ACT as a DRA Procedure matters because it changes what a BCBA notices when decisions have to hold up in clinic sessions and day-to-day service delivery. In ACT as a DRA Procedure, for this course, the practical stakes show up in stronger conceptual consistency and better translational decision making, not in abstract discussion alone.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via Women in Behavior Analysis
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Join Free →The purpose of this presentation is to demonstrate the effectiveness of using Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT) to help reduce challenging or unwanted behaviors in children and adolescents with autism, ADHD, and other neurodivergent diagnoses. By effectively training staff and caregivers how to implement programming, ACT as a DRA procedure has been shown in our clinical practices to dramatically reduce avoidance, refusal, yelling and other undesirable effects from denied access, as well as other precursors that may escalate to more dangerous behaviors. The team at ABA Across Environments, has implemented tools and prompts within the framework of the Hexaflex (Acceptance, Defusion, Self-as-Context, Present Moment Awareness, Committed Actions, and Values across multiple clients to assist with addressing their challenging behaviors as a synthesized reinforcement. The skills learned within psychological flexibility have been strengthened with differential reinforcement while teaching alternative behaviors. The long-term effects of using these tools and by teaching the principles of psychological flexibility have maintained low levels of challenging behaviors and have been sustainable for caregivers and staff to implement.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | General |
I am Cassandra Farrell. I have worked in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis since May of 2017 as a Registered Behavior Technician® and became a Board Certified Behavior Analyst® in February 2020. I have always had a passion for helping people and trying to improve the lives of those around me. Before entering ABA, I worked at an assisted living community in the Memory Care Unit with the intent of becoming a nurse. As much as I loved my residents, I didn’t feel that was my calling in life. I researched careers that focused on helping and improving the lives of others and found ABA. I joined a company that offered in-home, community- and clinic-centered services to children with autism. I fell in love! I began as an RBT® in 2017 and started pursuing my BCBA® certification within a year and half of working in ABA. I love that my career allows me to continue my passion helping and improving the lives of others as well as sharing the supports and benefits that ABA has to offer. I was born and raised here in Colorado. I grew up in Highlands Ranch, southwest of Denver, and moved to Colorado Springs in 2011 to attend UCCS where I graduated with my Bachelor’s in Psychology. I started my college career with the dream of becoming a nurse which led me to work at an assisted living facility. Although my nursing dream changed, I had found my future husband at the assisted living facility. I then attended Ball State University in 2018 for my masters in ABA with an emphasis in autism. I had a “COVID Wedding” in June 2020 because I could not wait to marry the man of my dreams. I look forward to the new opportunities that joining ABA Across Environments has offered and to improving the lives of kids and their families.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
280 research articles with practitioner takeaways
279 research articles with practitioner takeaways
258 research articles with practitioner takeaways
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All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.