Essential for Living (EFL) addresses a population that much of the behavior analytic literature underserves: children and adults with limited skill repertoires and moderate-to-severe problem behavior. While the field has produced extensive research on verbal behavior training, social skills instruction, and academic readiness, many of these programs assume a baseline level of learner cooperation, attending, and imitative behavior that individuals with the most significant needs have not yet developed.
Provider: BehaviorLive
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Join Free →Patrick and Troy will describe how to use Essential for Living, a life skills curriculum and assessment instrument for children and adults with limited skill repertoires and moderate-to-severe problem behavior. They will describe how to conduct an initial quick assessment, how to make certain that a learner has an effective method of speaking that will last a lifetime, how to record small increments of learner performance and progress, and how to teach the Essential Eight Skills in a context which would occur in everyday living until fluency and some degree of generalization are achieved. They will also describe how to manage problem behavior as these skills are being taught. Participants will benefit from this training only if they have available with them a copy of the Essential for Living Practitioner's Handbook.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 4 | Ethics |
Dr. Patrick McGreevy received B.S. and M.A. degrees in Psychology and Special Education, respectively, from the University of Iowa. He was a special education teacher for eight years, working with children and young adults with moderate-to-severe developmental disabilities. He received the Ph.D. degree in Education from Kansas University under the guidance of Ogden R. Lind sley. He has served on the faculties of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Louisiana State University, the University of Central Florida, and the Florida Institute of Technology. He is the author of Teaching and Learning in Plain English, an introduction to Precision Teaching, and the founder and first editor of the Journal of Precision Teaching and Standard Celeration Charting. He is the author of ten journal articles and a book chapter on teaching verbal behavior. He is the first author of Essential for Living, a functional skills curriculum, assessment, and professional practitioner’s handbook based on B. F. Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior for children and adults with moderate-to-severe disabilities. For the past 30 years, he has provided consultations for children and adults with developmental disabilities in school districts, residential programs, and hospitals, specializing in the simultaneous management of aggressive and self-injurious behavior and the teaching of communication and language skills to individuals with limited repertoires. He is board certified behavior analyst, has given hundreds of presentations and workshops around the world, and is the recipient of the Ogden R. Lindsley Lifetime Achievement Award of the Standard Celeration Society. He is the President and Director of Consultation and Training Services for Patrick McGreevy, Ph.D., P.A. and Associates.
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.