Angeliki Gena
Angeliki Gena is a Professor at the School of Philosophy, Department of Educational Studies at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece (EKPA). She received her BA in Psychology and Sociology, her Master’s Degree in Clinical Psychology and her PhD from the “Learning Processes” program of the Psychology Department of the City University of New York. She conducted her Doctoral Dissertation at the Princeton Child Development Institute, in Princeton, New Jersey. She worked in various institutes in the USA and became the director of the Alpine Learning Group, in Alpine, New Jersey. She also taught as an adjunct professor at the City University of New York. In Greece she taught at various universities and has been elected a full professor since 2012 at the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. She is the director of the Laboratory of Special Education and Family Counselling. Her research is predominantly in the area of Behavior Analysis and its applications for early intervention in children with autism spectrum disorder and their families. She is a founding member and current president of the board of the Institute of Systemic Behavior Analysis. She has been invited in various universities as a visiting professor and has received an International Scholarship Award from the Onassis Foundation, USA to visit four American Universities for research and teaching purposes. She has numerous publications and invited presentations in conferences and universities across the world. She recently received an award in appreciation for “Exceptional Contribution to the University and to Society” by the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens.
Presentation at the ABA International Conference 2027
Rapport building as a therapeutic component that optimizes early intensive behavior-analytic intervention
Abstract:
The need to identify effective and efficient staff training practices for therapists working with children on the autism spectrum, who require early intensive behavioral intervention, is more prevalent than ever for several reasons, such as (a) the dramatic increase in the prevalence of autism, (b) the financial constraints that have substantially affected special education and therapeutic services, (c) the growing demand for therapists that are properly trained in behavior analysis and possess the skills necessary to meet the challenge of working with children with a highly heterogeneous phenotype and pervasive developmental difficulties characteristic of autism.
Developing proficiency in the science of behavior analysis which is grounded in a strong theoretical foundation and offers a broad range of technological applications that may be used for therapeutic and educational purposes, is a demanding and complex process. The ongoing discussions surrounding the training and certification of behavior analysts reflect the challenges involved in developing and maintaining professional competence. Beyond the procedures used to train practitioners, however, important questions have also been raised regarding the content of behavior-analytic training and, more specifically, the range of competencies that should be emphasized in the preparation of behavior-analytic practitioners. For example, it has already been pointed out that traditional technical behavior-analytic skills should be combined with compassionate care (Taylor, LeBlanc, & Nosik, 2019).
The purpose of this presentation is to raise questions and provide empirical evidence concerning the importance of continuously evaluating the content of behavior-analytic training and incorporating aspects of therapeutic or educational practice that have not traditionally been at the center of behavior-analytic research. Specifically, a series of studies will be presented that address the question of how we may operationally define rapport or the therapeutic relationship between children with ASD and their therapists and subsequently, how we may incorporate rapport building in the training of behavior analysts as a means of optimizing our therapeutic protocols.
In the initial study of this line of research, it was demonstrated that an empirically based definition of rapport is feasible and may provide a useful framework for improving the proficiency of therapists working with children with ASD. This study was followed by an observational investigation comparing more- and less-experienced therapists in terms of their rapport-building skills, including active empathy/compassion, therapist–child pairing, joint constructive engagement, etc. The two groups of therapists showed systematic differences in these domains, with more-experienced therapists demonstrating stronger rapport-building skills. These differences were also reflected in the children’s affect, which was substantially more positive during interactions with the more-experienced therapists.
A subsequent pilot staff-training study provided preliminary evidence that these therapeutic-relationship skills can be taught through a Behavioral Skills Training (BST) framework incorporating instruction, role play, supervised practice, modeling, and feedback, with concurrent improvements in therapist–child interaction and child engagement.
The final study, which is currently underway, examines whether rapport, as defined in the aforementioned studies, contributes to the efficiency with which behavior-analytic practices are implemented and the efficacy of treatment. Building on the findings of the pilot staff-training study, this investigation aims to further refine the training protocol and evaluate more efficient approaches to teaching rapport-building skills to therapists.
This emerging line of research on establishing rapport with children with ASD within the context of therapy is beginning to provide empirical answers into an important yet relatively underexplored dimension of behavior-analytic practice, and at the same time increases our awareness about the complexity of therapeutic processes. Furthermore, it raises a number of additional empirical questions regarding the role of therapeutic relationships in intervention implementation and outcomes. Further research is therefore needed to clarify how rapport-building skills can best be incorporated into behavior-analytic training and to determine the extent to which these skills contribute to more effective and efficient interventions.
