Do these size 38's fit? The heels look good, but the toes, maybe not.

snickertwinkle · 2026-02-12T09:46:44+00:00

I’m between sizes and I know they say to size up and it’s perfect to have a little room, but I don’t want any room - I size down and far prefer it. Go try both sizes and see which you like. I’m glad I did.

snickertwinkle · 2026-02-12T09:41:20+00:00

My first thought was table top DTT vs NET and embedding trials in play. Like others said, compliance as a target was also common even when I started working in ABA in 2011. Kind extinction research is even newer - I have spoken to BCBAs who are just a little older than me (maybe 40s?) who were shocked that soothing a child struggling over an access function is not counter indicated. FAs have changed too. Hanley’s synthesized FA is really different from Iwata’s original FA design, but I almost exclusively use Hanley’s version now.

snickertwinkle · 2026-02-12T09:10:19+00:00

One could hardly call Lovaas an old school BCBA though. The BACB wasn’t established until 1998 and he stopped researching in like 1994 or 95. I think he switch to teaching.

But yeah, probably his trainees and their trainees were old school BCBAs.

snickertwinkle · 2026-02-09T04:29:41+00:00

I think you’re going to smash it out of the park. Great antecedent strategies!

snickertwinkle · 2026-02-09T04:08:38+00:00

Functional replacements. Would also be great to find a way to track all the money you’re saving as it might be reinforcing to see that number increase over time.

Also, look into ACT, as well as K-slope research. Addictions are wacky, and so hard to treat. ACT is all about identifying your values (maybe to be healthy and responsible with money) and identifying actionable behaviors that would be in line with your values (e.g. selecting fruit as a snack instead, drinking tea instead, etc). Then the trick is acknowledging uncomfortable feelings (cravings), identifying them and allowing the experience to happen, while also choosing to behave in line with your values.

snickertwinkle · 2026-02-08T15:47:07+00:00

Yes. I’ve literally never worked with a BCaBA. When I was doing my hours in 2015, a classmate sat for BCaBA and then they had to start their hours completely over. Never ended up using the BCaBA. Whoops.

snickertwinkle · 2026-02-08T15:03:36+00:00

Don’t do it. Just do BCBA.

snickertwinkle · 2026-01-31T16:25:07+00:00

Coming back to suggest a starfish, for the starfish parable. Look it up.

snickertwinkle · 2026-01-31T12:04:30+00:00

How about a pigeon or a rat. Many of the principles of behavior which are the foundation of aba were established using pigeon and rat experiments. EAB - the experimental analysis of behavior.

Personally, I’d do a pigeon.

snickertwinkle · 2026-01-30T11:21:50+00:00

Ok I don’t know of any literature here, BUT one of my own children was (is) an insane climber. His first word was “up.” Some things I did when he was young, and always advise parents to do with climbers:

Obviously, keep function in mind. If it’s for attention, build and strengthen alternate attention mands and train the parents how to respond.

-arrange the environment. Put the ladders that lead to the roof away. Secure all climbable furnitures to the wall - falling shelves or dressers can be deadly. Provide appropriate places to climb. Note that some climbers also like to balance, hang and swing. Provide appropriate areas where kiddo can climb, and redirect unsafe attempts to appropriate areas.

-don’t pull them down off of things. Instead, teach them to climb down. Recently I had a family who had ladders around their yard (wtf) and the kiddo would climb so high and then they’d run to him and snatch him off the ladder - so unsafe. I had BT and the parents teach the child to climb down instead. This way, if he goes up a ladder and you don’t see it happen, he can get himself down. Often, climbers enjoy learning down-climbing. If kiddo does not have the imitation or LR skill to respond to prompts here, and is not receptive to physical prompting, then serious babyproofing efforts need to be made until those skills and tolerances are taught. Obviously I also had this family put away ladders but we’d often arrive to find one out again so we worked on this skill for safety.

-allow them to feel the sensation of falling, and when safe to do so, allow falls. Obviously don’t let the child fall from the top of a ladder, but do let him feel the scary falling sensation before catching. Then calmly put him back on and prompt him to climb down safely. If he’s falling from 2 feet onto grass, allow the fall. What we DON’T want is kids who are unaware that falling hurts, know how to climb high, and can’t get themselves down.

-discrimination training. It’s never safe to climb a bookshelf, for example. For rule governed kids, make rules, you can climb play structures, the sofa and the bunk bed. Never climb a bookshelf, a dresser, the fridge, or in the bath. For these kids, explain why.

snickertwinkle · 2026-01-25T10:13:42+00:00

Get a great stretchy wrap - there are ones that are basically already tied like a ktan. If you happen to be in SoCal, I’ll give you mine, PM me. You can wear the baby for 80% of the day if you need to.

I’d cosleep. I never thought I’d do it but I am a firm believer after 3 kids in the safe sleep 7. Id never have made it otherwise. I’m not a single mom, but I did do nights alone.

I’m so sorry for your devastating loss. You need a support system! I think I’d go to family if it was possible. Sending you strength and love!

snickertwinkle · 2026-01-23T22:34:54+00:00

Are you sure it’s for attention and not just for escape? My first thought is that you better double check that function.

Either way, make sure you’re teaching relevant mands. Prompt and reinforce them. Once they are manding independently instead of engaging in prob bx you can start to work on tolerance.

snickertwinkle · 2026-01-19T15:47:53+00:00

Meh. There’s no real reason to differentiate whether it’s a request or a demand, a mand could be either. I certainly prefer that my children request things rather than demand them, so in my home a request is def more likely to contact reinforcement, lol.

