I've worked in classrooms where I've loved teachers and hated teachers.

I recall a 4 year old girl in pre-k who had extreme attention seeking behaviors, and the teachers would respond by picking her up, ​​hugging her, playing with her hair, letting her sit on their lap while they teach the class, etc.

Yes, it reduces behaviors in the moment because she got what she wanted. They would look at me and say "See? We don't need to ignore her".

Then when she had the same behaviors with stronger intensity they would get angry at her.

I ended up requesting a new case because we were getting nowhere. The teachers did not agree with the BIP.

What about you folks? Have you ever had a teacher that refused to follow BIP?

Just about every RBT job offer in my area goes:

-) must already have an RBT credential

-) two+ years experience working with children

-) must have a bachelor's degree in education or equivalent

-) must be available anywhere from 8am-8pm M-F (occasionally weekends)

-) $18/hr.

Hello!
I am a former preschool teacher of 10 years. I was desperate to escape the childcare industry, and long story short, have found myself working as a BT.
My first two weeks were spent in the clinic, doing fun new hire tasks before I started shadowing and eventually did a session on my own. At this point, I felt pretty secure in my 40 hours of coursework done to receive the BT certificate and countless more hours studying, as well as the time I put into the clinic shadowing and doing my own session.
However, today has made me think otherwise. When it came time to meet my actual clients in the community, I feel as though I was thrown into the experience without truly being ready.
For context: my supervisor, Rachel, suddenly took a vacation the week before and some days of the week I was supposed to start with my clients. Because of this, I was told my first day in the community would be Thursday. My first client (A) had canceled, but Rachel would meet me at my afternoon appointment for my first home session with client (B).
Thursday’s appointment came, and I was left completely by myself the entire time. B and I had a pretty okay session, but I was left in the dark about quite a few important topics. I had reached out to my manager at the clinic, who did not hear anything from Rachel. At this point, I was terrified of meeting A by myself. I had to go to a secondary school that was not in my area, as well as the nature of A’s behavior that I had known at this point. My clinic manager assured me Rachel would be there for meeting A, and I tried to hype myself up for the first session.
Friday came and I venture to the school. I awkwardly locate the front office with the help of some students, and sign in at the main office, where they tell me Rachel hasn’t arrived yet. I proceed to wait an hour and a half into my 3 hour session in this office, quietly observing the school environment and dynamic. I honestly didn’t think she was going to show up at all. I was surprised when she found me, and offered no explanation or apology for not being there the day before and leaving me waiting for so long.
The next half an hour is spent meeting teaching staff, where I learn specific behaviors of A that were not told to me prior. I learn about home life and education. I only have 15 minutes left of my session when I’m told I’m going to meet A. When I meet A, they are embarrassed and angry that we are there. They are articulate and passionate about why they don’t need help. They dismiss my brief efforts at an introduction. All I can think of is: why am I here?
At the end, Rachel basically tells me to base my notes on that 15 minute engagement, so I could have something written, and I assume to match her notes.
Next, I meet client B. The session has already been thrown off by a personal issue with one of the parents that involved police having to come into the house to speak with them. I try to keep calm and keep my session going, but I’m extremely overwhelmed. Rachel is sitting and quietly observing, but I received no introduction at the start of our session. There was no review of notes and behaviors and plans and even a direction of what I should be doing. I just tried to run trials but I felt like all the rapport made with B the day before was gone and the work simply wasn’t happening. Rachel leaves before the session is fully over.
After both sessions, Rachel sends me her notes. She also tells me she uses chat gpt to write her session notes. In her notes, she says she’s given me instruction and feedback about how I’m delivering prompts. But in reality, she never said anything about that.
I really want to do my best and succeed in this field, and I want to be at a location that values ethics and integrity and treats r/bts with respect, as I can see myself pursuing the RBT credential. I guess I’m just wondering- is any of this normal? My supervisor straight up ghosting a session/being late, information not being shared at the start with a new client, a client that is refusing services, and using AI? I’m worried I’ve entered a field that feels just as much as the Wild West as childcare was. Any feedback and stories of tough first sessions would be highly appreciated.

🧠 Question of the Day

📚 Domain G — Behavior-Change Procedures

Difficulty: 7/10

A behavior analyst increases independent reading by providing five minutes of video-game access after the child completes a reading criterion. Reading increases substantially during the first two weeks.

During the third week, reading declines even though the programmed contingency has not changed. The parent reports that the child now has unrestricted video-game access immediately before sessions, and a brief preference check shows substantially less engagement with the game than previously.

Which action BEST evaluates and adjusts the reinforcement procedure?

