2023 TxABA Speaker Series
Thank you to our Speaker Series Sponsor!
General Information
The TxABA Speaker Series consists of several webinars offered throughout the year. The TxABA Program Committee is developing the speaker series based on a member survey. The goal is to provide continuing education opportunities to TxABA Members beyond the annual conference with topics that complement the annual conference.
Speaker series registration and CEUs are FREE for TxABA Members. Non-Members may purchase registration that includes any available CEUs. Registration for webinars will open about 4 weeks prior to the webinar. TxABA will be updating this webpage as we confirm dates with presenters.
To register for webinars please (1) login to your TxABA account then (2) select Purchase Registration, Membership, and CEUs on the TxABA homepage or select Register on the top menu. (3) Select the webinar (it will only show up as free if your membership is current; it is organized under events on the Registration and Purchasing page), check box for terms and conditions, then select Submit. (4) Non-Members should select *Pay with Card to purchase the webinar and Members should select the Submit button on the view cart page. Everyone registered will receive an email confirmation that they are registered for the webinar.
* Please note that with the updated system you cannot pay from your profile, the invoice will not be created until payment is made by card, the pay by check option is selected, or for TxABA Members select Submit on the view cart page. If you leave an item in your cart without paying, please return to your cart page via the register page or view the cart button on your profile.
Upcoming Webinar: March 9, 2023 11:30 am - 12:30 pm Central
Melissa Collier-Meek, Ph.D., BCBA
Columbia University
Mel Collier-Meek is an Associate Professor of School Psychology at Teachers College, Columbia University. She conducts applied research on the assessment and promotion of sustained practices. Committed to dissemination, she has published and presented widely. In addition, she consults with schools to support educators, school teams, and administrators to facilitate sustained, effective practices that improve student outcomes. She received the Lightner Witmer Award from the American Psychological Association for early career scholarship related to sustaining practices. She serves as an Associate Editor for School Psychology and provides reviews to leading education journals, for which she has been twice honored as a reviewer of the year.
Lisa Sanetti, Ph.D., BCBA-D
University of Connecticut
Lisa Sanetti is a Professor of School Psychology at the University of Connecticut. She has extensive research and practical experiences facilitating intervention implementation at the district, school, group, and implementer levels to promote students’ academic, behavioral, social, and emotional outcomes over time. She received the Lightner Witmer and Thomas Oakland Awards from the American Psychological Association for her scholarship related to implementation and is an invited member of the Network of Expertise in the Society for Implementation Research Collaboration. She has received over 5 million dollars in grant funding from multiple agencies and foundations and is one of the top 20 most prolific contributors to the school psychology literature.
Supporting Learner Outcomes by Improving Treatment Fidelity
As behavior analysts, we often partner with educators and families to deliver behavioral interventions and practices that effectively shape the environment for learners. Unfortunately, even after initial training, most implementers struggle to deliver behavioral interventions and practices consistently and comprehensively (i.e., with sufficient treatment fidelity). Low and inconsistent implementation can lead to limited learner improvement and stagnant outcomes. We need to not only support learner behaviors, but also support implementers. To do so, we can utilize knowledge from applied behavior analysis, organizational behavior management, and implementation science to more effectively shape the environment and support the behavior changes of educators and caregivers engaged in implementation. De. Melissa Collier-Meek, BCBA, (Teachers College, Columbia University) and Dr. Lisa Sanetti, BCBA (University of Connecticut) of the Sustain Collaborative (sustaincollaborative.org) will highlight the challenges with maintaining treatment fidelity and what you can do to support it in your practice. This presentation will provide attendees with recommendations for collecting and analyzing treatment fidelity data as well as concrete strategies for supporting implementers and improve learner outcomes.
Learning Objectives:
1) Describe treatment fidelity and how it impacts learner outcomes
2) Collect and analyze treatment fidelity data in their practice
3) Identify strategies to support treatment fidelity
Past Webinar: February 9, 2023 11:30 am - 12:30 pm Central
Denice Rios, Ph.D., BCBA-D (she/her/ella)
Georgia Southern University
Dr. Denice Rios is an assistant professor in psychology at Georgia Southern University on the Armstrong Campus. Dr. Rios earned her bachelor's and master's degrees from California State University, Northridge and her doctoral degree in Behavior Analysis from Western Michigan University. Her research interests include examining effective staff training strategies (e.g., feedback), assessment and treatment of problem behavior, use of behavior analytic strategies via telehealth, and addressing microaggressions in the workplace. Dr. Rios is also passionate about issues related to equity and inclusion within the field of behavior analysis. Dr. Rios has published research in a number of peer-reviewed journals including: Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Behavior Analysis: Research and Practice, and the Journal of Behavioral Education. She has presented her research at regional, national, and international conferences.
Elopement is a dangerous behavior because it greatly increases the risk of accidents that lead to serious injury or death. Individuals with autism spectrum disorder engage in elopement in many different contexts and for a variety of reasons, including during transitions from one activity to another. The dangers of elopement can be especially high during transitions because they often occur in environments that increase the chance that a child will gain unsupervised access outside, where the most serious accidents typically occur. Despite the significance of this problem behavior, effective and efficient assessment methodologies that specifically evaluate the contextual variables related to elopement during transitions are not available. These assessment limitations may also contribute to the fact that treatment for elopement typically involves antecedent interventions which do not address function. Hence, continued research on effective and efficient means for the assessment and treatment of elopement during transitions is needed. The current study consisted of two phrases. In Phase 1, we designed and conducted a transition functional analysis (TFA) to identify the function of elopement during transitions. In Phase 2, we used an ABAB reversal design to evaluate the effects of a function-based intervention on elopement and appropriate transitions The TFA successfully identified the function of elopement for all four participants. Additionally, elopement during transitions decreased and appropriate transitions increased for all four participants. The results of this study provide a potentially useful assessment methodology for evaluating the function of elopement during transitions in a safe environment.
Learning Objectives:
1) Identify the contextual variables found in the assessment and treatment of elopement occasioned by transitions.
2) Describe Procedures to conduct a transition functional analysis for elopement.
3. Describe a function-based treatment for decreasing elopement during transitions.