Introduction

Welcome to your alphabeePRO course for AlphaBee’s 10th Annual ABA Conference. 

You will have access to the conference materials and webinar links on October 9, 2023 at 9AM EDT. You will have access to this course content until November 1, 2023 at 5PM EDT.

If you require any technical assistance, please email support@alphabeepro.com.

Disclaimer

Please note that the video feed and the conference materials are protected by copyright. Downloading or making copies of the material is strictly prohibited. 

Conference Schedule

Conference attendees will be required to sign in and out each day, attend the workshop in its entirety, and complete the conference evaluation in order to earn full CEU credits. If you are unable to attend the conference in its full duration, please email info@alphabeepro.com. 

Day 1 – October 17, 2023 (9AM – 4:30PM EDT)

Day 2 – October 18, 2023 (9AM – 4:30PM EDT)

10 minute breaks are set for 10:30AM & 2:30PM EDT on each day.

30 minute lunch breaks are set for 12:30PM EDT on each day.

Conference Details

This year marks AlphaBee’s 10th Annual ABA Conference, hosted virtually through the alphabeePRO training platform. Dr. Evelyn Gould & Dr. Judah Axe will present four interactive workshops over the span of two days, as they guide clinicians and educators through practical, hands-on strategies to better support children and youth with autism in their homes, at their schools, and out in the community.

Day 1 – October 17, 2023

The first day of the conference focuses on the following two workshops:

9:00AM – 12:30PM: Teaching Problem Solving to Address Complex Repertoires with Students with Autism — led by Dr. Judah Axe

Once children with autism have basic verbal and academic repertoires, behaviour analysts must teach more advanced skills, such as solving math story problems, answering questions about the past, and answering questions that require internet research. The analysis of problem solving can greatly help with teaching these complex skills. Skinner defined problem solving as manipulating stimuli to increase the probability of arriving at a solution to a problem. When faced with a problem, an individual first emits behaviours, such as working out the problem on paper, asking herself questions, or visualizing. Dr. Axe will describe research on using visual imagining, self-questioning, graphic organizers, and mobile apps to teach intraverbal categorization, recalling past events, equivalence relations, and answering social questions.

This workshop includes 4 General CEUs.

1:00PM – 4:30PM: Fear and Flexibility: Understanding and supporting young people with OCD from a behaviour analytic perspective — led by Dr. Evelyn Gould

Approximately 40% of autistic youth meet criteria for one or more anxiety disorders, and around 17.4% meeting criteria for OCD (Van Steensel et al., 2011). OCD is a particularly debilitating and chronic condition that is often misdiagnosed, unrecognized, or ignored in autistic individuals. Ambiguity and overlap with respect to the topography and function of behaviours results in clinicians struggling to differentiate between the core features of autism and OCD. Thus designing effective, function-based treatments is a challenge. Exposure with Response Prevention (ERP) represents the gold-standard treatment for OCD, however, autistic individuals require individualized, affirmative treatment modifications, with greater focus on family and systems support, skill development, and prolonged generalization and transition services. 

This workshop will introduce participants to:

  • Evidence-based strategies for the assessment and treatment of OCD from a behaviour analytic perspective, with considerations for multidisciplinary collaboration
  • Strategies for fostering long-term resilience, courage and flexibility in autistic children and young people

This workshop includes 4 General CEUs.

Day 2 – October 18, 2023

The second day of the conference focuses on the following two workshops:

9:00AM – 12:30PM: Ethical and Practical Considerations When Teaching Verbal Behaviour to Children with Autism — led by Dr. Judah Axe

Skinner’s (1957) analysis of verbal behaviour allows practitioners to effectively teach communication skills to individuals with autism and other neurodiverse individuals. In this workshop, Dr. Axe will provide an overview of this analysis, discuss ethical considerations when teaching verbal behaviour, and go into depth on recent research on teaching different verbal operants in the following areas:

  1. Mand Training, including contriving MOs and using the quick-transfer-of-stimulus-control procedure
  2. Tact Training, with an analysis of the antecedent and consequence variables supporting tacts in the natural environment
  3. Intraverbals, with particular interest in strategies for teaching multiply controlled intraverbals

This workshop includes 4 General CEUs.

1:00PM – 4:30PM: ACT from the Inside Out: Introduction to psychological flexibility at the heart of what we do as behaviour analysts — led by Dr. Evelyn Gould

From a behaviour analytic perspective, psychological well-being and resilience involves flexibly interacting with our experiences in context-sensitive ways that connect us with meaning and purpose, even in adverse contexts (Ming et al., 2023). This highly adaptive repertoire can be referred to as psychological flexibility, where “psychological” refers to language repertoires, including derived relational responding and rule-governed behaviour. Psychological flexibility is the primary target of contextual behavioural treatment approaches, such as Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT; Hayes et al., 2011) and can be considered a critical socially valid outcome and guiding principle for all that we do as behaviour analysts. Indeed, psychological inflexibility likely plays a key role in many of the difficulties humans encounter (e.g., Kashdan & Rottenberg, 2010; Levin et al., 2014).

This workshop will invite participants to:

  • Explore how adopting an ACT lens to their work might lead to a better understanding of themselves and others and enhance their ability to support meaningful and impactful behaviour change
  • Learn opportunities to ‘try on’ this approach and consider how they might apply what they are learning to their own work and lives, regardless of context

This workshop includes 1 Ethics CEU and 3 General CEUs.

Meet Your Presenters

Dr. Evelyn Gould, PhD, BCBA-D, CPsychol, is a Clinical Behaviour Analyst and Licensed Clinical Psychologist from Belfast, Northern Ireland. She currently resides in Los Angeles, California, where she lives with her partner and 3 cats. Evelyn’s pronouns are she/they. Evelyn is a clinician, trainer and supervisor at The New England Center for OCD and Anxiety, and an Assistant Clinical Professor at Keck School of Medicine at USC. They are also a Research Associate in Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School. Evelyn has been providing clinical services to children, adults, and families for two decades, in addition to being engaged in applied research and scholarship. Evelyn has published peer-reviewed articles and book chapters on working with caregivers, clinical assessment and treatment, supervision and training, behaviour analysis and ACT (Acceptance and Commitment Therapy).

She is passionate about the dissemination of contextual behavioural science and addressing issues of diversity, equity and inclusion within and outside Behavior Analysis. Evelyn is a member of the LGBTQIA+ community and their work reflects personal and professional values of authenticity, compassion, social justice, and cultural humility. Evelyn strives to support and create affirmative and empowering spaces for young people and their families. Finally, Evelyn remains actively involved in a variety of Special Interest Groups, Task Forces and other volunteer groups within their professional and local communities.

Dr. Judah Axe received his M.A. and Ph.D. in Applied Behavior Analysis and Special Education from The Ohio State University. For the last 15 years, he has taught Behavior Analysis at Simmons University in the on-ground and online Masters and Ph.D. programs. He authored the 10th edition of Applied Behavior Analysis for Teachers and 35 articles and book chapters, mostly on teaching verbal behaviour and social skills to children with autism. Dr. Axe serves on the Editorial Boards of several research journals and has served in leadership roles for the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI), the Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group (VB SIG), the Organization for Autism Research, and the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. He was overjoyed to receive the 2021 VB SIG Excellence in Teaching Verbal Behavior Award.