Eye Contact, Joint Attention, and Autism: Session 238 with Francesca Degli Espinosa
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Release Date: 09/14/2023
Behavior Analytic Approaches to Counseling and Therapy: Session 262 with Pat Friman
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Dr. Pat Friman returns to discuss the Behavior Analytic approaches he uses with patients. In this episode, we harken way back to Session 16, and review some of what we know about Anxiety and Depression, which are the most common forms of mental health distress. Pat talks about how he conceptualizes these challenges, what he does in the first session with patients, his general approach to treatment, the role of medications, his view on when to begin or cease therapy, important therapist characteristics like kindness, compassion, and acceptance, and lots more! Here are links to the references we...
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Entrevistas Motivacionales: BOP en Español 8 con la Dra. Monica Gilbert
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Entrevistas Motivacionales con la Dra. Monica Gilbert Aunque la entrevista motivacional nació del contexto psicoterapéutico y de rehabilitación en relación a dependencias y abuso de sustancias, hoy en día se utiliza como un estilo de comunicación para establecer relaciones terapéuticas y profesionales en varios contextos con un espíritu de colaboración y empoderamiento en dirección al cambio. Los analistas de conducta estamos reconociendo que, sin ser esa nuestra intención, nuestra comunicación al brindar nuestros servicios en algunos casos puede ser coercitiva. Esto resulta...
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How to Use Whole Group Responding: Session 260 with Bill Heward
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Dr. Bill Heward was gracious enough to return to the podcast in Session 260. In this episode, we talked about a handful of different topics, including how to respond to criticisms of reinforcement practices, and the international dissemination of the excellent book, Let's Make a Contract, which he coauthored with Dr. Jill Dardig. However, we spent the majority of the time discussing Bill's extensive knowledge of whole-group responding practices in classroom settings. Specifically, we talk about how he first learned about this practice, why he wanted to study it, how he and his colleagues...
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Practical Strategies for Passing the Exam: Session 259 with Dana Meller and Steve Eversole
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
If you're a student, supervisor, or university instructor, this is an episode for you. In Session 259, I speak with Dana Meller and Dr. Steve Eversole, of Pass The Big ABA Exam and Behavior Development Solutions, respectively. In this conversation, they reflect on what they've learned about helping thousands of people pass the BCBA exam over many years. In this conversation, we covered why they got into the test prep business, the state of BCBA testing today, re-taking the exam, interpreting the board's re-take data, barriers to passing the exam - including things like test anxiety and...
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What is Profound Autism, and Why is it Important? Session 258 with Alycia Halladay Session 258
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
joins we to discuss the topic of Profound Autism. If you're not familiar with Alycia's work, she is the Chief Science Officer for , and host of the excellent show, . In this episode, we discuss the changes in Autism diagnosis from the DSM IV to V, the Lancet Commission paper on Profound Autism, why there is a need for this distinction in the Autism spectrum, the conditions under which an individual would be classified as having Profound Autism, the estimated proportion of Autistics who have Profound Autism, the differences in the distribution of sex-based differences in...
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Mentoring Students, the Future of ABA, and the Problem with Ignoring: Session 257 with Tim Vollmer
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
I'm thrilled to be joined by none other than Dr. Tim Vollmer. In this podcast, we talk about a wide variety of research and practice topics, as well as some funny stories from his long and prolific career. Specifically, talk about how his dog ate his copy of Strategies and Tactics, how he and his colleagues analyzed 2 and 3-point shot patterns in basketball games, his line of research that examined The Good Behavior Game, Behavior Analysis and the game of Poker, and his take on why he and his students have such an affinity for one another. That's not all. We probably spent the most...
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La intersección entre la fonoaudiología y el análisis de conducta: BOP en Español 7 con Estefania Alarcón Moya
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Las conversaciones acerca del alcance de nuestra práctica y de nuestras competencias son muy comunes hoy en día en nuestra profesión. Los fonoaudiólogos y los analistas de conducta coinciden frecuentemente en los apoyos e intervenciones para el desarrollo de habilidades comunicativas. Coinciden en la práctica y en algunos casos en competencias desde un mismo enfoque o en otros desde un ángulo distinto. En una efectiva colaboración entre estas disciplinas es importante reconocer los marcos conceptuales y las tecnologías que ambas disciplinas proponen para así maximizar las maneras en...
