Drs. Jill Dardig & Bill Heward: Changing the World with Behavior Analysis - One Book at a Time

Behavior analysts' jobs focus on improving lives through the science of behavior. Similarly, there is a responsibility to disseminate behavior analysis by making information about the science more accessible and engaging. However, it is often challenging to effectively translate our procedures and technical language into our unique communities to inspire and motivate change.

During this interview, accomplished authors and professors Jill C. Dardig and William L. Heward discuss their lives' work across the world and their pursuits in doing just that.

Episode Description:

In this episode, we discuss their entry into the field of Behavior Analysis and Special Education, their thoughts on effective programming for individuals with disabilities, and their motivation to write their first book together titled, Sign Here: A Contracting Book for Children and their Parents. They share the success of its distribution and translation into multiple languages across the globe and discuss the need to provide an updated, inclusive version of the book today: Let's Make a Contract: a Positive Way to Change your Child's Behavior.

In Let's Make a Contract, parents learn a research-based practice, behavioral contracting, that is easy to use and benefits all learners. The authors provide beautifully illustrated stories to show children how contracts address everyday challenges like completing chores, achieving goals, getting along, and becoming more independent. Each story ends with questions designed to spark age-appropriate discussion. The book and accompanying website provide sample contracting forms and supporting materials that can be found below.

Show Notes

Let’s Make a Contract: A Positive Way to Change Your Child’s Behavior

• Companion website: https://contractingwithkids.com
• Review in Behavior Analysis in Practice “Parents will look at this book and think, ‘I would like to read that’.” https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40617-022-00723-7
• Review in Science in Autism Treatment “Dardig and Heward’s engaging storytelling highlights the numerous ways in which contracting can be used to create positive behavior change.” https://asatonline.org/research-treatment/book-reviews/review-of-lets-make-a-contract/

Caregivers

• Dardig, J. C. (2008). Involving Parents of Students with Special Needs: 25 Ready-to-Use Strategies. Corwin Press. https://us.corwin.com/en-us/nam/book/involving-parents-students-special-needs
• Heward, W. L. (2012). It’s OK to say I don’t know. Science in Autism Treatment, 9(4), 1-3.
• Heward, W. L., Alber-Morgan, S. R., & Konrad, M. (2022). Ten Guidelines for Communicating with Parents. In Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education (12th ed.) (p. 90). Pearson.

Educators

• Dardig, J.C. (1995). I'd been doing it wrong for so long it looked like right to me: Using case method to teach introduction to ABA. The Behavior Analyst, 18(1), 161-166. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03392702
• Heward, W. L., Critchfield, T. S., Reed, D. D., Detrich, R., & Kimball, J. W. (2022). ABA from A-to-Z: Behavior science applied to 350 domains of socially significant behavior. Perspectives on Behavior Science, 45, 327-359. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-022-00336-z.