A behavioral prescription for promoting applied behavior analysis within pediatrics.
Stop waiting for pediatricians to call—walk in with data, scripts, and a plan to make their day easier.
01Research in Context
What this study did
D et al. wrote a 1993 blueprint for getting ABA inside pediatric offices.
They told BCBAs to stop waiting for referrals and start building daily teamwork with doctors.
The paper lists first steps: offer lunch talks, share quick data sheets, and join hospital rounds.
What they found
The article is a call to action, not an experiment.
It claims BCBAs will stay outsiders until they speak the medical language and share real-time results.
How this fits with other research
Papatola et al. (2016) and Kornack et al. (2017) deliver the exact tools the 1993 paper asked for. They give scripts for peer-review calls and cite parity laws so BCBAs can secure insurance money after the pediatrician says yes.
Birkett et al. (2022) show the teamwork in real life. Their adaptive care plans let behavior analysts sit beside nurses and schedule extra staff before medical visits—proof that the 1993 dream now happens in outpatient hospitals.
Coop et al. (2025) pushes the same spirit one step further. Where D et al. told BCBAs to enter pediatric offices, Coop urges them to enter statehouses and tell policy stories. Same move-outside-clinic mindset, bigger stage.
Why it matters
You can copy the 1993 playbook today. Walk into a pediatric clinic with a one-page graph of last month’s tantrum reduction. Offer to run a 15-minute lunch chat on how reinforcement cuts procedure time. Bring Papatola’s five-point medical-necessity sheet so the doctor can bill insurance without pushback. When the front desk sees you solve both behavior and paperwork problems, you stop being “the extra person” and start being part of the care team.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In recent decades, pediatric medicine has undergone a shift in focus from infectious diseases to the effects of behavior on the health and development of children. At the same time, behavior analysts have increasingly evaluated the direct application of their technology to the development and maintenance of child health behavior. Unfortunately, applied behavior analysts have developed their technology parallel to, rather than collaboratively with, pediatricians and, as a result, are not recognized as experts in the treatment of child health behavior. In addition, behavioral technology is not widely recognized as the treatment of choice by pediatricians. This paper provides a behavioral prescription for behavior analysts who wish to enter pediatrics as expert scientists and technicians. Specific recommendations are provided for stimulating collaborative rather than parallel development between applied behavior analysis and pediatrics in the promotion and maintenance of child health behavior. Strategies for maintaining this collaborative relationship and for strengthening the social relevance of behavior analysis are discussed.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1993 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1993.26-493