Blog Series: From Great Clinician to Great Supervisor

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Part 4: Better Supervision Improves Services at Every Level

by: Cheryl Davis, PhD, BCBA-D, Dana Reinecke, PhD, BCBA-D

Investing in supervisors is not simply an investment in leadership development. Supervisory behavior affects the people being supervised, the organization’s culture, and ultimately the quality of services clients receive.

When supervisors establish clear expectations, teach effectively, recognize good performance, and provide useful corrective feedback, staff are more likely to know what successful performance looks like and how to achieve it.

Effective supervision can also create an environment in which staff feel comfortable asking questions, acknowledging uncertainty, practicing new skills, and responding constructively to feedback. Guidance on individual supervision likewise emphasizes providing feedback and evaluating the effects of supervision rather than assuming that supervision has been effective simply because it occurred.

Resources such as SupervisorABA were developed to help behavior analysts move beyond simply meeting supervision requirements and build the practical skills needed to supervise effectively. Tools, models, structured practice, and ongoing professional development can help bridge the gap between knowing ABA and supervising people who practice ABA.

Perhaps the most important shift is simply recognizing that becoming a supervisor should not be treated as something clinicians are expected to figure out by accident.

Throughout this series, one principle has remained clear: becoming a supervisor should not be treated as something clinicians are expected to figure out by accident. Organizations can begin improving supervision by asking one essential question: Are we training supervisors with the same care and precision we expect them to use when training others?

Summary of References

Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2024). Supervisor training curriculum outline (2.0). Behavior Analyst Certification Board.

Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2026). Supervision, assessment, training, and oversight. Behavior Analyst Certification Board.

Fraidlin, A., Van Stratton, J. E., McElroy, A., & Aljadeff, E. (2023). Peer feedback: Recommendations for behavior analysts’ training and supervision. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 16, 696–708. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-022-00761-1

LeBlanc, L. A., Sellers, T. P., & Ala’i, S. (2020). Building and sustaining meaningful and effective relationships as a supervisor and mentor. Sloan Publishing.

Parsons, M. B., Rollyson, J. H., & Reid, D. H. (2012). Evidence-based staff training: A guide for practitioners. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 5(2), 2–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391819

Parsons, M. B., Rollyson, J. H., & Reid, D. H. (2013). Teaching practitioners to conduct behavioral skills training: A pyramidal approach for training multiple human service staff. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 6(2), 4–16. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391798

Author Bios

Cheryl Davis, PhD, BCBA-D (Creator)

Cheryl Davis obtained her doctoral degree from Endicott College in Applied Behavior Analysis. She received a Masters of Science Degree in Intensive Special Education from Simmons College in Boston, MA after attending The University of Connecticut where she received a bachelor’s degree in Human Development. With over 25 years of experience working with children and families with autism, developmental disabilities, and related disorders, Cheryl specializes in working with individuals with ASD and developmental disabilities, online teaching, active responding and skill acquisition. She has had experience as a teacher, job coach, home therapist, residential supervisor, public school consultant, staff trainer and professor. Cheryl has extensive experience in developing training topics for both parents and teaching staff. She has provided professional development trainings to over two thousand teaching staff and enjoys providing services internationally. 

Dana Reinecke, PhD, BCBA-D (Creator)

Dana Reinecke is a doctoral level Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D) and a New York State Licensed Behavior Analyst (LBA) and New York State Licensed Psychologist.  Dana has worked extensively in higher education in faculty and leadership roles and as a consultant, trainer, and clinician in various settings.  She has presented original research and workshops on the treatment of autism and applications of ABA at regional, national, and international conferences. She has published her research in peer-reviewed journals, written chapters in published books, and co-edited books on ABA and autism. Dana has been actively involved in the New York State Association for Behavior Analysis (NYSABA), previously serving on the Board of Directors as Secretary, President, and conference chair.

More in this Series:

Part 1: Why Great Clinicians Can Struggle as Supervisors

Part 2: Supervisors Need Training Too

Part 3: A Six-Step Framework for Developing Supervisors

Blog Series: From Great Clinician to Great Supervisor

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Part 3: A Six-Step Framework for Developing Supervisors

by: Cheryl Davis, PhD, BCBA-D, Dana Reinecke, PhD, BCBA-D

Organizations can improve supervision by treating supervisor development as an intentional, competency-based process rather than assuming that experience alone will produce expertise. 

