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ABA on Tap is proud to present Mark Malady (Part 1 of 2):
A piece of duct tape on the floor becomes a turning point for how we think about safety, reinforcement, and basic human connection. Mike and Dan sit down with Mark Malady to trace the long arc from an IEP and constant school changes to building programs for adults with severe aggression and minimal communication. Along the way, Mark shares the moment he stopped accepting the “he doesn’t like people” assumption and started asking a better behavioral question: what history built this repertoire, and what would it take to build a new one?
ABA on Tap and Mark give a full pour of the ideas that shape real clinical work. Mark connects early experience in adult disability services to big-picture themes in applied behavior analysis: functional communication, humane reinforcement, and why our field too often mistakes procedural compliance for effective intervention. He breaks down process versus procedure orientation in plain language, ties it to ACT and relational frame theory, and explains why relationship quality often predicts outcomes better than which “manual” you follow.
Finally, we get honest about the hard parts of ABA in autism services and school settings: power dynamics, “firefighting” models that wait for crisis, and resource decisions that prioritize deceleration over skill acquisition. If you care about ethical ABA, assent and consent, better assessment practices, and building meaningful skills across the lifespan, this conversation will challenge you in the right ways. Subscribe for Part 2, share this with a colleague, and leave a review with the biggest question you want our field to answer next.
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