FEBRUARY 29 | 8:30AM - MARCH 1 | 5:00PM

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IN-PERSON OR LIVE STREAM THROUGH BEHAVIOR LIVE

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about vbc

The mission of the VBC is to highlight, support, and mentor practitioners and researchers who utilize the theoretical, practical and empirical information about verbal behavior in their professions. The conference is organized and hosted each year by the Central Texas Autism Center and its founder, Kelle Rich, BCBA, LBA.

VBC Pre-Conference In-Person and Virtual Workshop with Dr. Lina Slim

A Systems Approach for Establishing Effective Speech Production in Learners with Limited Vocal Verbal Behaviors.

Lina Slim

Assessing and selecting speech targets can be challenging especially for non-speech language pathologists (SLP) or behavior analyst practitioners who may not have opportunities to collaborate with SLP, and who may not have ongoing or direct access to the expertise of an SLP. Speech sound production follows a physiological, phonological, and developmental continuum and is influenced and shaped by the environmental contingencies of the verbal community. This workshop provides a systems approach to understanding speech acquisition processes and hierarchy, analyzing and coding syllable structure combinations, selecting targets and establishing effective shaping procedures. Participants will leave this workshop with an increased understanding of the complex yet coordinated sequence of speech production, an appreciation of the need to collaborate with speech-language pathologists, and systems to implement that will guide practitioners in the analysis of speech sounds, selection of targets and shaping procedures.

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Learning Objectives

After attending these presentations, participants will be able to:

  1. Identify the speech acquisition processes.
  2. Describe the decision-making hierarchy for selecting speech targets.
  3. Identify at least two effective instructional procedures that promote speech sound accuracy and production.

course information

6 BACB LRN CE’s | February 28, 2024 8:00-4:00pm at the Commons Learning Center |

$200 for virtual or in-person workshop only

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Our Speakers

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thoughts from the founding fathers of vbc
Patrick Mcgreevy
Dr. Patrick McGreevy | Ph.D, BCBA‑D

Dr. Patrick McGreevy received B.S. and M.A. degrees in Psychology and Special Education, respectively, from the University of Iowa. He was a special education teacher for eight years, working with children and young adults with moderate-to-severe developmental disabilities. He received the Ph.D. degree in Education from Kansas University under the guidance of Ogden R. Lind ... Read More + sley. He has served on the faculties of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Louisiana State University, the University of Central Florida, and the Florida Institute of Technology. He is the author of Teaching and Learning in Plain English, an introduction to Precision Teaching, and the founder and first editor of the Journal of Precision Teaching and Standard Celeration Charting. He is the author of ten journal articles and a book chapter on teaching verbal behavior. He is the first author of Essential for Living, a functional skills curriculum, assessment, and professional practitioner’s handbook based on B. F. Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior for children and adults with moderate-to-severe disabilities. For the past 30 years, he has provided consultations for children and adults with developmental disabilities in school districts, residential programs, and hospitals, specializing in the simultaneous management of aggressive and self-injurious behavior and the teaching of communication and language skills to individuals with limited repertoires. He is board certified behavior analyst, has given hundreds of presentations and workshops around the world, and is the recipient of the Ogden R. Lindsley Lifetime Achievement Award of the Standard Celeration Society. He is the President and Director of Consultation and Training Services for Patrick McGreevy, Ph.D., P.A. and Associates. Download Abstract

Henry Schlinger Headshot
Dr. Hank Schlinger Jr. | Ph.D.

Henry D. (Hank) Schlinger Jr. received his Ph.D. in psychology (applied behavior analysis) from Western Michigan University (WMU) under the supervision of Jack Michael. He then completed a two-year National Institutes of Health-funded post-doctoral fellowship in behavioral pharmacology also at WMU with Alan Poling. Dr. Schlinger was a full tenured professor of psychology a ... Read More + t Western New England University in Springfield, MA, before moving to Los Angeles in 1998. He is now professor of psychology and current director of the ABA Specialization Option and BCaBA course sequence, and former director of the M. S. Program in Applied Behavior Analysis in the Department of Psychology at California State University, Los Angeles. Dr. Schlinger has published approximately 100 scholarly articles, chapters, commentaries, and book reviews in more than 35 different journals and books. He also has authored or co-authored four books, Psychology: A Behavioral Overview (1990), A Behavior-Analytic View of Child Development (1995) (which was translated into Japanese), Introduction to Scientific Psychology (1998), and, most recently, How to Build Good Behavior and Self-Esteem in Children (2021), which is available on Amazon.com. He is past editor of The Analysis of Verbal Behavior and The Behavior Analyst (now Perspectives on Behavior Science) and sits on the editorial boards of several other journals. He also serves on the Board of Trustees of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies and on the Advisory Board of The B. F. Skinner Foundation and The Venus Project (https://www.resourcebasedeconomy.org/advisory-board/). Dr. Schlinger received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the Department of Psychology at Western Michigan University in 2012, and the Jack Michael Award for Outstanding Contributions in Verbal Behavior from the Verbal Behavior Special Interest Group of the Association for Behavior Analysis International in 2015. Download Abstract

Mirela Cengher
Dr. Mirela Cengher | Ph.D.

