The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

Dr. Chris McGinnis joins me in Session 266 to talk about his work in Primary Care Behavioral Pediatrics. If you're not sure what that is, don't worry. We go over that right away and learn that this area of work sits in an important and underserved niche: The niche between the general behavioral advice dispensed by pediatricians, and intensive treatment for serious mental health challenges.

In a way, this conversation expands on something that Pat Friman brought up in our most recent interview: The idea that BCBAs are uniquely suited to provide families with this type of care. In order to provide direction to those who are interested in doing just this, Chris recently published Introduction to Primary Care Behavioral Pediatrics: A Guide for Behavior Analysts.

In our conversation, we covered:

· His background in Behavioral Pediatrics, including his work at BoysTown (and meeting Pat Friman for the first time).

· The motivation for writing his book.

· The reification of psychological terms (see Skinner '45).

· The myth of the Chemical Imbalance Hypothesis.

· The range of behavior challenges he sees in his practice.

· Thoughts on caregiver adherence.

· The pros and cons of reimbursement practices, including the concierge model he has currently adopted.

· Chris' study of Trauma-Informed Care.

· Permissive vs. Authoritative, and how those related to adolescent mental health.... In other words, why parenting is like The Marshmallow Test.

· Advice for the newly-minted BCBA.

This podcast is brought to you by the following:

• Please welcome our newest sponsor, The New England Center for Children! I am beyond thrilled to partner with one of the oldest and well-respected ABA institutions to help them find staff to continue their mission of supporting individuals with Autism. Learn more about careers at NECC over at necc.org/jobs.
• ACE Approved CEUs from .... Behavioral Observations. That's right, get your CEUs while driving, walking your dog, doing the dishes, or whatever else you might have going on, all while learning from your favorite podcast guests!
• HRIC Recruiting. Barb Voss has been placing BCBAs in permanent positions throughout the US for just about a decade, and has been in the business more generally for 30 years. When you work with HRIC, you work directly with Barb, thereby accessing highly personalized service. So if you're about to graduate, you're looking for a change of pace, or you just want to know if the grass really is greener on the other side, head over to HRIColorado.com to schedule a confidential chat right away.
• The Behavioral Toolbox. thebehavioraltoolbox.com is a new education and training site that my colleagues Anika Costa and Dr. Paulie Gavoni and I have been working on for over two years. We have two courses available: our first course, Ready, Set, Consult! and our newly released course, When Not to FBA: 5 Quick Strategies for Improving Behavior in Classrooms.

Behavioral Karma: The 5 Scientific Laws of Life and Leadership* is the book that was just recently published by Brett DiNovi and Dr. Pauli Gavoni.

In this episode, we talked about what these five laws are, and how one can apply them to just about anything in life, and see positive outcomes as a result.

Because both of these gentlemen are previous guests on the show, we started off by catching up a bit. Paulie talked about joining up with Brett's company, Brett DiNovi and Associates, and Brett talked about how he and the rest of the folks at BDA responded to the challenges brought on by the coronavirus pandemic.

I also had a chance to pick their brains on a topic that I'm fascinated with: Compensating employees in a Pay-for-Performance model, an idea pioneered by William Abernathy (you can find all the books he wrote on this topic here*).

All and all, this was a fun and wide ranging discussion, and I think listeners will be able to get some neat takeaways from it.

Here are some links to some of the things that came up in conversation:

• Brett's first appearance on the show.
• Pauli's first appearance on the show.
• Hoosier Association for Behavior Analysis.
• BDA's YouTube Channel, Behavioral Karma.
• The Behavioral Karma Podcast, hosted by Billy Brown and Paulie Gavoni.
• Fighting Words in ABA (Pauli's article on BSci21.org).
• Pauli's LinkedIn page.
• Brett's LinkedIn page.
• The Performance Diagnostic Checklist (Carr et al., 2013).
• Brett's interview of me at HABA 2018.

