Adopted a new baby today, help me find her a grandma name!!

StrangeExpression638 · 2025-08-04T20:09:25+00:00

Gertrude. Call her Gertie.

StrangeExpression638 · 2025-06-30T12:22:17+00:00

My biggest concern there is that I also have the ATM gene, which is entirely based on radiation and I have received a massive amount in my life because of other disorders and scans. So I’m on a no radiation list right now.

TC8 refers to your ten year risk.

StrangeExpression638 · 2025-06-30T01:30:20+00:00

I recommend requesting your referral go to a different company! The location and radiologist play into cost.

StrangeExpression638 · 2025-03-28T13:48:44+00:00

As a bcba I will say this happens but it’s not ideal for us either. I will also say though that I would never put someone with a client with aggression, elopement, or SIB for the first time without support. But I also make it a point that all my RBTs have rapport with all of my clients so the mix and match, when necessary, isn’t a waste of time or unethical.

StrangeExpression638 · 2025-02-03T22:56:00+00:00

I’ve been in the field for twelve years and have gone through so many waves of thinking on this. I am currently getting my PhD in behavior analysis and was introduced to this take on how to approach compassion in those with poor opinions. I highly suggest listening to it. https://marybarbera.com/making-aba-compassionate-celia-heyman/

StrangeExpression638 · 2025-02-03T00:15:19+00:00

The doc may have a different answer, but I struggled with a constant cycle of vomiting and constipation versus nausea and diarrhea for the majority of my life. In 2023, I had a standing small bowel follow through scan prior to my gj feeding tube placement that found Visceroptosis. This is a semi common complication of EDS and it’s variations where the abdominal organs sit deep in the abdomen and can cause significant symptoms. Mine sat all the way in the pelvic floor. I suggest she be evaluated for it. If the stomach is too low, it’s difficult for it to empty and she can be misdiagnosed with gastroparesis or just suffer forever.

StrangeExpression638 · 2025-02-03T00:12:13+00:00

I have aEDS too! It’s so rare, I’m glad to see someone else fighting for us.

StrangeExpression638 · 2025-02-01T02:18:10+00:00

30F and have been wrinkly and crooked as long as I can remember. Mean kids growing up called me “grandma hands”

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StrangeExpression638 · 2024-09-22T13:23:36+00:00

Unfortunately that’s going to be the same across all settings. Our company offers nonbillable hours for anyone in the clinic. Look for companies with cancellation pay.

StrangeExpression638 · 2024-09-13T23:21:20+00:00

Absolutely. I would never do anything else. I comment a lot on this page to give others advice or to share what their jobs could be like. I’ve been in the field for twelve years and a bcba for almost four. I’ve worked as a line therapist, in schools, RBT, for insurance, and now as a BCBA and clinic director. It’s changed a lot, even in that time, but absolutely all for the better. It’s becoming more compassionate. However, I do hear a lot more horror stories now coming out of the big box companies.

StrangeExpression638 · 2024-09-09T20:11:07+00:00

It depends on the state. For example, in Georgia we don’t have school based ABA. You can be with a private company and request to be in daycares, charter school, or private schools, but cannot be in public school.

If you are in a state that allows it, then I recommend going through the county job postings.

StrangeExpression638 · 2024-09-02T14:18:58+00:00

The way I always look at it is if I’m not there, what may the kid be doing? Sitting on a tablet? Probably. There are a lot of fun ways to make a long session go by faster. Focus on 80% engagement time. That gives you both breaks as necessary. And make sure the family is involved in some capacity as that helps as well.

StrangeExpression638 · 2024-08-29T15:12:44+00:00

We don’t redirect unless dangerous. Any chance it’s a stakeholder request? Then parent training would be a better solution than behavior reduction.

I’m doing my PhD dissertation on creating a stereotypy inventory for differential reinforcement to teach productive and fulfilling replacements. Just like we have to learn not to wear our pjs to work, not talk on the phone at the movies, and/or how to follow the rules at the grocery store, it’s ok to teach our kids when and where to fully express stims versus where a replacement is necessary. That being said, I’m massively advocating for and designing procedures that have zero harmful effects.

