Brian Iwata, Ph.D., will conduct a series of two-day workshops around the US this fall. Mr. Iwata, who is professor of psychology and psychiatry at the University of Florida, is one of the pre-eminent authorities on assessment and treatment of severe behavior problems such as self-injury. The workshops are entitled “Functional Analysis & Treatment of Severe Behavior Disorders: Methods for Clinicians and Educators.”
- 23-24 October 2008 in Louisville (KY, US);
- 13-14 November 2008 in Richmond (VA, US);
- 15-16 December 2008 in Austin (TX, US)
- 17-18 December 2008 in Orlando (FL, US)
Continue reading ‘Iwata workshops on FBA slated’
As a result of prowling around the Internet for a while, I’ve been assembling resources about applications of behavioral principles to problems relevant to the content of this blog. Of course, one of the foremost areas of application is improving the lives of individuals with autism. Indeed, applied behavior analysis (ABA) is sometimes misunderstood as a synonym for the discrete trial training procedures associated most closely with the work of Ivar Lovaas and his colleagues. Although they shouldn’t be considered synonymous, there is a great deal of communality.
But, that’s a topic for another post. This post is just an opportunity to list a few of the blogs that one can follow and learn about the application of behavior analysis to autism.
Continue reading ‘Some resources’
In “Calm Down or Else,” (15 July 2008) Benedict Carey reports about a possible increase in the use of restraints, seclusion, and other physically coercive methods to manage disruptive behavior.
For more than a decade, parents of children with developmental and psychiatric problems have pushed to gain more access to mainstream schools and classrooms for their sons and daughters. One unfortunate result, some experts say, is schools’ increasing use of precisely the sort of practices families hoped to avoid by steering clear of institutionalized settings: takedowns, isolation rooms, restraining chairs with straps, and worse.
Continue reading ‘Unrestrained management’
Over on Another Brick in the Wall, Donna posted an entry about the term “classroom control.” It got me thinking about the concepts of control, management, and teaching. Here’s her lead
Teachers use the term “classroom control” for classroom management techniques. I have also used those terms. Lately I have been thinking about how much control makes sense and if the goal is to keep children simply controlled or to change their behavior in a more lasting way. Change is a process that takes place inside the child before you see it in the behavior.
Continue reading ‘Reflections on control’
Over on Sines of Learning, Ms. Libb has a post about Fred Jones’ resources on classroom management. In “Tools For Teaching Part I.” Ms. Libb wrote
One of the most useful resources I’ve come across was Fred Jones’s works. Even though the teacher certification program I went through was great in many respects, we had -no- training in classroom management (big surprise, right?). Once I asked the best teacher we had, our math methods teacher who had been a classroom teacher herself, and her response was “The best discipline plan is a good lesson plan.” Riiiiiight. There’s tons of truth to that, but every trainee in the classroom knew we needed more than that!
Ms. Libb, who’s just getting started in teaching, goes on to explain how she then found one of Professor Jones’ books. She provides a review of it, refers to her experience attending a workshop on the methods, and promises a review of Fred Jones Website. Professor Jones’ recommendations about classroom management are good ones. I hope that they serve Ms. Libb well.
Link to Ms. Libb’s post.
