Alamo Behavior Analysis

12/20/2024

A message from our Chief Clinical Officer, Dr. Heather Gonzales:

“Today was a joyful day as I had the privilege of assisting autistic adults in employment.

At Party City, I ran into two young adults in orange shirts and hats from a company called Care, focused on aiding individuals in need. Their partnership with Amazon has a significant impact on supporting families experiencing poverty.

Trevor, a young man with a huge smile stopped me and asked if I was having a good holiday season. After interacting with 100+ autistic people with IDD in various settings, I could easily tell that this was his neurotype. I decided to stop and listen.

His sales approach was not only friendly but also detailed and enthusiastic, highlighting his dedication and skills.

*Trevor gave me his informed consent to share his name and photo, as did his autistic co-worker.

He asked what I did and I said, “I’m a behavior analyst and I work with autistic adults with intellectual disabilities”.

He smiled, and said, “Well, you’re looking at one!”

He convinced me to make a quarterly, tax deductible donation of $120 to Care in honor of mother and child health, which you know is a cause dear to my heart.

As I filled out the paperwork he shared, “You know, being autistic, I have to work 4 times as hard to do the same job.”

I said, “Yeah, I get it, but know that you are a fantastic salesperson and that is one of the hardest jobs in the world.”

As I walked away, I heard Trevor joyfully say to his co-worker, “That’s one down!”

Support autistic workers.

Autistic people are often un- or underemployed and not always because of IDD. Inherent ableism in the workplace and unwillingness to make ADA accommodations that would be universally beneficial to all employees often gatekeep autistic people from full-time employment.

It was such a joy and honor to support Trevor’s great work today and to give to a cause that is important to me!”












Image descriptions:

The photo on the left shows Heather between a young man and woman wearing orange. They have big smiles on their faces.

The photo on the right shows the donation board with columns listing the cause donated to. “Under Healthy Moms and Children”, “Heather” is written in purple dry erase marker.

06/25/2024

Message from our CEO, Dr. Heather Gonzales:

“I just created my competency check for my behavior technicians.

This was a pre-session audit requirement for credentialing with Optum and I thought it would just be good practice for a supervisory relationship.

I worked for an in-home agency who had a similar google doc for competencies, but the targets were VERY different.

You see below that I am measuring only 7 (forgive the typo) target behaviors and they are all related to quality of relationship and general service excellence, and not minutiae.

No learning opportunities per hour.

No “delivers the discriminative stimulus as written” (that’s bad for generalization anyway!).

No “gets 100% accuracy on error correction task analysis”.

No “does minimum of 5 trials on each target in the session book”.

But that’s just not my thing.

I want my behavior technicians to do quality ABA, but if they’re making mistakes with procedure, that’s a teaching opportunity and a sign that I haven’t trained them sufficiently.

Relationships, respect, openness to feedback.

These are the values that are important to me in a BT.

I just want our learners to learn in a way that makes them feel excited and respected.

06/25/2024

Message from our CEO, Dr. Heather Gonzales:

🪷

On Monday’s my adult learner makes pictures for everyone at the day treatment center (staff and members).

My request was a hippo family.

My learner named them 🥰.

At Alamo Behavioral Analysis, we absolutely love working with adults with complex cases (co-occurring intellectual disabilities or SMI, court-ordered ABA, psychiatric institutionalization, etc.).

If your child or member has been turned away from other ABA agencies, check us out at:

www.alamobehavior.com

Or email me at:

Heather@alamobehavior.com










ID: A mama hippo and two babies are hand drawn in pen and gray colored pencil. The mother is named Mary and the babies are named Lucy and Airam. Above the image reads, “From (name) to Heather 6-24-24.” Under the image reads, “Heather is so cute, playful, and awesome.”

Alamo Behavior Analysis is an in-home ABA company in the Phoenix, AZ metro area.

06/11/2024

Alamo Behavior Analysis has updated our website to reflect our philosophies and specialties.

Please check it out!

www.alamobehavior.com

Alamo Behavior Analysis is an in-home ABA company in the Phoenix, AZ metro area.

06/10/2024

PSA: If you’re recording your learners during meltdowns for the teaching opportunity, please stop.

It can be tempting to want to show a learner how they appear when in a meltdown to explain emotions or to discuss more complicated topics like how you are perceived by others when escalated, but here is a quick story to illustrate why it isn’t kind.

I work with an autistic young adult with an intellectual disability at a day program. His developmental age is probably 7-8 years old.

On Friday he was taking a break and watching South Park several feet from me on a couch while I sat at a table. I took a moment to film myself scrolling through a spreadsheet for my business that I wanted to show my husband.

I played it back and he heard his voice. The video wasn’t of him and he was perfectly calm.

