Consumer Corner

It’s crucial to be a savvy consumer when it comes to one of the most important decisions you will make for your loved one with autism – choosing an ABA treatment provider for your child. Those of us who have already walked in your shoes know that all treatment providers are not the same. To the uninitiated, these professionals all look marvelous. From the slick websites, to the large numbers of associations of which these professionals are members, it is becoming increasingly difficult to differentiate between mediocre and outstanding treatment providers. Furthermore, publication of research in high quality journals is not synonymous with clinical expertise.

Fortunately, in this issue of Consumer Corner, we present a summary of consumer guidelines created by the Autism Special Interest Group (SIG) of the Association of Behavior Analysis International to help you make an informed choice when searching for ABA professionals to design, run and maintain your child’s program. It is important to remember that your child’s future depends on highly quality consulting. Good luck!

Sabrina Freeman, PhD, Consumer Corner Coordinator

Qualifications of Practitioners/Consultants who Practice in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

1. Certification:

Treatment professionals must all have advanced degrees, e.g., a Master’s Degree or a Doctorate in a relevant field of study, and be certified either by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB), or a board that has equal or higher level requirements than the BACB. To look up your consultant, visit: www.bacb.com and click on “Find A Certificant.” If the potential consultant is not on this list, ask where he/she became credentialed, and trained so that you can verify licensure and experience to determine whether it is equal to/or surpasses the standards of the BACB. If this individual responds to your inquiry in a defensive manner, then you may consider looking elsewhere as you are well within your right to seek clarification about certification status.

Find & Contact Certificants

2. Extensive Hands-On Supervised Training:

Consultants are required to have extensive hands-on training treating children with autism in which they have worked at least one full year (1500 clock independent supervised hours or 1000 hours if taking a university practicum and 750 hours if taking an intensive practicum) under the supervision of a credentialed BCBA Certificant. In addition, they need to prove competency in many areas that cover the design and implementation of both individualized ABA interventions, and comprehensive ABA treatment programs. The partial list below was created by the Autism Special Interest Group (SIG) below. Your consultant should be competent in all the following areas:

a) Design and implement individualized ABA Interventions

  • community living skills
  • functional communication skills (vocal and non-vocal)
  • “learning to learn” skills (e.g., looking, listening, following instructions, imitating)
  • motor skills
  • personal safety skills
  • play and leisure skills
  • pre-academic and academic skills
  • reduction of behaviors that jeopardize health and safety and impede successful functioning (e.g., stereotypic, obsessive, ritualistic, aggressive, self-injurious, disruptive, and other behaviors often described as “challenging”).
  • school readiness skills
  • self-care skills
  • self- management skills
  • social interaction skills
  • vocational

b) Design and implement both comprehensive ABA intervention programs (using multiple ABA procedures to address multiple intervention targets) and focused interventions (using one or more ABA procedures to address a small number of intervention targets). 

c) Delivering ABA interventions directly to at least 8 individuals with autism who present with a range of repertoires, levels of functioning, and ages.

d) Implementing the full range of scientifically validated behavior analytic procedures, including but not limited to:

  • reinforcement (including differential reinforcement)
  • extinction
  • discrete-trial procedures
  • modeling (including video modeling)
  • incidental teaching and other “naturalistic” methods
  • activity-embedded intervention
  • task analysis
  • chaining
  • activity schedules
  • scripts and script fading
  • prompting and prompt-fading
  • errorless training
  • error correction
  • motivating operations
  • stimulus control
  • preference assessments
  • choice
  • augmentative and alternative communication training procedures.

3. Continuing Education:

Not only do behavioral consultants need to be trained as above, in order to maintain their certification, practitioners must also pursue continuing education in a variety of areas that may include, but are not limited to, Applied Behavior Analysis.

Red Flag

These practitioners should not be working collaboratively with professionals who implement an eclectic mix of interventions that are untested, discredited or experimental in nature. If the consultant you use endorses an eclectic approach, understand that this practice is inconsistent with the BACB Guidelines for Responsible Conduct for Behavior Analysis. This red flag is a particularly helpful way to be forewarned about a consultant who is not a good choice to design and maintain your child’s program!

For more information on the exhaustive list of competencies, read the latest ABAI Autism Special Interest Group Consumer Guidelines at: https://asatonline.org/wp-content/uploads/asatdocuments/aSIGParentGuidelines.pdf

Citation for this article:

Freeman, S. (2014). Qualifications of practitioners/consultants who practice in the field of applied behavior analysis. Science in Autism Treatment, 11(1), 18-19.

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