austin johnson

GSOE round-up

juliep — Thu, 28 Jan 2021 19:09:15 +0000

GSOE round-up juliep Thu, 01/28/2021 - 11:09 More News January 12, 2021

Congratulations to Arturo Nevárez, a doctoral candidate in the Education, Society and Culture program. Nevárez received a two-year fellowship from the Branch Alliance for Educator Diversity along with a $5000 stipend. In this fellowship, he will collaborate as a co-researcher on a project with a BranchED scholar on transformative scholarship related to diversifying the teaching profession and critical issues of educational equity for minoritized students. According to their website, the goal of this program is twofold: 1) to support the development and success of emerging scholars of Color whose research interests are within the scope of teacher education and 2) to engage in collaborative and transformative scholarship related to diversifying the teaching profession and intentionally addressing critical issues of educational equity for all students.

Associate Professor Michael Solis was recently selected as a consultant for a $4 million-dollar federal grant received by Hawaii Department of Education. Currently, he is working on providing training of special education on reading interventions for students K-8 through a distance learning platform. This grant will ensure that a larger number of the teachers can be trained over the upcoming years.

Congratulations to Elina Veytsman, PhD student, who received the Michael Goodman Research Award, California Association of School Psychologists, November 2020, for her poster "Observed Effects of the PEERS® Social Skills Intervention for a Diverse Sample of Adolescents with ASD". The Michael Goodman Memorial Research Award recognizes the most outstanding research paper or poster presented at the annual CASP Convention. In the CASP newsletter, Elina said, “As an aspiring clinical researcher, I strongly believe that the value of research can be measured by its ability to have a direct impact on the youth and families it seeks to benefit . . . Our team implemented and adapted the first-ever PEERS intervention for Latinx families, who have been historically underrepresented in ASD intervention research.”

Elizabeth Baker, PhD student, wrote a blog for a UCR Sci Comm, "Cheers for Peers! Improved neural sensitivity to rewards in teens with autism spectrum disorder after intervention," using data from her master’s thesis. Read it here.

Autism Goes to College, a documentary executive produced by Dr. Jan Blacher, won the Jury Award for Best Documentary at the Long Beach International Film Festival.

Associate Professor Rita Kohli’s new book, Teachers of Color: Resisting Racism and Reclaiming Education,will be published in June by Harvard Education Publishing Group.

Teachers of Color describes how racism serves as a continuous barrier against diversifying the teaching force and offers tools to support educators who identify as Black, Indigenous, or people of Color on both a systemic and interpersonal level. Based on in-depth interviews, digital narratives, and questionnaires, the book analyzes the toll of racism on their professional experiences and personal well-being, as well as their resistance and reimagination of schools.

It's now available for pre-order from the publisher. Use the discount code TCSP21 for 20% off. (Also available via Bookshop.org, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble)

Assistant Professor Austin Johnson co-authored School-Based Behavioral Assessment: Second Edition, released January 8, 2021. Revised and expanded with the latest tools and strategies, this concise book offers guidance for effectively conducting social, emotional, and behavioral assessments in today’s K–12 schools. The expert authors present foundational knowledge on assessment and data-based decision making at all levels—whole schools, small groups, or individual students—within a multi-tiered system of support (MTSS). Chapters describe when, why, and how to use extant data, systematic direct observation, direct behavior rating, and rating scales. In a large-size format for easy photocopying, the book includes reproducible forms and templates. Purchasers get access to a Web page where they can download and print the reproducible materials.

The following is a round-up of research and accomplishments sent on behalf of UCR SEARCH Center: Professor Jan Blacher; Assistant Professor Katherine Stavropoulos; Yasamin Bolourian, PhD Special Education, Post-Doctoral Fellow; Elizabeth Baker, PhD student, School Psychology ; Megan Ledoux Galligan, PhD candidate, Special Education ; Ainsley Losh, PhD student, School Psychology ; Elina Veytsman, PhD student, School Psychology ; Michelle Heyman, PhD student, School Psychology ; Tricia Choy, PhD student, School Psychology; Giselle Salinas, PhD student, Special Education ; Bhawandeep Baines, PhD Student, School Psychology; Ann Marie Martin, '20, PhD Special Education

PUBLICATIONS
Baker, B. L., & Blacher, J. (in press). Behavior disorders and social skills in adolescents with intellectual disability: Does co-morbid autism matter? Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities.

Buren, M. K., Johnson, A. H., Maggin, D. M., Bains, B. K., Ledoux Galligan, M. R., & Couch, L. K. (In press). Research utilization in special education. In B. M. Cook, T. J. Landrum, & M. Tankersley (Eds.), Advances in Learning and Behavioral Disabilities. Emerald Insight. doi: 10.1108/albd

Caplan, B., Blacher, J., Eisenhower, A., Baker, B. L., & Lee, S. S. (in press). Gene x Responsive Parenting Interactions in Social Development: Characterizing Heterogeneity in Autism Spectrum Disorder. Developmental Psychobiology.

