I'm a transman. I actually pāss seamlessly already, so when I was ready to transition at work (it got too jarring for me to hear my dead name and female pronouns at work still), I was obviously extremely nervous, but I had high confidence that the families I work with would be alright with it, especially given I was already 100% presenting as male, so the only change necessary was name and pronouns (people who knew me as a woman usually just saw me as a very masculine or androgynous woman). I was right, they have been great and my company leadership has been amazing. But - a school I would work with a client in every week doesn't want me coming back because they don't want the kids exposed to a transgender person (even though I'm a very laid back individual who would not be offended by other children not getting my name and pronouns right. I'm not going to be correcting kids like that).

It stings a little. Feels like they see me as trying to push some agenda, which couldn't be further from the truth. I don't even tell people I'm trans unless I really need to (and it's unavoidable when they've know you before your transition). Just a rant, I guess. I wonder if any other trans RBTs or BCBAs have had uncomfortable experiences like this.

And yes, it's a private school, so they're totally allowed to keep me out.

Today my clinic was doing weekend session and they turned off the air. All of our kids and the RBTs are sweating but that’s not why I’m upset.

We had a napper and when we brought him out of the nap room he was drenched in sweat and burning up. When I brought the supervisor to see him he said “oh just bring him wherever you gotta outside another area of the clinic”. This feels like not keeping the client’s health in mind, we don’t have weekend sessions every weekend and I’m livid that one of our kids was in a room with no air circulation in an area of the clinic with the ac turned off in the middle of a Texas spring.

I’m debating whether to bring it up to higher management but I don’t want to overstep, I just want to advocate for our client’s health. I’m not sure what to do about it.

I’m brainstorming ideas to bring to our ceo and was wondering if you all had any. It could be anything and everything from employee benefits to actually facility design.

Basically, what are characteristics of a clinic that would make you WANT to stay with them?

I’m just very frustrated about what happened on Wednesday afternoon and need to vent. I work in a clinic. I did almost 4 weeks of hands-on training (shadowing the other RBTs with their client and slowly taking over more and more of the session as the days went on) and I was put with the same few kids consistently during it. I passed my written exam on Tuesday and was thus fully certified, so on Wednesday they had me one-on-one with kids the whole day. My morning client was the sweetest little girl, very low in maladaptive behaviors, who I had done most of my training with. I even took my comp with her! We knew each other and were comfortable with each other. The morning went very smoothly, the only hiccup was when we had to clean up from her favorite activity to transition to lunch, but we overcame it quickly. I wish I could say the same for the afternoon.

For the afternoon, they had me with a boy with extremely high behaviors, especially aggression. I had never been with this kid before. I did zero percent of my training with him. This child did not know me in the slightest, and I didn’t know him either, yet they just threw me with him. I spent the afternoon getting kicked, punched, he slapped me in the face so hard that I had his bright red handprint on my cheek for the next 2 hours, he bit me three times (one of which was on my breast), he threw blocks directly at my face, and he eloped so many times that I spent most of the session chasing him around the clinic to the point where I had an asthma attack. The only person who helped was his morning RBT. The BCBA stood outside his room on her computer while he screamed at the top of his lungs and attacked me for 20 minutes. If it wasn’t for his morning RBT helping me out, I would have left for the day halfway through the session.

I understand that I will have to work with high behavior kids in this job and that I will probably be paired with this kid again in the future. I’m just upset that I had no chance to pair with this kid at all before taking over his care for the afternoon, especially considering his behaviors are very well documented. I feel like if I had gotten the chance to shadow a session or two of his before hand, he and I both would have had a much more successful session.

Background: I work with a developmentally disabled patient who is in a wheelchair. Last week my co-worker joined us at a coffee shop with her patient ( non-verbal, explosive disorder, aggressive). Co-worker only had this patient for 2 days and told BCBA she was afraid of him because he was known to attack his previous therapist.

Incident: After sitting with us for 10 minutes her patient gets up and closed fist punches her in the face breaking her glasses and cutting her face in the process. For the next 10 minutes I attempted to de-escalate the situation. I stood between him and my wheelchair bound patient. He sat on the floor and seemed to calm down but then jumped up again and rushed at us. He swung at me once, missed and when he swung again I pepper sprayed him.

Now I’m being investigated to by HR. I replay it over in my head and I felt fully afraid for myself and my patient.