Mirela Cengher, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in Psychology at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC). She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst-Doctoral Level and a licensed behavior analyst in the state of Maryland. Dr. Cengher first became interested in behavior analysis when she began working with children with developmental disabilities as an undergrad ... Read More + uate student in Romania. She then moved to the United States to pursue graduate training in behavior analysis. Dr. Cengher received her doctorate in Psychology from The Graduate Center, City University of New York, and completed her Postdoctoral Fellowship at Kennedy Krieger Institute and Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine. Dr. Cengher has over 15 years of research and clinical experience with individuals with developmental disabilities. Her primary research interest is at the intersection of verbal behavior and stimulus control—specifically, in her research, she evaluates variables that affect the acquisition of verbal behavior and the development of emergent relations. One of the main lines of research in Dr. Cengher’s lab is the acquisition of foreign languages in children from bilingual households. Dr. Cengher serves as a (guest) Associate Editor and as an editorial board member for several scientific journals (e.g., Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, The Analysis of Verbal Behavior, Behavior Analysis in Practice). Download Abstract

Alice Shillingsburg
Dr. Alice Shillingsburg | PhD, BCBA-D, LP

Alice Shillingsburg, PhD, BCBA-D, LP is Professor and Yale Family Endowed Chair at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Dr. Shillingsburg also serves as Director of the integrated Center for Autism Spectrum Disorders (iCASD) at the Munroe-Meyer Institute for Genetics and Rehabilitation. She received her PhD in child clinical psychology at Auburn University and comple ... Read More + ted her APA Accredited doctoral Internship at the Marcus Institute in Atlanta, GA. In prior roles, she has served as Sr. Vice President of Children’s Clinical Services and Training at May Institute, Director of the Language and Learning Clinic at Marcus Autism Center, and previously held an appointment as Associate Professor at Emory University School of Medicine in the Department of Pediatrics. Dr. Shillingsburg’s research and clinical interests involve the development and implementation of comprehensive and focused interventions to promote robust, meaningful skill development for children and adolescents diagnosed with autism. Her clinical interests focus heavily on increasing access to high quality, compassionate care serving autistic individuals and their families. Dr. Shillingsburg has supervised numerous pre-doctoral and post-doctoral fellows and enjoys mentoring early career researchers and clinicians. She has published over 60 empirical research articles and book chapters, is current Editor-in-Chief of Operants Magazine, and is past Associate Editor for the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis and The Analysis of Verbal Behavior. She is appointed to several editorial boards and is regularly invited to speak at national conferences. Download Abstract

Eb Blakely
Dr. Eb Blakely | Ph.D., BCBA-D

Elbert Blakely received a Ph.D. in 1988 from Western Michigan in Psychology with a specialty in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). He has worked in the fields of developmental disabilities, mental health, behavior pharmacology, experimental analysis of behavior, organizational behavior management, and database design. Dr. Blakely has co-authored 25 articles and one book. The ... Read More + articles address research questions in the areas of the experimental analysis of behavior, applied behavior analysis, conceptual issues, and behavior pharmacology. Dr. Blakely is an Assistant Professor at Florida Institute of Technology, where he teaches courses in applied behavior analysis, radical behaviorism, and behavior pharmacology. He also provides consultation to organizations and providers who deliver ABA services to children and adults. Download Abstract

Lina Slim
Dr. Lina Slim | Ph.D., BCBA‑D, SLP-CCC

Dr. Lina Slim is a dually certified SLP and BCBA-D with over 30 years-experience, specializing her clinical practice on supporting families and their children with autism, neurodevelopmental and behavioral challenges, speech and language differences and apraxia, providing training, supervision, and consultations to practitioners across professional disciplines, cultures an ... Read More + d countries. She is Founding Executive Director of ASAP – A Step Ahead Program, LLC, Adjunct Professor at Endicott College ABA Program, Adjunct Assistant Professor at The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, ABA Online Program, and Teaching Faculty at Behavior Momentum India (BMI) ABAI ® approved VCS course. Her clinical and research interests focus on disseminating best practices in the application of the science of behavior analysis to support persons with autism and their families, establishing and maintaining effective functional verbal behaviors while promoting Interprofessional Culturally Aware, Responsive and Person-Centered Collaborative Practices (AICARe-Collaboration). Dr. Slim presents and consults nationally and internationally and has published several peer-reviewed research and book chapters. Dr. Slim is the recipient of the 2005 Children Empowerment Award and the 2014 New Jersey Speech-Language-Hearing Association (NJSHA) Distinguished Clinical Achievement Award. She is past-Chair of NJSHA Interprofessional Autism Conference, Board of Directors Member of the Association for Science in Autism Treatment (ASAT), past co-chair and current member of the NJSHA-NJABA Collaborative Practice Group, Chief Communication Officer Liaison of Behavior Analysis SIG on Supervision to the ABAI (BASIGS), Board Member of ABAC, Inc., Internal Continuing Education Committee, Executive Member of the Speech and Applied Behavior Analysis (SPABA) ABAI SIG, and BACB ® Subject Matter Expert on the Item Review Committee. Dr. Slim brings a unique personal and behavior analytic perspective on interprofessional collaboration, cultural responsiveness, and humility, by drawing from her diverse cultural, linguistic, and professional background, as well as from her extensive clinical practice working with culturally and linguistically diverse families nationally and internationally. Download Abstract

