In this episode of the Behaviorist Book Club, Matt Harrington walks us through LeBlanc et al.’s 2018 component analysis of Behavioral Skills Training (BST) for caregiver instruction delivery. Discover how instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback each contribute to skill acquisition—and why, in the moment, descriptive feedback emerges as the single most powerful driver of behavior change. Plus, learn practical tips for streamlining BST when time is tight so you can maximize caregiver competence and client outcomes.

Check out the show notes for direct links to the full article and all supporting materials at www.behavioristbookclub.com/blog.

In this episode of the Behaviorist Book Club, Matt dives into Frampton et al. (2016) and the power of matrix training to promote generative language with children on the autism spectrum. You’ll learn how carefully selected diagonal targets can unlock rapid recombination of words—teaching three phrases to generate nine or more—and discover practical tips for scaling these methods across verbs, nouns, pronouns, sight words, s-blends and beyond.

Ready to transform your language programs and work smarter, not harder? Check out the show notes for article links and all supporting resources at www.behavioristbookclub.com/blog.

In this episode, Matt breaks down Hagopian et al.’s Augmented Competing Stimulus Assessment (A-CSA), showing how its four-phase approach—free access, prompted engagement, response blocking/redirection, then repeated free access—can identify and teach effective competing stimuli for treatment-resistant, automatically maintained behaviors. He highlights why every assessment you use should directly inform your intervention and offers practical tips for fading and generalizing A-CSA protocols.

Check out the shownotes for article links and supporting information at www.behavioristbookclub.com/blog.