Behavioral Development SIG – 2025 Annual Report

By Gladys Williams

The Behavioral Development Special Interest Group (DEV SIG) is a community of faculty, students, and practitioners who share an interest in human development throughout the life span. Many of our members are also part of other SIGs, such as Autism and Verbal Behavior. Currently, we have 112 members, and our membership is international, with representation from countries like Norway, Germany, Mexico, Italy, Spain, China, Korea, the UK, Bosnia, Canada, and France. We welcome students from affiliated programs and those who share our mission to join the SIG. Our Facebook page is up and running, and we are actively trying to increase our membership and reach a wider audience. https://www.facebook.com/groups/behavioraldevelopmentSIG/

Our web page: <devsig.abainternational.org>

We are always looking to grow our membership.

Our LinkedIn page: <https:/www.linkedin.com/in/devsig/> Behavioral Development Special Interest Group -Linkedin.com

The primary mission of the Behavioral Development SIG is to promote a behavioral developmental thrust within behavior analysis. We strive to bring behavior analysis to the broader world of child psychology and learning, comparative psychology, adult development and gerontology, sociobiology, education, behavioral economics, developmental disabilities and autism, and language development, among other fields. We do so by (a) incorporating theories and findings from other areas into our research and (b) bringing professionals from outside traditional behavior analysis, including developmental psychology, to ABAI events and forming collaborations.

The DEV SIG is represented in the ABAI annual convention program in Human Development. DEV SIG members consistently serve as program area coordinators who help bring exciting presentations on a variety of topics related to behavioral development to the annual convention.

ABAI Activities and Participation

The DEV SIG displayed a poster at the ABAI Expo and held its business meeting at Washington, DC’s ABAI annual conference in 2025.

The 2025 annual convention hosted several symposia, papers, and workshops.

The Jack Gewirtz Student Research Award

During the 2021 annual meeting, we recognized Dr. Jack Gewirtz’s contributions and decided to rename a student award as the Jack Gewirtz Student Research Award.

In 2025, we sent letters to psychology department chairs at universities with behavioral programs, requesting they encourage students to submit research papers to participate in the Jack Gewirtz student research award.

In the 2024/2025 academic year, three students received the award, each of whom had made significant contributions to the field of behavior analysis.

1.Yoojin Yeo, from Teachers College, Columbia University

Title: From virtual to reality: Integrating technology to increase observing responses for faces

2. Toni Rose Agana from Caldwell University

Title: Generalization of Pretend Play Skills from Real Objects to Toys: A Preliminary Analysis.

3. Xiaoyuan Liu, from Teachers College, Columbia University

Title: Parametric Analysis of Duration of Speaker Immersion Protocol on Verbal Operant Emission

Symposium presentation

In 2025, the DEV SIG organization hosted its second ABAI symposium to allow award winners to present their studies. This recognition came with a stipend of $400 to assist the students with some of the expenses of the ABAI conference. The symposium’s title was “The Shaping of Behavior Analysts as Scientist Practitioners.”

The DEV SIG – Prominent Invited Speakers

In 2025, the DEV SIG organized a series of events that featured well-known speakers. One of the highlights was the B.F. Skinner Lecture presented by Dr. Kostadin Kushlev from Georgetown University. Another important presentation was the International Talk by Dr. Maithri Sivaraman from Teachers College, Columbia University. Her title’s presentation was The Path from Preverbal to Generative Verbal Behavior.

The activities mentioned above demonstrate the wide range of research interests held by members of the DEV SIG. Their focus spans across populations with and without developmental disabilities, both children and adults. Additionally, the group focuses on verbal, academic, and behavioral development throughout one’s lifespan. We greatly appreciate the contributions of all the session chairs, presenters, and discussants.

Treasure Department

Our treasurer is Yifei Sun, and our reconciler is Yoojin Yeo. The financial report indicates that as of today we have $3,170.00.

Membership for 2025 -2026

We encouraged members to renew their membership and devoted energy to increasing our membership. Currently, we have 112 members.