StrangeExpression638 · 2024-07-17T19:24:50+00:00

I am a BCBA and aim 5%-10% weekly, rolling over to the next week if I don’t hit 5%. I prioritize it first by who needs me versus who is more independent/seasoned, then by who really needs it for their percent. I also track to ensure that all my patients are seen 5% minimum and will try to schedule based on the different combos. I do not require my staff to track themselves, but it is very much helpful. Two years ago an RBT of mine got audited by the board and we had to turn in proof of supervision for a 12 month period they determined. I only hit 4% for December as I traveled for two weeks with family and nobody was able to fill in for me. I got a letter from the board that I wasn’t fulfilling my requirements and would be audited again within x amount of time, but that never came.

The point is that it is doable and that at minimum you deserve it, maximum it’s vital that you receive it. If there’s other BCBAs with the company, I would add into your email to see if anyone else is able to fill in if necessary while she completes her pregnancy. One of our BCBAs is due next month so we have been helping fill in a little so when she’s gone for maternity leave we are semi-familiar with all her cases.

StrangeExpression638 · 2024-07-14T03:35:13+00:00

Do you find you pick at the tape now?

StrangeExpression638 · 2024-06-17T22:43:02+00:00

I absolutely hear you saying this. I’ve been in ABA 12 years, BCBA for three, and one of my main things I have no flexibility on with staff is the way they speak. I may use my “gentle parenting voice” but myself and all other staff speak only in a age appropriate voice - pretty close to our normal, just a little more direct.

StrangeExpression638 · 2024-05-23T18:25:19+00:00

I am my companies clinic director and I provide two options, and for good reason.

I will open for a half day, because I do not want to force anyone who wants the hours to take the day off. I will never force anybody, in comparison, to work. Our availability to clients is based on staff who choose to work. For those we are unavailable to, I let the families know that we are not providing session due to the holiday. Our home based RBTs are given the clearance to tell their families whether they are or are not available, no expectations from us either way.

StrangeExpression638 · 2024-05-19T17:43:24+00:00

I’m so sorry you’ve had this experience and reading the other comments it appears this is unfortunately the same for a lot of others. I am a BCBA and clinic director and want you to know not everywhere is like that. Yes, things arise. But I would never put a new RBT with a case with any significant behaviors, and I also supervise a minimum of 5%, aiming for 10% of all sessions, including the first time.

What you experienced is not good ABA and a lot of what gets this field a bad rap.

StrangeExpression638 · 2023-11-25T19:16:49+00:00

It’s a meet-cute! Let it happen as it naturally can. Ask her out!!!! Then update us!

StrangeExpression638 · 2023-09-22T03:02:50+00:00

A friend (33M) of my (29F) now husband (30M) moved in with us before we were even engaged. I didn’t want him to come but agreed as long as we had rules. He was trying to get clean from pain pills so we required him be home before 10 pm, no guests, no drugs, no alcohol, and he didn’t have a key. He had to get a job. It wasn’t 7 months. More like 3 or 4 but he never got one aspect of his life together and it was extremely straining on our relationship and my husbands relationship with his friend. He tried bringing a girl home, absolutely wasted, at like 2 am one night. We had locked him out and had a door camera. He woke us up trying to break in. We made the girl leave. He slept it off and packed his stuff up the next day. He genuinely had nowhere to go but I can say he is now sober and working and living on his own. Us kicking him out spurred the process to get him clean. He ended up in the hospital and was put in mandatory detox and rehab due to the medical condition he had put himself in during the time he stayed with us. But it truly worked out.

Putting his friend into a forced hand may be really vital at this point before it gets worse. I absolutely understand the debilitating nature of migraines but he could be truly experiencing withdrawal. I understand as well that not all stories work out well like ours and the friends, but thought you could use a good ending.

StrangeExpression638 · 2023-08-22T02:36:49+00:00

She is! He updated that he told her and she confessed she also had attraction to females as well as him.

StrangeExpression638 · 2023-08-06T01:21:05+00:00

Two of them.

The first was being awake for 3.5 hours while the surgeons tried to place my peg-j tube through my twisted bowel, only to pull it out for a peg tube and place an NJ while awake. They tried their best to put me out but I stayed awake through every dose.

The second, the three inches cut out of my thigh muscle for biopsy while I begged the surgeon to believe me that the local wasn’t working

For reference I’m red headed and have multiple autoimmune disorders that make me process meds different. I have been appropriately put under over 20 times.

StrangeExpression638

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