New supervisors benefit from seeing effective supervisory behavior modeled. They need structured tools to observe staff performance and deliver feedback. They need opportunities to rehearse difficult conversations before having those conversations with employees. They also need someone to observe their supervisory behavior and provide feedback about what they are doing well and what they can improve.

Effective competency-based training identifies the target behaviors, provides clear descriptions and models, creates opportunities for active practice, and uses observational data and feedback to determine whether mastery has occurred (Parsons et al., 2012). Research has also demonstrated that practitioners themselves can be successfully taught to conduct BST with other staff, illustrating that effective training and supervisory repertoires can be deliberately developed rather than simply acquired through seniority or experience. 

Supervisors can apply the same framework to their own professional development: 

  1. Define the behavior. What does “giving effective feedback” or “having a difficult conversation” actually look like? 
  2. Learn and observe it. Review examples, models, checklists, and evidence-based practices.
  3. Practice it. Rehearse supervisory interactions rather than waiting for a high-stakes situation to practice for the first time. 
  4. Measure the outcome. Did staff performance improve? Did the supervisee demonstrate the targeted skill? Did the supervisor’s intervention produce the intended result?
  5. Refine the approach. If the desired behavior did not change, examine the variables affecting performance and adjust accordingly. 

This approach also changes the way we think about struggling supervisors. Instead of immediately concluding that someone is “bad at managing people,” organizations can conduct a performance assessment: Is this a skill deficit? Is the expected behavior clearly defined? Has it been adequately trained? Is effective supervisory behavior being reinforced? Are competing contingencies within the organization making good supervision difficult? Behavior analysts are uniquely prepared to ask those questions. 
 
Developing supervisors in this way does more than improve individual management skills. In the final installment of this series, we’ll examine how effective supervision influences staff performance, organizational culture, and ultimately the quality of services clients receive. 

Part 3 References 

Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2024). Supervisor training curriculum outline (2.0). 

Parsons, M. B., Rollyson, J. H., & Reid, D. H. (2012). Evidence-based staff training: A guide for practitioners. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 5(2), 2–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391819 

Author Bios

Cheryl Davis, PhD, BCBA-D (Creator)

Cheryl Davis obtained her doctoral degree from Endicott College in Applied Behavior Analysis. She received a Masters of Science Degree in Intensive Special Education from Simmons College in Boston, MA after attending The University of Connecticut where she received a bachelor’s degree in Human Development. With over 25 years of experience working with children and families with autism, developmental disabilities, and related disorders, Cheryl specializes in working with individuals with ASD and developmental disabilities, online teaching, active responding and skill acquisition. She has had experience as a teacher, job coach, home therapist, residential supervisor, public school consultant, staff trainer and professor. Cheryl has extensive experience in developing training topics for both parents and teaching staff. She has provided professional development trainings to over two thousand teaching staff and enjoys providing services internationally. 

Dana Reinecke, PhD, BCBA-D (Creator)

Dana Reinecke is a doctoral level Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D) and a New York State Licensed Behavior Analyst (LBA) and New York State Licensed Psychologist.  Dana has worked extensively in higher education in faculty and leadership roles and as a consultant, trainer, and clinician in various settings.  She has presented original research and workshops on the treatment of autism and applications of ABA at regional, national, and international conferences. She has published her research in peer-reviewed journals, written chapters in published books, and co-edited books on ABA and autism. Dana has been actively involved in the New York State Association for Behavior Analysis (NYSABA), previously serving on the Board of Directors as Secretary, President, and conference chair.

More in this Series:

Part 1: Why Great Clinicians Can Struggle as Supervisors

Part 2: Supervisors Need Training Too

Blog Series: From Great Clinician to Great Supervisor

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Part 2: Supervisors Need Training Too 

by: Cheryl Davis, PhD, BCBA-D, Dana Reinecke, PhD, BCBA-D

Behavior analysts already have a well-established technology for teaching complex skills. Behavioral Skills Training (BST), typically involving instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback, has considerable empirical support for teaching staff to perform important clinical skills. Effective training requires opportunities to perform the behavior and receive feedback until competency is demonstrated (Parsons, 2012). 

