BCBA Kat Savino is the Community Manager at How To ABA. If you’re a member, you’ve likely seen Kat in our community, Q&A sessions, and our journal clubs. Kat was one of our first podcast guests and as we learned more about her, we realized we needed her on the team. You can get to know Kat through our membership community board, where she connects members with available resources. Kat also does supervision for those needing fieldwork experience and one-on-one mentorships for newly minted BCB...
Mar 14, 2023•25 min•Ep. 89
Dr. Alan Schnee is a Ph.D., BCBA-D, consultant, author, and speaker. Dr. Schnee began his career in the early 90s in the Boston area, where he trained as a pediatric psychologist. A colleague and friend of his had a son on the autism spectrum. This friend brought in consultants to work with her son, and she was astounded at his progress. The experience inspired Dr. Schnee and his colleague to jump into the world of ABA. When the tools of ABA are applied well, it makes a huge difference in the li...
Mar 07, 2023•46 min•Ep. 88
Life skills are a critical part of the success of our students. They’re needed in order for them to become as independent as possible in their lives. Here, we cover the best ways to assess life skills and how to make a plan of which skills our learners need to know. We spend so much time working on academic goals with our students, like learning to read and write. However, we forget that those goals are such a small part of their overall life and don’t have much of an impact on how they’ll live ...
Feb 28, 2023•17 min•Ep. 87
BCBA Emily Varon is a sleep educator. We’ve spoken to Emily in a past episode where we discussed the importance of sleep. Lately, Emily has been diving into a new passion, which is burnout in the field of ABA. There is definitely a strong relationship between burnout and poor sleep and Emily went down the rabbit hole of researching all the data she could. She started talking about this concept more with ABA professionals with the goal of reducing burnout and becoming more well-rested and rejuven...
Feb 21, 2023•38 min
When we discuss reinforcement, we usually think of things like token boards and other ABA therapist strategies. However, learners can also be taught to regulate their own behavior and become active participants in their own learning through behavior contracts. Here, we dive into the definition of behavior contracts and how we can use them. A behavior contract is a written agreement that outlines expectations, timeframes, and rewards for specific behaviors. With many students, a behavior contract...
Feb 14, 2023•16 min•Ep. 85
Valori Neiger is an autism feeding specialist. For any of us who have been in the field, we know that a lot of the kids we work with really struggle with feeding. When Valori reached out to us, of course, we had to have her join us on the show. She started her ABA journey in undergraduate school in the early 2000s, where she was introduced to psychology. Dr. Greg Madden, a pioneer in behavior economics, was a guest speaker in one of Valori’s classes and wanted to recruit students into an ABA tra...
Feb 07, 2023•29 min•Ep. 84
Passing your BCBA exam is an amazing accomplishment. Although becoming officially certified is something to celebrate, the next task is getting out into the field and putting your new skills to the test. Some new practitioners are faced with impostor syndrome while others believe that just by having the certification, they know everything there is to know. The truth is that getting that piece of paper is just the beginning of your journey as a new BCBA. There’s still so much to learn and experie...
Jan 31, 2023•16 min•Ep. 83
As BCBAs, collaboration is a very critical part of our job. However, a lot of us have trouble collaborating effectively. Unfortunately, some of the other professionals we may encounter don’t have a great opinion about ABA, as it does have a bit of a negative reputation. Because of this, it’s important to have the right conversations about what we do and how we can help our clients reach their goals. It’s also important to be open to other disciplines, like speech and OT, as they offer their own ...
Jan 24, 2023•13 min•Ep. 82
Most BCBAs aren’t taught how to supervise others, and many of us are thrown into the role as soon as we get our certification. Right afterward, we’re expected to supervise ABA programs, staff members, and even parents. It’s important to know what steps to take when supervising so we don’t become overwhelmed and experience burnout. It’s common to experience imposter syndrome as a new BCBA, especially when we’re given so many added responsibilities. Here, we define supervision and walk through the...
Jan 17, 2023•16 min•Ep. 81
There is a lot of staff turnover in our field. It’s important to take care of ourselves to avoid burnout but figuring out how to manage a work-life balance can seem like a mystery. Here, Shana shares a story from when she owned several clinics and managed a staff of 25. While it was fun and rewarding, it was a lot to handle. As the owner, she felt constant pressure and her workload was well over 80 hours a week. After COVID forced Shana to step back from her responsibilities, she realized just h...
