ABA Strategies for Safer Playground Behavior: Inside JABA 23
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
Release Date: 07/01/2025
Developing Rapport and Sustaining Motivation in Autism Treatment: Session 325 with Alice Shillingsburg
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
In this episode, I talk with Dr. Alice Shillingsburg about her work on rapport building and pairing procedures in applied behavior analysis for children with autism. We explore how building therapeutic rapport goes beyond simply “liking someone,” emphasizing the importance of establishing trust and engagement to facilitate learning, especially when tasks are challenging. Alice explains the nine-stage pairing protocol she developed and highlights how careful timing, observation, and reinforcement choices can make pairing effective. We discuss the significance of observing children’s...
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Resilience Is a Skill — Raising Capable Kids in a Fragile World: Session 324 with Paulie Gavoni and Steve Ward
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
In Session 324, Dr. Paulie Gavoni and Steve Ward join me to discuss what resilience actually looks like from a behavior science perspective — and why many well-intentioned adult responses can unintentionally teach avoidance instead of persistence. We center our conversation around their book, , which reframes resilience not as a personality trait or motivational slogan, but as a set of learnable repertoires shaped by the environments adults design We talk about: Why resilience is a behavioral repertoire, not a mindset or personality trait The hidden ways adult anxiety shapes...
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Building Clinical Excellence in Autism Services: How Apollo Trains and Supports RBTs and BCBAs - Session 322
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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Entrenamiento de Habilidades Conductuales: BOP en Español 16 con Maria Sanchez
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
En este episodio, Miguel conversa con , una profesional con un impacto notable en la formaciĂłn de analistas de conducta en España y LatinoamĂ©rica. La charla gira en torno al Behavioral Skills Training (BST) o Entrenamiento de Habilidades Conductuales: quĂ© es, cĂłmo se aplica en la práctica y por quĂ© sigue siendo una de las herramientas más efectivas para entrenar tanto a profesionales como a familias. MarĂa comparte su recorrido profesional, que comienza en Inglaterra en un centro para niños con autismo y evoluciona hacia su trabajo en PECS, donde encontrĂł su...
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The Four Leadership Hats: Applying Behavioral Science to Leadership and Supervision — Session 321 with John Guercio
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
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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The Importance of Hard and Soft Skills in ABA Practice: Session 320 with Tiffany Kodak and Landon Cowan
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
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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2025 Year in Review: Session 319 with ABA Inside Track
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
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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Smarter Study Strategies Using Cover, Copy, and Compare: Session 318 with Sarah Frampton
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
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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Eye Contact and AI in ABA Treatment: Session 317 with Francesca degli Espinosa
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
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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Making ABA Research Matter: Practical Dissemination Strategies for Behavior Analytic Scholars, Inside JABA 25
The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria
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...
info_outlineWelcome back to the Inside JABA series—this is Episode 23, and it's a must-listen for anyone interested in using Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to improve safety in school settings.
In this episode, Dr. Jeannie Donaldson and Gabriela Gomes join Dr. John Borrero and me to discuss the paper, "Effects of differential reinforcement and time-out on the unsafe
playground behavior of young children" (note: first author, Elizabeth Linton unfortunately was not able to join us).
🎯 What You’ll Learn in This Episode:
- Playground Safety Statistics: The surprisingly high rates of injury during recess and why this matters.
- Behavior-Analytic Interventions: A review of previous ABA research focused on playground safety and injury prevention.
- Reinforcement vs. Time-Out: Pros, cons, and ethical considerations when using these strategies in natural environments.
- Study Design and Results: How the researchers implemented the intervention, what the data showed, and how students responded—both behaviorally and emotionally.
- Participant Choice & Social Validity: Insights into student preferences and recess enjoyment.
- Implications for Schools: How schools and practitioners can implement similar interventions and where the research should go next.
As you can see below, the intervention package was quite effective:
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đź“š Resources & Research Mentioned:
- Linton, Gomes, and Donaldson (2025). Effects of differential reinforcement and time-out on the unsafe playground behavior of young children.
- Donaldson, et al. (2013). Effects of a reduced time-out interval on compliance with the time-out instruction.
- Chotto, Linton, and Donaldson (2024). Direct and indirect effects of and preferences for feedback during the Good Behavior Game in elementary classes.
- Heck, et al. (2001). Decreasing children's risk taking on the playground.
- Schwebel, et al. (2006). The Stamp-in-Safety Program: A Behavioral Intervention to Reduce Behaviors that Can Lead to Unintentional Playground Injury in a Preschool Setting.
- Peltier, et al. (2023). Effects of and preference for student- and teacher-implemented good behavior game in early elementary classes.
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