ABA Therapists. (games, sensitive, mental, therapy)
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My son's first ABA therapist was BCBA and had a Master's in psychology. We had to say goodbye when we moved sadly as I really liked her. I mean it took a year to get my son to have an A-Ha moment but she helped us make it happen. lol
We had set up another lady here who only had years of shadow experience. That's it. The company has a BCBA that comes in to supervise her once a month for a couple of hours. Personalities really conflicted and my son would regress every time she came over and was just grumpy the rest of the day. I called the company and said I needed someone new.
Now we have a gentlemen who is very nice don't get me wrong but if anything he's more or less getting paid to play video games with my son and help him work on his writing. He has a degree unlike the previous lady but he told me he took this job because he was in between jobs and unemployed. He's so uncomfortable with my son at times like he doesn't know what to do and comes to me for help. I mean he helps my son with his writing as he was an assistant for his college professor and that's a big thing for us which is why I'm just going to ride this out until we move again. Should be this summer we'll find out where we will move to next.
I know a degree isn't everything but I have a son who's been hospitalized twice in a children's mental health ward. To me a psych degree is very important. Even for a child without my son's history I think a psych degree is important. One day I'll finish my degree and pursue becoming BCBA certified myself but I'd never use my years of advocacy for my son or simply raising him to be enough to get a job as an ABA Therapist right now.
Sorry I'm rambling but does anyone else think I'm off my rocker? My husband says I need to lower my standards of people. I admit I can be snobby at times but I really just want the best for my son in everything. I just can't believe someone would take a job helping a child when they aren't passionate about it. It's a person's life and shouldn't be played with in my opinion just because a grown man is in between jobs and would rather be playing drums on the street corners or looking for his next gig.
The agency that I used to work for required you to have a MA or MS in Special Education or a Master's in Social Work in order to provide ABA services to 0-3. In order to provide ABA or SEIT services to those older than 3, you needed the Masters in Spec. Ed.
Then you must undergo an intensive training, followed by ongoing supervision.
Thanks gimme for the feedback. Do most agencies require this? Like I said I wouldn't dream of trying to find someone to allow me to help their child based only on my experience in raising mine. So why someone with just a degree in history doing ABA doesn't make sense to me.
Thanks gimme for the feedback. Do most agencies require this? Like I said I wouldn't dream of trying to find someone to allow me to help their child based only on my experience in raising mine. So why someone with just a degree in history doing ABA doesn't make sense to me.
In general, any person doing the therapy has to be supervised by someone with the certification and a masters degree. The issue is cost. The BCBA or BCABA costs a lot more than someone trained by the agency and supervised by the certified therapist.
Thanks gimme for the feedback. Do most agencies require this? Like I said I wouldn't dream of trying to find someone to allow me to help their child based only on my experience in raising mine. So why someone with just a degree in history doing ABA doesn't make sense to me.
Actually there are some agencies in my city that require ABA therapists to have Master's in Spec. Ed. only. I think if someone with a BA is well trained they can do the work. It's a very specialized process (ABA), and it's learnable, but what often helped me do this kind of work was being intuitive and willing to go outside of the box. When dealing with little kids, you must be flexible. Not everyone with credentials can do that, and there are those without credentials who can be very good at this. Having an MSW didn't make be a good ABA therapist. Maybe it allowed me to learn the ABA techniques faster, and it gave me the ability to be sensitive to the parents, but I truly think I could have done the work without a masters degree.
I'm a psych major and it's still really hard to do this job. There's so many things to keep track of while conducting therapy it takes time and practice and if we never practice we'll never learn. Therapists aren't born experts and families just dont get this!!! Honestly the parents are part of the reason why I don't wanna do this job anymore. I don't want them breathing down my neck and watching my every move and dismissing me at the first sign of perceived incompetence.
The whole training and certification process to become a BCBA or even a BCaBA is really intensive, and requires clinical supervision...but behavior analysis doesn't really require a psych degree. I work with BCBAs whose bachelor's degrees are in psych, education, special education, who have graduate degrees in those areas, as well as in speech-language pathology, occupational therapy, as well as other areas of concentration. One can be trained in behavior analysis and be VERY good at it without having majored in psychology. For that matter, one can be well-trained as an ABA provider with or without board certification. I work with plenty of special education teachers who are ABA-trained, but haven't gone the board certification route.
The most important skills in ABA of any educational background, other than obviously knowing the process backward and forward, are the ability to be a creative thinker, and to really, really be observant and intuitive. I have known some master's level psych grads who aren't very good BCBAs, because they, remarkably, don't really listen or observe very well, they are very clinical and focus mainly on the process, less on the person. Having a particular degree doesn't make you good at behavior analysis. Being tuned in, observant, and very creative does. It's a clinical process, but how it's executed makes all the difference.
Personalities are important, too. Somebody may be a great BCBA/BCaBA, and not be a good fit for your child. And, for a child who has had difficulty bonding with an ABA provider or vice versa, it's going to be a given that the new provider spend quite a bit of time engaging in activities to build rapport, or not much is going to "take," anyway.
Does anyone know which shools in Texas offer a Master's in ABA? I cannot find any of them online... Maybe somebody that has more experience in the field can help me with that. I will really appreciate it.
University of Houston Clearlake offers a Master of Arts in Behavior Analysis
It is approved for certification through the BCBA board and you can sit for the exam after you complete it.
It looks like the University of North Texas in Denton also offers this.
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