Jan 10, 2023•15 min•Ep. 80
BCBA Flor De Amelia (Lizette) Hoffman is a mom of two and we met at ABAI. She was inspired to get into the field because of her daughter, who is now 13 years old. Lizette’s daughter was diagnosed with autism at 18 months but knew something was wrong as early as 8 months when she began to experience seizures. Lizette struggled to find answers for her daughter, and she shares what her journey was like as a young mom. ABA therapy helped greatly, and Lizette wanted to learn all about the techniques ...
Jan 03, 2023•45 min•Ep. 79
We’re taking some time to look back on 2022, and what a year it has been! Throughout 2022, we continued to host some great CEU speakers in our membership, covering several topics like self-monitoring, parenting, sleep, compassionate care, and ACT. We also covered how to be a better BCBA and how to prevent practitioner burnout. How To ABA started as our side gig as we worked our full-time jobs, and this year, we really strived to be more consistent. Since April, we’ve had a podcast and blog come ...
Dec 27, 2022•9 min•Ep. 78
Shobhna Srivastava is a BCBA working in the school setting who also has a background in clinical psychology and mental health. Before becoming a BCBA, Shobhna was a licensed clinical neuropsychologist. As a psychology practitioner, Shobhna was tasked with diagnosing children on the autism spectrum as well as any comorbid disorders. Once she became a mom, she decided to pause and reevaluate her career. Shobhna had always been curious about the rehabilitation of her patients after they were diagno...
Dec 20, 2022•31 min•Ep. 77
Michelle Ward is the owner of MW Group and Modern CPA. Michelle is a certified public accountant who handles taxes and small business accounting. She started her firm in 2014 after spending time in a larger, regional firm and began to feel unfulfilled. After five years, Michelle’s company grew, and her husband also joined the firm to become her partner. Last year, they launched Modern CPA online, which provides business education to small business owners. Many practitioners in our field might no...
Dec 13, 2022•28 min•Ep. 76
Jordyn Hargrave is a BCBA and a member of the How To ABA community. She lives outside of St. Louis, Missouri and has been in the field for about seven years. Jordyn started her career as an intern at Western Kentucky University and had a class on behavior modification where she was able to shadow a BCBA. She also did a field experience with the Kelly Autism Program and since then, worked in an in-home setting and an early intervention clinic, and also within a school system as an RBT. Today she ...
Dec 06, 2022•30 min•Ep. 75
Jessica Winne is a BCBA who came to us to talk about OBM and performance feedback, which is a topic we want to dive deeper into. Jessica received her master’s degree in behavioral analysis from the University of North Texas and her thesis was on how to give corrective feedback. Towards the end of her program, she took on more of an OBM focus. A lot of people in management positions are prepared for tasks like creating structures and giving feedback, as it’s easy to become more focused on the con...
Nov 29, 2022•33 min•Ep. 74
Brenda Eaton is a BCBA, mom, and creator of Grow Your Happy. She has a 27-year-old son on the autism spectrum, which was her inspiration for getting into the field. Prior to becoming a BCBA, Brenda had a career in the fashion industry and spent time in New York before moving back to Pennsylvania where she got her master’s in education at Temple. After her son’s diagnosis, she spent most of her time supporting him and saw that so much more support was needed outside of the traditional ABA and beh...
Nov 22, 2022•27 min•Ep. 73
Natalie Todd is a BCBA and school-based behavioral consultant in New York State. She currently works in an elementary school where she helps transition students into the classroom. Collaboration is a big part of Natalie’s day to day and coming up with treatment plans for students is always a team-based approach. Being a BCBA within a school system can be challenging, especially if you’re the only resource. Natalie talks about the importance of scheduling and how things can get thrown off. Traini...
Nov 15, 2022•31 min•Ep. 72
Jessie and Sara are the Director of Operations and Clinical Director from Family Beeginnings, where they provide family-focused, solution-based, ABA therapy and consulting. Sara is currently mentoring brand-new BCBA candidates for their hours as well as the other providers within her organization. She’s also responsible for quality assurance and programming, making sure everything runs smoothly for their clients. Jessie began her career as an early intervention teacher and then she became an RBT...
Nov 08, 2022•27 min•Ep. 71
Jamie Salter and Katie Croce are the co-authors of the Self & Match System. Jamie is a trained school psychologist and BCBA and spent time as an administrator in special education. Katie’s a BCBA and has been working as a behavioral analyst since 2006. She’s worked in public and private schools, inpatient hospitals, and in homes. Today, Katie works at a university within the school of education where she teaches applied behavioral analysis to undergraduate and graduate students. Self & M...
