Act And Applied Behavior Analysis

Quickly master a proven-effective behavior therapy that will allow you to expand the effectiveness of your practice. As a board-certified behavior analyst (BCBA), you work with a wide range of clients, particularly those with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Some of these clients may not be verbal at all on one end of the spectrum, while some may have very advanced language skills on the other. For these clients and their families, you need a flexible and adaptable therapeutic framework to ensure the best behavior outcomes. Drawn from relational frame theory (RFT)—the psychological theory of human language—acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) can help. With this definitive professional manual, you’ll learn to conceptualize your cases using ACT, create your own exercises, generate metaphors, be present with the unique individual learner in front of you, and practice the core ACT skills flexibly to ensure better behavior outcomes for clients and their families. You’ll find an overview of the theoretical connections between behavior analysis, RFT, and ACT, as well as the core act skills, including present-moment awareness, flexible perspective taking, committed action, and values work. Finally, you’ll find information on cultural competency and diversity to help you service a wide range of clients. If you’re like many BCBAs, you need specialized resources when working with linguistically sophisticated clients, as well as their parents and caregivers. Let this book be your comprehensive guide to incorporating ACT into your work.

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is a highly functional discipline that, instead of searching for abstract, internal causes for human behavior, looks to external factors that can be influenced. Once identified, these factors can be manipulated to make meaningful, positive improvements in the lives of real people through positive behavior change. Not surprisingly behavior analysis has been applied to a wide range of human activities, from helping troubled teens to organizing industry to maximizing sports performance. ABA interventions for these diverse problems are often creative — and they tend to be effective. In this volume, some of the field's foremost practitioners offer their expert perspective on a range of topics within ABA. Each chapter is fully referenced and contains a set of reading objectives to facilitate deeper understanding and further discussion of its subject area. While these discussions will be of particular interest to academic behavior analysts and graduate students, clinicians and other practitioners will find the research review helpful and informative.

Written by leading experts in language and cognition, this groundbreaking behavior analysis textbook brings the study of verbal behavior into the 21st century with cutting-edge research. Students and clinicians in the burgeoning field of applied behavior analysis will find the theoretical foundation they need to effectively help the increasingly diverse clients seeking their services. The origins of behavior analysis can be traced to the pioneering work of B.F. Skinner. Skinner’s fundamental insights into how human behavior is shaped, maintained, and can be changed were powerful and far-reaching. Some of Skinner’s most innovative contributions were in the study of language. Behavior analytic work in the area of language and cognition did not stop with Skinner, however. Indeed, Skinner’s work in this area has inspired considerable expansion, particularly with an eye toward more sophisticated verbal and cognitive repertoires. This important volume provides an overview of the concepts and core behavioral processes involved in language and cognition. You’ll find a deeper exploration of complex linguistic and cognitive skills, including generative responding, learning by observation, and perspective taking. Also included are clinically supported interventions based in mindfulness, psychological flexibility, and emotion regulation to help clients improve complex language, social, and academic skills. The future of behavior analysis is here. With its focus on the importance of language and cognition, this textbook is a must-read for anyone studying or practicing in the science of behavior.

This textbook provides a theoretical and clinical framework for addressing multiculturalism and diversity in the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA). Featuring contributions from national experts, practicing clinicians, researchers, and academics that balance both a scholarly yet practical perspective, this book guides the reader through theoretical foundations to clinical applications to help behavior analysts understand the impact of diversity in the ABA service delivery model. Chapters contain learning objectives, literature reviews, practice considerations, case studies, and discussion questions and are all aligned with the current BACB® Professional and Ethical Compliance Code and BACB® Task List. Accompanying the book are online test materials for students and instructors to assess the knowledge they have learned about various diversity topics. This book is a must have for graduate students in ABA programs, faculty to incorporate diversity topics into graduate preparation, supervisors looking to enhance a supervisee’s understanding of working with diverse clients, and practicing behavior analysts in the field wanting to increase their awareness of working with diverse populations.

This book provides a thorough discussion of acceptance and commitment therapy or training (ACT) and a guide for its use by behavior analysts. The book emphasizes how the intentional development of six core behavioral processes – values, committed action, acceptance, defusion, self-as-context, and present moment awareness – help establish the psychological flexibility needed to acquire and maintain adaptive behaviors that compete with maladaptive behavior patterns in verbally able clients. Split into three parts, the book discusses the history and controversy surrounding the rise of acceptance and commitment strategies in behavior analysis and shows how the processes underlying ACT are linked to foundational behavioral scientific principles as amplified by stimulus equivalence and relational learning principles such as those addressed by relational frame theory. In a careful step-by-step way, it describes the best practices for administering the acceptance and commitment procedures at the level of the individual client, organizational systems, and with families. Attention is also given to the ethical and scope-of-practice considerations for behavior analysts, along with recommendations for conducting on-going research on this new frontier for behavior analytic treatment across a myriad of populations and behaviors. Written by leading experts in the field, the book argues that practice must proceed from the basic tenants of behavior analysis, and that now is the opportune moment to bring ACT methods to behavior analysts to maximize the scope and depth of behavioral treatments for all people. Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for Behavior Analysts will be an essential read for students of behavior analysis and behavior therapy, as well as for individuals on graduate training programs that prepare behavior analysts and professionals that are likely to use ACT in their clinical practice and research.

The Verbal Behavior (VB) approach is a form of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), that is based on B.F. Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior and works particularly well with children with minimal or no speech abilities. In this book Dr. Mary Lynch Barbera draws on her own experiences as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and also as a parent of a child with autism to explain VB and how to use it. This step-by-step guide provides an abundance of information about how to help children develop better language and speaking skills, and also explains how to teach non-vocal children to use sign language. An entire chapter focuses on ways to reduce problem behavior, and there is also useful information on teaching toileting and other important self-help skills, that would benefit any child. This book will enable parents and professionals unfamiliar with the principles of ABA and VB to get started immediately using the Verbal Behavior approach to teach children with autism and related disorders.

A Behavior Analytic Curriculum for Social-Emotional Development in Children

Learn powerful ACT training skills to foster parental collaboration and achieve therapeutic goals. As a board-certified behavior analyst (BCBA) working in the field, you understand how essential it is to enlist the support of parents when working with autistic children. This book offers proven-effective acceptance and commitment therapy (ACT) training skills to get parents on the same page and working with you to achieve measurable results. The Behavior Analyst's Guide to Working with Parents offers a comprehensive conceptual framework for using ACT in parent training contexts. With this clinical guide, you will find a brief overview of relational frame theory (RFT), rule governance, and how these core concepts and principles align within the ACT model. The book also provides: Empirical evidence for using ACT within parent training contexts Virtue-based ethics and specific BACB® ethical codes to consider Step-by-step processes for using ACT in parent training contexts Informed consent processes Finally, you’ll find an overview of specific ACT components that highlight detailed assessment considerations and metaphor development for each component—such as present moment awareness, acceptance, flexible perspective taking, and values-based action. If you’re looking for strategies to improve parental collaboration, this book has everything you need to get started.