Tag Archives: BCBA profession

Who’s Most Qualified To Work With Your Child?

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Parents of children with autism are faced with a wide range of choices when it comes to the education and support of their children. The most important question of all is who’s most qualified to work with your child? Although a great deal of research supports Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) as the only effective treatment for autism, there are still many other interventions that are touted as potentially helpful. Research shows that combining ABA with other interventions is less effective than implementing it alone, with high fidelity and intensity (Howard, 2005).

Not all behavioral professionals are created equal. There is little control over the use of terms like “behavior specialist,” “behavior therapist,” and “behaviorist.” Just about anyone can claim to be one of these, often on the basis of very limited training and virtually no on-going supervision.  Consumers are often not aware that these are uncontrolled titles, and may put their trust in untrained, unsupervised practitioners. 

The problem of lack of quality control in behavior analysis was addressed by the development of state certifications for behavior analysts, and eventually the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) was formed. 

BACB credentials allow consumers some degree of confidence in the education, training, and supervision of the professionals they entrust their children to.  If someone claims to have one of these credentials, consumers should be able to find them on the BACB registries, easily accessed online at www.bacb.com. 

What does the BACB mean for consumers?  Those seeking behavioral interventions for themselves or others can look for professionals who have met the standards of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board with the confidence that that they have a minimum level of education, experience, and supervision and that they are obligated to follow an ethical and professional code.  Whether looking for a school program, privately hiring a professional, or seeking insurance coverage of services, the BACB designations can help consumers to determine if professionals and staff members providing services are well-qualified. They are also not at all easy to accomplish, so it is safe to say that someone with one of these credentials has achieved a high level of understanding of the science of behavior and the practice of behavior analysis.

Some states now license and certify behavioral professionals, and the standards for state licensure and/or certification may be more or less than those required by the BACB.  Having a BACB credential in addition to state licensure ensures that the professional also meets the BACB’s high standards. 

Credential Minimum education requirement Type of work Supervision
Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) High school diploma or equivalent Direct implementation of behavioral interventions (paraprofessionals) Ongoing by a BCaBA, BCBA, or BCBA-D
BCaBA Bachelor’s degree Practice under supervision, supervise RBTs Ongoing by a BCBA or BCBA-D
BCBA Master’s degree Independent practice, supervision of BCaBAs and RBTs None
BCBA-D Doctoral degree Independent practice, supervision of BCaBAs and RBTs None

 

Guest post written by Dana Reinecke, PhD, BCBA-D.

 

References

www.bacb.com, retrieved January 28, 2017

Howard, J. S., Sparkman, C. R., Cohen, H. G., Green, G., & Stanislaw, H.  (2005).  A comparison of intensive behavior analytic and eclectic treatments for young children with autism.  Research in Developmental Disabilities, 26, 359-383.

National Autism Center.  (2015). Findings and conclusions: National standards project, phase 2. Randolph, MA: Author.

Overcoming 3 Barriers To Earning Your BCBA

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Working toward a BCBA or BCaBA is hard work – attending classes, getting experience hours and, working, often full time, and for many, doing all this while raising a family. The good news is that all of this hard work will someday pay off. After all, the ultimate goal of this is to be qualified to provide help to individuals who desperately need it. Working in the field as a BCBA is a noble cause and many families will be grateful for your support.

But along this path there are many details to manage, details which can easily slow, or derail your path, if not properly managed. You know the details I’m referring to – direct supervision hours, indirect supervision hours, correct ratios of experience to supervision, weekly forms to be signed, tracking hours for each of these and sorting through the multiple supervisors who have provided fractions of the needed hours to you this month. This can get confusing and quickly create barriers – but it doesn’t have to.

 

Learn more about overcoming 3 big barriers to earning your BCBA, and read along for our tips on how to maneuver past them.

Barrier #1 – Lack of a plan.

