The Case for Humor in Behavioral Interventions: Session 111 with Steve Ward

The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

Almost from the outset of the podcast, people have been asking me to get Steve Ward on the show. If you're not familiar with Steve, he is the co-founder of Whole Child Consulting, and co-author of The Inventory of Good Learner Repertoires (amongst many other books).

In this episode, Steve and I talk about his paper that discusses the role of humor in behavioral interventions. We also talk about his concept of "task as reinforcer," and then digress into helping kids who present with oppositional repertoires.

We discussed a ton of resources, and I have done my best to capture them below. If you like the kind of approach that Steve offers, he is conducting a webinar that's hosted by The Applied Behavior Analysis Center on June 16th, 2020. ABAC is offering a 20% discount on this event as well as others to podcast listeners. If you're interested in checking this out, go to abacnj.com and use the code ABACBO20 at check out. With a few exceptions, this discount is available for most of the ABAC webinars, so hit the show notes for more details.

• Steve's ABAC webinar.
• The Inventory of Good Learner Repertoires.
• Teaching Good Learner Repertoires.
• Teaching Advanced Learner Repertoires.
• What You Need to Know About Motivation and Teaching Games: An In-Depth Analysis.
• Another 21 Games: This Time, It's Personal.
• Task-as-reinforcer BAP paper.
• Using Humor paper.
• An Operant Analysis of Joint Attention (Holth, 2005).

Today's show is brought to you with the generous support of:

• HRIC Recruiting. Barb Voss has been placing BCBAs in permanent positions throughout the US for just about a decade, and has been in the business more generally for 30 years. Like Batman, she works alone, which means that when you work with HRIC, you work directly with Barb and get highly personalized service. So if you're about to graduate, you're looking for a change of pace, or you just want to know if the grass really is greener on the other side, head over to HRIColorado.com to schedule a confidential chat right away.
• The Behavior Analysis Student Association from Florida Tech. In somewhat of a role-reversal, Behavioral Observations is sponsoring their annual student conference, which is taking place on April 17th, in sunny Melbourne, FL. This event will feature presentations from people such as Drs. Sarah Bloom and Tim Vollmer. It's good for 5 CEU's and both on and off site registration options are available. This is a student fundraiser, so no promo codes but don't worry, the early-bird registration price is absurdly cheap! For more information, go to FIT.edu/continuing-education.
• On April 20th, Hillcrest Educational Centers is hosting Dr. Greg Hanley for a full day workshop in Pittsfield, MA. The event is titled, "How to provide happy, relaxed and engaged treatment." Attendees will earn 7 CE's. Save on your registration by using the promo code YEARN.