Rasha Baruni

• PSYC 4540 / PSYC 8240 - Seminar in Behaviour Modification
• PSYC 4540 / PSYC 8270 - Seminar in Basic Operant Research

Dr. Baruni has over 15 years of experience providing behaviour analytic services to young children and adolescents with developmental disabilities in homes, schools, and clinics in Canada, the United States, and the United Arab Emirates. She has published several peer-reviewed research articles and book chapters. Dr. Baruni’s primary research interests are safety skills training programs and assessments and treatments of maladaptive behaviours in children and adolescents with developmental disabilities. Other areas of interest include conjugate and lag schedules of reinforcement. 

• PhD (Applied Behaviour Analysis), University of South Florida, 2023
• MS (Applied Behaviour Analysis), St. Cloud State University, 2012
• BA Honours (Psychology), York University, 2007

Research interests

• Behavioural skills training
• Child safety and injury prevention
• Conjugate schedules of reinforcement
• Assessment and treatment of behavioural problems
• Autism spectrum disorder

Research summary

My research area is within applied behaviour analysis and safety skills. The safety threats that have been the focus of my research are physical safety threats such as firearms and poisonous substances. Safety threats that have become increasingly important are those in the digital environment (e.g., social media, text messaging, etc.). I am interested in ways that we can continue to evaluate active learning approaches (e.g., behavioural skills training [BST] and in situ training) and assessments to prepare children to respond appropriately to digital safety threats. Of equal importance, I am interested in making safety skills training programs more accessible to parents, educators, and other stakeholders. I am also interested in applications of BST within staff training and performance management contexts. Another research area of interest is in evaluating conjugate reinforcement preparations using response force and speed on a treadmill as primary behavioural measures. 

• Cook, J. L., Baruni, R. R., Pinkston, J.W., Rapp, J. T., Miltenberger, R. G., Deshmukh, S., & Tai, S. (2024). Comparing stimulus preference and response force in a conjugate preparation: A replication with auditory stimulation. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior. Advanced Online. 
• Miltenberger, R. G., Baruni, R. R., & Fuller, A. A. (2024). Teaching safety skills. In J. K. Luiselli, F. L. Bird, H. Maguire, & R. M. Gardner (Eds), Behavior safety and clinical practice in intellectual and developmental disabilities (pp. 195-212). Springer Nature.
• Reyes, C. C., Miltenberger, R. G., & Baruni, R. R. (2024). An evaluation of a staff management strategy to minimize reactivity in procedural fidelity of intervention Implementers. Journal of Organizational Behavior Management, 1–19. 
• Chovet Santa Cruz, H., Miltenberger, R. G., & Baruni, R. R. (2023). Evaluating remote behavioral skills training of online gaming safety skills. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 17(1), 246-256. 
• Baruni, R. R., & Miltenberger, R. G. (2023). A survey of safety skills training used by behavior analysts in practice. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 17(1), 270-282. 
• Cook, J. L., Baruni, R. R., & Lanovaz, M. J. (2023). Noncompliance. In J. Matson (Ed.). Handbook of applied behavior analysis for children with autism: Clinical guide to assessment and treatment (pp. 313-338). Springer Nature. 
• Novotny, M. N., Miltenberger, R. G., Baruni, R. R., Maxfield, T. C., Larson, V., & Yampolskaya, S. (2023). Evaluating a web-based program for training parents to teach safety skills to their children. Behavioral Interventions, 35(4), 498-507. 
• Murray, C. M., Baruni, R. R., Kelly, M. P., Sheridan, D. J., & Seaver, J. P. (2022). Using lag schedules to increase toy play variability for children with autism in the United Arab Emirates. International Journal of Play. 12(2), 155-174. 
• Baruni, R. R., & Miltenberger, R. G. (2022). Teaching safety skills to children: A discussion of critical features and practice recommendations. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 15(3), 938-950. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-021-00667-4
• Miltenberger, R. G., Novotny, M. A., Maxfield, T. C., & Baruni, R. R. (2022) Evaluation of video self-modeling to teach firearm safety skills. Behavioral Interventions, 37(3), 690-699.