This study examined the relationship between performance on the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities test (ABLA), two auditory matching tasks, and a test of echoics, tacts, and mands with persons with developmental disabilities. It was found that discrimination skill (visual, auditory-visual, and auditory-auditory discriminations) was a better predictor of performance on verbal operant assessments than level of functioning based on diagnosis. The results showed high test-retest reliability for the test of verbal operants and no hierarchical relationship was found among the three verbal operants. The results suggest that the ABLA Level 6 might be a possible bridging task for teaching echoics, tacts, and mands. Further research is needed to ascertain the relation between the auditory matching tasks and the verbal operants.

We measured the relationships between choice stimulus modalities and three basic discriminations (visual, visual matching-to-sample, and auditory-visual) using the Assessment of Basic Learning Abilities test. Participants were 9 adults who had moderate to profound developmental disabilities. Their most and least preferred leisure activities, identified by prior preference assessments, were presented using choice stimuli in three modalities (tangibles, pictures, and verbal descriptions) in an alternating-treatments design. For 8 of the 9 participants, discrimination skills predicted the selections of choice stimuli associated with their preferred activities. The results suggest that choice stimulus modalities in preference assessment of leisure activities need to be matched to the discrimination skills of persons with developmental disabilities.

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This article examines the convergence of factors that led to behavior analysis taking root, flourishing, and bearing fruit in a prairie province of Canada. In the latter half of the 1960s, Garry Martin and Joseph Pear began teaching behavior-analytic courses at the University of Manitoba. They and their students then initiated behavioral treatment and research programs at the Manitoba Developmental Center and St.Amant, the two main residential facilities for persons with intellectual disabilities and autism. Since that time, behavior analysis in Manitoba has flourished, and the knowledge and skills gained have been shared with other behavior analysts throughout the world through conferences, articles, and books. Behavior-analytic books by authors who live and work in Manitoba have been translated into eight languages. Moreover, University of Manitoba graduates in behavior analysis have helped to spread knowledge of behavior analysis throughout the world, and a number have achieved highly influential positions and widespread recognition within the discipline.

Early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) is a treatment designed to increase adaptive behavior and decrease maladaptive behaviors for children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). EIBI service providers typically collect data using pen-and-paper. Participants were four service providers employed at a large community-based EIBI program. Differences in accuracy between collecting discrete-trial-teaching (DTT) data and challenging behavior data using pen-and-paper and an eHealth electronic data collection (EDC) application were assessed. The social validity of both methods of data collection was also examined. Pen-and-paper and EDC were equally accurate, but participants preferred using pen-and-paper. Our accuracy findings agreed with previous comparisons of EDC and pen-and-paper. Both methods of data collection are viable for an EIBI program; however, social validity considerations will determine the ease of EIBI programs transitioning to using an eHealth tool for data collection.