Matt Cicoria Cropped
Matt Cicoria | BCBA - Panel Moderator

Matt Cicoria is a behavioral and educational consultant in private practice, providing services to school and community settings in New Hampshire and Vermont. Matt earned his B.A. in Psychology at the University of New Hampshire, and then his M.S. in Psychology at Auburn University under the supervision of Dr. Jim Johnston. After graduate school, Matt went to work in the f ... Read More + ield of Developmental Disabilities, working in both community and residential settings. In 2002, Matt earned his BCBA certificate, and in 2007, he started an independent consulting practice, Positive Behavioral Outcomes, LLC. Through this company, Matt has consulted with hundreds of students’ teams across northern New England. As a dissemination project, Matt created The Behavioral Observations Podcast in February of 2016. The podcast publishes long-form interviews with leading behavior analysts where current topics in the field are discussed in a casual format. Since its launch, the show has been downloaded almost 2.9 million times, and has reached audiences in over 100 countries. Matt, along with Dr. Lisa Britton, is the author of Remote Fieldwork Supervision for BCBA© Trainees. He lives in New Hampshire with his wife and three children.

Schedule

DAY 1

7:15-8:15

Registration and Coffee Bar (in person)

8:15-8:25

Opening Remarks, Kelle Rich, BCBA, LBA

8:30-9:30

Dr. Hank Schlinger, 'The Echoic: The Little Verbal Operant That Could' - Part 1 (1 BACB Learning CEU)

9:35-10:35

Dr. Alice Shillingsburg, 'What You Teach and How You Teach Matters: Implementing an Applied Verbal Behavior Model in Classrooms' (1 BACB Learning CEU)

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10:35-10:50

BREAK

10:55-11:55

Dr. Hank Schlinger, 'Back to Basics I: A Mediational Account of Equivalence Relations (1 BACB Learning CEU)

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11:55-12:55

LUNCH

1:00-2:00

Dr. Eb Blakely, 'Scientist Practitioner Model #1: Introduction and Application to Clinical Practice and Staff Training' (1 BACB Learning CEU)

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2:05-3:05

Dr. Mirela Cengher, 'Teaching Verbal Behavior to Children with Developmental Disabilities' (1 BACB Learning CEU)

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3:05-3:25

BREAK

3:30-4:30

Dr. Pat McGreevy, 'Verbal Behavior: A Necessary Component of Behavioral Intervention for Children and Adults with Severe Disabilities and Limited Skill Repertoires' (1 BACB Learning CEU)

Download Abstract

4:35-5:35

All Presenters, Mediator - Matt Cicoria of Behaviorial Observations Podcast (1 BACB Learning CEU)

5:45-6:15

Poster Presentations

6:30-8:30

Cocktail Reception

DAY 2

7:15-8:15

Coffee Bar (in person)

8:15-8:25

Opening Remarks, Kelle Rich/Matt Cicoria

8:30-9:30

Dr. Hank Schlinger, 'The Echoic: The Little Verbal Operant That Could' - Part 2 (1 BACB Learning CEU)

9:35-10:35

Dr. Alice Shllingsburg, ' Strengthening Gestures: A Critical Component to Building Robust Communication Skills for Autistic Children' (1 BACB Learning CEU)

Download Abstract

10:35-10:50

BREAK

10:55-11:55

Dr. Hank Schlinger, ' Back to Basics II: A Mediational Account of Verbal Relations' (1 BACB Learning Ethics CEU)

Download Abstract

11:55-12:55

LUNCH

1:00-2:00

Dr. Eb Blakely, 'Scientist Practitioner #2: Acquisition Diagnostics, Flow Charting, and Identifying Mechanisms of Action' (1 BACB Learning CEU)

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2:05-3:05

Dr. Mirela Cengher, 'Bilingualism in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder' (1 BACB Learning CEU)

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3:05-3:25

BREAK

3:30-4:30

Dr. Patrick McGreevy, 'A Deep Dive into Verbal and Non-verbal Life Skills' (1 BACB Learning CEU)

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POSTER PRESENTATION

We will be hosting a Poster Session at this year’s conference. For poster submission information, please click here.

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Parking Information for
the Commons Building
Building Address:
2901 Read Granberry Trail
Austin, TX 78758

Campus Address
10100 Burnet Road
Building 137 Austin, TX 78758

ADA accessible spaces are
located in all parking lots.

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