Improving Access to Medical Care for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities: Session 296 with Brandon Franklin
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Release Date: 04/07/2025
AI, Applied Behavior Analysis, and the Future of Clinical Tools: Frontera Series on AI with Sydney Holmes
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Behavior Analysis Meets Artificial Intelligence , I had the pleasure of speaking with , a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and master’s level psychologist. Sydney is also the Clinical Product Lead at , where she’s helping bridge the gap between behavior analysis and artificial intelligence in some really exciting ways. Did you miss the first Frontera Series interview with CEO and Founder, Amol Deshpande? Check it out ! We covered everything from using AI tools for clinical work and content creation, to how machine learning is reshaping supervision, diagnostics, and parent...
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Supporting Parents in ABA Services with Valencia Harper from Apollo Behavior: Session 301
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
When it comes to Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), much of the focus is often placed on data collection, program goals, and measurable outcomes for the child. But what about the parents? Supporting caregivers is a critical, and sometimes overlooked, component of effective ABA services. In a recent podcast episode, I had the pleasure of sitting down with Valencia Harper, a seasoned clinician from Apollo Behavior, to talk about her thoughtful approach to working with families. Long-time listeners may remember Valencia from our Apollo Case Study Series, where she and her colleagues...
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Chronic Absenteeism and School Refusal: Session 300 with Kristen McNeely
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Kristen McNeely joins me for an informative discussion about the challenging topic of School Refusal and Chronic Absenteeism. If you are in any way connected to a school community, you've probably heard about this difficult and growing problem. As we discuss in this episode, school refusal is an ever-growing concern, and it manifests itself in numerous ways. Kristen is both a BCBA and a Licensed Marital and Family Therapist in California, and she spends nearly all of her time working with parents who have children who engage in school refusal. In this episode, we cover: The distinction...
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Understanding Repetitive Behavior: Session 299 with Bill Ahearn
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Dr. Bill Ahearn joins me in Session 299 of Behavioral Observation. I met Bill a few times at conferences and I'm so glad we finally had a chance to sit down and record a podcast together. Bill is the at . Long time listeners may recall that NECC sponsored a series of episodes, and in this podcast, we talked about some of the great research that has come out of that storied institution. As an aside, if you want to learn more about NECC, particularly working at NECC, you can find more information about that . We covered a lot of ground in this conversation, including: ...
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El Estado del Análisis de la Conducta en Puerto Rico con la Dra. Yaniz Padilla Dalmau: BOP en Español 14
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
El Estado del Análisis de la Conducta en Puerto Rico con la Dra. Yaniz Padilla Dalmau En este episodio, tuve el honor de conversar con la Dra. Yaniz Padilla Dalmau, una de las voces más comprometidas y visionarias en el desarrollo del análisis de la conducta en Puerto Rico. A través de una charla llena de realidades, aprendizajes y esperanza, exploramos el estado actual de la práctica de ABA en la isla, los desafíos sistémicos que enfrentan las familias y profesionales, y el impacto de barreras lingüísticas, económicas y estructurales. Yaniz comparte no solo el panorama de...
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Altering the Relative Efficiencies of Responses for Behavioral Improvement: Session 297 with Steve Ward
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Steve Ward returns to the podcast to talk about a paper he recently published with co-author Teresa Grimes, titled, "." In this conversation, we review the highlights of this paper, and discuss things like The Matching Law, making desired behavior more efficient in generating reinforcement, making problem behaviors less efficient, and how altering reinforcement parameters like delay, magnitude, and schedules can enhance learner progress. We also talk about the work that Steve does with his company, , as well as a Q & A he will be doing on this topic that's coming up on . Steve is...
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Improving Access to Medical Care for Individuals with Intellectual Disabilities: Session 296 with Brandon Franklin
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Brandon Franklin returns to the podcast after a very long hiatus. You'll have to go back to Session 36 to hear his first appearance as a matter of fact. It turns out that he's been doing a lot of innovative clinical work in that time. Currently, he is the Chief Behavior Analyst for the and a Behavioral Consultant at . In these roles, Brandon has implemented various interventions to help individuals with intellectual disabilities access routine medical and dental care. If you're not familiar with this topic, it might sound pretty mundane, but as you'll hear, these populations...