Yet organizations do not always apply this same logic to supervisors. 

A new supervisor may receive a job description, policies and procedures, a caseload, and perhaps some administrative orientation before being expected to supervise effectively. They may know that they should “give feedback,” “support their staff,” or “address performance concerns,” but knowing the rule is different from having the behavioral repertoire necessary to implement it. 

Imagine, for example, telling a new supervisor: 

You need to address this technician’s performance. 

That instruction leaves a tremendous amount unspecified.  

  • How should the supervisor begin the conversation?
  • What behavior should they describe? 
  • How can they distinguish observable performance from assumptions about attitude or motivation?  
  • How should they respond if the employee becomes defensive? 
  • How much corrective versus supportive feedback should they provide?  
  • What happens after the conversation?  
  • How will they know whether the intervention worked? 

These are behaviors that can, and should, be taught. 

The Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB, 2026) recognizes supervision as an area requiring specific preparation. BCBAs providing certain forms of supervision must complete supervision-specific training, and the BACB’s Supervisor Training Curriculum Outline (BACB, 2024) includes competencies intended to support effective supervisory relationships. Meeting formal supervision requirements, however, should be viewed as the beginning of supervisor development rather than its endpoint. 
 
If supervision is a skill, organizations need a deliberate way to help clinicians develop it. In the next installment, we’ll introduce a six-step, competency-based framework supervisors and organizations can use to turn supervisory expectations into observable, teachable behaviors. 

Part 2 References 

Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2024). Supervisor training curriculum outline (2.0). Behavior Analyst Certification Board. 

Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2026). Supervision, assessment, training, and oversight. Behavior Analyst Certification Board. 

Parsons, M. B., Rollyson, J. H., & Reid, D. H. (2012). Evidence-based staff training: A guide for practitioners. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 5(2), 2–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391819 

Author Bios

Cheryl Davis, PhD, BCBA-D (Creator)

Cheryl Davis obtained her doctoral degree from Endicott College in Applied Behavior Analysis. She received a Masters of Science Degree in Intensive Special Education from Simmons College in Boston, MA after attending The University of Connecticut where she received a bachelor’s degree in Human Development. With over 25 years of experience working with children and families with autism, developmental disabilities, and related disorders, Cheryl specializes in working with individuals with ASD and developmental disabilities, online teaching, active responding and skill acquisition. She has had experience as a teacher, job coach, home therapist, residential supervisor, public school consultant, staff trainer and professor. Cheryl has extensive experience in developing training topics for both parents and teaching staff. She has provided professional development trainings to over two thousand teaching staff and enjoys providing services internationally. 

Dana Reinecke, PhD, BCBA-D (Creator)

Dana Reinecke is a doctoral level Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D) and a New York State Licensed Behavior Analyst (LBA) and New York State Licensed Psychologist.  Dana has worked extensively in higher education in faculty and leadership roles and as a consultant, trainer, and clinician in various settings.  She has presented original research and workshops on the treatment of autism and applications of ABA at regional, national, and international conferences. She has published her research in peer-reviewed journals, written chapters in published books, and co-edited books on ABA and autism. Dana has been actively involved in the New York State Association for Behavior Analysis (NYSABA), previously serving on the Board of Directors as Secretary, President, and conference chair.

Blog Series: From Great Clinician to Great Supervisor

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Part 1: Why Great Clinicians Can Struggle as Supervisors

by: Cheryl Davis, PhD, BCBA-D, Dana Reinecke, PhD, BCBA-D

Clinical expertise does not automatically translate into supervisory expertise. Supervisors need explicit instruction, modeling, practice, feedback, and ongoing support, just like the clinicians they supervise.

In behavior-analytic organizations, a familiar career progression unfolds: a clinician demonstrates strong technical skills, good judgment, reliability, and knowledge of applied behavior analysis, and the next logical step is promotion into a supervisory role. On the surface, the transition makes perfect sense. Who better to supervise others than someone who is already highly competent at the work? The problem is that being an excellent clinician and being an effective supervisor require different repertoires.

