50th Episode Dinner Date Celebration!
with Rosie & Allen
Behavior Bites Podcast - Ep50October 9, 2024Do you take the time to reflect on your accomplishments?
Do you plan every detail or do you dive right in?
During today’s dinner date— My husband and I celebrate our 50th episode of Behavior Bites. We give thanks, toast to our successes, and reflect on not quitting early on. We also talk about kittens, what I love ordering when we go out, and candy!
An overflowing thank you to all of our guests and listeners. You're the inspiration and motivation that keeps us going. Cheers!
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Amuse-Bouche
What challenging behaviors have you observed from our new foster kittens?
What are you doing to shape them?
Appetizer
Why do you love behavior analysis so much?
What are your favorite topics to discuss?
Can you tell us about your ethics violation notification?
Palate Cleanser
Can you describe what burrata is and some of your favorite pairings?
Entree
What would you tell yourself if you were just getting started with the podcast?
What advice do you have for anyone who wants to expand their dissemination efforts
What obstacles and challenges did you face when starting this podcast?
Dessert
What was your favorite Halloween candy growing up?
What’s your favorite thing about hosting a podcast?
Can you tell us the “swing” story?
Excerpts from the Episode
(*Paraphrased highlights)-
I've always looked at people's behaviors or looked at their actions and wondered why people are doing what they do. When I would ask about it, I would get some mentalistic points of view like, "They're just doing that 'cause that's how they are." I would push back even as a kid, like, no, there has to be a reason why little Susie down the street won't let me play with anyone on the block.
Pushing back when my parents would say stuff like that, kind of forced them to dive into these deeper issues, especially with my dad being a social worker and being trained with psychology. He would indulge my curiosity and be like, "Well, like let's look at it. Do you notice if she has two parents? Do you notice her mom yells at her a lot?” So I was able to kind of put functions behind people's behaviors.
When I started preparing to go to college, I was examining what I wanted to do. I really had no idea but I did know I really enjoyed teaching people things. I really liked giving people those aha moments.
Fast forward to finding behavior analysis. Everything clicked. This is what I was looking for.
It has the teaching part, but it also has that part of understanding the world and the environment as a whole and how everything is interconnected, and how there's always antecedents and then actions or behaviors and the consequences, positive or negative that happen after.
Everything just started making sense. I could put these two special interests, two passions together to make what I do now, and it fits into behavior analysis.
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Just do it. Do it scared. Do it nervous.
The worst case scenario is you fail. You're not gonna die.
One of my favorite sayings in high school was, “they're not gonna take your bed away.” I have no idea how I came up with this saying, but it was another version of just do it, because they can't take your bed away. You can still go home and go to sleep.
I have anxiety. I’m introverted and awkward, and it could seem like this is effortless for me, but it's not. I need people to understand it. It's not.
I have to make a conscious choice to either do nothing and pine over all of these ideas, or just doing it. Things will never be perfect, but you just start and get better as you go. Even if you fail or decide you don't like it, at least you know you tried.
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My favorite thing about hosting a podcast is being able to showcase other people's stories. A lot of times we feel like we're out on an island by ourselves. With this podcast, I really wanted to host people that are “regular” behavior analysts, people that you might just see on a normal basis.
Maybe they're not doing the conference circuits or maybe they don't have a hundred research articles. Some of them have done stuff like that, but I wanted to host regular people and their stories of how they got into this, and also show the personal side to them because it's not just behavior analysis.
I'm also interested in food. I'm also interested in cats. I'm also interested in travel. We're humans and we're multifaceted. Yes, hosting a podcast is to disseminate the information, but also create a community.
Everything I do is about creating a community, because so many of us feel isolated, either environmentally isolated or situationally isolated. It's really about creating community and connecting more people.
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When I was a technician, I had a learner who was about ten years old. He primarily communicated with PECS, the Picture Exchange Communication System.
Mom was very sweet and she's like, I don't care how he communicates, I just want him to be able to tell me what he wants. I want his wants and needs met.
She was pushing him on a swing set, and she was like, sometimes if I wanna try to push some vocal verbal communication, while I'm pushing him I will pause and look at him and prompt him to say “push”. He doesn't say it and that's fine. He communicates a different way and then I push him.
She's like, do you wanna push him? I’m pushing him, and as I was doing it, I thought, “push” is actually a really hard word to say, that “P” sound and that “SH” sound are both really hard sounds to make, especially if you're not a vocal verbal communicator.
It occurred to me, what if we just tried a different word? What if we tried swing? I was in front of him and I held the swing up, and then I prompted him to say, “swing”.
He looked at me and then he goes, “sww-ing”. I let him go, and the look mom gave me. She's like, I've literally never heard him say a full word in my life.
So I did it a couple more times and he did it perfectly. Then I was like, mom, do you wanna try? I think she got through one before she had to sit down because she was crying.
It was such a pivotal moment for me as well, believing in myself that I could come up with my own ideas. I just started school, and it further proved that I was on the right track, and that I was going to be able to make a lot of amazing changes to learners and families' lives.
Foster kittens, Poppy and Pepper.
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Instagram: @rosie.eats.bx
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