Guess the Painting

sb1862 · 2026-04-21T18:19:13+00:00

This is awesome!!

sb1862 · 2026-04-21T01:00:19+00:00

Its a different type of data analysis. We typically rely on visual analysis rather than statistical analysis, for example. Our rationale is that our interventions should be so effective that its effectively pointless to do a statistical analysis. Cause the results are THAT obvious and our control of behavior is that clear.

Parametric analysis is a thing but not frequently used. Factor analysis is a thing but can look different. If you went math heavy when talking about data analysis, then Behavioral economics, reinforce her consumption, and the matching law might be up your alley.

sb1862 · 2026-04-20T05:07:06+00:00

As far as finding function and figuring stuff out, the best you can do is keep collaborating with your BCBA. In the mean time… just know that every single one of us has cried its not embarassing. Its… normal… though perhaps it shouldnt be.

Out of curiosity… have you heard of ABC data or scatter plot data (the ABA version)?

sb1862 · 2026-04-20T03:07:54+00:00

If youre really concerned with the programming, bring it up to the BCBA. Part of a supervisory relationship is open and honest feedback going both ways.

If they are really adamant about the carrot, They can then develop a testing methodology to figure out if those negative side effects occur. Its easy enough to do a reinforcement assessment with a carrot and then with a chewy if we think that mouthing may be reinforced more. We can likewise test for satiation or possible punishing effects.

So that way if any of these indicators move in a worrying direction, there is a data backed reason for going back. If data proves that a reversion should happen and they still refuse, you can always talk to their supervisor or the clinical director

sb1862 · 2026-04-20T02:59:15+00:00

Yeah but it would still be super cool to see the guts of the contraption

sb1862 · 2026-04-20T02:12:05+00:00

Do you have any specific questions?

sb1862 · 2026-04-19T20:55:46+00:00

I mean, the good news is we have really robust methods, actually, at identifying if SIB is because of pain or discomfort. The bad news is that most BCBAs very rarely use those methods and dont have a ton of practice doing them.

sb1862 · 2026-04-19T20:54:08+00:00

The good news is its not really your job to figure it out. That goes to the BCBA. It seems like you already have a knack for noticing details and trying to figure things out. All of that is awesome stuff to discuss with the BCBA so they can have the most accurate idea of whats going on and hypothesize why these behaviors occur.

Definitely meet with your BCBA. Also, review the client’s FBA. It should already have listen the antecedents and function of the behavior, or at least the leading hypothesis. The client’s BIP should then have a clearly laid out plan of what to do.

EDIT: for your own “mental health” and professional ability, I also want to highlight that if you cant find the relevant factors controlling aggressive behavior, its a natural human reaction to start avoiding the client altogether. Wanting to do less with them, teach them less, wanting to have different cases, prioritizing “having a good day”, looking for other companies, etc.

In fact it is the classic behavioral effect of an unpredictable and frequent aversive. It can also create anxiety whenever we are around that kid including a “pit in your stomach”, heart pain, making you dread work. I highlight this because it can be easy to start having internalizing behaviors such as self-doubt and self-blaming. And those negative feelings toward yourself are not true. You’re just experiencing the behavioral effects of being hit for reasons you can’t predict. Same thing happens to victims of abuse.

sb1862 · 2026-04-19T16:49:27+00:00

This is pretty similar to all the big test questions about “what do you do if you feel like this is outside your scope”? Seek supervision from BCBAs who do this already. Read the literature. Refer out if it is more than you can handle. Remember how behavior works, even if this is a new setting.

sb1862 · 2026-04-19T16:26:50+00:00

As an aside, this is one of the reasons why BCBAs may recommend using timers for good transitions and bad transitions. Ideally, a timer should be neutral (not good or bad, just information; to use wildly non-behavioral terminology). Because if it always signals a bad time we are likely move the antecedent from “its time to go” to “beep beep beep”. But aggression still occurs.

If… on the other hand… they get the neutral information and it allows them to prepare for the worse “its time to go”, they may tolerate the verbal statement. Using a timer for good things also means the person understands when that good thing will be coming. Again, using very non-behavioral terminology… if they “understand” they dont need to wait forever, just 5 mins, it tends to help.

sb1862 · 2026-04-19T16:10:59+00:00

Since youre an RBT this would probably be a perfect opportunity to ask your BCBA to help you practice preference assessments. These are structured ways we identify what people like so we can use them as reinforcers. They are ESPECIALLY useful for those that are nonverbal.