I'm a BT that was working with a client and asked parent if client could practice eating by himself (parent usually feeds him). Parent then asked me why and stated that he can eat fine by himself, just he doesn't like to eat foods he doesn't like. I told her I could ask about the goal. I sent a message to my BCBA about mom's comment and asked if the goal should be changed. Was this the right course of action?

I'm currently looking to get back into ABA, I heard from some friends some schools offer positions in a school setting, does anyone here work in a school setting that has recommendations

Hi guys! I’ve been a Behavioral Interventionist in California (born and raised btw) for almost 2 years now (will be exactly two years in October) and I’m taking my RBT exam on this upcoming Monday. Although I do feel about 80%ish prepared, I still feel like I’m gonna not get the results that I am expecting. I’ve been taking practice tests and everything but I also have majorrrrrrrr test anxiety to where I would study and then when I get to the exam, I’ll completely forget everything I remembered. Does anybody have any tips to help me? Thank you!💕💕💕💕💕💕💕

I’ve been an RBT for about two years and have only worked in one clinic. I want to know about what makes your job worth your while. This goes for in home, in school, community, etc. as well

Hello, RBT of 1.5 yrs here. I am very passionate about Aba and I’m good at what I do. My nephew has autism so it helps me remain patient in challenging times as well as it’s just a natural strength of mine. With that being said I cannot survive financially on the inconsistent hours. I worked in a clinic for 6 months and had guaranteed 40 hours every week and I was better off financially than I’ve been in years ($16.50 an hr.) I moved 3 months ago and got a position making $22 an hr (in Oklahoma) and I haven’t averaged 40 hours a week once. On my last check I was missing 45 out of the “60” hours I was supposed to get on my check because my only client was on vacation and I didn’t average 30 hours the previous week in that same pay period as my bcba isn’t comfortable with me doing community outings yet with my client because of their behaviors and understandably so considering their age is higher than I’m used to working with. They have drs appointments and ended session early for other reasons, we’re all human I understand. I’m not maintaining my bills and I’m in a small area so there aren’t a lot of opportunities for company switches. I’m extremely stressed financially and I live with my sister and don’t even pay rent at the moment and I still cannot maintain my phone, car, and car insurance bills.

I plan to use Cooper and my own study methods as well, but i'm talking mostly in terms of the online modules and mocks. Is just BDS enough? (I tend to be a good test taker and have very good, tried and true, study habits lol). I just really don't want to have to take this friggin exam more than once!

I’m a fairly new RBT, and starting to doing in-home sessions next week, I’m just wondering what kind of questions to ask parents during the session,

For example in the beginning of session, I plan on asking questions like: Did learner sleep well/through out the night? Have they eaten breakfast/lunch? Are they on any medications?

What other questions can I ask in order to get a better understanding of our session/session structure. Thank you in advance!

We recently hired a new tech. I’ve been training her the past few weeks. She told me she was on the spectrum which I understood because I’m also on the spectrum. Today I was training her and one of the clients tasks involves edibles. She started eating the stimuli. I told her that it was stimuli and that she shouldn’t eat it. She apologized and we moved on. About an hour later she was eating it again. Do I report this to my Bcba? I was extremely direct when I told her we don’t eat stimuli. I don’t know what to do as I’ve never been in this situation.

I’m a male BCBA in my early 30s. I work with EI and school age kids and right now I can be pretty silly and playful with the kids but I can’t help but think at some point I will be too old to do the same kind of things. I just don’t really see any male BCBA’s in their 50s and 60s getting on the floor and being silly with clients. Does anyone here fit that description? What does your work look like? I would think it just looks strange to see an older man playing with kids.

Exactly what the title says.

If you got a pay raise for going from an RBT to BCBA in training how much was it? I’m starting supervision soon and am wondering what to expect pay raise wise.

Hi,

Like the title says, I’m interested in a fully online ABA master program, that is preferably asynchronous, affordable and 12-16 months at most. I see that Purdue and a couple other pricier private schools offer 1 year programs but I can’t really afford that. I’m really interested in National University since they are affordable, year round enrollment and I am reading that it is 12-18 months to complete (mainly seeing 1.5 years) . I would like to see if there are any other 1 year long and affordable programs before I make the jump. And yes I am aware that a 2-3 year program is probably best but I’m only interested in being able to pass the BCBA at the moment and will most likely be using the BDS modules. Any helpful input would be appreciated.

