hi ya'll. i've been working with my aba company for almost a month now and it's definitely the hardest job i've ever had. i knew that it would be, going in, but i feel like i'm in over my head. maybe more importantly, i feel like i might not have the right personality to be an rbt.

i'm a pretty quiet person, so talking all the time isn't natural to me, even with kids. i'm an only child, and whenever i looked after the kids in my family, i was the chill cousin who would mostly let them do their own thing and come to me if they wanted me. now i have to force myself to talk all the time, and i feel like the kids can tell it doesn't come naturally to me.

none of it comes naturally to me. i'm bad at getting out of my own head to just be silly and play. i catch myself being too soft-spoken when i'm supposed to be authoritative. i get so nervous thinking about coming into work and doing something wrong that i start most of my days nauseous. some of the kids seem to like me, but i don't have the natural charisma/ease that my coworkers do. i overthink everything.

i'm still showing up to work being cheerful and giving it my all, but i feel like i'm using all of my energy trying to get to the point that my coworkers already start off with. and i worry that i'm hurting the kids somehow by sticking them with someone who can't easily connect with them like their other teachers.

has anyone else felt this way, and did you get better? or am i just in the wrong profession? i really do want to help these kids. i just don't know if i'm what they need.

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 hope it's ok with group policy. I am making some research about online therapy and will be thankful if you can contribute. Here is a survey. It's really short. For more questions DM.

https://forms.gle/BHtUd9anYS86nonAA

Hi everyone! I am currently a BT finishing training on Tuesday then send my application in for the RBT exam. I’m just curious what your experience was like with the exam? I know it’s situation based test and I want to do my very best to pass the first time. Any tips? Advice? Resources? Thank you!!

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?

Does anyone else get extremely frustrated when other people (fellow RBTs or other adults) interfere when you’re working with your client? I work in a clinic setting and I’ve had 2 clients now that we are working to be independent and not need to be held all the time or sit on your lap and without fail someone will walk in the room and immediately pick them up/snuggle/etc. and it’s so frustrating… am I in the wrong to tell them to not do this and hands off. There’s times I literally want to tell them to focus on their own client not mine (in a socially modeling way of course lol)?

Howdy! I'm currently in the middle of the 40 hour training and am hoping to start sometime later in the month. Currently an undergrad psych student who is also, conveniently, taking a class on learning. So, I'm fairly confident in my ability to carry out treatment plans once I eventually have sessions underneath my belt. The one problem I'm having, though, is the fact I have absolutely zero experience working with kids and haven't interacted with them much to begin with in a long, long time. Despite this, I do absolutely love them and cannot wait for the day I have them. I have spent a lot of time in the past, when studying for my psych classes, applying the knowledge to figure how to best raise children and more generally how to best promote their development (albeit much of it was in relation to technology usage, but that's a whole other story).

Anyways, despite all of the theoretical knowledge I have, there is a large discrepancy between knowing such and in knowing how to go about applying it. I can't help but worry that I'm going to go in being awkward and uninteresting to the kids—which is especially problematic as, from what I understand, pairing is the foundation for any future work with them. I know I will be shadowing when starting and will have the BCBAs to lean on, but is there anything I can do or need to know to further prepare myself?? Thank you for any help

If you could automate or use AI for any non-clinical/operational aspect of your ABA practice, what would it be? Think about tasks like scheduling, intake, etc.

I just started working as a school RBT & the client I was assigned to a client with extreme behaviors & serve physical aggression towards staff & students. After being injured at work a few times, I am considering asking my company to reassign me to a new client. But I’m wondering, are all school cases usually with students with severe behaviors? Let me know your thoughts.

Edit: I’ve been working as an RBT for 4 years now & previously I did in home therapy, i decided to switch to a school setting because it was a more consistent schedule.

Hi! I am currently conducting a survey-based research study and am looking for participants! I am starting my Master's of Science in Behavior Analysis in August 2025 and currently work as an RBT with kids ages 2-6. This research will deal with implications of mindfulness, perspective-taking, and more...stay tuned. Thanks in advance!

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfDjo8Oclz5SEH3y0IFm3Q0yCNQtnHqrXKL3JaHGVka9HC6IA/viewform?usp=header

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.

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 am about to re-enroll to complete my bachelor's degree, with the intention of going on to a Master's for ABA to become a BCBA.

I was considering going the BCaBA route, but it seems unnecessary if I intend to become a BCBA anyway.

My question is, will it matter what my bachelor's degree is in? Will my application to grad school be less competitive if I major in Liberal Studies bc I have a bunch of random credits already?

I don't want to go through all this only to find out I can't get into a BCBA program.

Hello! I did my bachelors in healthcare management ten years ago. Now i want to pursue my career in field related to special kids. Something in bcba or rbt. Any guidance how can i pursue it?

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'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’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!

Hey everyone, BT here but brand new to the RBT stuff, want to understand if I would be able to maintain my RBT if I were to stop for a year or more. Seeing as there’s a competency renewal, I don’t understand whether maintenance is not possible without employment. I work 2 jobs that are separate careers entirely, and I’m planning to go to grad school eventually. Not sure if I’ll leave the field and come back at any point even though I’m jumping the gun I want to understand.

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!

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.

Exactly what the title says.