r/ABA

Whilst I understand that as professionals we are encouraged to work with each other to address barriers and ethics issues if they come up, sometimes there are situations where the relationship is no longer repairable, healthy or safe emotionally or otherwise and in those situations, I wish it was possible to report ethics concerns anonymously. I discovered a former colleague of mine had been actively following an active client while they were the BCBA over their kid’s case and I know that’s not ok but I also don’t know how to obtain proof without violating HIPPA.

I haven’t checked but I’m about 90% certain this post is the first of its kind on this subreddit. Also, just for the record, not looking for advice, just sharing something I find humorous.

My client’s family is from India. Her mom and dad’s marriage was arranged, and her grandma (her Aji) lives with them. English is all of their second language for reference.

I have reason to believe the grandma is trying to set me up with any member of their family, I don’t think she cares who. She’s FaceTimed extended family members while I’ve been at their house and showed me, saying “OldTrust? This is my little brother. He is SINGLE! Brother? This is OldTrust. She is a TEACHER!! Say hi to each other!!”

Whenever my client and I are in common spaces, the grandma will ask me stuff about myself. “How old are you again?” “Do you cook?” “What does your mom look like? Do you have a picture?” The other day she asked me “OldTrust? I was talking to my grandchild about you the other day. Just to clarify, you have a masters in child psychology, yes?”

…no maam I do not! I have a bachelors in theatre of all things! She looked almost disappointed, I had to hold back a laugh.

The best part about all of this? I’m a lesbian. None of my clients families know for obvious reasons.

Again, not looking for advice. I’m gay and most likely not gonna arranged marry. Also not yet uncomfortable, just amused and thought I’d share.

Okay, I have to vent. So I'm a clinical assistant, and I was assigned this job to prepare to to be a BCBA as I’ve graduated with my masters in ABA and I have been studying to take my exam. I'm also supposed to be shadowing, you know, BCBAs to prepare for my BCBA role, and just doing more leadership roles. But as of recently, when students, RBTs, went back to school, there has been nobody to cover shifts, so I've been picking up all these shifts. So I've been working about, like, 25 hours of direct one-to-one time, which is exhausting, and then I'm also expected to still do my clinical tasks, and I feel like they're really doubting my abilities. So I've just been feeling really emotional about that. I was told good job for increasing hours, but then I was also told that I need to set boundaries and shouldn’t be pouring from a empty cup even though they’re the reason my cup is empty. They said I needed to lock in and be more on top of my clinical tasks such as client audits and support sessions. If I did not take these shifts so many clients would be cancelled. So I feel really under appreciated. I started sobbing tbh because I’ve been going through alot studying for my exam keeping up with teching and doing clinical tasks. I don’t get any reinforcement for the hard work I put in. What really hurt was being told to set boundaries even though I’m constantly asked last minute to take on client shifts when bt’s cancel and I’m constantly left out of leadership meetings because I’m the one they have teching. His reply was basically working long hours with no breaks it how the industry is and I expressed it shouldn’t be like that. For an industry supposed to be working from a place of compassion and trauma informed care, they did not have one ounce of empathy. I get it’s a buisness but then they wonder why there’s such high turn over rate

Hello,
I’ve been an BT/RBT for about 6 years now and started pursuing my masters in ABA this August. I recently had a virtual meeting with my BCBA and I told her how I’m feeling burnt out and she told me RBT’s that aren’t good at their job get burnt out, and honestly that made me feel some sort of way and I personally don’t agree. I want to know your thoughts.

Hey y’all. I just started working independently and leading my sessions one on one with the kiddos and I do like it so far. However, I am having just a bit of issues with one in particular. I do my best to pair and it does take a while (which is fine as I want to go at their pace) but it is a little difficult for me to do things even for NET. I don’t want to start any behaviors to arise but I also do not want to make it a thing where I have no control over the session if this makes sense?

I did request some more time shadowing another one of my teammates but I don’t think it was enough so I am kind of stumped :/

Is there any advice you could give me ? Or at least some reassurance. Maybe some personal experiences with a kiddo like this?

Has anyone encountered a non-verbal asd child (around 11 years old) with severe defiance. He knows right vs wrong, understands expectations but continues to defy them. Hurts his pets and when mom corrects his behavior he will run to the couch and wait for her to walk away and go back to hurting the animals (or back to whatever negative behavior he is engaging). I have a suspicion of underlying ODD, possibly OCD. He used to be toilet trained, now he voids beside the toilet, in the pets bowls, anywhere else but in the toilet BUT he does not void on himself.

How are senior RBTs successfully switching careers? I feel like companies outside of being and RBT don’t want to hire me because I’ve been working in ABA for the past five years. I’ve also been applying for ABA clinics admin/scheduling/coordinating roles and had no luck, assuming cause my experience is RBT.

Any advice for my phone interview tomorrow