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Episode #257: The Importance of Matching as a Skill with Emily Kearney

Emily Kearney, BCBA, who has been working in the field since 1999, joins the show to dive into a topic we haven’t explored in depth before: matching as a skill. Though it may seem simple, matching is foundational for learners of all ages. This critical skill supports language, play, leisure, problem solving, and actions across the lifespan.

We discuss how matching isn’t always identical—it can be based on features, categories, or associations—and how it develops from early learning readiness into more complex skills for older learners. Emily highlights teaching strategies like multiple exemplar training and ensuring stimulus control by using the variety of cues learners encounter in real-world settings. For example, a “cup” can vary in material, size, color, shape, or function, but learning to recognize it in all its forms builds observation skills, problem-solving, and perseverance.

For older learners, we explore adding a language component, asking questions like “how do you know it’s a match?” to encourage reasoning and verbalization. Matching isn’t just a simple game, it’s a prerequisite for broader communication, life, and learning.

For questions or mentorship opportunities, reach out to Emily at emily@kearneybehaviorconsulting.com.

 

#autism #speechtherapy

Today’s Guest:

Emily (she/her) has worked in the ABA field since 1999 using evidence-based practices with children and their families in homes, schools and the community. She received her master’s degree in special education from Sonoma State University in 2008, focusing on using ABA to increase prelinguistic communication among young children with atypical language development. After that, she received her BCBA certification in 2015. Emily has been lucky to receive supervision and mentorship from different types of providers with children aged 18 months to 18 years and varied diagnoses. Her current professional passions involve instructional design using a component/composite analysis to help learners get the most out of learning time with generative learning; designing teaching contexts based on client assent with a foundation of rapport; and teaching practitioners to make in-the-moment clinical adjustments and use shaping and the teaching context as the reinforcer. She is currently delving into Non-Linear Contingency Analysis. Emily currently runs a small consultancy business providing mentorship and professional development. She supports a variety of practitioners and caregivers to analyze behavior from a comprehensive lens to teach efficiently.

What’s Inside:

  • Why matching is a critical skill across all ages
  • Matching isn’t about just finding identical matches
  • Teaching strategies including multiple exemplar training and stimulus control
  • Real-world examples to generalize matching skills across environments
  • The language component of matching for older learners

Mentioned In This Episode

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