He immediately said, “I don’t like to be recorded.”

I told him that I wasn’t recording him and showed him what I recorded.

He repeated himself adamantly. I asked if he would like me to delete the video from my phone. He said yes.

He fixated on being recorded for the rest of the session.

Clearly, someone, or many people, have recorded him without his permission before (he has no problem when I ask him to record our dance parties).

Consider that this young man, who can self-advocate effectively, doesn’t want to be recorded while calm.

Now imagine taking out your phone and recording a child, teen, or adult in the midst of a meltdown.

At that moment, they are in acute distress.

Recognize that, we in ABA are considered unfeeling and that we are often accused of ignoring vulnerable autistic people when they engage in behavior that we find challenging.

Taking out your phone and recording is the same thing as planned ignoring.

Are there problematic behaviors that require planned ignoring? Sure. Swearing to get a reaction, for example.

But put yourself in the shoes of an autistic child who can’t control their body. Maybe they’re screaming or crying. They are likely VERY overstimulated, confused, and highly distressed.

No matter what, that is not the moment to film, no matter your intentions.

You probably aren’t doing this, but if you ever think it might be helpful, or if you’re a BT whose BCBA tells you to do that, stand up for your learner.

PSA over.

06/07/2024

On Fridays my adult learner chooses to make art for other members at his day program.

This is Steven the hippo (hippos are my favorite).






ID: Hand drawn image of a gray hippo. Text reads, “From (Name) to Heather. 6-7-2024. Hibbo named Steven. Heather is so cute, strong, and awesome.”

😊

03/07/2024

If you have a learner who engages in head banging, this has been helpful.

1. Immediately check when the last time the learner has had dental X-rays. Can you imagine needing a root canal and not being able to tell anyone? If they haven’t had X-rays recently, start the process of finding a dentist who works with people with developmental disabilities, and may have a proven track record using anesthesia. Often parents put off going to the dentist because of severe aggression or SIB.

2. Buy something to safely response block. Put in the Amazon order after the first instance of head banging. This kickboard is working well. It had hand holes which makes it easy to grip.

I have been able to maneuver it kind of like I’m fencing; rotating it quickly to place it between the learner’s head and the wall, and then flipping it to protect myself from aggression.

Not only is this response blocking, but it’s also automatic extinction. Removing the sensation of making head contact with the wall or floor should hopefully create an abolishing operation and reduce future SIB.

3. Start a functional behavior assessment from the first instance to determine the function. Is this pain attenuation? Connection seeking? A response to denied access? Immediately start a BIP and add a target to data collection.

4. Based on the results of the FBA, intervene on the antecedent side. Create abolishing operations based on function.

5. Start planning environmental changes to protect the learner. We put up the foam times that people use in home gyms. If we had the funds we would go further with formal mats.

6. Create meaningful, enriching activities. People who are intellectually stimulated may be less likely to seek out SIB for social and sensory reasons (doesn’t apply to pain attenuation).

What am I missing? Would you change the order?

EDITED based on insight from commenters.

03/07/2024

Board games in ABA!

Board games are so great for teaching skills, as well as to build tolerance with annoying conditions without engaging in interfering behaviors.

First, before I get into the specifics, some universal things that get developed when you play board games are:

1. Learning and following rules
2. Turn taking
3. Waiting
4. Tolerating losing
5. Good sportsmanship

Here are my favorites for learners that have a developmental age of 4-10ish, in order of complexity.

CANDYLAND:
If you have a learner who can’t yet tolerate losing, this is a good place to start. Typically, the person who goes first wins. Unique skills learned: color recognition, counting.

CHUTES AND LADDERS:
This one’s easy too, but there is a component of having to go backwards with the chutes, which can teach tolerating disappointment. In addition, learners practice more advanced counting with numbers.

ZINGO:
This is a game of chance, but it involves many opportunities to practice disappointment, such as when others get the tile you want first or get 3 in a row. This is a quick game so you can play multiple rounds if a learner loses.

FOUR IN A ROW:
I love this game as a tool for conversation practice. One communication partner starts with a question and puts in a token. The other partner answers and puts in theirs (and so on). If you’re playing traditionally, this is a VERY distant cousin of checkers, in that it involves the tension between offense and defense. It’s a great tool for creative thinking and problem solving. Tolerating losing is a big one here.

UNO:
This game involves more complex rules that have to be learned and followed, but the premise is simple. My learner whose chronological age is 6-7 is a champ at it. It also has some disappointment components.

HEADBANZ:
In this game, you wear an unknown noun card on your forehead. You ask yes or no questions like 20 Questions until you guess it. It involves knowledge of categories and process of elimination as well as creative thinking.

What are your go-to games for ABA?