It is easy to get carried away with the busyness of your life and forget to take some time to create a plan for meeting your requirements. 2 years often gets tossed around as the time it takes to earn your BCBA. This is a fine time frame to aim for, but without a concrete 2-year plan, it is easy for life to get in the way, and fall short on that goal.

Taking an hour to plan your course of action now can save you months later. Identify some concrete, measurable goals and create a plan. The BACB website has the information you need to get started. Find the requirements – course sequence, experience hours, supervision hours, etc., and create your goals based on those. For example, if you are doing supervised independent fieldwork to reach your experience hours, you will need to accumulate 1,500 total hours to qualify for the exam. This can now be your basis for your experience plan.

Once you have figured out how many experience hours you need, grab that 2 year time frame and calculate how many hours per week you need to acquire in order to reach your goal in time. If we use our 1,500 number, and you are able to work 50 weeks a year, that comes out to 15 hours per week. This weekly goal of 15 experience hours is much more manageable and accomplishable than a goal of 1,500 in 2 years. With this weekly goal too you can begin to plan how you will get your 15 hours per week.

Barrier #2 – No control over experience and supervision.

This is a barrier that is a little bit harder to overcome, depending on how you are acquiring your hours. If you have set your weekly goal at 15 hours of experience per week, but you don’t currently receive 15 hours of work per week, then something needs to change. Either lower your hours to a number you do currently receive on the regular, and adjust your timeframe accordingly, or talk to your practicum site to see if you can arrange for more hours.

Be cautious about tightly planning around the number of hours you are promised to work each week, especially if you don’t already work this much. It is more difficult to provide those hours than some practicum sites would like to admit. One strategy is to request 10% to 20% more hours than you need, to account for cancellations. After you agree on a weekly goal of experience hours with your practicum site, add that number along with the corresponding supervision hours required into your supervision contract. While you have responsibilities as a supervisee, your supervisor also has responsibilities to provide you with the training you need. Both of these contingencies should be in writing in your signed contract.

Barrier #3 – Disorganization.

Now that you have overcome the first 2 barriers to earning your BCBA it is time to actually accumulate those hours. This is where the responsibility truly falls on your shoulders. Make sure you stay organized from the start.

A great way to keep yourself organized is to write down your your goals for experience and supervision and track your progress each week. You can track this information in any form that is easy for you. Some people use Excel, others use Google Calendar, but I like to use my Self Management Planner for things like this, because it incorporates an appointment book with a place to write weekly goals and track progress toward that goal every day of the week. Whatever you use, make sure your tracking system is easy to use and portable. Write down your progress every day, and include the number of experience hours and the number of supervision hours you logged.

Write down your supervisor name next to your hours too. This way you won’t forget who provided supervision and when. The experience forms you need to fill out from the BACB have a section to write in your experience hours for the supervision period along with the supervision you acquired during that period. But if you wait to write down your supervision when you are filling out these forms every week or two, it will be very difficult to remember all the hours you got. This is especially hard when your experience is broken up over 5 different clients at 6 different locations and 2 different supervisors. Logging this daily in your planner, or whatever system you use will help immensely. Staying up to date with this will pay off 2 years from now when you are filling out your forms to take your exam.

Earning your BCBA is hard enough, with the challenging courses, rigorous exam, and complex nature of learning about behavior analysis. But planning for and tracking experience hours does not have to add to these difficulties. By removing these three barriers, you will remove a big stressor, and get yourself one step closer to successfully earning your BCBA in the time you want.

Daniel Sundberg is the founder of Self Management Solutions, an organization that operates on the idea of helping people better manage their time. Towards this end, he created the Self Management Planner, which is based on an earlier edition created by Mark Sundberg in the 1970s. Daniel received his PhD from Western Michigan University and currently consults with organizations on performance improvement.

Lisa Sickman supports Self Management Solutions with ongoing content and product development. She received her Masters degree in behavior analysis from Western Michigan University, and then worked for several years as a BCBA at an autism center. Lisa currently teaches future BCBAs and BCaBAs as a co-instructor for ABA Technologies.