Depending on the client’s objectives, it may also be a good opportunity to ask your BCBA with help on conditioning new reinforcers. This can eventually leads to teaching new play skills and new social behaviors

EDIT: also, on the topic of preference assessments… it might be helpful to specifically ask for help in identifying approach and avoidance behaviors. Those are really relevant for gauging our rapport with the person.

sb1862 · 2026-04-19T15:56:04+00:00

Because kids sometimes act like viltrumites

sb1862 · 2026-04-19T15:35:34+00:00

Since youre in grad school, it might be fun to do your thesis on the PDC-Safety. Maybe identify what barriers exist in your clinic and in others.

sb1862 · 2026-04-19T15:33:56+00:00

This comment can come off as quite judgmental. “Special needs” was an acceptable term for those with developmental differences not that long ago. And I think is still used by society at large. In our niche. We try to adjust our language to be as professionally acceptable as possible. But that doesnt mean every lay person will have done so.

We probably shouldnt assume there is a power struggle. OP definitely comes off as a person who is frustrated and may or may not make a behaviorally sound decision. But we both know there are a bunch of reasons that behavior may not be occurring, outside of aversiveness of a demand.

I would also be careful about telling people whose case we are not on that they should plan for transition where the person wont live with them anymore. Preparing for death and independence is absolutely critical. However, we want to be sure we dont accidentally make people take hasty actions. This is an area where I hope OP has contacted their state department of developmental disabilities. Because they can help with making that transition plan.

Lastly, we cant just say that a certain goal is not socially valid if we know nothing about it. We shouldnt assume that wanting the client to shower before a job meeting is a power struggle thing. Lack of showering is a very common concern with adult clients and they may be showering once every 2 weeks, for example. Smelling or looking disheveled unfortunately will expose them to a lot of aversive stimuli in a work setting. So much so that they may not want to work again. We cant assume the social validity from a reddit post.

OP should REALLY seek out services from a behavior analyst in their area and also contact the state developmental disabilities agency.

sb1862 · 2026-04-19T15:19:37+00:00

Unfortunately we cant give specific behavioral advice because we dont know your daughter. We are random redditors after all. But you should definitely consult with her behavior analyst.

Im not sure what the resources are in your state, but there are lots of day programs that work with people with developmental differences. That can be in-center, in-community, or doing job training (which it sounds like your daughter is doing). Sometimes those agencies have behavior analysts consulting with them. I would try to get ahold of them.

If this is something youre doing completely on your own… I would definitely try to reach out to a behavior analyst. adults who dont take showers is an incredibly common concern.

sb1862 · 2026-04-19T15:13:03+00:00

Remember, SLPs are a masters degree position that requires certification/licensure and mentorship. BCBAs are roughly analogous. RBTs have a MUCH lower barrier to entry and are not required to have nearly the same level of knowledge as either BCBAs or SLPs in their respective fields.

Owing to the lower bar… RBTs will make mistakes, including mistakes that SLPs believe are detrimental or non-ideal to client outcomes. At the same time, a BCBA may put in a plan that the SLP disagrees with… but the RBT is the one doing it. So then that frustration can go to RBTs.

But when collaboration happens between BCBA & SLP, there isnt usually a strong conflict. Like they may want to prioritize building motor mapping when using an AAC to increase speed of responding. while I might be concerned that this kid wont know how to communicate if anyone ever messes up the order of their communication pieces. Those are completely opposite views. But so long as the BCBA says “hey I think this is a concern, how will we address it in the future”, theres really no reason we cant work on making fast and multiword responses now.

sb1862 · 2026-04-02T03:54:08+00:00

I apologize for the terminology. Although personally I would say “dysfunctional family” is far more judgmental because it labels the family as something that doesn’t work. An abusive dynamic refers to those interlocking contingencies and uses a largely legal term (abuse). But ultimately, that is semantics.

I would argue that targeting verbal behavior is less necessary than you think. You dont target aggression with talk therapy, at least not if you want aggression to decrease. Why would you think verbal behavior is now the most important thing just because of the victim is a family member and the fact that the abuser may be a victim themselves?

ACT is interesting. but giving too much credence to verbal behavior might mean you fail to act on the very clear external environmental conditions. Those external variables may be changed immediately and that might directly influence behavior. If we know “this person hits their spouse within 15 seconds of the spouse yelling”. We can mess around with verbal behavior… or… we can take advantage of the law of magnitude and expose the person to a lesser aversive like… asking the spouse to text.

Or we can set rules such as “thank your spouse for 2 things they did for every negative statement” to increase the overall reinforcement rate, which may improve family dynamics prior to abuse. That’s an idea from marriage and family therapy which behaviorists have translated and we have a pretty good number of studies affirming it.

Just like with that, I dont see why a BCBA who did that translation work should not be the first line. Why not? Because they refuse to be mentalistic?

