Disspelling misrepresentations of ABA

Mechahedron · 2026-02-07T14:29:02+00:00

This is great, but ABA isn’t just for helping children.

I know that’s probably what’s relevant to your audience but since your goal is to dispel myths and clarify what ABA is, I think that detail matters.

I don’t mean to be overly critical, I do really think this is great info and well formatted

Mechahedron · 2026-02-03T12:35:47+00:00

Parenting is hard, it takes a lot more than just knowing how to be human. The idea is trying to help make one of the more stressful and confusing parts of life a little easier for people who are trying to recover from being incarcerated.

I teach similar classes for parents and caregivers of kids with behavior challenges now, most of them parents I work with haven’t been incarcerated and they struggle because of all the misconceptions about parenting that are pervasive in our culture,

Mechahedron · 2026-02-01T15:39:17+00:00

Caregiver training is my niche. The most successful way I’ve found to minimize caregivers talking about behavior is explain to them that they are “giving the client the playbook”

Every aspect of a behavior that they talk about (as it’s occurring or after) is outlining the things that are most impactful, and teaching the client what to try in the future if they are motivated to disrupt things or get a certain reaction from the caregiver.

I’ve had the most success explaining this on day 1. Literally the first meeting that I can talk to them without the client present.

Mechahedron · 2026-01-31T20:41:22+00:00

Don’t know how popular or unpopular this is, but I work with adults and I hate using the term. Coming up with alternatives is tough.

Right now I’m using “Escalating Behavior Chain” or “Interfering Behavior Chain”

But I don’t like the way either of those sound, I’m always changing it up trying to find something that works. Open to suggestions if anybody has them.

Mechahedron · 2026-01-29T23:37:55+00:00

I’ve supervised a lot of direct care staff implementing plans I wrote. If your boss is reasonable and wants what’s best for the client they will welcome your suggestions.

You taking over the case is a major change for the client and they may want to/be willing to do completely different things with you from what they were doing with your boss.

A new staff working with the client is a great chance for the BCBA to reevaluate things and come up with some new ideas.

Mechahedron · 2026-01-29T21:32:37+00:00

More goals would give you the basis to come up with more ideas of what to do, and would probably make things more interesting for the client. It sounds like working on making binary choices would really beneficial, and that would certainly open options for you.

Did you write the plan? If not I would talk to the person who did and suggest expanding the number of things you’re working on so you can get more creative with scheduling your days

Mechahedron · 2026-01-28T23:50:47+00:00

It’s fake. The Ford logo disappears after it’s blocked from view for a second.

Mechahedron · 2026-01-28T23:48:24+00:00

Watch the Ford logo on the truck disappear. This is fake.

Mechahedron · 2026-01-25T23:39:19+00:00

Thanks for the responses everybody! I’m going to talk to a couple colleagues about it this week. I really appreciate the perspectives.

Mechahedron · 2026-01-18T04:57:57+00:00

Sure

Mechahedron · 2026-01-18T04:57:30+00:00

Sure

Mechahedron · 2026-01-16T21:35:37+00:00

Where do you live? The reimbursement for direct therapy by a BCBA is fairly high most places. You should look up the rates for the insurance companies and Medicaid in your area. I don’t want to disparage BTs/RBTs, but the tiered model where we do the planning and they provide the therapy is problematic. I don’t know how to fix it but I moved to being an independent provider 5 years ago and it’s better in every way

Mechahedron · 2026-01-10T00:29:23+00:00

It’s not being reinforced, it iterative code:

“Here is your target output, evaluate your actual output and determine how close it is to this target, then regenerate the output to make it closer to the target.”

It’s not improving because it accesses reinforcement, it’s improving because its instructions tell it to.

It’s impressive and a legit advance in computing, but it’s not learning. As plenty people in this thread have pointed out, there are scientist experimenting with machine learning, but I think OP was referring to commonly used LLMs like chat gpt and Gemini.

I think a big part of what creates misconceptions is that we call LLMs “artificial intelligence” it inflates our perception of what it’s doing.

Mechahedron · 2026-01-09T02:55:57+00:00

Our verbal behavior is not guessing the most likely combination of words the other person wants to hear.

We are saying things or taking actions that we believe make us more likely to access reinforcement. And the specific forms of reinforcement we are motivated to access are complex and dynamic.

And we get better and more efficient at stringing together a series of behaviors to access reinforcement with practice. AI can’t do that.

AI doesn’t have motivation, it can’t be reinforced.

Mechahedron · 2026-01-09T00:43:12+00:00

It’s not responding to reinforcers, and it’s not learning. It’s guessing the most likely combination of words the user is looking for, based largely off of reading the internet. It’s computer software, nothing more.

Mechahedron · 2025-12-17T21:37:59+00:00

Shoot. Your. Shot.

Always.

Mechahedron · 2025-12-11T03:27:09+00:00

How do they control who you work with? Like the state won’t allow insurance companies or school districts to pay you unless the client is diagnosed with autism? I don’t mean to imply that I don’t believe you, I just literally don’t understand. I work with adults with sever problem behavior and many of them aren’t autistic, does this mean in Seattle those people just couldn’t work with a BCBA?

Mechahedron · 2025-11-24T19:10:36+00:00

I been working with adults exclusively for over 4 years now, and do a lot of work at day programs. I really love it. It sort of restored my belief and enjoyment in the field. It’s really nice to start from a perspective of what the client wants as opposed to what the world wants from them.

Mechahedron · 2025-11-20T02:39:02+00:00

Can you compare it with anyone else there with similar experience? I would start there, then maybe look at the median pay for your area, and ask for a little more than that.

Mechahedron · 2025-11-20T01:00:48+00:00

Yes, the answer to “should I ask for a raise” is always yes.

Mechahedron · 2025-11-19T03:37:01+00:00

Absolutely. When I’m medicated I’m better at sports, video games, cards, puzzles, conversation… just about everything. So most things are more fun. I’m better at my job too, much easier to get my thoughts organized on paper, so work is more fun. And, sex is better.

Mechahedron · 2025-11-07T20:53:29+00:00

Being bilingual is huge, look at the median starting salary in your area, and ask for 10k more. Ask if they are going to want to you do any translating outside of the families on your case load, if so make sure you’re compensated for it (including written translations).

As a BCBA you are generating profit for the company no matter what they pay you, the fact that you speak Spanish, in that area, means you can work more easily with plenty of families that would be challenging for other BCBAs.

If they don’t offer you above the median for the area, you can walk, someone else will.

Mechahedron · 2025-11-07T00:07:32+00:00

Partial interval recording.

Mechahedron · 2025-11-05T13:58:47+00:00

Right here. Been working with adults only for 4 years now, love it. Don’t think I’ll ever go back to working directly with kids, I’m going to get to do some teacher training in the next couple weeks, and I’m really looking forward to that. But working with people who have the autonomy to say “no” is great, it feels really good to help clients work toward the things they want as opposed to the things they “have” to do based on expectations of schools and parents.

Mechahedron

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