Areas of Research 

Teaching Safety Skills

The purpose of our safety skills studies includes teaching children various skills to keep them safe.  

  • Consent Skills- Teaching self-advocacy skills related their personal boundaries and have them generalize those skills to their everyday environment. For example, how to say “no” when they do not want someone to enter their personal space. 

  • Child Abduction Prevention Skills- Teaching children how to respond to strangers if they try to get the children to leave with them. These skills include refusing to leave with the stranger, leaving the area, finding a trusted adult, and reporting the incident. 

  • Parent Training- Teaching parents how to teach their children various safety skills so they can teach their children new safety skills  

  • Active Shooter Responding- Teaching children and school staff how to respond during active shooter situations 

Culturally Responsive Practices

Behavior analysts (BCBAs) work with people from various backgrounds (e.g., race, ethnicity, socioeconomic status, religion, sexual orientation, gender identities, etc.) and all families deserve effective and high-quality services. Research shows that there are disparities in the quality of services 

  • Assessment & Treatment- Identifying culturally responsive skills to use during the assessment and treatment process. Our current study is seeking to bridge the gap in language differences between Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs), BCBAs, and caregivers through the use of translation modalities during services. Another study provides recommendations for BCBAs when working with Black families how to teach culturally responsive hair care procedures for their child who has sensory sensitivities or problem behavior during hair care routines.  

  • Mentorship/Supervision- BCBAs are required to mentor and provide supervision for their supervisee. It is important that the ways in which we supervise, and mentor is culturally responsive. Providing culturally responsive supervision may lead to a higher quality supervision experience and promote retention in Applied Behavior Analysis.  

Assessment of Severe Problem Behavior

Some autistic individuals need support learning how to effectively communicate their needs. When we do not have effective communication, sometimes problem behavior can develop to get their needs met. Assessing severe problem behaviors using a functional analysis (FA) have been empirically supported throughout decades of research. However, there may be contextual factors within and outside of these assessments that may potentially affect the results of the FAs. We are interested in researching the factors that affects the results of FAs conducted on severe problem behaviors.