Individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities who exhibit problem behavior often receive behavioral assessment and treatment in specialized inpatient and outpatient clinics. However, problem behavior sometimes reemerges as a function of changes in contexts and stimulus conditions, such as returning to the home environment. This reemergence is called renewal. Recently, Muething et al. (2020) found that renewal occurred in over half (67%) of cases from an outpatient clinic. Their sample was obtained exclusively from an outpatient setting and despite the applied relevance of renewal, its clinical prevalence in other populations is unknown. Accordingly, we replicated Muething et al.’s procedures and analyzed renewal in 37 inpatient treatment applications across 34 cases via consecutive‐controlled case series. Renewal was present in 59% of cases; however, we found that renewal occurred in only 24% of context changes compared to 42% reported by Muething et al. Various factors related to the prevalence of renewal were evaluated.

In higher education, instruction that incorporates effective performance skills training is vital to equipping pre-service teachers with the tools they will use to educate children. This study evaluated the effects of behavioral skills training (BST) on performance of evidence-based practices by undergraduate pre-service special education teachers. A prepost design was used to evaluate performance during roleplay. BST sessions produced higher levels of correct performance than baseline measures across all seven participants. We discuss limitations of these results with suggestions for future research, along with recommendations for incorporating BST into university settings.

Schedule thinning is a common clinical procedure used to make behavioral interventions such as functional communication training more feasible in the community. Unfortunately, problem behavior is likely to recur when schedule thinning is conducted (i.e., resurgence). Recent research has identified resurgence in a rather significant number of outpatient schedule thinning applications and suggest resurgence is relatively common in clinical settings. To examine the consistency and generality of these findings, we replicated the procedures described by recent investigations to quantify the prevalence of resurgence of problem behavior following schedule thinning in an inpatient setting. We identified resurgence in 91% of schedule thinning applications, indicating that resurgence is likely to occur regardless of the treatment setting. Clinical implications, recommendations, and future directions for building more durable behavioral treatments are discussed.

Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC) systems serve as the primary communication mode for many students with complex communication needs. The aim of this study was to describe the naturally occurring communication opportunities of students using AAC systems. We observed 23 students for a total of 117 hours across general education, special education, and non-academic settings. For each communication event, we recorded the setting, communication partner, student communication mode, availability of the AAC system, independent or prompted responses, and the consequence. Communication events primarily occurred with adults and very few spontaneous initiations were observed. On average, students were presented with 17 opportunities to respond per hour. However, in nearly half of these opportunities, students did not have access to their AAC system. Results from our observations indicated more deliberate efforts are needed to ensure students have appropriate access and opportunity to use AAC systems across school environments.

Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis (JABA) is considered the flagship journal for the discipline of applied behavior analysis. Thus, popular research topics and other publication trends within JABA reflect the current cultural and scientific contingencies governing the field of behavior analysis. Researchers have previously quantified a number of authorship trends in JABA (and other behavior-analytic journals) across a number of variables, such as gender identity and sex of author, country of origin, or seniority within the field (Dunlap et al., 1998) to examine demographic and organizational factors associated with successful publication in JABA. These analyses ought to be conducted continuously to monitor trends and detect any potential biases (e.g., sexism). Accordingly, the purpose of the present investigation was to replicate previous research in this area (e.g., Dymond et al., 2000) and provide an update of current publication trends within JABA. Implications for future research and publishing practices are discussed.

Graphing single-subject data is a crucial skill for behavior analysts. We used a multiple probe design across behaviors to evaluate the effects of behavioral skills training (BST) on three graduate students' graphing skills. We found that BST is a suitable alternative to other techniques for training graphing fluency. Advantages and disadvantages, as well as implications and conclusions regarding graphical training techniques are discussed.

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Functional analyses (FAs) provide clinicians with results upon which they design behavioral treatments. Unfortunately, interrater reliability of visual analysis of FA results can be inconsistent. Accordingly, researchers have designed quantitative metrics and visual aids to supplement visual analysis. Recently, Hall et al. ( 2020) provided a proof of concept for using automated nonparametric statistical analysis (ANSA) to interpret FA data. Their results show promise for ANSA as a supplemental tool. However, they evaluated ANSA with only published FA datasets, which may not be representative of FAs commonly encountered in clinical care. Therefore, the purpose of this replication was to compare ANSA to another validated supplemental aid (i.e., the structured criteria method) and investigate its utility with unpublished clinical FA data. Our results were consistent with Hall et al.'s, indicating ANSA may augment clinical interpretation of FA data. Recommendations for clinical applications of ANSA and future directions for researchers are discussed.