MSI Staff Presents at Florida Association for Behavior Analysis

Standing left to right: Karly Cordova – Program Coordinator, Autism Consortium; Yulema Cruz – ABA Practicum Coordinator; Melissa DeVincentis – Behavior Analyst, Baudhuin Preschool; Heather O'Brien – Program Coordinator, Starting Right. Sitting left to right: Christine E. Reeve, Ph.D., BCBA – Director of Academics, Mailman Segal Institute. Adjunct Professor, Fischler School of Education and Human Services; Coordinator, ABA Concentration in MS of Counseling Program NSU; Jonathan Kabot – Behavior Analyst, Baudhuin Preschool; Tara Sheehan – Program Coordinator, Autism Consortium.

Christine Reeve, Ph.D., BCBA-D, Director of Academics at the Mailman Segal Institute for Early Childhood Studies (MSI), Karly Cardova and Tara Sheehan, Program Coordinators of the Autism Consortium, and Heather O'Brien, Coordinator of the Starting Right program, recently presented at the Florida Association for Behavior Analysis in Daytona Beach, FL.

They presented ethical issues and a competency-based supervision system developed for the supervision of practicum and independent fieldwork students in applied behavior analysis. The system outlines a supervision curriculum for training behavior analysts in the required competencies for certification as Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts (BCaBA) and Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA). The system is currently used at the Mailman Segal Institutes' early childhood and autism programs to train students from the ABA concentration of MS Counseling program that is offered in collaboration with the Center for Psychological Studies. The same program will be used with undergraduate students from the ABA minor for psychology from Farquhar School of Arts and Sciences beginning in January, 2010.

Jonathan Kabot and Melissa DeVincentis, both behavior analysts at MSI's Baudhuin Preschool, also presented a paper outlining their training series to teach parents of children with severe challenging behaviors to address and prevent problem behavior at home. During the training, parents attended lectures, participated in discussions and analyzed videotapes of their interactions with their children at home with the group. The presentation shared the training model and parents’ feedback about it to professionals working in the areas of autism, parent support, and parent training. On the last day of the conference, Reeve was invited to participate on the panel of experts with five other ABA and autism professionals to advise professionals in the field and answer questions about the application of ABA in the field of autism.