What is a BCBA, anyway?

Probably the number one question of professionals who do not work in the field of ABA, as well as parents and families. Today, our team will dig into this topic to help you better understand all those funny letters professionals put after their name…

A Board Certified Behavior Analyst is a professional who has gone through extensive and regimented coursework (either at the Master’s or Doctorate level), supervised clinical experience, and passed a comprehensive exam. BCBA’s are also required to regularly participate in conferences or other training opportunities to stay abreast of current best practices. A Behavior Analyst is the person to contact if you are needing help in the area of behavior/behavior change, which is a broad topic covering animal behavior, criminology, education/teaching, business/management, weight loss, smoking, language, and on and on and on.

BCBA’s are all different

If your 11-year-old is flunking school, getting in fights, and oppositional, can a BCBA help with this? Yes. Can any old BCBA help with this? No. Think of how doctors have specialties of practice, such as a paediatrician. Would you go to a paediatrician if you needed hip surgery? Not likely. In the same way, each BCBA will have unique experiences, clinical strengths, and areas of expertise. If you need help training your dog, you need a BCBA who has animal behavior expertise. If you need help increasing your productivity at work, you need a BCBA who has business/self-management expertise. BCBA’s are not one-size-fits-all.

BCBA’s focus on the environment to understand and analyze behavior

BCBA’s primarily seek to understand and treat behavior by examining what happens around the individual who exhibits the behavior. This may include looking at what happens before or after the behavior, directly observing the behavior, or interviewing people who have directly observed the behavior. BCBA’s do not believe feelings and emotions don’t exist; that is a myth. Rather, we seek to objectively and operationally examine feelings or emotions so we can come up with something clear and discrete to measure. For example, if three teachers do not agree on what “sad” means then how can they measure when little John is sad? They cannot. First, a concrete and clear behavior must be selected before anything can be measured.

BCBA’s have a unique language, BUT we are required to be bi-lingual

Contingencies, Verbal Behavior, Intervention plan, Extinction, Functionally Equivalent…. if you have spent any time with a BCBA you have likely heard some odd words tossed around. These words can be very intimidating or confusing when you first hear them. BCBA’s have a clinical language all their own, with a vast vocabulary. Here is the good news: the BCBA can, and is expected to, explain things to you in a way that is understandable. This means you should expect the BCBA to put down the jargon and pick up plain speech. Do not hesitate to stop the BCBA and ask, “What does that mean/Can you explain that simply?”. All BCBA’s are automatically bi-lingual, because we do speak “ABA”, but we also must be able to communicate plainly.

BCBA’s are not “Autism people”

This may be the top myth about BCBA’s: that we are only helpful when it comes to working with individuals with Autism or some form of Developmental Disability. This could not be falser. Worldwide, BCBA’s can and do work in a variety of settings, with all kinds of people (and animals), performing all kinds of clinical duties. Yes, BCBA’s can be extremely helpful in designing treatment for individuals with Autism. But our education, clinical training, and supervision experiences qualify us to do far more than treat Autism.

BCBA’s need precise and objective information to help you (translation: DATA)

If you have interacted with a BCBA before, you may have noticed we tend to answer questions with questions. Example: Question) “What do I do about my 4-year- old who won’t sleep in his bed?”, Answer) “Do you mean fall asleep in his own bed, nap in his own bed, or stay in his own bed through the night?”. This is not unusual and should be expected. BCBA’s are behavior scientists. For this reason, we cannot make treatment recommendations with minimal or absent data. We need to know what is going on, how long it has been going on, the function or motivation of the problem behavior, and what has already been tried, to help you. Imprecise or inaccurate data is almost as useless to us as no data. If the answers to our questions are “Umm, I think so”, “Sometimes”, or “Yes…. well except when–”, then you can guarantee we will need more data to be of help.

BCBA’s ethical code is intense

Really intense. Which is quite intentional, for the protection of the clients. If you’ve had previous negative experiences with a BCBA, what you may not realize is they were simply following their ethical guidelines. Sometimes families get upset with me because I won’t stay for dinner after a therapy session, transport their child in my car, accept a Christmas gift, etc. Yet to do any of those things would be unethical on my part. The BCBA is not intentionally trying to be cold, distant, or rude, it is simply that we are responsible for practicing according to our ethical guidelines. If you are unfamiliar with what a BCBA can and cannot do, I highly recommend you visit www.BACB.com to read the ethical boundaries for the field of ABA. This information is freely available to the public.

Who can do what a BCBA can do?

So glad you asked, because it’s important to know when to call in the Calvary (translated: your local BCBA). According to the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB), a BCBA is ethically and professionally qualified to:

– Measure behavior/Operationally define behavior/Create systems to measure behavior

– Design interventions/Create systems of experimental design/Graph, analyze, and manipulate the variables that impact behavior

– Ethically create systems of behavior change based on current best practices/Analyze systems of behavior change according to what research supports/Critically evaluate the effectiveness of interventions or behavior change systems

– Assess behavior, environments, components of intervention/Critically analyze methods of assessment

– Manage, train, and/or supervise ABA professionals (certified/credentialed or otherwise) based on effective, competency-based practices

– Practice within BACB ethical guidelines, and in accordance with the philosophical beliefs of Behavior Analysis

If you are not a BCBA, or working under the close, ongoing, and frequent supervision of a BCBA, then you should not be performing any of the tasks listed above. The best and most qualified person to perform these tasks would be a BCBA.

We want you to understand behavior too!

The most important thing for you to know about BCBA’s is that we want you to understand what we do, and how it impacts the individuals we serve. For any given client I may work with, it is typical they have a team of professionals around them. For example, 2-4 teachers, an IEP team, a private Speech Therapist, a nanny, and a karate instructor. It only helps me in my role if these other professionals have at least a basic understanding of what I do, and of the client’s treatment plan. So not only is it ok if they ask me questions, I love when that happens! Asking me questions about treatment, behavior, or systems of behavior change, shows me that the professional wants to understand. Many people want to learn more about ABA but are intimidated by some of the resources available to do so (journals, conferences, etc.). The best way to learn more about ABA is to start talking with the BCBA’s you already know.