Rehabilitation Institute

Specializations:  Autism, Developmental Disabilities, Verbal Behavior, Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior.
 
Dr. Ruth Anne Rehfeldt is an Assistant Professor in the Rehabilitation Services undergraduate program and an affiliated faculty in the Behavior Analysis and Therapy program.  She holds a Ph.D. (1998) and M.A. (1995) from the Behavior Analysis Program (in Psychology) at the University of Nevada, and a B.A. (1993) in psychology from the University of Puget Sound.  She is also a Board Certified Behavior Analyst. Dr. Rehfeldt currently teaches courses in group experimental and single-subject research design, behavioral assessment and observation methods, basic practices in rehabilitation, community-based employment for persons with disabilities, and a seminar in philosophical readings.  She supervises practica and master’s theses of students in the Behavior Analysis and Therapy program, and, along with Dr. Paula Davis, supervises the Rehabilitation Institute’s undergraduate applied behavior analysis research group for advanced undergraduate students.  Dr. Rehfeldt has authored over 50 articles and book chapters, primarily in the areas of stimulus equivalence and verbal relations, autism, verbal behavior, and skill acquisition in persons with developmental disabilities.  Dr. Rehfeldt participates in psychological assessment services for the SIUC Autism Center for Excellence.  Current research projects include establishing relational control over manding in adults with severe disabilities, evaluating different functional communication teaching protocols in adults with severe developmental disabilities, investigating perspective-taking in children with autism as learned operant behavior, and using video modeling to establish vocational and domestic skills in adults with severe disabilities.  Dr. Rehfeldt is currently an editorial board member for Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, Education and Treatment of Children, Experimental Analysis of Human Behavior Bulletin, and Journal of Interdisciplinary and Applied Psychology.  

Recent conference presentations or publications in which undergraduates participated include:

Dahman, D., Young, A., Cherry, H., Rehfeldt, R.A., & Davis, P.K. (May, 2003). Using video modeling to teach simple meal preparation skills to adults with moderate and severe mental retardation. Poster presented at the meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis, San Francisco, CA.

Davis, P.K., Young, A., Cherry, H., Dahman, D., & Rehfeldt, R.A. (2005) Increasing the happiness of individuals with multiple disabilities: Replication and extension. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 37, 531-534.

Rehfeldt, R.A., Dahman, D., Young, A., Cherry, H., & Davis, P. (2003). Using video modeling to teach simple meal preparation skills in adults with moderate and severe mental retardation. Behavioral Interventions, 18, 209-218.

Young, A., Cherry, H., Dahman, D., Davis, P.K., & Rehfeldt, R.A. (May, 2003). Increasing the happiness of individuals with profound mental retardation: A replication and further analysis. Poster presented at the meeting of the Association for Behavior Analysis, San Francisco, CA.