Do you still collect data using pen and paper? If so, you’re in good company. A large but decreasing number of ABA professionals still collect data by hand, only to spend hours compiling scores manually into graphs later. The difficult, tedious work of converting hand-written scores into usable charts probably isn’t your favorite part of the day. These are hours you could be spending with students and planning future lessons. »

 ABA is a scientific research-based set of principles to help build socially significant behaviors that are meaningful for individuals and families. This article will focus applications for autism, but ABA is based on the study of all human behavior and is widely used in other settings. What is Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) and how does it work? What if you heard a knock at the door, opened it, but no one was there? »

The holidays can be demanding; everyone is off their routine, traveling to see family, or having family staying with you. It can all be exciting, fun, and magical, but it can also bring another layer of stress. Never mind the sugar highs and crashes, or the challenge getting children to stick to a bedtime routine. In these moments it’s difficult to stay in the moment and keep yourself from getting sucked into everything you need to get done. »

How Thread Learning is Modernizing the Complex World of Autism Care is a story recently published by Cornell University; excerpt below. One in 59 children in the United States is born on the autism spectrum, which is a 424 percent increase from autism rates in 2001. Given this rapid increase in autism diagnoses and the length of school and training for autism caregivers, it’s not surprising that there is a catastrophic shortage of therapists and educators to help these kids learn and thrive. »

Since the year 2000, diagnoses of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) in the United States have almost tripled. Fortunately, public awareness and understanding of effective, evidence-based interventions of ASD have grown similarly over that same time period. Recognizing ASD in children at an early age (e.g., by age three) allows treatment to occur sooner, which can lead to significantly enhanced outcomes later in life (Dawson et al., 2012; Horovitz & Matson, 2010). »

Kessel and Combs (2016) published a compelling article about the developments in electronic data management within healthcare. We’d like to summarize and apply their findings for today’s Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) community, which is increasingly reliant on the use of electronic data collection. The study investigated the results of 895 articles published over the last decade to examine the massive growth in healthcare data and the necessity of harnessing and sharing “Big Data” (Kessel & Combs, 2016). »