Applied Behavior Analysis

Someone on here made a point, im not arguing if it’s valid or not, that kids should not be in 3+ hour long sessions and they should be in more direct sessions with BCBA’s than RBTs because they believed that the quality of service would increase. They were ultimately making the argument that I’ve heard good amount of times while in ABA, RBTs are glorified day care workers. Look, just like any field you’ll get the good and bad. A good RBT is worth a thousand bad ones, but it’ll take a thousand good RBTs to rectify the damage of one bad RBT. If a person comes in to the ABA field with experience or or not, a good RBT is made with adequate training. And It ultimate all comes down to the fact the business aspect. Whenever there’s concerns of turning a profit, quality of care goes down. Companies hire people with little to no experience working with neurodivergent people, which again is not an issue. The issue is that they “train” them on an iPad for one week, and turn them over to their clinic where they are expected to pass a competency test in less than 5 days and start independent sessions after maybe 2 days of shadowing. All of this is because there’s not enough people on the clock to alleviate the RBTs that are still there, so the new hires get pushed in prematurely just to satisfy staffing needs. The kids that they are in session with now don’t get the help they need because so much valuable session time is spent pairing and avoiding behaviors that the BT doesn’t really know how to manage or prevent because they maybe shadowed the kid once or twice before leading with them. The RBT they do lead with before passing their competency has probably only been in the center for 6 months themselves because the turnover rate is high. The experienced RBTs know that this will bleed into their sessions and basically walk back all the hard work they’ve achieved with that child, now behaviors increase and productivity goes down because there’s inconsistencies in the team. Now that person has probably unknowingly caused damage to that kid and that the BCBA and the rest of the team has to fix. Speaking from my own experience, you need at least 3 weeks of generalized training on behavioral therapy, the logistics of taking data, behavior interventions and preventions, redirection, NET, DTT, etc. And this needs to be a mixture of training modules and classroom teaching. These new hires also need to shadow the children they will be working for at least 2 weeks before leading sessions with them. Even though a BT can’t lead a session independently before passing the competency, they should be leading with an EXPERIENCED RBT and the BCBA for 2 weeks to ensure they aren’t just thrown haphazardly into the mix. This way, the kid themselves is familiar with the new person that will be working with them, the person has time to study the child and their BIPs and targets, and the trainer can cover specific situations with the BT before they’re independent. I say all of this because when I was fresh off of my RBT exam, I was in an independent session with a kid with extremely violent behaviors that I could not prevent because I wasn’t properly trained on their triggers and interventions. This actually happened with multiple kids in my team. All of this could’ve been prevented for that kid if quality of care was prioritized over staffing, they will probably have to stay at the clinic longer due to their increased challenging behaviors as opposed to going to school full time. You see how business needs bleeds into quality of service? The people who stay at the clinics long enough burn out, the kids have to re pair all over again with new people who aren’t adequately trained, the staff that is there is over worked and under compensated due to the strain of training, working with no break or lunch, and essentially carrying the team since they’re the only RBT who has been there long enough to know what they’re doing. When the business mistreats, and under trains the workers, the kids suffer. It’s sink or swim. These businesses just don’t invest enough in RBTs to make them the golden standard they need to be. When working with these kids, there’s zero room for failure. The stakes are too high for a learning curve. Before we talk about how “expendable” RBTs are, we need to put more effort into their training.

TLDR The problem isn’t the RBT, it’s the inadequate training

What are the ethics related to and the board's stance on quiet quitting if you are a BCBA? I am on the last step of a PIP (been given little support/training as a new, first year BCBA). This company was bought out or "merged" three months into my employment. A mass exodus occurred right after. The regional and clinical director left, as did two other BCBAs. Their policies changed drastically.

My caseload at one point was 33+ clients. It took months for them to reduce this to 20+. Now, I am extremely burnt out and have no will to continue here. I don't want to quit because I would have to pay back my hiring bonus.

Hi everyone,

I’m reaching out to this amazing community to ask for your support for a young and dedicated Behavior Technician named Josue, who is only 19 years old. Josue has recently been diagnosed with leukemia, and he’s currently facing an uphill battle against this aggressive disease.

Josue is known for his incredible work ethic, compassion, and commitment to helping others, especially the children he works with. Despite his young age, he has made a significant impact in his field, and now he needs our help.

Medical expenses are piling up, and the cost of treatment is overwhelming for Josue and his family. That’s why we’ve started a GoFundMe campaign to help cover the costs of his medical care and support him through this difficult time.

Please consider donating to Josue’s GoFundMe here. Any amount, no matter how small, will make a huge difference and will be deeply appreciated. If you’re unable to donate, sharing the campaign with your friends and networks would also be incredibly helpful.