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Response to Name Interventions for Staff and Caregivers: Inside JABA 22
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
This is not a show about teaching eye contact. We'll get to that in a bit. First though, I should note that the 22nd installment of the Inside JABA Series is coming out comically late. I apologize for getting us off schedule. The good news is that we already have a great paper to discuss for the 23rd Inside JABA episode that I think you're going to love, so I hope to have that one out later on in the spring. Back to this episode. Drs. Danny Conine and Jenn Fritz join me to discuss a paper Danny wrote with his colleagues called, "." There are so many great things about this paper, and listeners...
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Ethical Decision Making in Applied Behavior Analysis: Session 294 with Ilene Schwartz and Beth Kelly
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Drs. Ilene Schwartz and Beth Kelly joined me to discuss the never ending conundrum of navigating ethical dilemmas. As Ilene points out in the podcast, most people know right from wrong, but the types of dilemmas BCBAs encounter are what she calls 'right vs. right' dilemmas... Therefore, ethical practice requires a continuous decision making process. And in my guests' view, this is not a matter of decontextualized rule-following. In this podcast, we get into these nuances, using Ilene and Beth's newly published book, . We also discussed a framework for articulating one's values and...
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How Increasing Opportunities to Respond Improves Classroom Behavior: Session 293 with Todd Haydon
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Many years ago, a wise principal once told me that good instruction is the best classroom management tool teachers have at their disposal. In Session 293, Dr. Todd Haydon joins me to discuss the practice of increasing the rate of students' opportunities to respond (OTR), which is an instructional practice that has been shown to improve classroom behavior. In doing so, Todd and I did a deep dive on his dissertation work, which culminated in the study, Haydon, Mancil, and Van Loan (2009). This study began with a referral to help students who engaged in disruptive and off-task behaviors. Rather...
info_outlineBrandon Franklin returns to the podcast after a very long hiatus. You'll have to go back to Session 36 to hear his first appearance as a matter of fact.
It turns out that he's been doing a lot of innovative clinical work in that time. Currently, he is the Chief Behavior Analyst for the Lee Specialty Clinic and a Behavioral Consultant at Kramer Behavioral Health. In these roles, Brandon has implemented various interventions to help individuals with intellectual disabilities access routine medical and dental care.
If you're not familiar with this topic, it might sound pretty mundane, but as you'll hear, these populations really struggle to attend and participate in routine medical appointments, which, not surprisingly, has downstream negative health consequences. As such, interventions that improve on the current statistics can truly be considered life-saving.
In this podcast, we get into the following:
- Common phobias associated with medical treatments.
- Brandon's personal experience with aerophobia (the fear of flying), and what he did to improve it.
- The basics of desensitization strategies.
- How he and his team members use these strategies to improve the rate of successful medical appointment visits.
- And finally, the research on this topic that he is doing for his dissertation.
Brandon has generously compiled a list of references, which you can find here. He's passionate about this topic and is willing to talk with anyone about it, so feel free to hit him up on LinkedIn.
- Here's all of Brandon's contact info.
- Here's all the desensitization resources you could ask for.
This podcast is brought to you by:
- Frontera. Consider taking a demo of Frontera's Assessment Builder and see how the ethical application of AI technologies can help you serve clients and save you time! Your first assessment report is free. And if you use code BOP25 you’ll get an additional five assessments for just $100. So head to fronterahealth.com to check it out!
- The Profound Autism Summit. The Profound Autism Summit is a two-day conference taking place on April 10th and 11th in Boston, MA. Following on the massive success of the 2024 Summit, the 2025 event brings together leaders from the areas of research, medicine, treatment, advocacy, and education to discuss the needs and support of those with Profound Autism across disciplines and throughout the lifespan.
- HRIC Recruting. Cut out the middleman and speak directly with Barbara Voss, who's been placing BCBAs in great jobs all across the US for 15 years.
- CEUs from Behavioral Observations. Learn from your favorite podcast guests while you're commuting, walking the dog, or whatever else you do while listening to podcasts. New events are being added all the time, so check them out here.
- The Behavioral Toolbox. Check out our courses for school-based and other behavioral professionals, including our newest one, Motivational Interviewing: Getting Educator Buy-In.