Ledoux Galligan, M.R., Suhrheinrich, J., & Kraemer, B. (In press.) Video modeling for high school students with autism spectrum disorder. Journal of Special Education Technology.

Baker B. L. & Blacher, J. (2020) Collateral effects of youth disruptive behavior disorders on mothers’ psychological distress: Intellectual disability, or typical development. In: Volkmar F. (eds) Encyclopedia of Autism Spectrum Disorders. NY: Springer.

Baker, E., Veytsman, E., Martin, A. M., Blacher, J., & Stavropoulos, K. (2020). Increased neural reward responsivity in adolescents with ASD after social skills intervention. Brain Sciences, 10(402). doi:10.3390/brainsci/10060402.

Heyman, M., Bolourian, Y., & Blacher, J. (2020). Transition to early schooling for children with ASD. In M. B. McClain, J. D. Shahidullah, & K. Mezher (Eds.), Handbook of Interprofessional Care for Pediatric ASD. New York: Springer.

Levinson, S., Neuspiel, J., Eisenhower, A., & Blacher, J. (2020). Parent-teacher disagreement on ratings of behavior problems in children with ASD: Associations with parental school involvement over time. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10803-020-04675-1

Losh, A., Alba, L. A., Blacher, J., & Stavropoulos, K. K. M. (2020). Neuroimaging research with diverse children with ASD: Impact of a social story on parent understanding and likelihood of participation. Research in Autism Spectrum Disorders, 71, 101511. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.rasd.2020.101511

Martin, M. A., Stavropoulos, K. M., & Blacher, J. (2020). Differential diagnosis of autism spectrum disorder and early onset schizophrenia: Two clinical cases. Advances in Autism, 6(2), 139-151. https://doi.org/10.1108/AIA-11-2019-0043

Rodas, N.V., Blacher, J., & Baker, B. L. (2020). Predictors of anxiety symptom trajectory in children with or without ID from early childhood to adolescence, Journal of Mental Health Research in Intellectual Disabilities. https://doi.org/10.1080/19315864.2019.1710787

Rydzewska, E., Fleming, M., Young-Southward, G., Blacher, J., Bolourian, Y., Widaman, K., Philo, C., & Cooper, S.-A. (2020, in press). General health status in young people with intellectual disabilities with and without Down syndrome in, and transitioning from, special education. Findings from the National Longitudinal Transition Study-2 (NLTS2). Journal of Intellectual Disability Research. DOI: 10.1111/jir.12781

PAPER PRESENTATION
Ledoux, M. R., Heyman, M., Bolourian, Y., Eisenhower, A., & Blacher, J. (2021, January). Training for general educators in autism spectrum disorders: Adapting an iterative intervention for remote learning. Paper accepted at UC SPEDDR (virtual).

POSTER PRESENTATIONS
Choy, T., Losh, A., & Blacher, J. (2021, February). Parent-child interaction and social responsiveness in children with autism. Poster accepted at National Association of School Psychology (NASP) Convention (virtual).

Choy, T., Baker, E., Veytsman, E., Martin, A.M., Stavropoulos, K., Blacher, J. (2020, August). “The relationship between problem behaviors and family life following the PEERS® Program.” Poster accepted at American Psychological Association (APA) Annual Convention, Washington D.C. (virtual).

Heyman, M. R., Bolourian, Y., Baker, E., Baker, B. L., & Blacher, J. “Mother, Father, and Adolescent Perspectives: Sibling Relationship Quality of Individuals with ASD, ID, or TD.” Poster accepted at Gatlinburg Conference (virtual).

Veytsman, E., Ledoux, M.R., Salinas, G., Baker, B., & Blacher, J. (2020, December). Mothers’ perspectives on the future of their young adults with and without developmental disabilities. Poster presented at the Association of University Centers on Disabilities (AUCD) Annual Meeting, Washington, DC, USA. (Virtual conference)

Veytsman, E., Baker, E., & Stavropoulos, K. (2020, October). Observed effects of the PEERS social skills intervention for a diverse sample of adolescents with ASD. Poster presented at the California Association of School Psychologists (CASP) Annual Convention, Palm Springs, CA, USA. (Virtual conference)

Veytsman, E., Salinas, G., Ledoux, M.R., Blacher, J., & Baker, B. (2020, August). Staying positive: Dispositional optimism & attitudes for the future among mothers of adults with IDD. Poster accepted to the American Psychological Association (APA) Annual Convention, Washington, D.C., USA. (Virtual conference)

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Child abuse doesn't belong in science

juliep — Wed, 27 Jan 2021 16:56:11 +0000

Child abuse doesn't belong in science juliep Wed, 01/27/2021 - 08:56 More News Austin Johnson January 27, 2021

In October 2020, the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) refused to disavow the abuse of a gender non-conforming child.

