Good-bye 2020! Year in Review with ABA Inside Track

12/23/20 • 100 min

The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

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:

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...

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.

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:

Previous Episode

How to Help Parents and Children with the Goally Learning Device: Session 141

In Session 141 I speak with Sasha Shtern and Dr. Eric Moody about using the Goally Learning Device with families. Sasha is the CEO of Goally and Eric holds the title of Research Professor at the Wyoming Institute for Disabilities.

Goally is an Android-based stand-alone device that allows users to program visuals schedules, create task analyses, manage token economies, and even log problem behaviors.

In this episode we talk about the conditions that motivated the creation of this device, the research and implementation science that's been conducted with it, and how both clinicians and parents have been using it to support children across their day.

If you'd like to learn more about Goally, click here to check them out. While there, be sure to check out their blog (I found the articles on supporting kids in remote learning situations particularly interesting... here is one of them).

In the spirit of transparency, I'd like to make clear that as of this writing, Goally is not a sponsor of Behavioral Observations, nor is there any affiliate relationship. However, this episode is brought to you with the support of the following:

How-to-ABA. Being a BCBA can be lonely and overwhelming. At howtoaba.com, we help BCBA’s feel supported and confident by providing easy to access printables, CEU's and a collaborative community. Imagine, having an all-in-one resource to save you time and help your clients, having getting your toughest questions answered, and being part of a collaborative group of professionals to share ideas. Plus, your monthly pro membership includes CEU’s! Along with over 1000 ABA professionals, howtoaba.com will help you save time, feel confident and master what you love! For more information, Go to howtoaba.com/joinbxresource. When you join today and use code BOP, you’ll receive 10% off a yearly subscription (includes CEU’s!).
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, just click here!
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.

Next Episode

What does exertion, sleep, and Covid-19 have to do with each other? Session 143 with John Capodilupo

In Session 143, I chat with John Capodilupo, co-founder of Whoop, the maker of the Whoop strap system I've been talking about for the last several episodes.

At the risk of sounding like an informercial for this neat product, I've really enjoyed using the Whoop strap for the last few months. If you aren't familiar with it, the Whoop strap is a wearable device that tracks all sorts of cool metrics, including sleep, calorie burn, heart rate, and more.

As John notes in the podcast, the folks at Whoop are using data science and machine learning to optimize personal health. And they do this through these proprietary metrics that are generated from the device. John gets into the weeds on this topic, and regardless of whether you're in the market for wearable tech, I think you'll find it quite fascinating!

We also discuss Whoop's involvement in research in detecting the early stages of both Covid-19 and Alzheimer's disease. I think this device and the data it produces, is giving us a window to the future of big data and public health research. Fascinating times we live in for sure!

If you're interested in trying out a Whoop strap for yourself, check out join.whoop.com/matt and save $30 in the process. You can also go to behavioralobservations.com/whoop, and that will take you in the right direction too.

At the request of a listener who's been a Whoop user for quite a while, I've created a Facebook group, Behavior Analysts who Whoop, so feel free to join the group, ask questions, and so on.

Here are the links to the resources we discussed:

The Plos One article on Covid-19 detection.
Research from Cornell on Alzheimer's.
The Locker, Whoop's blog.
The Whoop Podcast.

I also wanted to let you know that I've decided to start a Patreon for Behavioral Observations. I arrived at this after much consideration. When I first heard about Patreon, it felt like a mechanism for asking for a handout... kind of like an internet tip jar, and I didn't start one because there was not enough value in it for the listener.

Fortunately, Patreon has really stepped up their game to the point where they are able to offer subscribers really cool benefits. Specifically, depending on which membership tier is chosen, subscribers can access an ad-free podcast feed, subscribers-only bonus content, discounts in the Behavioral Observations CEU store, and much more.

Earlier today, I just uploaded a great Q & A session with Greg Hanley that we recorded last spring, which is available for All Access and Institutional level subscribers.

I'm also working with a few different companies and I hope to be able to offer subscriber-only discounts for products and services from other folks in the ABA space. So if this sounds good to you, head over to patreon.com/behavioralobservations to learn more!