Unrestricted Learning Opportunities for Trainees in Behavior Analysis: A Survey of Current Practices.

Individuals seeking certification as a board certified behavior analyst (BCBA) by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) must meet certain eligibility requirements. In addition to passing the BCBA examination, such requirements include completion of a master's degree, behavior-analytic coursework, and supervised practical fieldwork. In accruing fieldwork hours, trainees must be provided with the opportunity to complete unrestricted activities.

Effects of pivotal response treatment on reciprocal vocal contingency in a randomized controlled trial of children with autism spectrum disorder.

A recent randomized controlled trial found that children with autism spectrum disorder who received a pivotal response treatment package showed improved language and social communication skills following the intervention. The pivotal response treatment package includes clinician-delivered and parent-implemented strategies. Reciprocal vocal contingency is an automated measure of vocal reciprocity derived from daylong audio samples from the child's natural environment.

The Relation Between Early Parent Verb Input and Later Expressive Verb Vocabulary in Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder.

Purpose The purpose of this study was to evaluate if higher quantity, diversity, and grammatical informativeness of verb phrases in parent follow-in utterances (i.e., utterances that mapped onto child attentional leads) were significantly related to later expressive verb vocabulary in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD).

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder May Learn from Caregiver Verb Input Better in Certain Engagement States.

The relation between caregiver follow-in utterances with verbs presented in different states of dyadic engagement and later child expressive verb vocabulary in children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) was examined in 29 toddlers with ASD and their caregivers. Caregiver verb input in follow-in utterances presented during higher order supported joint engagement (HSJE) accounted for a significant, large amount of variance in later child verb vocabulary; R= .26.

Using Shaping to Increase Foods Consumed by Children with Autism.

The current study used differential reinforcement and shaping to increase the variety of foods accepted by children with autism who demonstrated significant feeding inflexibility. Participants were introduced to four new food items via a hierarchical exposure, which involved systematically increasing the desired response with the food item. Level of food consumption was evaluated using a combined multiple baseline plus changing criterion design.