Studies show that individuals with ASD have greater medical fears as compared to their peers. Kelly & Jen share their experience, strategies and research related to blood draws from their perspectives with their children who are now fully com

Assume That I Can: Including Assent, Caregivers and Clients, Toward Socially Meaningful Work

Apr 22nd, 2024 29m 7s

Kelly and Jen do I deep dive into the video, Assume That I Can, released on World Down's Syndrome Day, and talk about how our ethics code, 2.09, Involving Clients and Stakeholders and this video intersect into preference assessments for the pur

Measuring Quality of Life as an Outcome of ABA Services

Apr 8th, 2024 31m 1s

Kelly and Jen are joined by Meghan Herron, Director of Research and Development from Easterseals, Southern California to discuss her research looking at measuring Quality of Life as an outcome for ABA services and discuss how this can be consid

QOL Measured by Happiness Indices in Recreational & Leisure Events

Apr 1st, 2024 25m 28s

There is research that suggests that individuals on the autism spectrum experience a much lower quality of life than nonautistic individuals across the lifespan. Quality of Life can be measured by happiness, which is considered a private event

The Group Experience

Mar 18th, 2024 24m 37s

Kelly talks about her new book, including programming social skills intentionally to include group learning for children, and the difference between curriculum-based and activity and individualized learning. Buy her book here:The Group Exper

Helping Behavior Therapists/RBT's with Burnout: Let's Get Real

Feb 26th, 2024 31m 54s

Kelly and Jen talk with long-time RBT's Stephanie and Salvador about how they have managed to stay in the field for so long, and the real ways BCBA's and families can help support and prevent burnout. It's pretty real concrete and not rocket sc

Parent-Led ABA......Hmmmm

Feb 19th, 2024 30m 38s

A new trend in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis is for parents to be the Behavior Therapist/RBT for their child while being supervised by a BCBA. Kelly and Jen discuss this trend from their perspective of their 20 years of experience. Ar

A BCBA and a Caregiver Talk ABA Hours Fulfillment

Jan 29th, 2024 25m 46s

Kelly and Jen talk about each of their perspectives regarding fulfilling the recommended hours of authorization. Some ABA companies often refer a family there to another agency if they do not commit to being able to use all of the hours. What d

Weeding Through Evidenced-Based and Alternate Therapies

Jan 13th, 2024 29m 19s

Families raising a child on the autism spectrum are faced with many different types of therapy and alternative options to try and help their child. Most are not evidence-based, some may even be harmful, while others may have a different, yet po

Got Ethics?

Dec 9th, 2023 28m 15s

Kelly discusses the history of the development of the BACB ethics code and her journey with ethics for the last 28 years with Maria Sasaski Solis, owner of the Sasaki Behavioral Group, APBA Board Member, and Co-Moderator of the Ethics Sig for C

Autism and Divorce

Nov 6th, 2023 30m 37s

Although the data is varied, some data suggests that parents of a child diagnosed with autism have a higher chance of divorce than their counterparts, especially if they are younger when married and have a child early on in their marriage. Pare

ABA & ADHD: From a Caregiver & BCBA Perspective

Oct 16th, 2023 32m 33s

Kelly and Jen speak to Jennifer, BCBA, and mom to her 13-year-old son with ADHD. She shared his struggles with ADHD and anxiety coming out of the pandemic, trying to organize his homework and keep us with social pressures that ultimately led to

Cyber Safety & Autism

Oct 9th, 2023 29m 41s

Up to 75% of autistic children and adults will be bullied over the internet or taken advantage of in some way. Predators look for those who may not understand the nuances of social cues making autistic children and adults targets. In this podca

Considering the Behavior Therapists Perspective

Sep 16th, 2023 32m 45s

Kelly & Jen talk with long-time Registered Behavior Therapist Salvador Cadenas about why he works with children and adults on the autism spectrum with severe behavior and shares his perspective on what BCBAs and families get right to keep behav

The Benefits and Challenges of Exercise with Children and Adults on the Autism Spectrum

Sep 2nd, 2023 30m 31s

Jen & Kelly talk about the benefits of exercise. Did you know that exercise has been proven to increase flow to the brain, help with concentration, and improve sleep? With devices taking over, children and adults are exercising less. Kelly & Je

Considering Medical Needs as Behavior Analysts and Caregivers

Jun 5th, 2023 26m 57s

Kelly & Jen wrap up season 3 by talking about the Ethics Code for Behavior Analysis, specifically 2.12, Considering Medical Needs. "Behavior Analysts ensure, to the best of their ability that medical needs are addressed and make referrals as ne

Moving on After Your Child with Autism has Been Aggressive Toward You

May 9th, 2023 26m 32s

Kelly & Jen get deep and talk about how Jen copes when her severely impacted son with autism is aggressive toward her, and suggests ways BCBAs can support caregivers after those moments. Sponsored by https://www.citepro.com

Joint Attention is a Behavior Cusp Skill

Apr 9th, 2023 25m 22s

When an infant's attention is drawn to another person's face and voice, they experience a positive emotion as the amygdala and prefrontal cortex are activated. These networks are often faulty in children on the autism spectrum. As a result, no

To use Extinction or to not use Extinction

Mar 19th, 2023 28m 16s

Extinction can best be defined as the discontinuing of reinforcement of a previously reinforced behavior (i.e., response no longer produces reinforcement). The goal of extinction is for the behavior to cease without having used a punishment pro

How do you Connect with a Person Severely Impacted on the Autism Spectrum

Feb 27th, 2023 26m 14s

Kelly and Jen speak with frequent guest Susan Senator about her recent article, "The Secret to Connecting with My Autistic Son." Is it something learned, or do you have to be taught? Why will some people work with the more severely impacted chi

Neurodiverse and Severe Autism: Can't We All Get Along?

Feb 16th, 2023 29m 11s

Kelly & Jen talk about the role of ABA, strength-based assessments, and the ethical considerations when assessing and treating people with autism across the varying levels of severity of autism, with considerations of consent and assent. Spons

We Feel Like Frauds Today

Jan 23rd, 2023 24m 24s

Parenting a child on the spectrum, being a BCBA supporting that parent, is all hard work! Even after over 20 years, we don't always know what to do and feel lost! We talk through how we both had a week feeling like frauds, and how we brought o

Dinosaurs of ABA

Jan 11th, 2023 29m 27s

Kelly is joined by Amanda Ralston, founder of Non-binary Solutions. Home | NonBinary Solutions. Kelly has been certified by the BACB for over 20 years, and Amanda since the turn of the century! They discuss their journey in the field including

The real holiday tips! Tips beyond the basic tips!

Dec 20th, 2022 29m 56s

Kelly is joined again with Kelly Haysley, mom to 3 children, 2 on opposite ends of the spectrum to talk about the REAL tips for getting through the holidays, beyond the fluffy memes you see out there posted this time of year. They talk about in

Understanding the cycle of grief, guilt and joy raising a child on the autism spectrum

Dec 12th, 2022 39m 35s

Kelly & Jen are joined by mom and advocate Kelly Haysley, mom to three children, two diagnosed on the autism spectrum. We discuss Kubler-Ross cycle of grief, and how this cycle repeats and repeats, adding guilt and stress, and how embracing the