JABA has faced increasing criticism from within the applied behavior analysis community over a 1974 paper by George Rekers and O. Ivar Lovaas. Finally, JABA decided to respond to critics by stating it would publish a “Statement of Concern,” but would not retract the paper as it was unclear whether the conduct of the researchers was unethical at the time.

In their lab, Rekers and Lovaas subjected 4-year-old Kirk Murphy to a system that rewarded him for behavior that is socially coded as masculine (e.g., playing soldiers) and punished him for behavior that is coded as feminine (e.g., playing dolls).

What Rekers and Lovaas did to Kirk Murphy was unethical in 1974, it’s unethical now, and this paper does not belong in the scientific canon.

When a journal retracts a paper after it’s been published, it is stating that a paper is so fundamentally flawed that it doesn’t deserve to be in the scientific literature. Those flaws can be related to making up data, faking analyses, or committing ethical violations. In the case of this Rekers and Lovaas paper, the ethical violation in question was the physical and psychological abuse of Kirk, a 4-year-old boy, because he engaged in feminine behavior.

As Rekers states in a follow-up article in 1977, he collaborated with Kirk’s parents to punish this behavior in order to “prevent an outcome of transsexualism, transvestism, or homosexuality, which they feared.”

Rekers—a vociferously anti-gay minister who described 4-year-old Kirk as having “slovenly seductive eyes”—and Lovaas coached Kirk’s parents to praise him when he played with masculine toys, and to ignore him when he engaged with feminine toys. At home, Rekers and Lovaas took an evidence-based intervention called a token economy (think sticker charts and point systems) and used it as tool to shame and abuse a 4-year-old. Kirk’s parents were told to use red and blue points with him; if Kirk earned too many red points for acting in feminine ways, he either lost blue points, went into time-out, or was spanked by his father. These “spankings” were extremely severe. As told to journalist Jim Burroway, Kirk’s brother remembered that “I saw my brother’s whole back side bruised so badly one time, my dad should have gone to jail for it.”

The Statement of Concern from JABA, written by the Society for the Experimental Analysis of Behavior and Editor-In-Chief Dr. Linda LeBlanc, notes that the study was federally-funded, arguing that the findings were empirically valid and “the available evidence does not make it clear that the original study was unethical by the standards of the day.”

The world and the psychological community in the early ‘70s would disagree.

Speaking to Retraction Watch, a blog that tracks retractions across science, NYU medical ethics professor Arthur Caplan stated on October 22 that “I think many would have found punishing this behavior wrong by the standards of the day so I am not persuaded this note is accurate.”

Indeed, from at least 1970, LGBTQ activists within and outside psychiatry were demanding that homosexuality be removed from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders. It finally was in 1973, with a majority of voting members of the American Psychiatric Association approving that decision. And immediately following the publication of the Rekers and Lovaas paper, two different sets of authors submitted ethical complaints about the paper. One of these authors, Donald Baer, is a foundational member of the field. Put simply, there’s more than abundant evidence that this paper was considered unethical in 1974.

I am deeply committed to the promise and science of applied behavior analysis. When used with compassion and as one method in a practitioner’s toolkit, it’s a powerful approach to supporting kids. This field’s premier research journal cannot condone abuse under the guise of science. Humanity has made that mistake countless times before, whether it’s the federally-funded Tuskegee Syphilis Study or the misuse of genetic material from members of the Havasupai Tribe.

Like any other science, researchers and practitioners in applied behavior analysis must face the skeletons in our closet and the contemporary criticisms of our field. Rekers and Lovaas abused Kirk Murphy, a cisgender gay man who ultimately committed suicide in 2003. The words used and actions described in Rekers and Lovaas are abusive and shameful. They did not have value in 1974. They do not have value now. To comply with editorial guidelines and basic human decency, JABA must retract this paper.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Austin Johnson is an assistant professor and the director of the School Psychology program at the University of California, Riverside’s Graduate School of Education. He received his Ph.D. in Educational Psychology from the University of Connecticut in 2014. Dr. Johnson’s research interests focus on the identification and implementation of evidence-based behavior assessment and intervention practices. Dr. Johnson is an Associate Editor for the Journal of School Psychology, as well as a Licensed Psychologist with the California Board of Psychology (#29540) and a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (#1-15-18892). You can read a preprint he wrote about this topic here.