Thank you!

One month and done. Not the training, not the kids, not the philosophy. The facility. Nasty. Floors never vacuumed nor swept. Lunchroom garbage can emptied once every two weeks. No janitorial service whatsoever. Beanbags, chairs, doors, bathrooms (many of which had no TP, but DID have paper towels) all never cleaned. Refrigerators had mouse droppings INSIDE them. The entire facility smelled of urine. Absolutely disgusting. I messaged the facility manager/boss... whatever, that it wasn't for me and his response was "What we do isn't for everone". The Health Department is getting a complaint on Monday, with pictures.

I’m a new BT, been working at a clinic for about 2 months. I have a really good relationship with my client’s parents. Apparently they kept telling my BCBA that they love me and they like how much detail I go into when I talk about their kid’s day, etc etc.

My kid had a really bad tantrum at the end of the day that a lead tech had to help me out with, so she was listening in when I was talking with the parent. I told the parent that the kid had a good day (they did), but had some tantrums with SIB (head-banging & body-hitting). I also said that if they ever have behaviors (like minor SIB) that seem to be attention-seeking, then the best thing to do is not give them attention as long as they aren’t seriously hurting themselves.

I got a call about half an hour later from my BCBA, who said that the lead tech had told him what I said, and he was really upset. He said that my client doesn’t have any SIB at all, and that SIB refers to “a very specific behavior” (he didn’t really explain what this was). He also said that giving parents advice on what to do at home was inappropriate and way outside the scope of my job, and that only BCBA’s could do that. He ended by telling me I’m being transferred to another location immediately.

I’m really confused because that’s what I was taught SIB was by the clinic, and that’s how it was used by the person who trained me. And as far as I remember, they never told us during training that we weren’t allowed to offer any advice. I thought it would be okay to essentially just parrot the advice they give us when working with the kids. I didn’t feel like I was offering any special advice that only a BCBA could give. That’s really the only time I ever gave advice, and the parent was already aware to do that, so it was more of a reminder. It definitely could have been out of my scope, but I feel like my BCBA overreacted. I still wanna know if I did something really inappropriate, so I don’t do it at my next clinic.

hello all!! i am pursuing my masters degree in ABA to eventually become a BCBA.

i have been accepted into St. Cloud State’s online program and I am waiting to hear back from UNT, these are my top schools but I also have a few safety options.

i would love to hear some opinions on each program, how they differ, and what the coursework will look like if anyone has attended either of these programs!!!

is the coursework synchronous or asynchronous? group projects, papers, tests??

any information that will help me make my decision is useful!!! thank you

I couldn’t have done it without this subreddit. I did take the training and studied as much material as my company had given me. However, I do want to acknowledge that many posts on here guided me to several other resources that played a big role in passing the exam.

Oops I meant BCBA 😭

I’m autistic & have experienced workplace disability discrimination in the past, at an ABA clinic nonetheless. I have worked as a Lead RBT at 2 clinics. I’ve been out of work for about 3 months after leaving my last clinic and trying to just be a SAHM and focus on academics, as school just started. I’ve continued using some of my behavior analytic skills at home, as both of my kids are autistic and my oldest also has intellectual disability. I still get a good amount of NET practice at least.

I recently heard of a new clinic opening where I live and jumped on the opportunity to apply. The day they scheduled my interview they opened a Lead RBT position & I applied right away. But I’m still dealing with the psychological damage caused by discrimination I’ve experienced and I feel like I have imposter syndrome that’s gotten worse as a result.

It doesn’t matter how many study sessions I go through with my husband or how many mock exams I take, I still have this feeling of inadequacy. Part of this stems from my differences in verbal communication and how others perceive it, and I feel that I am viewed as ‘incompetent’ due to past experiences and others’ perceptions that I am aware of. So I am quite nervous about my upcoming interview and feel that I’ll never feel prepared or viewed accurately.

Studies have also shown that neurotypical people harbor implicit bias against autistic people, including in interview settings, so this brings me even more concern and makes me feel that my fears are validated (Sasson et Al, 2017; Whelpley & May, 2022).

I’m just looking for words of support and encouragement and any relevant tips you may have, whether it is about studying, interview prep, communication, or just getting used to changing to a new job.

☀️