Consider what we ask supervisors to do. A supervisor must:

  • Establish clear, reasonable performance expectations
  • Observe staff behavior
  • Identify skill and performance deficits
  • Teach new skills
  • Reinforce effective performance
  • Deliver corrective feedback
  • Evaluate whether that feedback worked
  • Occasionally navigate uncomfortable conversations about performance.

Supervisors must also learn when to change their own behavior when their current approach is not producing the desired outcome.

The behavior-analytic literature increasingly recognizes that effective supervision requires more than technical competence alone. LeBlanc et al. (2020), for example, emphasized the importance of developing both technical supervisory skills and the interpersonal repertoires necessary to build meaningful and effective supervisory relationships.

Research examining performance feedback similarly suggests that supervisors need proficiency in both technical and nontechnical skills, and that many behavior analysts report receiving insufficient explicit training in how to provide feedback effectively (Fraidlin, 2023). This distinction matters as organizations can easily misinterpret supervisory difficulties as personality problems: She isn’t assertive enough. He doesn’t like confrontation. She just isn’t a natural leader.

A behavioral perspective gives us a more useful way to look at the problem. Instead of asking whether someone “has what it takes” to supervise, we can ask: What does effective supervisory behavior look like, and has this person had sufficient instruction, modeling, rehearsal, feedback, and reinforcement to develop it?

Recognizing supervision as a distinct set of teachable skills is an important first step, but recognition alone is not enough. In the next installment of this series, we’ll explore why new supervisors need structured training, not simply a new title and a list of expectations.

Part 1 References

Fraidlin, A., Van Stratton, J. E., McElroy, A., & Aljadeff, E. (2023). Peer feedback: Recommendations for behavior analysts’ training and supervision. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 16, 696–708. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-022-00761-1

LeBlanc, L. A., Sellers, T. P., & Ala’i, S. (2020). Building and sustaining meaningful and effective relationships as a supervisor and mentor. Sloan Publishing.

Author Bios

Cheryl Davis, PhD, BCBA-D (Creator)

Cheryl Davis obtained her doctoral degree from Endicott College in Applied Behavior Analysis. She received a Masters of Science Degree in Intensive Special Education from Simmons College in Boston, MA after attending The University of Connecticut where she received a bachelor’s degree in Human Development. With over 25 years of experience working with children and families with autism, developmental disabilities, and related disorders, Cheryl specializes in working with individuals with ASD and developmental disabilities, online teaching, active responding and skill acquisition. She has had experience as a teacher, job coach, home therapist, residential supervisor, public school consultant, staff trainer and professor. Cheryl has extensive experience in developing training topics for both parents and teaching staff. She has provided professional development trainings to over two thousand teaching staff and enjoys providing services internationally. 

Dana Reinecke, PhD, BCBA-D (Creator)

Dana Reinecke is a doctoral level Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA-D) and a New York State Licensed Behavior Analyst (LBA) and New York State Licensed Psychologist.  Dana has worked extensively in higher education in faculty and leadership roles and as a consultant, trainer, and clinician in various settings.  She has presented original research and workshops on the treatment of autism and applications of ABA at regional, national, and international conferences. She has published her research in peer-reviewed journals, written chapters in published books, and co-edited books on ABA and autism. Dana has been actively involved in the New York State Association for Behavior Analysis (NYSABA), previously serving on the Board of Directors as Secretary, President, and conference chair.

Posted in ABA

Share Your Thoughts, Win a Free eBook!

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By Sam Blanco, PhD, LBA, BCBA-D

I am excited to share that we are building a resource to help BCBAs with the challenges of insurance billing. The ABA Billing Made Easy eBook will be coming out this fall.

Many BCBAs struggle with billing rules and documentation with insurance. It can feel like you’re suddenly speaking a different language, one that was not included in any of your coursework or on the BCBA exam. You are a BCBA, but suddenly you are being treated as a healthcare provider. There are billing codes, highly specific requirements for session notes, and consistent discussion about medical necessity.

