“Joint attention is the most robust predictor of early identification and treatment outcomes in autism, more so than any other symptom dimension.”- Peter Clive Mundy, Ph.D.

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2011 ABAI Annual Convention (Denver, CO) – Caceres co-authored a presentation titled “Assessment of Social Stimulus Preference and Reinforcement Effects for Individuals With Autism.” This study evaluated a free-operant social preference assessment with five children with autism, examining whether preferred social stimuli function as reinforcers for joint attention behaviors​. The author list included Anibal Gutierrez Jr. (Univ. of Miami), Wandy Caceres (FIU), Melissa N. Hale (UM), Jennifer S. Durocher (UM), and Michael Alessandri (UM)​. Caceres contributed to developing and testing a procedure in which pressing a microswitch produced social consequences; results showed that highly preferred social interactions led to increased responding, indicating the method’s effectiveness for identifying social reinforcers​.

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2011 ABAI 6th International Conference (Granada, Spain) – Caceres was lead author and presenter (in Spanish) for “Evaluación de la Preferencia de Estímulos Sociales y su Capacidad de Predicción del Efecto de Reforzamiento para Personas con Autismo” (English: “Preference Assessment of Social Stimuli and Prediction of Reinforcement Effects in Individuals with Autism”)​ This work, with co-authors Anibal Gutierrez Jr., Melissa N. Hale, Jennifer S. Durocher, and Michael Alessandri, mirrored the above study – demonstrating a method to identify social rewards for children with autism and how preferred social stimuli predicted improved joint attention during intervention​. In the same conference, Caceres also appeared as a co-author on “Evaluating the Stability of Preferred Social Stimuli Across Time and Assessments for Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder.” This project was led by Andre Maharaj (MIT) and included Gutierrez, Caceres, Hale, Durocher, Mary D. Pawlowski (Nova Southeastern Univ.), and Alessandri​. It examined how consistently children’s top-ranked social reinforcers remained preferred over time and across different assessments.

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2011 Florida Association for Behavior Analysis (FABA) Conference (Daytona Beach, FL) – Caceres contributed to a symposium on social reinforcers in autism. He was a co-author of the talk “A Comparison of Three Methods to Assess Social Reinforcers for Children with ASD,” presented at FABA’s annual meeting in 2011. This comparison (authored by Andre Maharaj, Anibal Gutierrez, Alexandra M. Alfonso, Elaine Española, Melissa Hale, and Wandy Caceres) evaluated multiple approaches (e.g. parent report vs. direct assessment methods) for identifying effective social rewards for children with autism​. The symposium was part of FABA’s program that year and highlighted Caceres’s role in applied research aimed at improving autism intervention techniques.

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2011 Asia Pacific Autism Conference (Perth, Australia) –  Caceres was lead author and presenter for "The Predictive Value of a Social Reinforcer Assessment Composite Score in the Outcome of a Joint Attention Intervention for ASD" His research demonstrated that the composite score correlated with the rate of skill acquisition in joint attention interventions, suggesting that children who perceive social outcomes as rewarding are more likely to develop joint attention skills during such interventions. A media release on 9 September 2011 highlighted the conference’s scale and international expertise, noting “experts from America, England, Belgium, Sweden, Kuwait, Singapore, India and Australia” The Children’s Hospital at Westmead newsletter reported that APAC 2011 had “the largest gathering of international keynote speakers… to present at an Autism conference in Australia”

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All of the above research endeavors were collaborative projects involving university-based autism centers and ABA research teams. Wandy Caceres is noted as being affiliated with Florida International University (FIU) during these studies​, working closely with researchers from the University of Miami (UM) – including Dr. Anibal Gutierrez Jr., Dr. Melissa Hale, Dr. Jennifer Durocher, and Dr. Michael Alessandri – as well as a contributor from Nova Southeastern University (Mary D. Pawlowski)​. This indicates Caceres was part of a multi-institutional collaboration addressing autism intervention. His role allowed him to bridge FIU’s behavior analysis program and UM’s renowned CARD autism research unit.​

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Dr. Wandy Caceres is cited in various online directories. For instance, a Spanish-language Prezi presentation on "Enhancing Cognitive Skills in Children with Autism" references his insights, noting “Según Wandy Cáceres, la atención compartida es muy importante…” (“According to Wandy Caceres, joint attention is very important…”). This usage underscores the influence of his viewpoints in educational contexts.

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After Dr. Jacob L. Gewirtz stepped down as head of FIU’s Behavior Analysis program, Dr. Wandy Caceres redirected his focus toward entrepreneurship, advocacy, and philanthropy.​​​​​

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