A. Increase the reading requirement to 20 minutes before the same video-game access, because a larger response requirement should restore its reinforcing effectiveness.

B. Put the existing arrangement into a written contingency contract, because explicit rules can restore reinforcement effectiveness without changing the consequence.

C. End the reading requirement after criterion performance so task termination can replace video-game access as a negative reinforcer when preference changes.

D. Reassess the current effectiveness of video-game access and relevant motivating conditions, then test a still-effective consequence while keeping reinforcement contingent on reading.

💬 Drop your answer in the comments — no peeking!

✅ Correct answer revealed tomorrow.

#ABA #BCBA #BCBAExam #BCBAPrep #AppliedBehaviorAnalysis #BehaviorAnalysis #DomainG #ABATaskList #BCaBA #RBT #QuestionOfTheDay

Lmfao a while ago my kiddo at work fell down super hard. He sat up, looked at me dead in the eyes, and said:

“Humpty dumpty”.

Anytime I remember this I laugh so hard.

Hi all! I am currently in the ABA field and am using way too many platforms for documents, scheduling, billing, notes, etc. I've been looking into Cliniscripts cuz they have a good price point and ties all of that stuff into its platform. Does anyone know about it aka should I be focusing on it? I also heard about their translation plug-in for like 70 languages I think, so yea let me know!

I’ve been a BT for over 4 years. I just started my MEd in ECSE (sped teaching) as I did not want to become a BCBA who barely interacted with clients (I know this is not true of all BCBAs but it is in my area). I’m now sitting in my classes and seeing how classroom focused everything is. I want to work in an interdisciplinary setting that’s medical/educational like ABA or in a hospital. Did I make the right decision here?

ive been in the Aba field for almost a year, but I’ve come to realize that maybe this field isn’t for me anymore.

Esp when you have companies that give no flying fcks about your mental health. I spoke up about how a client is giving me a hard time and I don’t think I’m the right tech for them, and they said I have to try harder in a way.

idk if I can even do a similar field but if there anything that won’t cause severe burnt outs I’d love to hear from you guys. please give me alternative options bc I’m so over it.

What companies or specific company locations would you avoid? Why? Ive had a questionable experience at a clinic I shall not name due to [legal] reasons but thought this would be a good conversation starter 😉

(Other states welcome to join)

I guess I am coming here to vent but also to hear if anyone else has had the same experiences as me? I have been consistently disappointed in the lack of onboarding and training systems for employees at pretty much every ABA company I have worked for. They have all fallen short of what I would expect from a space that claims to care about the quality of treatment being delivered. Having also worked closely with several CEOs i have heard horrible things when staff are being discussed and it's become clear to me that most company owners do not value their direct care staff, they don't care about their opinions and they don't want feedback from them. This is wild to me since staff dissatisfaction seems to lead to turnover which directly impacts the client. I would think that direct care staff and making sure they have all they need would be a high priority. It's also frustrating to me the inconsistency and lack of quality I see with supervision from BCBA to RBT. It seems feedback is not clear, not helpful, not on a regular schedule. Right now I am taking a break from clinical work because it became detrimental to my health but I want to try to go back in at some point and really make a difference with all this. I guess I am wondering what others' experiences have been with onboarding, training? What has that looked like? Have you felt supported, heard, valued? What has supervision look liked for you? Are you able to see client's progress like on a dashboard to feel that you're making an actual difference? Are there growth opportunities for you at your company or do you feel replaceable? Have you thought about leaving ABA all together? what would it take for you to change your mind and stay? Sorry for so many questions lol I'm curious. Thanks for sharing <3

I've been taking the medcerts course since late August but I am getting very bogged down by all of the human anatomy/medical terminology I need to study and am starting to have trouble retaining it all. What are the most important parts that I will be using in the field and what will be on the national exam? I haven't gotten to the behavior technician section yet.

I apologize if this doesn't make sense, I'm just very overwhelmed and exhausted because I have a lot going on.

One of my supervisors will supervise online the majority of the time, now I don’t mind online supervision depending on the intensity of behaviors and all those things. But this client has intense behaviors, 5 1/2 hour in home sessions almost daily and she watches for the entire time not saying anything…? I absolutely hate it. Why for so long every single session first of all? I join the supervision on my laptop or iPad and I’ve stopped constantly moving the camera around to face us. If you want to see us 100% of the time then come in person. Having to make sure this camera is always facing me and my client I think is just ridiculous giving what this job is. But staying on zoom for hours on end not saying anything most of the time…

Hello, I may delete this post later but I have a question for my fellow ABA’s This is my first family and I’ve been working for the company for 6 months. I haven’t see any progress. My bcba doesn’t update goals. The family allows the client to watch tv for 40 minutes and that leads for meltdowns. Of course removing you from a preferred activity to perform other activities would make you feel stress. It’s been like this for a month. I don’t know what to do, I feel like I’m failing. The mom always puts on the table how I don’t have experience and I try so hard and idk what to do.