I wanted to put together this resource after spending the past nine years providing services through insurance, reviewing audits, following changes to insurance requirements, and training other BCBAs on how to maintain compliance.

The goal of this resource is to provide clarity, and ultimately to give you back your valuable time and reduce your stress.

Before we finalize details, though, we want to hear from you! We want to know which topics you need guidance on, which topics you already have experience with, and what additional topics you want to see that we haven’t added yet. The current list is:

  • Definitions of the billing code
  • Questions to ask your agency/company prior to conducting your first sessions
  • How to address potential barriers to implementing code correctly
  • How to best utilize these codes if providing services via telehealth
  • How the Ethics Code applies to each code
  • Best Practices for each code

Please take two minutes to fill out this brief survey so we can better meet your needs. Survey participants who enter their email addresses on the survey form will be entered to win a free copy of the eBook.

Thank you for your contribution! We’re excited to share this resource with you!

About the Author

Sam has been working with children with autism for 25 years. She loves working with new BCBAs and students pursuing their BCBAs. She is the Chief Clinical Officer at BK Behavior.

Working with Parents as a BCBA

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By Sam Blanco, PhD, LBA, BCBA-D

I’ve been working with families with autism for over 25 years, and have witnessed firsthand the major shifts in provision of ABA services. We’re living in a time where far more families have access to services, but as the services have become more available the human connection seems to have gotten lost.

I’d like to take a little time to consider how you can approach your work as a BCBA given the very real barriers in place to building strong connections with parents and caregivers. Whether you’re working in a center where parents drop their kids off for services, working to provide in-person parent training once every week through in-home services, or trying to build a rapport via telehealth, there are strategies you can put in place to address the challenges discussed above.

  • Start off with a clear explanation of expectations. You need buy-in from the parents and caregivers to engage with parent sessions. Discuss with them their role in the provision of services. And ask them about why they sought out ABA services in the first place.  It can be useful to create your own simple parent contract that you go over and sign together about everyone’s expectations and roles.
  • Understand your parents. What are their priorities? Their values? Their concerns? An open dialogue should be occurring in which parents can share concerns about potential interventions as well as ideas they may have. Some ideas for structuring this might include, introductory parent surveys about their expectations and wishes for surveys, having parents write a mission statement about their overall goal for services, or sitting down to align on priorities for all the skills they may want to focus on.
  • Identify where you and the parents align. You need to ensure you and the parents are on the same page about expectations across the board, as well as treatment priorities. By now, you’re probably seeing that all of this is about communication communication communication. When you’re discussing an intervention, you should be checking for alignment on the goal itself, prompting, the timing of interventions, settings for interventions, and reinforcers. Be detailed!
  • Lead your team with intention. Think beyond insurance requirements and IEPs. Considering the values and priorities of the parents, what do you need to focus on for each session. Be clear about the goal of each session. It’s not simply a parent training session or supervision session. There should be one or more goals you can clearly define and understand how you intend to achieve those goals in each session.
  • Check in. Once you have established expectations and alignment, check in on a regular basis (monthly or quarterly) about expectations, priorities, values, and concerns.

About the Author

Sam has been working with children with autism for 25 years. She loves working with new BCBAs and students pursuing their BCBAs. She is the Chief Clinical Officer at BK Behavior.

Introducing: Socially Savvy Second Edition!

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By James T. Ellis, PhD, BCBA-D and Christine Almeida, MSEd, EdS, BCBA

Image by Chessie Almeida

Hi! Hello! Welcome to the Socially Savvy Second Edition!

Almost 20 years ago, we (Christine and Jim) decided to develop a social-skills assessment, which eventually became Socially Savvy. At the time, we were working together as BCBAs with 3- to 5-year-olds in a public preschool program. Thanks to Christine’s creativity and “let’s just do it” attitude, and Jim’s methodical, sometimes perfectionist approach, the project took about five years. Actually, closer to eight—but who’s counting?

With the support and guidance of Julie Azuma and the incredible team at Different Roads to Learning, it all came together. Socially Savvy has always been something we are incredibly proud of.

When we finally finished, we had poured so much time and thought into every detail that our immediate reaction was, “That’s it. Let’s never write anything again.” And yet, here we are—with the second edition of Socially Savvy just published.

