The Behavior Academy
EFL Introductory Course
We have collaborated with Ryan O'Donnell to bring an exclusive, on-site look at Essential for Living as an Introductory Course.
This online course travels on-site at Upstate Caring Partners in Utica, NY, with Dr. McGreevy and Troy Fry, BCBA as they deliver an 8.5 hour overview of how to utilize the EFL and its conception. They observe the unique implementations of the tool occurring at UCP, talk to parents of children with moderate-to-severe disabilities, and tour the facility to help consult on unique cases utilizing the EFL.
Behavior Live Courses
On-demand CEU courses available through Behavior Live, covering EFL fundamentals, verbal behavior, and more.
Introductory Course
Patrick and Troy will describe how to use Essential for Living, a life skills curriculum and assessment instrument for children and adults with limited skill repertoires and moderate-to-severe problem behavior. They will describe how to conduct an initial quick assessment, how to make certain that a learner has an effective method of speaking that will last a lifetime, how to record small increments of learner performance and progress, and how to teach the Essential Eight Skills in a context which would occur in everyday living until fluency and some degree of generalization are achieved. They will also describe how to manage problem behavior as these skills are being taught. Participants will benefit from this training only if they have available with them a copy of the Essential for Living Practitioner's Handbook.
Verbal Behavior & EFL
When children first begin to utter phonemes or word approximations in isolation or along with sign or picture-selection mands, speech-language therapists, behavior analysts, and parents are inclined to emphasize, encourage, and reinforce these unprompted utterances. In an expanded context of additional verbal and non-verbal repertoires that become more likely when a learner exhibits an echoic repertoire, an alternative procedure is described. A discussion of the importance of these additional repertoires also ensues.
Alternative Method of Speaking & Chapter 6
Behavior Live course offered by Dr. Patrick McGreevy and Troy Fry.
How Aggressive or Self-Injurious Behavior Effects the Selection of a Method of Speaking
How Aggressive or Self-injurious Behavior Effects the Selection, Confirmation, and Implementation of a Method of Speaking by Dr. Patrick McGreevy.
Teaching Procedures and Essentials for Using the Curriculum
Dr. McGreevy will describe eight elemental teaching procedures that are often overlooked during ABA and VB instruction and why and how these procedures are important. These procedures include: Defining Movement Cycles, Distinguishing Cues from Prompts, Capturing and Contriving Motivating Events, Pacing Instruction, Prompting and Prompt-fading, Fading-in and Fading-out Events, Providing Consequent Events, and Measuring Small Increments of Progress.
Verbal Behavior & EFL — Stuck in Level 2
Most children whose instruction is guided by a developmental curriculum will experience extraordinary difficulty acquiring skills that are part of Level 2 of the VB-MAPP. These skills include: expressive and receptive language, matching and imitation, generalization across people, situations, and settings, the emergence of novel responses, complex discriminations, answers to questions, conversation, and abstract concepts. If changes in instructional and management procedures are not effective, most of these children should be transferred to a functional skills curriculum. Issues related to this transfer are discussed.
Need Personalized Training?
Beyond our on-demand courses, we offer in-person workshops, virtual consultations, and ongoing mentorship programs tailored to your team's specific needs.