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How to Disseminate Behavior-Analytic Technologies: Inside JABA 18
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
In the 18th installment of the Inside JABA Series, Dr. Dorothea Lerman joins Editor-in-Chief John Borrero and I to talk about her dissemination efforts, which are described in the Winter 2024 issue of the journal. Specifically, we talk about her discussion paper, "Putting the power of behavior analysis in the hands of nonbehavioral professionals: Toward a blueprint for dissemination." This paper is definitely worth checking out. In it, Dorothy describes some common barriers to disseminating behavioral strategies and how to overcome them. We then talk about the blueprint she offers...
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AAC Use with adolescents and adults with ASD: Session 254 with Andy Bondy
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Fan-favorite Dr. Andy Bondy joins me again to talk about... you guessed it... AAC! In this episode, we discuss a paper he published last year in the journal, Advances in Neurodevelopmental Disorders, that is titled, "." We get into why he felt this paper was necessary to write, how he chose to communicate his thoughts to an audience beyond those of us in behavior analysis, why he likes the term, "under what conditions" so much, what does and does not constitute a "robust" communication repertoire, the role of teaching words like "please" and Andy's nuanced view of this practice, whether the...
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How to Assess Early Echoic Skills: Session 253 with Barbara Esch
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
If you've completed a VB-MAPP at some point in your career, you're familiar with the EESA component of the assessment protocol. In today's podcast, I had the chance to talk with Dr. Barbara Esch, who created the Early Echoic Skills Assessment, which has evolved into the stand-alone product called the Early Echoic Skills Assessment and Program Planner. In this conversation, we talk about how Barb got into Behavior Analysis, she shared some humorous stories from being mentored by Drs. Jack Michael and Jim Carr, why she created the original EESA, who the EESAPP is for and who it's not for,...
info_outlineWhat exactly is Joint Attention? How does Joint Attention interact with Eye Contact? What does the literature say about these repertoires, and how does that coincide with self-reports of the aversive nature of eye contact from Autistic people?
These have been a few of the questions rolling around in my head for some time. A few years ago, we briefly touched on this subject with my guest today, Dr. Francesca Degli Espinosa, but it was in the backdrop of a larger panel discussion at the 2022 Verbal Behavior Conference.
Fast forward to 2023, I recently heard Francesca on Dr. Mary Barbera's show talk about Joint Attention in great detail, so I asked her to join me to extend the conversation.
In this show, we cover:
- What people mean when they use the term Joint Attention
- How JA typically develops in infancy and beyond
- Why 'attention' may not be an especially helpful term
- Some of the neuroscience and eye tracking studies that have examined the development of eye contact in typically developing and Autistic populations
- How to increase the value of looking at peoples' faces
- Why eye contact should be thought of as a reinforcing consequence
- Some strategies to foster JA in the context of learner assent
- The difficulty of integrating the findings of different literatures that publish research in the area of Autism
- What she's talking about at this year's Stone Soup Conference (spoiler alert: She's going to go deep into this topic, and remember, save on your registration by using the promo code PODCAST)
- The problem associated with teaching eye contact via the 'look at me' method
Here are some of the links to the many resources we discussed:
- 2022 Verbal Behavior Conference Panel Discussion
- Francesca on Mary Barbera's podcast
- Francesca's available online courses
- Dube et al. (2004). Toward a Behavioral Analysis of Joint Attention
- Silva and Fiske (2020). Evaluating the Effects of Establishing Eye Contact on the Skill Acquisition of Individuals with Autism
- Nuske et al. (2015). No Evidence of Emotional Dysregulation or Aversion to Mutual Gaze in Preschoolers with Autism Spectrum Disorder: An Eye-Tracking Pupillometry Study
- Clin and Kissine (2023). Neurotypical, but not autistic, adults might experience distress when looking at someone avoiding eye contact: A live face-to-face paradigm
- A sample of the many eye tracking studies conducted by Dr. Ami Klin and colleagues
This podcast is brought to you by:
The Stone Soup Conference, which is taking place on October 20th. Use code PODCAST to save on your registration as well.
The University of Cincinnati Online. UC Online designed a Master of Education in Behavior Analysis program that is 100% online and asynchronous, meaning you log on when it works for you. Want to learn more? Go to online.uc.edu and click the “request info” button.
Behavior University. Their mission is to provide university quality professional development for the busy Behavior Analyst. Learn about their CEU offerings, including their brand new 8-hour Supervision Course, as well as their RBT offerings over at behavioruniversity.com/observations.