So what could have possibly compelled us to take this on again?

Even after completing the first edition, we both found ourselves constantly noticing new ideas—teaching methods, activities, games—and quietly collecting them. We agreed we wouldn’t revisit such a large project unless we truly had meaningful new material. Over time, that material grew: new games (check), a more efficient way of grouping children (check), updated recommendations for books and practical tips for teachers (check).

But none of those alone would have been enough to bring us back to the drawing board.

What truly motivated us was the evolution of the field—particularly its growing embrace of neurodiversity. That shift prompted us to take a deeper, more critical look at our original work. Had it held up? What needed to change?

We felt strongly that Socially Savvy needed to more clearly reflect a neurodiversity-affirming perspective—not just in the language we use when working with autistic individuals, but also in what we target and how we approach teaching. This meant going through the manual line by line—updating approaches, incorporating new strategies, and removing practices that no longer align with feedback from autistic individuals and the broader community. Our goal was for our work to be a partnership, with autistic voices helping to lead the way. We hope this second edition reflects that commitment.

We recently asked a colleague what she was most looking forward to in the new edition—admittedly a big ask, since she hasn’t seen it yet. She generously shared:

“I am really looking forward to the release of the second edition of Socially Savvy. It sounds like this update truly aligns with the direction the field has been moving—especially the emphasis on neurodiversity-affirming supports and more naturalistic, engaging teaching strategies. Tools like visual supports and interactive games can make a big difference in generalization and motivation, particularly in group-based social skills work.”

We’re proud of this second edition, and we hope it delivers on expectations like these. More than anything, we’re excited to hear from you. So many of you have shared feedback and encouragement over the years, and we truly value it. We look forward to hearing your thoughts once again.

About the Authors

James T. Ellis, Ph.D., BCBA-D
James (Jim) Ellis earned his Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from West Virginia University and is a licensed psychologist and board-certified behavior analyst. For over 30 years, Dr. Ellis has provided services for children with autism spectrum disorders and their families. In 2008, he helped found the Step by Step School for Children with Autism in Guyana, South America and in 2012, he founded Step by Step Behavioral Solutions, through which he provided consultation and therapeutic support to individuals with autism spectrum disorders and their families. Currently, Dr. Ellis works in a public school, supervising a group of behavior analysts and overseeing programming for autistic students. Dr. Ellis has written articles for professional journals and presented at local, regional, national, and international levels on topics including play intervention, providing effective consultative services, and supporting children’s social skills development.

Christine Almeida, Ms.Ed., Ed.S., BCBA
Christine Almeida earned her M.S.Ed. in Special Education and Ed.S in Behavioral Education from Simmons College in Boston. Ms. Almeida is a practicing board-certified behavior analyst in the Boston area who has worked in both private and public schools. She currently provides oversight of services for young children with autism spectrum disorders for a public school. Ms. Almeida has presented workshops at the local, regional, and national levels on the subjects of educational assessment, play intervention, and social skills.

Making Time for Reviewing Data

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By Sam Blanco, PhD, LBA, BCBA-D

There’s a famous quote from W. Edwards Deming that says “Without data, you’re just another person with an opinion.” While Deming wasn’t a behavior analyst, this statement aligns closely with how BCBAs approach their work.

Most BCBAs will report how much they love data. But as workloads for BCBAs continue to increase, it’s unfortunate that some BCBAs aren’t looking at their client’s data more than once a month, and some aren’t looking until the authorization period ends after 3 to 6 months. It’s true that the system has drastically increased the response effort to review graphs weekly, but BCBAs are ultimately responsible for adapting their behavior in sessions in order to ensure they are completing those consistent reviews.

Our Ethics Code requires that we provide effective services, and a key component of this is ensuring our decisions are driven by data, not by opinion. If you’re feeling rushed and have a big caseload, there are some practical changes you can make to your day-to-day routines to help embed daily data review in your practice. These might include:

  • Ten minutes prior to a supervision session, select five targets to review. Look at the data, and then focus on those targets during the session.
  • Ask your clinical director if there are specific prompts within your data collection platform to help you organize data review better. For example, some platforms will have a visual indicator if data should be reviewed, while more sophisticated platforms might have flags or ways to sort out targets in which progress is not being made.
  • Organize a system with your behavior technicians so they can tell you in advance of supervision sessions what targets they would flag.
  • If your client has Behavior Treatment Modification hours (97155) or Treatment Planning hours (97151) utilize that time weekly to review data and make treatment modifications. This is what these hours are for!

