My Journey to ABA

If you've subscribed to this blog, you are probably here due to one of my first posts. You had an interest in bar shampoo or my take on social injustices in the wold right now (or you are one of my close friends or family, but shhhh let's pretend you are here for the content).

Well you've now seen a few posts, all of which include ABA in one way or another. If you haven't here is some background. Applied Behavior Analysis is a set of principles that focus on how behaviors change, how people learn, and how our environment may affect our behavior. That's going to most likely be an ongoing theme within these posts. After all, the blog is about me finding my way as a future BCBA. I want to use this platform to discover areas I truly have a passion for. Hopefully, after one of these posts I will walk away and say, "that's it, that's how I am going to change the world". Anyways, I thought this was a good point to stop and give you some background into why I chose to pursue a Master's degree in Special Education: Applied Behavior Analysis.

When I look back on the path my life has taken in my 24 years on Earth, I keep coming back to one pivotal moment when I knew behavior management could change the world. I was a Junior in high school. I was enrolled in an education practicum where I helped in a 3rd grade classroom for an hour a day. During my time in this classroom, I generally worked with a boy who displayed some challenging behaviors. I remember one moment with this kiddo when he started getting frustrated while completing a math worksheet. We all had seen the behaviors this frustration generally led to. So I decided to try a new strategy with him. I asked him, "would you like to take a break?" He looked at me in disbelief as his peers worked diligently on their math. I offered my hand and we took a walk in the hallway before returning. We talked about how to ask for a break when things felt overwhelming. Now this wasn't a child who needed 1:1 assistance throughout his entire day. This was a student who felt overwhelmed with the material and didn't feel he had the option to stop working.

Think about that, as an adult if I am working on my monthly budget, grocery list, or a project at work, and I start to get frustrated, what do I do? I take a break. This doesn't mean I never complete the work. This means that I start feeling overwhelmed, I identify these feelings, and I make a decision to walk away. This could be to get a drink of water, head to the break room for a snack, or just take a walk around the block. I can then come back to the activity with a level head.

So working with this boy and implementing a break system as needed, he showed a great deal of success. Now this particular situation was before I had ever heard of ABA. There is no data behind the intervention. Not a single protocol or teaching plan was used to implement this system. This was simply brainstorming with the teacher to try and solve a problem in the classroom.

That led me into my time at The University of Nebraska-Lincoln where I had a class in behavior management with John Maag. This was truly the turning point for me. I finally had a name for my passion! I absorbed the textbook and was left wanting more. After graduation, I reached out to Dr. Maag for recommendations of graduate programs where I could continue learning about behavior management. This led me to Arizona State University's online program in Special Education: Applied Behavior Analysis. As a current preschool special education teacher with an interest in learning more about ABA, I thought it was the perfect fit.

The program was 18 months of online coursework. The majority of the coursework centered around working with individuals with intellectual disabilities and individuals with Autism. We also had courses about ethics, terminology, and different areas of application. All of these courses were interesting and contained necessary information for an aspiring board certified behavior analyst. That being said, it left me wanting more.

So I started my last class in the program in May, 2020. (YAY! August can't come fast enough) The title read "Advanced Applications of Applied Behavior Analysis". As someone ready to finish my program, I was ready for these advanced applications but also anxiety ridden by the amount of work the title entailed. Then we got to the first day of class and I read the syllabus. This class was everything I was looking for! We have an opportunity to hear about a variety of interest areas we could practice ABA, most of which I had never considered.

That's where the blog comes into play. I seriously feel more lost than I've ever felt in terms of where my career will lead. But honestly, that doesn't scare me and I don't find it to be a terrible thing. I think it's okay to be lost. How else are we going to find a passion that drives us to jump out of bed every morning if we don't spend some time searching?

In a round about way, this is the story of why I chose ABA.