Nov 01, 2022•33 min•Ep. 70
Every ABA professional should be familiar with the four functions of behavior and how to identify them. Here, we cover those four functions, provide real-life examples, and give you tips on what you can do when you encounter each function. Although the functions of behavior are important, they aren’t always intuitive which makes them hard to spot. We can also accidentally reinforce problematic behavior when we’re unsure. Through their behavior, our students and clients are communicating somethin...
Oct 25, 2022•15 min•Ep. 69
As ABA professionals, a big part of our job is to reduce problem behaviors in our clients. Many times, we’re called in as a sort of fairy godmother, expected to make problematic behaviors disappear by waving a magic wand. It’s also common for problematic behavior to only be addressed when looking for an acceptable punishment or consequence, however, that’s not the best approach. Problem behaviors are always telling us something, and it’s our job to get to the root cause. Stressors can come from ...
Oct 18, 2022•24 min•Ep. 68
It can be difficult to incorporate ABA principles in a classroom setting, and here, we provide tips on how to do so. It can be frustrating when you have children in the classroom that don’t seem to be picking up skills at the same rates as the rest of the class. Fortunately, ABA offers plenty of helpful solutions for those kids who might not fit into the standard boxes. For example, using visuals instead of relying on talking alone during teaching can help better support, certain learners. Timer...
Oct 11, 2022•26 min•Ep. 67
An independent activity schedule (IAS) is a set of pictures or words that signals a child to complete a group of activities. An IAS enables the child to do activities independently with minimal supervision. It can give a child a chance to engage in purposeful activities at home or at school. Here, we cover the basics of putting an IAS together as well as provide tips on how to teach this to a learner. In addition to the huge benefits an IAS can have in the classroom, it can also work wonders in ...
Oct 04, 2022•19 min•Ep. 66
There are several types of reinforcement you can use, and it’s important to know how to use each technique properly. Reinforcement is one of our most common tools, but we often hear from other teachers and practitioners that it isn’t working. At that point, it helps to ask more questions to try to uncover the problem. If reinforcement isn’t set up properly or doesn’t set the client up for success, then of course it won’t work! Fortunately, there are a number of things you can do to ensure succes...
Sep 27, 2022•25 min•Ep. 65
We implement task analysis as a way of teaching skills and taking data. Here, we dive into all things task analysis and how it can help you and your clients succeed. Task analysis doesn’t have to be big, and it’s really about breaking any size task down into smaller steps. We all do this on a regular basis throughout our everyday lives, especially when it comes to tackling a big project or assignment. Breaking things down into smaller parts makes things more manageable and achievable. Many of ou...
Sep 20, 2022•21 min•Ep. 64
Often in an ABA program, we’re teaching kids multiple skills at once. For example, we might be teaching a student to mand for cookie, but we may also be teaching them to identify items, introducing gross motor imitation, and following directions. Students will sometimes engage in multiple responses because they believe that’s what you want to see, and that’s essentially what scrolling behavior is. It's important to be aware of scrolling and know how to deal with it from the very beginning. Teach...
Sep 13, 2022•15 min•Ep. 63
Baseline data is so important and as an ABA professional, it’s key that we know how to use it effectively. Whenever we’re working with a client and we don’t seem to be getting anywhere in terms of changing a behavior, it’s helpful to return to the baseline and compare it to post-treatment. This gives you a really good picture of whether or not that treatment is working. Even when working with a challenging case, going back to reference the baseline data reveals a lot about that particular interv...
Sep 06, 2022•19 min•Ep. 62
Robert Schramm is a behavioral analyst and education and parenting specialist who’s really doing some necessary and valuable things for the field of ABA. Robert was an educator first and started out in physical education in California. He then moved into special education and became an occlusion specialist and was tasked with helping disabled children in regular classrooms. Robert eventually found his way to behavioral analysis in pursuit of finding a method of instructional motivation. He and h...
Aug 30, 2022•37 min•Ep. 61
Today, we’re excited to be hosting Rose Griffin. She’s a speech-language pathologist (SLP) and BCBA and the founder of ABA Speech. Rose has 20 years of experience and there are less than 500 professionals that are dual-certified. Ever since her graduate placement, she’s really felt the pull to work with autistic children and others who have been deemed hard to reach. Rose realized that this work changes lives after working in an ABA center and seeing so many great success stories. We’ve known Ro...
Aug 23, 2022•23 min•Ep. 60
