Detecting and Troubleshooting Treatment Failures: A Crucial Component of Evidence-Based Practice of ABA

Description

Evidence-based practice (EBP) is a multi-component decision making process in which practitioners select, refine and deliver clinical services based on a) the best available scientific evidence, b) unique client and contextual features, c) training and competence of the practitioner, d) ongoing clinical progress monitoring and decision making and e) early detection and troubleshooting of treatment “failures.” Developed initially in medicine, EBP has been extended to the delivery of applied behavior analysis (ABA) services and is considered an essential feature of ethical and high quality ABA service delivery. This presentation will emphasize clinical progress monitoring as a tool for detecting treatment failures and describe a checklist for trouble shooting treatment failures.

About the Speaker

Dr. Wayne Fuqua is a Professor of Psychology and the former Chair of the Psychology Department at Western Michigan University (1999-2013). He currently teaches courses and mentors graduate students in Clinical Psychology and Behavior Analysis at WMU. Fuqua also conducts research across a range of areas including health psychology, ethics, dissemination and developmental disabilities. A Fellow of the Association for Behavior Analysis, Dr. Fuqua has published numerous peer reviewed articles and given numerous presentations and workshops at national and regional conferences. He has collaborated with researchers from WMU’s Sociology and Philosophy Departments on two NSF-funded projects on research ethics. He is actively involved with a number of community-based agencies that provide services to individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders and other developmental and physical disabilities. In his role as a member of the Michigan Autism Council (2013-2016), he was involved in developing, implementing and evaluating a state-wide plan to improve the quality and availability of autism services in the state of Michigan. He was recently honored with a Distinguished Service Award from Western Michigan University. He has developed a series of ABA training videos for BCBA practitioners that are available, free of charge, at wmich.edu/autism/resources.