The Hoosier Association for Behavior Analysis (HABA) 2012 Conference

Little Star (LSC) staff recently attended the fourth Hoosier Association for Behavior Analysis (HABA) Conference.  HABA, the state chapter of the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI), brought in Dr. David Celberti, executive director for The Association for Science and Autism Treatment (ASAT) to provide the keynote address: “Science: Don’t Treat Autism Without It (that applies to everyone).”

The presentation highlighted the role that behavior analysts can play in helping consumers and other providers choose and implement interventions, as well as evaluate outcomes.

Although there are hundreds of autism interventions, most lack any scientific support; yet, such approaches prevail in many public schools and receive widespread media coverage. Science and scientific methods should serve as the foundation upon which treatments should be chosen, implemented, and evaluated.

Other topics the LSC staff enjoyed included: Dr. Wayne Fuqua’s “When Evidence Based Interventions Fall Short of the Treatment Goal: A Checklist for Trouble Shooting Treatment Failures” and Dr. Ernest Vargas’ “Language: Lingual Behavior.”

HABA “facilitates humane, ethical and effective behavioral practices in academic, research, home, school, clinic, community, and other settings.”  To this end, the organization promotes the basic science upon which the behavioral technology is grounded and supports the Behavior Analyst Certification Board as the appropriate credentialing body for practitioners of applied behavior analysis in the State of Indiana.