How to Use Whole Group Responding: Session 260 with Bill Heward
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Release Date: 04/18/2024
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
In this episode of the Behavioral Observations Podcast, I’m joined by , founder of , and , Vice President of Clinical Operations, to talk about what it really takes to build and sustain clinical excellence in autism services. We discuss Apollo’s decision to launch in Georgia, their highly selective hiring process, and how values alignment plays a central role in building their culture. Kim and Kristen share how Apollo approaches training differently — including a four-week RBT onboarding program that exceeds certification requirements and a structured mentorship model for BCBAs. The...
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En este episodio, Miguel conversa con , una profesional con un impacto notable en la formación de analistas de conducta en España y Latinoamérica. La charla gira en torno al Behavioral Skills Training (BST) o Entrenamiento de Habilidades Conductuales: qué es, cómo se aplica en la práctica y por qué sigue siendo una de las herramientas más efectivas para entrenar tanto a profesionales como a familias. María comparte su recorrido profesional, que comienza en Inglaterra en un centro para niños con autismo y evoluciona hacia su trabajo en PECS, donde encontró su...
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In this episode, I’m joined by John Guercio for a wide-ranging and practical conversation about leadership through a behavioral lens. John and I dig into what it actually means to lead in applied behavior analysis, especially when so much of the existing leadership literature is vague, mentalistic, or disconnected from observable behavior. We start by talking about the need to operationalize leadership in behavioral terms and explore the four leadership hats developed by : leading, training, coaching, and managing. We break down what each of these roles looks like behaviorally, how they...
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In Session 320, I sit down with Landon Cowan and Tiffany Kodak to talk about an area of behavior analysis that doesn’t get nearly enough attention: professional (or “soft”) skills. We spend a lot of time in our field teaching and refining technical, clinical, or “hard” skills—and for good reason. But far less time is devoted to the interpersonal, communication, and problem-solving skills that ultimately determine how effective we are as clinicians, supervisors, and collaborators. In this conversation, Landon and Tiffany share their research aimed at identifying, defining, and...
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Don’t adjust your podcast player folks, you have the right show. Welcome to Session 319 of the Behavioral Observations Podcast. If you’ve been listening for a bit, you know what’s coming. If you’re new to the show however, first, welcome and thanks for listening. Every year, I team up with my friends from the ABA Inside Track Podcast to do a Year In Review episode. We’ve tinkered with the format over time, but for this one, we talk briefly about the trends and issues that we thought were important in 2025. From there, we discussed some of the most downloaded shows from our podcasts...
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In this episode, I sit down with , who conducts research on, amongst other things, improving how we teach, learn, and organize information using behavior-analytic strategies. We explore her career journey, her research on graphic organizers and the Cover, Copy, Compare (CCC) strategy, and the broader implications for stimulus equivalence, educational technology, and effective teaching. In This Episode, You’ll Learn: How Sarah’s unconventional path led her from economics and psychology into Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Why note-taking and structured...
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In Session 317, I sit down with Dr. Francesca Delia Espinoza to revisit one of the most foundational—but often misunderstood—topics in behavior analysis: eye contact. We explore why eye contact shouldn’t be treated as a simple objective, but instead understood within its broader social and developmental context. Francesca explains how eye contact is better re-framed as "eye-looking," and why behavior analysts need a strong conceptual foundation for evaluating when, how, and why to teach it. We discuss her recent paper in Perspectives on Behavior Science, which encourages practitioners to...
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Episode Overview In this special episode of the Behavioral Observations Podcast, I had the honor of celebrating the 25th installment of the . This one was particularly meaningful because it also marks the final appearance of Dr. John Borrero in his role as Editor-in-Chief of . I invited John to reflect on his three-year tenure—what he learned from reading an enormous volume of manuscripts, how his thinking evolved, and why adapting our language is essential if we want behavior analysis to reach broader audiences. From there, we transitioned into an...
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Thanks for joining me in Session 315 of The Behavioral Observations Podcast. In this episode, I spoke with Drs. and to dive deep into trauma-informed behavior analysis. Gabi brings her 30-year journey in the field—from undergrad roots to professorship at —while David shares his evolution from child and family therapy to clinical psychology, with a heavy focus on foster and adoptive parenting. Both guests are passionate about closing the divide between trauma therapy and behavioral strategies, and they credit mentors like for lighting the way. We...
info_outlineThe Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
If you follow Behavioral Observations on , you might recall that I had the once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to travel to the 20th Annual conference to give the closing Keynote Address. I could devote an entire podcast episode to talking about all the wonderful people I met, the fun experiences I had, and the amazing sights I was able to take in. One of the biggest highlights though, was the opportunity to sneak in the following conversation I had with a panel of employees from Hawaii's Department of Education. It turns out that the State of Hawaii is doing some innovative work in...
info_outlineDr. 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 carried out one of his better known studies on the topic (Lambert et al., 2006), and lots more.
Along the way, Bill offered lots of great advice for practitioners who are interested in trying out these low-tech/high-impact strategies. During the conversation, Bill mentioned a talk that I gave at the 2023 BABAT conference, and in the podcast I mentioned that my colleagues and I created an online course based on that presentation. At the time of the interview with Bill, the course was not yet available. However, I'm happy to report that it is out now.
The course is called, "When Not to FBA: Five Quick Strategies for Improving Behavior in the Classroom." So if you're working in school settings and you're supporting teachers in classrooms, please consider checking this out.
Back to the interview, one of the things that makes Bill such an awesome podcast guest is that he comes with lots of resources. In fact in this case, he sent me an Google Drive Folder chock full of articles, studies, and many other resources. So instead of listing each resource individually here in the shownotes, I'll go ahead and link the folder and cut out the middleman (click here to get access to it).
While we're on the topic of Bill's generosity, he wanted me to remind you that the website, contractingwithkids.com has several free downloadable contract templates. Click here to check them out.
This podcast is brought to you by:
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.