Courses & CEUs

Food refusal is more than a label—it is behavior that should be observed, defined, and analyzed within the context in which it occurs. In this episode, we explore what behaviors such as turning away, pushing food away, saying “no,” leaving the table, crying, or escalating during meals may tell us about the feeding experience. Building on the biological and environmental foundations introduced in Episode 1, we examine refusal through a behavior-analytic lens, including response topography, precursor behaviors, reinforcement history, and escape-maintained behavior. We also ask an important question: if the behavior is maintained by escape, what exactly is the learner escaping? Listeners will explore how caregiver responses and feeding contingencies may influence patterns of refusal and escalation, while considering when medical, sensory, oral-motor, or other variables warrant further assessment or interdisciplinary collaboration. The goal is not simply to reduce refusal, but to better understand the variables surrounding it before determining how to respond.

Feeding support should prioritize medical screening, environmental accommodations, assent, and compassionate multidisciplinary care over coercive intake goals. Core Approach Rule out medical causes and collaborate with OTs, SLPs, dietitians, nutritionists, and pediatricians before or alongside behavioral programming. Assess what the learner is escaping or avoiding specifically, including food characteristics, sensory experiences, seating, lighting, noise, timing, and social context. Honor assent withdrawal, model without pressure, and use preferred activities and gradual exposure to create psychological safety. Programming Focus Begin with environmental arrangements and prerequisite skills, such as comfortable seating, core support, movement options, and access to preferred items Use shaping, stimulus fading, response-effort adjustments, and small achievable goals rather than rigid targets such as eating a fixed number of new foods. Open questions: What specific variables maintain each learner’s refusal, and which measurable replacement behaviors should guide future feeding programs?

In the fourth episode of our ACT mini-series, we turn our attention to the caregivers who play such an essential role in the lives of the individuals we serve. Joined by special guest Veronica Campos, we explore how Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACTr) can help behavior analysts better understand and support caregivers experiencing stress, burnout, guilt, competing demands, and the everyday challenges of caregiving. We discuss how experiential avoidance, rigid verbal rules, and reduced access to meaningful reinforcement can impact caregiver well-being and behavior, while exploring practical ACTr strategies such as values clarification, cognitive defusion, acceptance, present-moment awareness, and committed action. Most importantly, we examine how clinicians can support caregivers without simply teaching them to tolerate unsustainable circumstances—keeping compassion, collaboration, autonomy, and meaningful quality of life at the center of caregiver support.

In the third episode of our ACT mini-series, we move from understanding Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT) to putting it into practice. This episode explores how behavior analysts can use ACT-consistent strategies within their scope of practice, including values clarification, cognitive defusion, present-moment awareness, acceptance, and committed action. Through practical examples involving clients and caregivers, we discuss how these tools can be incorporated into behavior-analytic sessions while remaining grounded in functional assessment, observable behavior, and socially significant outcomes. Listeners will learn how to identify barriers to psychological flexibility, select ACT strategies that fit the individual and context, and help clients and caregivers take meaningful, values-consistent action—even when difficult thoughts and feelings show up.

In the second episode of our ACT mini-series, we build on the behavioral foundations of ACT by exploring the processes that make up psychological flexibility. Through a behavior-analytic lens, we examine experiential avoidance, cognitive fusion, present-moment awareness, acceptance, self-as-context, values, and committed action. We connect these processes to familiar ABA concepts such as negative reinforcement, stimulus control, rule-governed behavior, motivating operations, and derived relational responding. Clinicians will learn how ACT shifts the goal from eliminating uncomfortable thoughts and feelings to building flexible behavioral repertoires that allow individuals to engage in meaningful, values-consistent action—even when difficult private events are present.

Before you can effectively use Acceptance and Commitment Training (ACT), it helps to understand the behavioral science behind it. In this first episode of our ACT mini-series, we explore the behavior-analytic foundations of ACT, including private events, rule-governed behavior, Relational Frame Theory (RFT), and Arbitrarily Applicable Relational Responding (AARRing). We break down key RFT concepts such as derived relational responding, mutual and combinatorial entailment, and transformation of stimulus function, connecting them to real-world examples of anxiety, avoidance, rigid thinking, and other clinically relevant behavior. This episode gives behavior analysts the conceptual foundation needed to understand not just how to use ACT, but why ACT strategies may influence behavior.