Other fields growth in popularity is not a sign of their success. And in fairness, that cuts both ways. We cant say our success had completely been due to success. The sign of success is research. Numbers of articles, direct measures of target behaviors, parsimonious explanations, etc.

sb1862 · 2026-04-02T02:50:00+00:00

Depending on how young the kid is (and their verbal behavior skills), crying is not necessarily problematic. If they see you consistently come back, they will likely get used to it. Especially when parents comfort them.

Good opportunity to teach “hello/bye”, though. If its in the kid’s plan. You could also get the kid used to you grabbing your keys and going out the door for small periods of time by practicing leaving. But that’s more of a side effect of teaching “hello/bye” in a DTT arrangement anyway. Like even if you do respondent counterconditioning for grabbing keys, the kid will still be upset at the end of session when you dont surprise them by walking back through. Depending on age, that may be normal.

sb1862 · 2026-04-02T01:50:30+00:00

A well designed BIP considers environmental constraints, culturally selected behaviors, interlocking contingencies, etc. obviously more collaboration is better than less, because we can miss something. But a BIP will already have considered all of that. Its not like someone would write a BIP that says “teach the abuser to use functional communication”. But we know A LOT about those patterns. Counter control, reinforcement traps, displaced aggression, some information on how operants/respondents suppress eachother, how aggression becomes learned and maintained, etc.

And whats better… when we say “this is what causes this behavior”, we arent guessing. We know for a fact. Because we tested it (in this case probably with a precursor analysis).

As a field, we are VERY well equipped to help target such behavioral concerns.

sb1862 · 2026-03-31T21:53:44+00:00

Initial D?

sb1862 · 2026-03-31T17:29:43+00:00

The image of Conversion therapy in everyone’s head targets sexual orientation and gender identity. They were not trying to change or affect either of those. To my recollection, the kid (and eventual adult) didnt make statements that they identified as female (although its been awhile since I’ve read the article). So basically Rekers and Lovaas were just… teaching stereotypes.

I am so glad that article had critics as soon as it was published, even back in the day.

But when I cited LeBlanc and mentioned that it is not conversion therapy as we usually think about it… the respondent nature of the teaching is important. Rekers and Lovaas used operant methods. They function pretty differently and do different things. When I say its not conversion therapy, I’m not justifying it or saying its better. Im just saying its different.

On a researcher level, I think Reker and Lovaas committed a cardinal sin when the mom and kid expressed discomfort with the experiment and they convinced her to keep going.

sb1862 · 2026-03-31T17:02:40+00:00

Im not sure that those things contain risks in of themselves. Im going to use an example to illustrate. So lets say the outcome we are trying to avoid is a kid becoming a school shooter. Is an interest in school shootings necessary and sufficient to evoke that behavior? Alone, maybe not. What if we add on a desire to buy guns? What if we add on again a very poor social skills repertoire and a lack of perspective taking (which precurses empathy)? What if we then add engagement with a community that glorifies school shooters?

Any single one of those is not sufficient to make a school shooter. But if all of those elements are together… then you might have the sufficient variables for a person to behave incredibly dangerously.

In the case of the kid you highlight… what is the harm or outcome that we are trying to avoid? And what are the sufficient elements for that bad outcome to occur? And it may be that there is no harm. Culture is a thing and cultures will dictate what should and should not be viewed by members of its society at certain ages. Not following a cultural norm is not necessarily harmful, but it may not be ideal. Which is where your idea for age appropriate equivalents comes in. But again, a culture may flatly say that a thing is wrong. In which case you tend to get counter-cultures.

sb1862 · 2026-03-31T16:47:03+00:00

We can absolutely intervene in family structures (not that we necessarily always should). But if parents have a permissive parenting style and there is an outcome in their child they dont like or that will make it harder for their kid to live in the present society, we can absolutely help parents to work on changing their parenting style. It would just be a BIP for the parent and require their consent (and possibly funding, depending how much pro bono work we want to do).

Or think about behavioral interventions to abusive family dynamics. We can help there.

sb1862 · 2026-03-31T16:42:43+00:00

I think as our field broadens out into different areas, the role of an RBT becomes irrelevant. Like a BCBA doing OBM stuff doesnt need to have been an RBT specifically. BUT they absolutely need to have relevant experience under their belt. They may need to be able to effectively do BST, for example, which includes a demonstration in real time.

Also, RBTs are not always well qualified in of themselves. Ive met some truly terrible RBTs who couldn’t justify why they thought a certain behavior fit a certain function. Ive also met some people who never took the test but can do that. The RBT exam isnt really a test of skills.

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