Quebec ABA

By Marisa Scaglione and Kirsty Robertson

The 2023 year brought on some exciting changes!

Following the annual general meeting, which took place on April 14, 2023, the board acquired a new President (Kirsty Robertson) as well as a new vice-president (Marisa Scaglione). In 2022, the previous president, Malena Argumedes, had to resign due to health reasons. Therefore, Kirsty took on the responsibilities of the president in the interim. The board of directors would like to highlight the hard work and dedication that Malena has invested over the last few years within various roles on the board and thank her for her immense contribution to QcABA.

The QcABA hosted its 12th annual conference on April 14th, 2023, which was offered both in person as well as online. The total number of attendees was 96 people. The majority of the attendees participated in person, and 40 individuals attended online. This was the first conference that we hosted where we saw participation from other countries such as the United States as well as France.

The conference included several speakers, with our keynote speaker being Liz Lefevre, BCBA who addressed the notion of assent-based learning and ways to implement assent based practices into clinical intervention. Our second speaker was Dr. Keith Allen, BCBA-D who addressed interventions on how to manage distress during dental and medical interventions. Our third speaker consisted of Monica Peters, BCBA who shared her presentation on peaceful consultation using psychological flexibility and safety using ACT. Then, Theo Gossou presented on concurrent validity of open-ended functional assessment interviews with functional analysis as well as functional behavior assessment in psychoeducation: convergent validity of functional analyses with descriptive and indirect assessments. This presentation was provided completely in French by the speaker. This had an added benefit to the French speaking population as they were able to enjoy a presentation that was entirely in their language. Our final speakers of the day were Holly Seniuk, PhD, BCBA-D and Sarah Lichtenberger, PhD, BCBA-D who presented an Ethics Update from the Behavior Analyst Certification Board. This event provided simultaneous translation to all participants in order to make all content accessible to both English and French speaking individuals.

The QcABA also hosted two journal club events during which professionals in the field united and discussed specific journal articles. The first one took place on September 27, 2022 on “Concerns about ABA-Based intervention: an evaluation and recommendations” by Leaf et al., 2022. And was hosted by Daniela Mireles, BCBA. The second one took place on October 24, 2023 on “Soft Skills: The case for compassionate approaches or how behavior analysis keeps finding its heart” (Rohrer et al., 2021) with a discussion led by Janet Nacouzi, BCBA.

Internally, QcABA continues to try to improve its functioning as a non-profit organization. Our main objective at the moment is to increase membership, specifically members from the French speaking community. Our organization has mostly attracted English speaking members; therefore, we have decided to create objectives for the organization based on increasing services and information in French. We have also updated our strategic plan as well as created a business plan in order to define and measure our organization’s goals. One of the means by which we are aiming to increase our membership and attendance to events is by updating our website to include a more comprehensive and user friendly platform that will be accessible in both languages. This year’s conference will take place on September 20, 2024 online. Our speakers will include Dr. Paulie Gavoni who will present on leadership strategies, Dr. Adythian Rajamaran, who will present on trauma informed practices, Dr. Rachel Schwartz who will present on sexuality in autism, Dr. Geneviève Roy-Wsiaki who will present on early intervention and Danielle Pelletier and Isabelle Cowan, who will share with us the implementation of a PFA and SBT treatment model within their practice.

The number of certified individuals in the province continues to grow steadily. 2007 was the first year that any certified behaviour analysts appeared in Quebec (two BCBAs and one BCaBA), and at the time of this writing (March 2024) the province is now home to 69 certificants. Although these numbers may seem modest to our counterparts in the US, or even from BC or Ontario, it is important to remember the barriers that face our professionals that are unique to our conditions. Specifically, in addition to being a primarily Francophone province, there are no third parties (e.g. government or insurance companies) that pay for services by certified individuals, nor any local educational institutions that offer the course content. In other words, becoming a certified professional in Quebec is an endeavour that is both difficult to obtain and carries little monetary incentive for those who decide to do so. QcABA is grateful that despite these barriers, our numbers continue to grow and recognition of board certification is on the rise. Our board is committed to offering CEUs for our regular events such as the conference and journal clubs at little or no cost in order to support our behaviour analysts, just as they have supported us over the years.

In 2023, the QcABA began to participate in Canadian Chapters meetings, which is a quarterly meeting for Canadian provinces who are ABAI affiliate chapters. These meetings were created with the intention of discussing and sharing what is happening within each Canadian chapter as well as to support one another as a Canadian organization. These meetings have provided members of the board with an opportunity to partake in discussions that are most relevant to ABA in Canada. Thank you ABAI for your continued interest and support of our chapter over the years. Should you have any questions do not hesitate to contact me at the email or phone number below.