There is a lot of staff turnover in our field. It’s important to take care of ourselves to avoid burnout but figuring out how to manage a work-life balance can seem like a mystery. Here, we discuss the importance of prioritizing your own unique needs, setting healthy boundaries, and why you should make time to fill up your tank and recharge.
Flor De Amelia (Lizette) Hoffman is a mom of two and a BCBA and we met at ABAI. She was inspired to get into the field because of her daughter who suffers from seizures and was diagnosed with autism at 18 months. We discuss how depression, anger, and denial affect parents on this journey, what’s next on Lizette’s career journey, and advice for practitioners working with parents and families.
We’re taking some time to look back on 2022, and what a year it has been! Throughout 2022, we hosted many great speakers, covered several key topics, and hosted and spoke and industry conferences. In our lookback, we share some personal growth stories and accomplishments as well. We’re looking forward to 2023 and would love to hear feedback from our listeners on what you’d like to see.
The Premack Principle is one of the first things that I look for in a student. So we’re going to talk about why it’s so important. For example, if money is reinforcing, we are more likely to do our jobs if we get paid. It’s the same for the kids that we work with. We refer to this as the first/then contingency, which is another term for Premack Principle.
Shobhna Srivastava is a BCBA with a background in clinical psychology and mental health and here, she shares her unique perspectives and experience. We talk about the caregiver’s burden and why it’s important to address it with families, and the differing needs between older and younger children. Shobhna also shares tips on how to build rapport, suggestions for improvement in the field of ABA, and her favorite go-to resources.
Michelle Ward is a certified public accountant (CPA) and the owner of MW Group and Modern CPA. Michelle shares some of the major tax and accounting challenges she sees with therapists and practitioners who start their own practices. She also provides tips on how to keep track of expenses, how write-offs work, and the pros and cons of being an employee versus an independent contractor.
Jordyn Hargrave is a BCBA and a member of the How To ABA community. She’s currently pursuing a second master’s degree and works as a BCBA within a school system. Jordyn shares a personal story about how an accident changed her perspective when working in the field. We also discuss creative reinforcers and the importance of mentorship as a new BCBA.
How do we know what our students’ favorite reinforcers are? Today’s topic is all about ABA preference assessments.
Jessica Winne is a BCBA who came to us to talk about OBM and performance feedback. Jessica received her master’s degree in behavior analysis from the University of North Texas and her thesis was on how to give corrective feedback. We discuss the role emotions play in receiving feedback, how feedback can make or break a staff culture, the importance of rapport, and more.
How do you use ABA video modeling with your learners? Today, we’re talking about how video modeling can expand play sequences.