Today's episode is brought to you by the following:

• If you want to study ABA and Positive Behavior Supports at a top-notch setting in Europe, then look no further than the Tizard Center at the University of Kent. Since 1986, they've been training professionals to support individuals with disabilities. Their primary focus has always been promoting values-based and ethical approaches to supporting people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. If you would like to learn more about ABA and PBS training on an international stage, check out www.tizard.org.
• HRIC Recruiting. Barb Voss has been placing BCBAs in permanent positions throughout the US for just about a decade, and has been in the business more generally for 30 years. When you work with HRIC, you work directly with Barb, thereby accessing highly personalized service. So if you're about to graduate, you're looking for a change of pace, or you just want to know if the grass really is greener on the other side, head over to HRIColorado.com to schedule a confidential chat right away.
• And while I'm promoting the stuff on my website, I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the membership program. Think of it as a DIY Patreon... Members get access to a private FB group in which they are able to get nearly instantaneous access to the videos of these podcast interviews. For example, this interview has been available to members for two months. Members get the raw feed. That means no ads, and none of these introductory comments. You just get right to the interview. Another cool thing we do is hold Zoom Hangouts with former guests so where you can interact with them directly. For more information, check out behavioralobservations.com/membership.

My friends over at ABA Inside Track - Robert Parry-Crews, Diana Parry-Crews, and Jackie Macdonald, got together for our third annual year-in-review collaboration.

And suffice to say, what a year it has been. In this episode, we discuss the events of 2020, both in the world of Behavior Analysis and beyond. We spoke at great length about the impact of the Coronavirus pandemic on the provision of services, as well as how Behavior Analysis responded to the challenges of racism, policing, and the like. Finally, we round out the episode by honoring the memories of some of the pioneers in our field who passed away in 2020.

So grab a beverage of choice, put your earbuds in, and join us in kicking 2020 to the curb and look forward to a hopefully more reinforcing 2021!

Here is a very likely incomplete list of links to things we discussed:

• Previous Year in Review Shows:
  • 2018 Year in Review.
  • 2019 Year in Review.
• Cox, Plavnick, and Brodhead (2020). A Proposed Process for Risk Mitigation During the COVID-19 Pandemic.
• LeBlanc, et al. (2020). The Role of Compassion and Ethics in Decision Making Regarding Access to Applied Behavior Analysis Services During the COVID-19 Crisis: A Response to Cox, Plavnick, and Brodhead.
• BOP Covid-19 Facebook Banter Part 1.
• BOP Covid-19 Facebook Banter Part 2 (140 comments!).
• Session 116, Wendy Machalicek on Telemedicine.
• Session 13, Megan Miller on Telemedicine.
• Session 113, The Behavioral Economics of Toilet Paper with Derek Reed.
• Session 114, Keep your kids learning at home with Amy Evans.
• Session 121, Coping in Quarantine with Russ Harris.
• Session 128, Mary Jane Weiss.
• Session 120, Listening to Perspectives that Matter (please check out if you missed this one!!!).
• ABA Inside Track 128, Diversity and Inclusion with Adrienne Bradley and Kat Jackson.
• Session 124, Behavior Analysis and policing with John O'Neill.
• Session 138, More on policing with Tina Long and Officer Joe Schlenz.
• BACB Podcast on global certification changes.
• Operants fall issue with Adithyan Rajaraman re: Online instruction.
• In Memoriam:
  • Jack Michael.
  • Jose Martinez-Diaz.
  • Patricia Krantz.

On a final note, I'd be remiss if I didn't say how grateful I am for everyone who listens to and supports the show. I was raised to not discuss money in public, but the pandemic has cut the revenue of my consultation practice by more than half, and despite that, we managed to get through the worst of it because of the support from the audience. So whether you've purchased CEU's, subscribed to the membership community, patronized my wonde...

