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Elopement is a top problem in many schools, residential facilities, and private homes. Whether the population is children or adults, elopement and its sub-categories can be both time-consuming and dangerous for staff and the individuals they serve. This presentation focuses not just on the setting events and maintaining variables responsible for elopement, but on the functional sub-categories which include running from aversives, running to access reinforcers (locations/people/activities/tangibles), running to access “being chased” as a reinforcer and running as “confrontation seeking” (the reinforcer is not the chasing per se, but staff going “hands on” and the ensuing struggle and signs of damage). There will also be a focus on the variants of elopement which include wandering (in the right room, but moving all around the room almost constantly), out of area (not wandering around, but in the wrong place), and out of seat. Guidelines will be presented for differentially diagnosing the sort of elopement problem as well as some treatment directions.

1. Participants will be able to explain how elopement, out of area, wandering and out of seat behavior are related
2. Participants will be able to explain how elopement can occur as a variant of "confrontation seeking" 
3. Participants will be able to explain elopement and its subcategories in terms of rates of reinforcement
4. Participants will be able to list 3 variables that may dramatically increase wandering/elopement
5. Participants will be able to explain the relationship between elopement and the current social repertoire of the child

 In a continuation from the pre-Covid world, this seminar will focus on how people can  theoretically misuse logic (incorrect rule following) to create and perpetuate a stereotype.  Incorrect logic is often used to explain perceived causes of ANY mismatch in the proportions of any groups of people or objects. This talk will focus on the variables that control our use of the word mostly‚ or disproportionate. That there is more of one group than another in any given situation doesn’t automatically mean that there are biases operating to cause and maintain these different proportions, but there always could be biases operating, and when resources, rights, access and fairness are on the line we must be vigilant for multiple sources of bias operating at the societal level, the individual level, at point of access/escape (obtain services/avoid jail). These biases that can cause disproportionality could be historical factors that steer us one way or another on our path at critical moments, and/or they may not affect us until the point of contact, so these variables can be cumulative (telling someone who they should or should not try to become) or  almost instantaneous, at the point of contact like extreme bias or even overt racism or one of the other “isms.” The seminar will finish with the concept of avatars and how they relate to hate crimes and how hate crimes are related to terrorism (our inability to feel safe even when we are law abiding citizens). 

1. Participants will learn the variables the cause us to use the words “disproportionate” verses “mostly”
2. Participants will be able to explain how “faulty logic,” specifically poor deductive reasoning, contributes to racial/ethnic/gender stereotypes.   
3. Participants will be able to explain exactly how terrorism and hate crimes are equivalent 
4. Participants will be able to explain how avatars are created and how they make it easier for someone to commit a hate crime  
5. Participants will be able to list 2 valid forms of deductive reasoning 

 Although yours may not truly suck, it possibly could do with some improvements…As the old saying goes, there’s many a slip twixt the cup and the lip, and the same is true of behavior plans. From initial assessment and writing, to staff training and revisions, there are numerous wrong turns where your well laid (behavior) plan can easily meet an untimely end in the back of a filing cabinet where it won’t see the light of day again until it’s survey time. As Dr. Ogden Lindsley used to say, let’s not spend our time “playing with pencils” writing plans that won’t ultimately improve lives. Topics not only include how to improve the standard parts of a plan, but an in-depth look at how all the gears must mesh to produce quick and lasting behavior change. 

1. Participants will be able to list at least 5 areas that if not addressed can cause plans to fail
2. Explain why the concept of “attention” can be problematic in assessment and plan writing
3. Explain why behavior analysis should not be excluded as a treatment modality simply because of the presence of mental illness diagnoses.

Based on Charles Catania's 1975 seminal article on the myth of self-reinforcement, this presentation dives into the details of what is a positive reinforcement paradigm in form but is actually more negative reinforcement in nature. The alleged reinforcer that we "give ourselves" when we are good is not the key variable in this scenario. 

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