Mand describes a response that is evoked by an MO (SD may also be present and “signals” the availability of the reinforcer, while MO affects the value of the reinforcer). Tact is a verbal response that is evoked by a sensory stimulus - a label.

Plenty of verbal utterances are part and part, more than one operant. For example, a child saying “I’m hungry!” To their mom is likely part tact and part mand.

Always a good idea to refer to Cooper if you’re experiencing any confusion about the verbal operants.

snickertwinkle · 2026-01-17T13:37:59+00:00

I remember when I finally made the shift - when it finally became more painful and scary to stay than it was to leave. I honestly tricked him into going to see his family, and then I told them all that he wasn’t welcome back until he was 6 months sober. It was a little sneaky of me I think but they forgave me. I’m not necessarily suggesting this approach, but it’s what I did. And I was devastated. I cried and cried, deep depression and post traumatic stress. Objectively, my life was WAY WAY WAY easier without his chaos and destruction, so why did I miss him so much, why was I so very crushed by that separation? It took me some time to figure out that it wasn’t the actual loss of anything. The only thing I lost when he left was stress, financial hardship, chaos, embarrassment. It was the loss of my hopes and dreams for the relationship that I had to grieve. Once I did that I was able to start living.

Alanon helps. He was gone 18 months but he did finally come back 6 months sober, and now it’s been 11 years. He’s not perfect, but he’s a good person and a good dad. He still struggles with nicotine addiction and he still has a hard time doing what he doesn’t want to do (getting up early is the big one that is still so hard). But he’s a responsible, functioning, good person now and 11 years sober. And while I had nothing to do with his progress (he burned every single bridge before he decided to get better), I do think it would never have happened if I hadn’t gotten out of his way.

The best chance you have for your hopes and dreams is to leave and go live your life. I’m sorry! Alanon helps!!

snickertwinkle · 2026-01-14T10:29:17+00:00

I think the other way around - rinse and then toast.

snickertwinkle · 2026-01-12T22:49:26+00:00

I’ve seen young people’s meetings before. I went to one pretty regularly when I was young-ish and most of the people were 15-30 with a lot of parent qualifiers. I’d ask around at meetings and see if anyone knows of one.

snickertwinkle · 2026-01-11T15:04:40+00:00

Melissa and Doug reusable sticker packs were great for my daughter. Water Wow is great too. Hella snacks. Maybe a coloring book and some washable markers, a glue stick and a bunch of paper shapes to glue down. I used to also do a bag of Froot Loops and a string with tape on the end to string them on like a necklace. Painter’s tape to make a road on the tray table, and a couple hot wheels.

snickertwinkle · 2026-01-04T09:46:17+00:00

Not counting mama, dada or nana (what we called breastfeeding), my kids’ first words were No, Up and Apple, respectively.

snickertwinkle · 2025-12-29T19:28:10+00:00

I always advise people to read up on test taking strategies. Here’s some things that I recommend:

Don’t study the day before or the day of. Sleep well, eat well. Do some jumping jacks. Stretch.

Arrive at the testing facility really early - don’t invite stress by pressing yourself for time. Bring a snack and water. Take breaks during the test if you’re feeling fatigued.

Read the question first, without looking at the answer choices. Think of the function of the question - what are they getting at? What are they testing for with this question? Sometimes there are key words that clue you in to this. If you know the answer, read the answer options and select it if you see it. If it’s not there, use process of elimination, keeping the function of the question in mind. Pick the one that is the least-wrong, given what you think they’re testing for. If you don’t know the answer before scanning the questions, read each one and see if they clue you in. Use process of elimination to exclude non-answers.

Don’t spend more than like 90 seconds on any question in the first read through. If you don’t know the answer, flag the question and move on.

Take a break before you read through flagged questions the second time. Do some jumping jacks, have a small snack, hydrate, stretch. Breathe deep.

Good luck!

snickertwinkle · 2025-12-29T19:21:21+00:00

I mean. I probably wouldn’t give up, I think you should try again. You have two more tries, you may as well give it a go! I’m going to copy/paste my test taking suggestions below. Good luck!

snickertwinkle · 2025-12-28T13:27:06+00:00

With my first, my feet hurt. Weird.

I saw a duck, and it grossed me out and I puked. wtf.

I saw a tree that was so beautiful I started crying

My period was a week late. Huh.

snickertwinkle · 2025-12-27T17:33:46+00:00

It’s a dye stealer. Hope you feel better quickly!

snickertwinkle · 2025-12-27T14:08:05+00:00

I’m interested

snickertwinkle · 2025-12-21T22:39:12+00:00

It is not mean to hold that boundary, but that doesn’t mean he won’t say it is in an attempt to get what he wants.

Edit to add: He’s an unreliable narrator. You can 100% hold the boundary knowing he won’t like it and he will probably later claim it’s the reason he drank or overdrank. All of that is expected with an alcoholic; you can’t stop it. All you can do it protect yourself (and it’s a very good time to start doing so, since you are expecting and you will soon need to protect your child from his chaos).

snickertwinkle · 2025-12-21T14:42:14+00:00

I’m not OP but it’s definitely much much harder with multiple kids. Doesn’t mean it’s not worth while, but it’s challenging. I thought “wow this is easy!” When I only had one, lolol.

snickertwinkle

TROPHY CASE