Remember, we are collecting all this data for the purpose of making treatment decisions. This data is crucial to our work, and it is meant to inform our plans and ensure we are providing effective services. Here are some considerations to keep in mind as you review data:

  • For any targets that have been mastered, move them to Mastered. If you keep mastered targets in Acquisition, you will lose out on having an accurate understanding of your client’s general rate of acquisition.
  • For any mastered targets, add in additional targets if necessary. This will give you a more accurate picture of your client’s general rate of acquisition, and also improve variety and continued growth!
  • If you see a target that has not been mastered after several weeks (or after a time longer than the client’s general rate of acquisition), consider possible changes, such as changes to the prompt level, the materials, or the need for mastering prerequisite skills. Adjust to what the data is telling you.
  • For any targets you’re uncertain about, run them as-written with the client on your own. Then observe your BT to ensure they are running the program with procedural fidelity.
  • Identify if there are any targets without data. You will need to review with your BT to understand barriers to implementing the target.
  • If you see that an increase in challenging behaviors occurs during specific targets, evaluate what changes you may need to make. Again, adjust to what the data is telling you.

This isn’t a comprehensive checklist, but it’s a good start. Ultimately, reviewing all data should be a weekly practice for each client you work with. Otherwise, we’re not providing the full scope of behavior analytic services our learners rely on to make meaningful progress.

About the Author

Sam has been working with children with autism for 25 years. She loves working with new BCBAs and students pursuing their BCBAs. She is the Chief Clinical Officer at BK Behavior.

No Filter Cafe: Review by Julie Azuma

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 Dear Friends,

I never write for our blogs but I wanted to share this glimmer of hope.

This weekend, an acquaintance of a friend of a friend asked me to view a French film called “No Filter Café” at a Socially Relevant Film Festival in NYC. 

It’s a film in French about 5 young men diagnosed with severe autism.  Professionals in the autism field were hoping to build a future for young adults in this pilot program. The film depicts teaching all facets of food and restaurant preparation.  It examines the journey to create a café in the middle of Paris run by autistic individuals.  It took one-on-one staff and experts in the food industry 2 years to build the café and prepare the young men for employment.  There was much repetition and lots of practice.

The Café Program itself was inspired by Laurence Melloul Piou who is the Director of IME Cour de Venise – Autisme en Ile de France.  The film is directed and produced by Galaad Hemsi and Coralie Van Rietschoten.  Galaad is a parent of a young, non verbal ASD child.

I hope some of you will be able to view this inspiring film with subtitles to see how much hope we can hold for our severely impaired students.  I saw token boards, reward times, positive reinforcement, and lots of skill building. 

I was moved to tears, seeing profoundly autistic people reaching their potential and learning to enjoy their work.  There was hope, lots of hope, in this film.

There are many programs at many of our schools and we’d love to hear what you are doing to get our students ready for employment, both supportive and independent.

Let’s stay connected!

Julie

Learn More

Learn more about the Socially Relevant Film Festival through Film Freeway.

Synopsis

Élie, Gabriel, Raphaël, Steeve, and Saïd are five teenagers with autism. While their paths would typically lead them to medicalized institutions, isolated from the world, an innovative project is reshaping these predetermined trajectories. Over several years, these young people will take part in a training program to learn culinary skills, plate presentation, order taking, and table service, all the way to running a real café in the heart of Paris.

Point of view

We often talk about inclusion for people with disabilities. But what about autistic individuals with severe challenges? There are still far too few initiatives truly dedicated to them. Their daily lives are often met with barriers, too easily summed up in one phrase: “It’s impossible.” A phrase that parents and professionals hear all too often. And yet, their differences shouldn’t exclude them, they belong in our shared world, bringing their own unique value to it. These individuals are a full part of our society, and it’s time to envision true inclusion, one that leaves no one behind. That’s exactly what’s happening at Notre Café: a unique community restaurant where young people from the IME Cour de Venise gradually learn the codes of working life in a setting tailored to their needs. For several years, we followed them from their very first class to the realization of a project that, not long ago, many would have called impossible.