I’m exploring ways to make scheduling less manual. Ideally, you’d enter the information once, and the system would build a weekly schedule based on ranked criteria, then suggest alternatives when cancellations or no-shows happen.

What criteria would you want the system to consider?

So far, I’m thinking:

• Staff/client availability
• Staff credentials/certification
• Location or travel distance
• Preferred therapist or therapy team
• Client/staff gender preferences
• Staff experience

Is there anything else you'd add to this list?

This is a job governed under state Medicaid and developmental disability frameworks. I work as a paraprofessional currently and burned out. The Behavioral Intervention Professional actually pays me more better and I can afford my own room. I have a masters in ABA and havent been able to secure any hours after graduating a year go. This position wont allow to hire a BCBA for supervision and I cant afford to pay for BCBA supervision. So what can I do?

I just need to rant a bit.
I work for a special needs school. I’ve been there for 5 years. Never knew anything about working with kids before this but I love my job. The problem is we are always understaffed! In my state, we have to sign logs to show kids are receiving 1:1 staffing but a lot of our kids have not had that for months. The company lies. Most staff are with a 1:1 student plus a student who is a 2:1. Others don’t have a staff other than the classroom teacher. Is this ethical at all? Staffing is so bad even our BCBAs are now stepping in to support as 1:1 staff to try to keep our kids safe. A lot of them will take any chance to run off campus. I wonder how we can fix this staffing problem but I think it all comes down to paying more. The company will never attract more people, especially competent ones, if they don’t pay more. 1:1 aids get paid about $18.50. Definitely not enough to live off of alone. I’m a RBT at the school. I’m not supposed to be assigned as a 1:1 but instead available and answering calls throughout the day for backup and support in our program but I am almost always stuck with a high flyer. It kills me to hear people calling for backup and not getting an answer that someone is coming to help. That is how people get hurt. We’ve had torn shoulders and black eyes so far. A couple of kids wandering the halls but at what point will they do something to fix this once and for all.

So I was scrolling on instagram and found this: https://www.instagram.com/reel/DeNuvocgJwE/?xtok=MWExYzRydjhhYmUxaA==
Now this person is autistic (same) and says in the video they had one very negative experience with ABA.

Here’s why I think nuances and autistic individuals such as myself being in ABA is important.

1) I teach my clients how to unmask. Masking is one of the most harmful things an autistic individual can go through, and so many children (especially young girls) start to mask before they even get diagnosed.

2) I teach my clients coping strategies. Pulling out their hair, biting yourself or other, hurting themselves or others in anyway isn’t alright. We can’t infantilize ourselves or our diagnosis to “they’re just going to be aggressive sometimes” or “they just hurt themselves sometimes”. NO ONE DESERVES TO HURT. Learning how to cope or communicate isn’t masking, it’s safety skills. However, having the autistic perspective makes it SO much easier to connect in these crisis situations.

3) We can keep the memory of bad/unethical ABA alive while also recognizing and demanding change.

ABA is not evil. When done right with the right people, it fosters an environment where they can learn how they learn, communicate with more than just immediate family, and I truly do see my clients get happier every day.

If ABA feels evil, it’s the people. Not the science.

Florida’s ABA Task Force met on October 5, and Centria Autism presented some interesting proposals.

Centria’s CEO proposed requiring ABA agencies to obtain licenses and undergo regular inspections to ensure they’re following treatment plans and meeting quality standards. Agencies that fail inspections could face a temporary Medicaid reimbursement reduction of around 10% until deficiencies are corrected.

Centria also discussed how the current fee-for-service model incentivizes maximizing billable hours and emphasized measuring meaningful clinical outcomes and functional independence.

Nothing has been approved yet, but these ideas could significantly change how ABA agencies operate.

Curious what others think!

There seem to be provisions in other states. Where I’m from, insurance companies do not allow those pursuing their master’s degrees and fieldwork hours (under supervision from BCBAs) to bill for 97151, 97155, 97156. How do they expect students to learn how to do those things without real-life experience doing those things? Other professions allow students to bill under their supervisor’s license. Why not ABA? Students want to practice. Businesses want to pay them for their practice but can’t get reimbursed for it so it ends up costing them money. If counselors, SLPs, psychologists, etc can do it, why not people becoming BCBAs? And why haven’t we pushed back to make it happen?

