u/BeneficialVisit8450

Hi everyone, I’m moving soon and have thinking about either being a teacher aide/paraprofessional or just leaving the ABA field all-together. However, I do want to ask about your guy’s experiences as being an RBT in the schools.

My concern is that if an RBT is needed in the school, then it’s going to be very extreme behavior, which I define as leaving multiple noticeable marks on staff everyday or worse(and this is assuming that staff member is trained in safety care and wearing protective equipment), engaging in SIB that can lead to serious injury such as cracking head open, and/or a plethora of various dangerous behaviors, so many that it can make extinction very difficult. My reasoning for this is that if paraprofessional support wasn’t enough, then it must be a very hard job.

My question is how difficult your job is in comparison to working in-home and/or in-clinic?

Hi everyone, I will be moving soon and was thinking about switching over to become a teacher aide/paraprofessional since the hours are more consistent. I also wouldn’t want to work as an RBT in the schools as I figure that if those services are needed, then it’s going to be very extreme behavior.

While I know I would be taking a cut in pay $22 -> $18, I’m not sure if it’s that significant for me as if your client cancels the whole week, you don’t get any hours unless your company helps you find a fill-in session. Hence, it’s not really sustainable, which is why I’ve been looking into leaving the ABA field all-together.

Just sent in the notice now, if you’ve seen a few of my posts then you’ll know how happy I am to finally be able to quit this job of mine. I flaired this as satire/joke because it’s hysterical how happy I am to leave. 😂

What would you do? I recently put in a request to have my availability set to 4 hours per day, but I’ve picked up some extra shifts in the meantime to make up for the incoming decrease of income. Work is killing me, and I’m also a full-time college student. I don’t know if it’s just that I got too much on my plate, but I’m always feeing exhausted and just don’t have the time for anything.

I’ve been thinking about maybe instead putting in my 2 week notice, as I have the savings available to cover for around those two months before I move(I have savings for when I move too.) But at the same time, I’m not sure if it’s more of a waiting game I need to play here considering that in 2 weeks I won’t be in school since it’s summer and I’ll only need to go in for 4 hours a day.

I was thinking about quitting early and enjoying the summer, as I won’t always have free time(I’m pretty sure my parents are planning for me to be the caregiver of one of my siblings in the future if things keep going as they are), but I don’t know if I’m making the right decision here :/

Edit: I live with parents so rent/utility payments are not a factor here.

I work at a clinic that has us keeps the kids at their desk areas for the majority of the time, and we work with kids who are of preschool age. Some of these kids attend up to 8 hours per day, and some of them don’t have much room at their desk areas to wiggle around/don’t have enough space to play on the floor if they get tired of their chairs. I’ve found ways to work around it while also making sure my clients are getting enough play time(10 minutes in area with highly-preferred toys and 5 minute break is the current schedule I give mine) but I overheard another colleague of mine getting micromanaged by our manager for allowing their client to have a 5 minute break. Mine you, this colleague of mine is pretty good at keeping the kid at their desk for the majority of session, so I find that to be quite a crazy thing to nitpick at.

I also overheard another supervisor say that we need to make play more “functional” at the outside area we got. The problem is the “non-functional” play is just the children rushing to go down the slide/chasing peers. They only get to be out there for like 12 minutes if they have a half-day, so I don’t understand why they’re trying to restrict the only time they’re allowed to run.

I mean seriously, I feel bad for these kids sometimes because the preschools allow much more play/floor time than we do 😭 I know I’m probably being a bit judgy in my rant here, but I just don’t think this is good for the kids considering it’s normal for their age to be hyper. Plus in my state elementary schoolers are required to have 30 minutes of unrestricted play that is not allowed to be taken away, so I don’t understand how it’s really preparing our kids for school if the school isn’t going to do the same thing.

I’m a special needs worker who specifically works with children. I’ve often gotten this question from people I work with about one of the kids I used to work with, and I’ve just told them “Sometimes” since I’ve noticed that saying “no” seems to indicate that I didn’t like them. All I meant when I said “no” is that I don’t literally miss them, I don’t dislike them nor did I dislike them, I just don’t miss them.

Some additional context here is that I don’t miss people in general, as I’ve had emotional trauma that’s gotten rid of the majority of my emotions. It’s possible that this is more of an emotional barrier rather than one caused by my literal thinking, but I don’t know as I can’t put myself in the brains of others.

It was never gonna work out considering she’s my ex-boss and she’s literally twice my age, but yeah. I can’t believe I’m 20 and single, it feels like everyone my age is getting married or are in relationships besides the nerds such as myself.

I could just be a bit nit-picky here, but I feel like my current clinic focuses too much on DTT. It’s necessary, but they sort of make it the center point with all the policies they got. They want kids(of preschool age) to stay at their desk area for the majority of the session and want us to run 60 trials per hour. The second policy I find ridiculous as we’re having to extinct behaviors during this time, making it really hard to run 60. Plus not all programs are created equal. There are some trials I’ve had to take up to 3 minutes to contrive since I had to capture the learner’s MO for them to mand. There’s also the numerous transitions in a clinic that can make this trial count hard to achieve(ex. Going to recess, diaper changes, lunch time.) Then you have to write your notes, which takes a long time as you have to be watching your kiddo as you type.

I guess this sort of turned into a rant but yeah. I kind of miss my old in-home company even though they were much worse than this current one. The pay was really low and support was bad, but at least the company owners had realistic expectations for how a session may go.

And how can I do it without modifying the bathroom? I share it with my family so covering up the mirrors or changing the lighting isn’t an option.