Posted in ABA

Helping Children Notice Internal Cues

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By Dr. Darren O’Reilly, Chartered Psychologist and Founder of AuDHD Psychiatry

In the first part of this series, we looked at why emotional regulation is harder for children with ADHD and how big feelings can seem to appear suddenly. This section builds on that by focusing on the early internal cues that emotions are rising, and how you can help your child notice what is happening in their body before those feelings spill over.

What Internal Cues Look Like

Internal cues are the signals inside the body that show a feeling is building. They can include changes in breathing, heart rate, muscle tension, or how a child experiences sound, light, or touch.

They are different from external triggers such as a noisy classroom or a sudden change of plan. The trigger is what happens around the child. The internal cue is what happens inside the child in response. Many children with ADHD move quickly from one moment to the next and do not pause to notice these signals.

One parent described her son this way: “He goes from fine to furious in seconds.” When they slowed things down together, they noticed that his hands tightened into fists and his breathing sped up just before he exploded. For families who are also wondering whether big emotional reactions and strong sensory responses might relate to autism as well as ADHD, a free autism test for children can sometimes be a gentle way to reflect on patterns before speaking with a professional.

Common internal cues include:

  • fast or shallow breathing
  • tight shoulders, jaw, or hands
  • “wobbly” or tight feeling in the stomach
  • sounds, lights, or touch suddenly feel “too much”

Why ADHD Makes Noticing Harder

Emotional regulation depends on attention, memory, and the ability to pause before responding. These are areas where children with ADHD often need extra support. They may react before they have processed what happened or before they can find the right words.

Children with ADHD also tend to focus strongly on what is happening around them and find it harder to tune in to what is happening inside. Emotions rise quickly, leaving less time to notice early signals.

Contributing factors include:

  • fast emotional reactions that leave little time to pause
  • attention pulled to the environment rather than the body
  • difficulty remembering to “check in” when stressed
  • internal cues that change quickly or feel hard to describe

Triggers and Situations to Watch For

Children may not yet be able to name what their body feels like, but you may notice that certain situations almost always lead to big feelings. A child might seem fine until homework starts, then quickly become restless or tearful. Another might manage a noisy birthday party but come home and collapse in tears.

Common triggers and situations include:

  • just before or during transitions, such as leaving the house or stopping a favorite activity
  • loud or busy spaces
  • unclear or multi-step instructions
  • rushed routines or unexpected changes to plans

Practical Ways Parents Can Support Noticing Internal Cues

Simple routines at home can help children learn to notice what is happening inside their bodies. Calm moments create space to practice this skill before emotions run high. Modeling is a helpful first step. You might say, “My shoulders feel tight, I think I need a small break,” or “My heart is beating fast, I am going to take a few slow breaths.”

Gentle prompts can then help children practice noticing for themselves. Questions such as “What does your tummy feel like right now?” or “Do your hands feel calm or fizzy?” give children words for their experiences. Visual supports, like a simple body outline or feelings thermometer, can make this easier. When children do notice and share a body signal, specific praise helps reinforce the skill.

Helpful strategies include:

  • modeling your own internal cues out loud in everyday situations
  • asking simple, choice-based questions about how the body feels
  • using tools such as body maps, color scales, or feelings thermometers
  • praising and gently reviewing early efforts to notice and share internal cues

More in this series

Read Part 1, Why Emotional Regulation is Difficult in ADHD

Be sure to watch for the next installment of this series, where we’ll talk about:

  • Using external tools to make emotions easier to understand
  • ABA alignment: using structured visual supports, consistent routines, and predictable cues that reduce ambiguity and increase successful responding.

About the Author

Dr Darren O’Reilly is a Chartered Psychologist and Founder of AuDHD Psychiatry. He writes about ADHD and autism with a focus on clear, practical guidance for families and adults.

Posted in ABA