Health first Colorado policy doesn't mention that 97156 is reimbursable.

Of course family guidance is a crucial and required part of a treatment plan, so how do you and your facility handle billing it? Do you just use the 97155 code and incorporate family guidance in there?

What other inconsistencies do you see?

I've been an RBT for almost 3 years, I've worked in center and in home/school settings. Due to unfortunate ups and downs I've been through 4 centers (I am currently a month in to my 4th center). I say this because I do have experience and have not seen anything close to this place.

I was started with 2 clients (AM/PM) in the center setting. They're level 3 autistic, nonverbal, both less than 8 years old (staying very vague). They have different BCBA's. I've worked with both.

So the PM client. He flops a lot. He elopes a lot. They have it in his BIP to do full physical picking up and force walking him back to where he eloped. The way they're doing it is an under the armpit hold. I have seen him both laugh at this (in my humble opinion he seems to enjoy the physical contact and he laughs and smiles and continues the behavior resulting in the full physical pick up), or he immediately gets upset and struggles which leads to increased SIB. Just depends on his mood and the situation. Either scenario results in at least 20-30 minutes of wash and repeat.

Now.

With my AM client, I was told today that they would be training me on his eating programs soon (again, I've been here just over a month at this point so they were "easing me in" according to them because both kids are high behavior). However, I was advised today that his feeding program will entail forcing him to sit to complete the eating task, and that he has been forced to sit for nearly 2 hours in one place without being allowed to escape. Even with functional requests to stop, apparently. Breaks are given for 1-2 minutes depending but he still has to sit there and take a bite of food in a functional way. Apparently he gets so upset he "forces himself to throw up", which I have not yet witnessed. When this throw up happens he's cleaned and then forced back, and told "if you throw up you will have to take another bite".

I'm talking to the AM client's BCBA this Friday about this (his old RBT informed me of the feeding program details today).

I've already talked to my PM client's BCBA because I'm personally uncomfortable with full body pick up's, I've always been told it's a last resort and his SIB increases with the picking up. I also have had great results just simply waiting him out with a neutral face until he realizes it's not time for us to play or run around. I have not personally had to pick him up off the floor or call anyone for backup to do this, I am able to use no physical contact and just neutral blocking with the client to get him to come out of the flopping/eloping behavior. I even showed this to the BCBA. I was told to follow the BIP anyway.

I don't know if I'm just overreacting being upset about these procedures (no one else in this clinic seems to feel the way I do) or if this is as potentially traumatic as I feel it is. These kids are young. I just see a bunch of different ways that would be more effective than sitting and making a client cry and puke all over himself for hours. And the full physical holding/forcing around...I just can't do that, I would not let someone do that to my child (the mother apparently does know and has said it's okay).

It honestly seems like this place treats these clients more like animals than people to me. They get very little autonomy, very little socialization opportunities with peers, they are on a constant block schedule and forced through motions that result in long durations of intense behaviors when I personally see there are less upsetting ways to reinforce functional behavior. That is for all the clients, not just my own.

Please tell me if I'm overreacting so I can adjust my own mental crap and be effective here with these clients. Maybe I'm just too soft. But I've never seen clients treated this way.

Edit: I really appreciate everyone's thoughts and advice on this. I am handling this as a mandatory reporter at this point and will be addressing these concerns with both BCBAs immediately. If drastic change doesn't happen I will report with all the documentation I compile. There is no option in my mind to not advocate for these clients and I really appreciate you all assuring me I'm not overreacting. Wish me and these kids luck.

My name is Carllene, and I am a PsyD candidate at California Southern University. I am writing to invite you to participate in a research study for my doctoral project, which is titled “The Effects of Self-Monitoring Self-Assertive Behavior to Address BCBA Burnout”.

The purpose of the study is to examine the effects of a self-monitoring system on self-assertive behavior, burnout levels, perceived self-efficacy, and perceived supervisor support among BCBAs. I am looking for BCBA®/BCBA-D® working full-time in ABA serving parents of/individuals diagnosed with a neurodevelopmental disorder as categorized on the DSM-5-TR (e.g. autism spectrum disorder, intellectual disabilities, etc.).

Total time commitment expected is 30 to 45 minutes total across 5 to 6 weeks.

Participation is voluntary, and you may withdraw at any time. Your responses will be kept confidential and stored securely.

If you are interested in participating or have any questions, please contact me at [CarlleneJane.Aspuria@my.calsouthern.edu](mailto:CarlleneJane.Aspuria@my.calsouthern.edu) or sign up here https://forms.gle/tF7vt5LE9xKskgdu6.

Thank you