Autism

By Justin B. Leaf

It has been an exciting year for the Autism Special Interest Group (SIG). Within the past year we have added a new member to the Autism Sig Executive Council: Julia Ferguson. The Autism SIG Executive Council consists of Justin B. Leaf (president), Robert Ross (past president), Joe Cihon (secretary-treasurer), Mary Jane Weiss (board member-elect), Ian Melton (board member-elect), Brittany Melton (board member-elect), and Julia Ferguson (board member-elect). Throughout the year members of the Autism Sig have worked on numerous papers and committees to help disseminate the benefit of quality behavioral intervention as it relates to autistic/individuals diagnosed with ASD. Further, members of the Autism Sig have worked tirelessly to provide consumers and professionals resources concerning misinformation about Applied Behavior Analysis.

We hope to continue to be productive and have several goals in the upcoming year. One of our main goals is to start publishing articles in response to misinformation about applied behavior analysis. Our second goal is to continue to promote quality and progressive behavioral intervention. Finally, we look forward to continually working closely with ABAI and the ABAI autism conference. We are optimistic that engaging in all of these activities will result in the improvement of behavioral intervention for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorders. We hope that professionals will consider becoming members of the Autism SIG and help promote quality behavioral intervention for individuals diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder.