A Day in the Life of a Behavior Analyst: Inspiring the Next Generation of BCaBAs

For this week’s assignment, you will write a 4-5 page narrative essay to present to a group of undergraduate students prior to their graduation (note for this assignment you will only write the essay. There is no actual presentation component).
You are playing the role of a behavior analyst who has been working in the field for 25 years. You have been asked to speak to college students who will be graduating with their Bachelor’s in Psychology in Applied Behavior Analysis in less than a month. You want your message to be meaningful to these students and you want to engender pride in the work done by behavior analysts and inspire these students to obtain their Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst (BCaBA) certifications. You want to establish your credibility as a speaker for the field of applied behavior analysis (ABA) by presenting some background information about your education and expertise in the field, as well as a brief overview of the science of ABA.
You believe that describing a day in the life of a behavior analyst might be the best way to get your message across. Sharing an early experience you had speaking to a group of parents will be an effective approach. You recount an experience you had speaking to a group of new parents who had many questions about behaviors being demonstrated by their children.
Read the scenarios presented by three different parents during that discussion.
Parent #1: “Lori is in 3rd grade and was recently diagnosed with autism. It is a struggle for us to get out of the door in the morning because when we try and get her to dress herself or pack her things, she has a lot of behaviors. We will say, “Lori, get your shoes and put them on,” and she will yell “no, I don’t want to!” and kick, sometimes even throw them. We have to leave and are usually running late so this is really difficult for our family. She likes going to school and once we get there, she walks in with no problem. It might be related to the fact that she wants to keep playing with her iPad as she also hates transitioning away from that.
Parent #2: My son, Sam, is the class clown. He enjoys making others laugh, even when he is being silly or inappropriate. His teacher has told us that he will shout things like, “Poo poo car!” and other kids will laugh. This is very disruptive for the classroom setting and we really want to work on this “potty talk.” When he shouts things like this, his teacher always has to reprimand him and say, “Please use nice words, do not say those things.” It doesn’t seem to be working. She has always tried putting him in timeout in the back of the classroom but no success.
Parent #3: Sarah is four and has a hard time sharing with her younger sister and friends. We went on a road trip to Florida and the car ride was very difficult. Sarah kept snatching things out of her younger sister’s car seat and not giving them back. It is hard to block and we can barely reach back to manage the situation. At school, her teacher reported that she has difficulty sharing the kitchen station. She hoards the food items and won't let other kids come near them. She has even gone as far as to bite them and scratch on the arms. This behavior is making it difficult for us to have playdates and go anywhere where she might need to share.
Write a 4-5 page narrative essay in which you include the following:
Introduce yourself and describe the education and experience requirements the students would need in order to sit for the BCaBA exam. Then provide a brief overview of the science of ABA.
Summarize each parent’s dilemma and provide explanations of the contingencies at work maintaining the target behaviors, i.e., reinforcement, punishment, and motivating operations.
Include your behavior internention plan for modifying the behaviors in each case, along with your process and rationale for each case.
Discuss mock future communications you received from each of these three parents regarding the successes they encountered when implementing your suggestions.