Thank you so much for your kindness and generosity.

https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-josues-battle-against-leukemia

Last week I was overlapping a session and when the lead RBT let the client know that they couldnt have popcorn (we were out) and provided alternative food choices the client began to engage in high instances of aggression. The BCBA on the case asked me if I wanted to look into interventions that we could possibly use with this client.

The client currently has an accepting no program, however it has not been affective. Ive been reading some research on different methods of interventions, however, I feel lost.

I was wondering if anyone had any methods that they have implemented to help with accepting no.

Behavior tech here.

The caption. Look, I get it. For one, many clinics are too small to afford paying their staff as much as the big firms. For another, I understand mr. insurance man has a penchant for being a cheapskate and keeps reimbursement rates low.

However, how does that explain the upper elechons of our various companies having luxurious lives while those of us on the frontlines pick up their table scraps? Not that I'm saying anything their jobs aren't important btw.

For me, it's capitalism, or at least our version of it, that drives low pay. We don't design the programs or run the facilities behind the scenes, but we implement them all day everyday, and we're the faces of the clinics. We do a large portion of the actual user-end hands-on work, yet our pay doesn't reflect that.

I find it hard to buy the excuse of "oh but our hands are so tied because xyz reason we're struggling so much" when execs are doing more than fine, many buying second houses or going on several vacays a year. Reaping the benefits of the revenue generated by our labor (yes yes I know that cost must be deducted before it's considered profit. I took algebra).

But this isn't unique to ABA. It's a corporate america problem.

I guess this is mostly for BTs but if you're a BCBA it also would be interesting to hear. Did you quit because of the job itself? E.g. job tasks were too taxing, (data collection, protocol memorization and implementation, managing behaviors, getting hit, etc) Did you quit because of poor management? E.g. administration/supervisors did not provide support, did not value you? Etc. To put it another way, would you have stayed in the field if you had better support? Or no matter what the level of support was, the job was asking too much of you? Third reason, was your BCBA good and supportive, you enjoyed the job, but administration was poor and undervalued you/didn't respect you as a human? This field is plagued by staff turn over. My hypothesis is that more than the job itself, it's a lack of proper support and administration. In this field, and maybe in others too, you really just need the right credential to be promoted, regardless of your skill set. "Oh you have a BCBS? Great! You now have the second highest ranking position and are in charge of a team of 8 people" or in some cases, clinical director, in charge of an entire company's worth of people. The job of a BCBA isn't just behavior modification, it's team management and interpersonal skills. I think if our field did a better job training supervisors in management skills, the field could potentially see less turnover. Of course I could be wrong and maybe all the burn out is due to the difficulty of the work itself. Do let me know your thoughts, I very much love this field and love to see my clients grow and learn, even if it's at great difficulty to me, so I would love to do my little part to help reduce turnover and staff burnout so that our little field can continue to, not just grow, but thrive!

Hey everyone,

I've applied to a couple Marriage & Family Therapy masters programs. I have experience working with autistic kids and others with developmental disabilities - I LOVE working with this population. I currently work with teens in residential mental health treatment, but I prefer the former. Is it possible for an LMFT to specialize in autism / disabilities, work in schools, etc? I've looked into becoming a BCBA as well but I'm not sure if it's my jam. Thanks!

So, I work at a school. Client is 9. I told mom the client is not doing his homework and asked for cooperation so that she can make sure he completes the hw at home. Her response was she doesn't want to force him to do anything he hates. Teacher is asking me everyday what is happening, why isn't he doing his homework.

That's not even the worst, the client has been saying curse words, calling other kids the n word, Cracker, Whitey, or Blackie to other kids. I obviously tell mom, her response is that she doesn't believe the kid did it. The teacher told mom she never heard him even though multiple kids have complained to the teacher about the client calling them those names. Mom doesn't believe me which is kinda inferring I'm making up fake stories.

Last straw, was on Friday when the client came to school very aggressive. Trying to beat everyone up according to him so that he could get expelled. He even told me he doesn't care if I tell his parents "because they don't ground me". What am I even supposed to do here? When I told mom she complained again that the teacher is only saying good things about him and the only thing I do write negative comments. Does she think I'm coming up with these stories? Why would I even do it? How would it serve me? This is so frustrating. At least my BcBa believes me.

The first clinic I ever worked at had a lot of clients of many ages from 3 to 19. That’s where I realized I liked working on the older kids side. I wish I could find a clinic that focuses more on older clients. I enjoyed helping and preparing them for real life, since they’ll be out there in the world soon. I miss teaching things like time management, hygiene, how to fill out job apps, going on walks and teaching them how to use crosswalks and more. Anytime I work with younger kids, it starts to feel like working at a daycare. I know a lot of Aba centers like to focus more on younger clients because they have more years/time to help them, but I wish the older ones were more of priority too.