In Session 159 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast, Michael Maloney returns to the show. We spend a few minutes catching up since the last time we spoke (see Session 129), but then pivot to his recent collaboration with the Canadian charity organization, the Amorak Society. With help from the Rotary International's literacy initiative, these partners deployed Michael's reading program, The Maloney Method, to over 2500 children in some of the poorest areas of Bangladesh via a smartphone-based app.

I won't spoil the all the good parts here in the episode description, but let me just say that this is an amazing story of dissemination that I hope you enjoy as much as I did.

For those interested in learning more about Michael and/or the reading software, check out his website, MaloneyMethod.com. Michael will also be conducting a series of webinars with Behavior Development Solutions throughout the month of June, so please check those out if you'd like to learn directly from him.

This episode of Behavioral Observations was brought to you with support from:

• HRIC Recruiting. Barb Voss has been placing BCBAs in permanent positions throughout the US for just about a decade, and has been in the business more generally for 30 years. When you work with HRIC, you work directly with Barb, thereby accessing highly personalized service. So if you're about to graduate, you're looking for a change of pace, or you just want to know if the grass really is greener on the other side, head over to HRIColorado.com to schedule a confidential chat right away.
• Consider joining the BOP Patreon. Patreon members get early access to podcasts, bonus podcast material, discounts on CEU events from FTF and other continuing ed purveyors, occasional Zoom hangouts, and more!
• The Whoop Strap! I've been wearing the Whoop Strap for just a few weeks and I can't tell you how much I've enjoyed getting quantitative information on all aspects of my health, including sleep analytics, heart rate, along with heart rate variability, calorie burn, exercise intensity, and Whoop's proprietary "strain" score. I could extol this neat device's virtues indefinitely to you, but instead, you can go check it out for yourself. To get your first month free, head over to behavioralobservations.com/whoop! Also, feel free to join the Behavior Analysts who Whoop Facebook group!
• Lastly, check out the 2021 Stone Soup Conference! I challenge you to find a better CEU value in any virtual conference out there. With pod faves like Drs. Linda LeBlanc, Dithu Rajaraman, Jim Moore, Kerri Milyko, and more, there's something for everyone at this event. Use promo code PODCAST to save even more at checkout! Click here for additional details.

Providing feedback to staff members is essential for delivering quality services, but doing it effectively is easier said than done. That's why I'm excited to share this conversation I had with Dr. Natalie Parks from BehaviorLeader.com.

Natalie, along with co-authors Adam Ventura, Erica Crowley, and Dennis Uriarte, just published "Feedback F!@# Ups and How to Avoid Them," and in Session 119, we really dive deep into this topic.

Natalie describes some best practices for providing feedback, including how to do so in the current digital-meeting age. We also talk about how to provide feedback to the "difficult" staff member, as well as how to incorporate the feedback process in staff on-boarding procedures.

If you find this topic interesting, I suggest heading over to BehaviorLeader.com and click on the Featured Products button, and order a copy for yourself. There's also a 5-Day "Fix Your Feedback" Challenge on their website as well, which sounds like a lot of fun!

If you find this episode helpful and would like to get a supervision CEU for it, click here to get more info. You'll also find CEU's on many more topics there, and bulk-purchase discounts are available if you're a procrastinator like me ;-)

Lastly, I’d like to mention that I've been running a membership program for the podcast for a few years now; think of it as a DIY Patreon...

It costs the princely sum of $9/month. Members get access to a private FB group in which they are able to get nearly instantaneous access to the videos of these podcast interviews, often weeks or months before they are published.

The best part is that members get the raw conversation itself. That means no ads, and none of the introductory comments, and sometimes, some bloopers, re-takes, and do-overs.

Another cool thing we do is hold Zoom Hangouts with former guests. We do this about 6 times a year, and it works like this: we schedule a Zoom call, a former guest comes on and joins us, and the members have the opportunity to ask them questions directly. So if you'd like to learn more, head to BehavioralObservations.com/membership.