Dr. Pat McGreevy invited speaker at Washington Association for Behavior Analysis Conference

The Essential Eight Skills and A Primary Method of Speaking: Important Goals for Early and Lifelong Intervention

Patrick McGreevy, Ph.D., P.A. and Associates

In the VB-MAPP, Dr. Mark Sundberg describes certain types of skill deficits as barriers to effective instruction. In Essential for Living, a functional skills curriculum and teaching manual also based on B.F. Skinner’s analysis of verbal behavior, we have further specified these skill deficits as an effective and efficient primary method of speaking and The Essential Eight Skills. Dr. McGreevy will describe these skills, along with their importance in early intervention programs and programs that provide intervention across the life span. Dr. McGreevy will also describe the similarity between this work and Dr. Greg Hanley’s work on synthesized functional assessments and the teaching of communication, cooperation, and toleration.

Learner objectives:

• Participants will describe the importance of an effective and efficient primary method of speaking
• Participants will describe the Essential Eight Skills and examples thereof
• Participants will describe how a method of speaking the Essential Eight Skills are important for the prevention and treatment of socially-mediated problem behavior

About:

Patrick McGreevy received B.S. and M.A. degrees in Psychology and Special Education from the University of Iowa. He was a special education teacher for eight years, working with children and young adults with moderate-to-severe developmental disabilities. He received the Ph.D. degree in Education from Kansas University under the guidance of Ogden R. Lindsley.  Dr. McGreevy has served on the faculties of the University of Missouri-Kansas City, Louisiana State University, the University of Central Florida, and the Florida Institute of Technology. He is the founder and first editor of the Journal of Precision Teaching and Standard Celeration Charting, and the author of Teaching and Learning in Plain English, an Introduction to Precision Teaching, along with nine journal articles, including an important paper on the treatment of Lesch-Nyhan disorder, a book chapter on teaching verbal behavior, and Essential for Living, a functional skills curriculum, skill-tracking instruments, and professional practitioner’s handbook for children and adults with moderate-to-severe disabilities. For forty years, Dr. McGreevy has provided consultations for children and adults with moderate-to-severe disabilities and hands-on training for their teachers, care providers, and families, specializing in the treatment of self-injurious and aggressive behavior, along with the teaching of communication skills and language.