Homes for heroes Loan program in Texas include registered behavioral therapist ? Has anyone used the program as an Rbt?

I'm a mid-level right now near getting my BCBA but lately I miss just being a BT. Juggling 10 different cases and having to drive all over town to get there is so draining. Training a bunch of different technicians when like half of them quit (or progress their career, which is great of course, but means rolling the dice on getting a qualified person again).

I've been getting to tech a bit because of some current staffing gaps, and remember how fun it is. I wish I had the time to do it more but I can't give up those supervision periods for it. It makes me really want to just go the route of a direct service BCBA when I get there.

Now that health care workers are getting a minimum wage boost in California do RBT’s meet the criteria for this?

Just looked at my schedule and tomorrow I’m with a client who famously gets aggressive with longer sessions and they scheduled me with them for 5 AND A HALF HOURS IN HOME???!???!!

So I always see pretty negative posts on here and thought it would be a good idea to share a win with y’all.

I’m currently an BT and a couple of days ago my sup and I were working on getting our client to repeat what we’re telling her which is to introduce herself. So my sup would look at her and prompt “say, hi my name is Sammy” (all names that are mentioned are fake names). We tried for about 2 minutes before I looked at my sup and asked to model it and proceeded to say “hi my name is Jessica, what’s your name?,” then my sup goes “hi my name is Wendy, what’s your name?,” she points to our client who then points to herself and goes “my name is Sammy.” My sup and I reinforced the heck out of her response to the point where we would simply be sat next to her and our client would independently say “my name is Sammy,” and we would just keep reinforcing it.

As small as it might be to others, It was honestly such an amazing experience and such a big win in my books.

Has anyone who has taken the BCBA used both bas and study aba materials? i found myself barely passing the bas mocks but the study aba is seeming a lot less tricky (which im hoping is like the real exam). It says on their site they are comparable to it. any opinions?

Hello everyone,

I am interested in hearing about people's experiences with Hopebridge Autism Therapy Center. I am a former RBT who worked for them a couple of years ago.

I would love to hear other's experiences of Hopebridge - RBTs, ABA Therapists, BCBAs, Center Managers, Parents, etc. to gather research.

I recently saw a posting for an RBT and Behavior Specialist job in a crisis support home. The role is on a multi-disciplinary team so there’s a lot of collaboration. The clients are children/ adolescents with I/DD with co-occurring psychiatric symptoms. Does anyone have any experience in this type of setting? So far, I’ve only worked with children 2-11 with ASD & ADHD in clinic and in home.

Yesterday supervisor came out to revise programs before a new BT starts. We talked about my son being lonely. She turns to him and says would you like a sister or brother? A few minutes later ask if he wants a puppy even though my son’s dog is 5 ft away.

Please tell me I’m not crazy and she was out of bounds.

Anyone working in a clinic or school setting that pays well? I’m relocating and just have sit for my BCBA exam but had to unexpectedly move to Philly. So looking for RBT roles until then.

I am very much considering becoming a BCBA, as I am planning to apply for my masters in the next month or so. However, I really love the art of tattoos, and no I don’t plan on getting anything provocative or offensive. Is it possible or accepted to have visible tattoos as a BCBA?

To those who have completed my survey - thank you so much! For those who haven't, I would love it if you could; I'd be so very appreciative!

Have you worked with challenging behaviour maintained by the access to tangibles and decided on intervention?

We invite you to participate in a survey to help develop an intervention decision-making tool for challenging behaviour. We welcome behavioural practitioners across all specialisations and experience levels. Please feel free to share with behavioural friends and colleagues.

Click the link below to take part!

https://auckland.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_2m1Bj5Sy5ToNDyC

Why participate?

• Contribute to impactful research in the field of behavioural health.
• Help identify best practices and key considerations when choosing interventions.
• Influence future training and resources for clinicians.

I’ve been a Direct Support Professional longer than I’ve been an RBT so when quick apply jobs on Indeed ask “how many years of ABA experience do you have?” and don’t specify “ABA therapy”, I include the years I was a DSP. I do this because I’ve always worked with behavioral clients who have BIPs we must follow, and get ABC data collected amongst other data collection related to their behaviors and plan.

Does this technically count? & if it doesn’t technically count, is it relevant enough to still keep doing this and then elaborate in the interview?

Hello, Would I be able to apply for a BCBA if I have a masters in Criminal Justice?? Has anyone done this?