Operant Innovations by ABA Technologies

Operant Innovations is the interview podcast from ABA Technologies, and its guests keep taking behavior analysis into places where people may not expect to find it. Some of those places are clinical. Others are workplaces, from disability service centers to organizations trying to get people to arrive on time. Maddie Duke leads several of the conversations, and her manner sets the tone: openly thrilled to have each guest, quick to ask them to introduce themselves, and candid enough to admit on air to her usual mistake of not checking how a name is pronounced. The questions are practical. Authors are asked who their book is for, and the question of where to start with a client gets a direct answer. Landa Fox, one of the presenters on a sexuality course, treats sex education as a lifelong process. It can begin at birth, she says, with caregivers labeling body parts during diaper changes, and her answer to when to start with a client is short: now. She recommends teachingsexualhealth.ca, a Canadian site that can be browsed by a client's age range. A conversation with Grace Demerling and Shawn Avery came about after Grace presented at ABAI on autistic adults who have experience with ABA therapy. One stretch argues that ABA, speech-language and occupational therapy providers serving the same child need an open line of communication, or they risk accidentally undoing one another's work. Kira Flynn, a Florida Tech master's student who is staying on for a PhD, joins a Pride Month episode as a supervisee who identifies as gay. The workplace conversations are just as grounded. In a book talk with Russell Justice and Rick Creecy, the rule for managers is blunt: asking someone to do something creates two obligations, to observe whether they do it and to recognize it when they do. Leaders who say they lack the time get a simple answer. Ask for fewer things. Dr. Lori Ludwig and Dr. Julie Smith, who wrote their book for leaders, describe an organization where lateness ran from the front line up to senior leaders. Their advice is to fix a small problem like that first, thanking people for arriving on time, before taking on bigger ones. Dr. Terry McSween, whose work has centered on applying behavioral principles to safety, recalls a former intern who went to work at a center for people with disabilities and was later kept off the job for six months by a head injury. He does not claim a ready answer for those settings. Instead, he argues for building a lasting way to collect data. A listener gets working conversations: named resources, specific cases, and advice aimed at someone who has to act on it. The tone stays warm and conversational throughout, closer to colleagues comparing notes than to a lecture.