists • Healthcare • Pediatric and developmental psychologists • Miscellaneous • animal trainers, social behavior specialists

8. A Day in the Life of this Behavior Analyst • Animal predation center • Center for disabilities and development • Pediatric specialties clinics • Louisiana State University • Marcus Autism Center

9. Behavior Problems with a History of Successful Treatment by Behavior Analytic Interventions • Phobias • Obsessive-compulsive disorder • Speech delays • Paraphillias • Self injury • Aggression • Property destruction • Pica • Conduct disorders (i.e., juvenile delinquency) • Eneurisis/econpresis • Inattention/impulsivity • Feeding disorders • Rumination

15. Treating Problem Behavior • Starts with an assessment of the reinforcers that maintain the behavior • Indirect assessment • Descriptive analysis • Experimental analysis

16. Skills Successfully Taught Using Applied Behavior Analytic Approaches • Language • Academics • Self-help • Vocational • Safety • Social

18. Problem Behavior During Breaks Total Problem Behavior Demand Demand with items (unavailable) Demand with items (available)

19. Autism: Speech/Language • An overall deficit in language • Can be both receptive or expressive, for others it is limited to expressive delays • Some kids who learn language do so slower, with comprehension difficulties, and continued problems with “pragmatic” communication • Abnormal prosody, echolalia/scripting, pronoun reversals, etc. • 4 types of verbal operants • Echoic • Tact • Mand • Intraverbal

20. Verbal Operants • Mand • MO----Mand---Specific Reinforcer • Tact • Nonverbal---Tact---Generalized Reinforcer • Intraverbal • Verbal---Intraverbal---Generalized Reinforcer • Example • “Truck”

21. Functional Categories of Verbal Behavior • Echoic- Verbal to verbal behavior with point-to-point correspondence. (i.e., verbal Imitation-repeating exactly what is heard). Used to shape articulation, or later on, more complex language abilities. • Example- Instructor: “Ball.” Student: “Ball.” Instructor: “ahh.” Student: “ahh.”

22. Echoic Controlling Variables Antecedent Behavior Consequence Verbal Stimulus Verbal Behavior Generalized R+ “Ball” “Ball”“Nice talking”

23. Functional Categories of Verbal Behavior • Tact- Verbal behavior in the presence of a nonverbal stimulus. Naming something (item, person, action, emotion), or a property of something which is present. • Example- Child: (looking up at sky) “Airplane!” Instructor: (holding red ball) “What color is this?” Student: “Red.” Student: (On swing set) Instructor: “What are you doing?” Student: “Swinging.”

24. Tact Controlling Variables Antecedent Behavior Consequence Nonverbal Stimulus Verbal Behavior Generalized R+ Picture of Ball “Ball”“Yes, that is a ball”

25. Functional Categories of Verbal Behavior • Intraverbal- Verbal to Verbal behavior that does not have point-to-point correspondence. Answering “Wh” questions or responding to something said by another person about something (item, person, action…), or a property of something which is NOT present. It’s a conversational exchange. • Examples- “Name some animals.” “Cat, dog and chicken.” “What is your sister’s name?” “Anne.” “What does a dog say?” “Woof.”

26. Intraverbal Controlling Variables Antecedent Behavior Consequence Verbal Stimulus Verbal Behavior Generalized R+ “What does a dog say” “Woof Woof”“That’s right”

27. Functional Categories of Verbal Behavior • Mand- Verbal behavior in the presence of an establishing operation. A request for something (item, activity, information) that is desired. • Example- “I want juice.” “Open the door.” “Where is my coat?”

28. Mand Controlling Variables Antecedent Behavior Consequence EO Verbal Behavior Specific to the EO Food Deprivation “I want chips”Chips

29. Verbal Stimulus Echoic Generalized R+ Nonverbal Stimulus Tact Generalized R+ Verbal Stimulus Intraverbal Generalized R+ EO Mand Specific to EO

30. Aloof Condition Passive Condition Active Condition No Attention No Attention No Attention Therapist Attention Therapist Attention Therapist Attention Passive Active Active Aloof

31. Problem Behavior During Breaks Total Problem Behavior Demand Demand with items (unavailable) Demand with items (available)