ABA in the Spanish Speaking World: Session 275 with Miguel Avila

The Behavioral Observations Podcast with Matt Cicoria

My partner in crime and host of the BOP en Español Series, Miguel Avila, joins me to talk about Behavior Analysis in Spanish-speaking cultures.

In addition to his day job with Essential for Living, Miguel has been hard at work, and recorded over 10 Spanish language podcasts for Behavioral Observations listeners.

So in this episode, which we of course conduct in English because my Spanish did not progress past my Freshman year of college, I turn the tables and interview Miguel for a change.

We talk about his experience as an immigrant to the US, what constitutes "Spanglish," how he encountered Behavior Analysis, and how he ended up at Essential for Living, leading the efforts to translate those materials into Spanish.

We then broaden the discussion to talk about where Behavior Analysis stands in various Spanish-speaking countries. As you'll hear in the podcast, Miguel has spent time in many of these places in Latin America and Europe, so while he humbly claims to not be the ultimate authority on these matters, he certainly has gained lots of hands-on experience in these settings.

A conversation like this would not be complete if we didn't talk about efforts to provide training and consumer protections via regulatory institutions in these countries. In doing so, we touch on organizations including QABA, IBAO, LABA, ABA España, ABAI SIG Español, OMPAC, and more. Long story short, there's a lot to do in terms of supporting the profession of Behavior Analysis in these international contexts. In fact, Miguel will be speaking at the upcoming Puerto Rico ABA 2024 conference coming up in October.

Here are some links to the topics we discussed:

• Essential for Living
• PCMA
• Winston Behavioral Solutions
• Session 200 of the BOP (Miguel wrote and read the intro)
• Elcoro, at al (2024). Behavior Analysis in Venezuela: An Unrecognized Legacy

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