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The Reinforcers Blog
Who are The Reinforcers?
At Kind Behavioral Health, we are dedicated to improving the lives of children with autism, their families, and their surrounding communities. In the pursuit of this vision, we have set out to share our expertise as the leading organization for clinician training and quality care in North Carolina in an effort to expand access to high-quality ABA treatment and autism services and provide resources for families and the wider ASD community.
𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒔 is a team of KBH clinicians here to provide just that — expertise, guidance, and a trained perspective on all things ABA! These talented clinicians will be sharing their experience and advice through ABA Insights, a blog tackling big topics in the field, Coaches Corner, detailed advice based on real-world scenarios, and Talk the Talk, a deeper dive into the vocabulary of behavior analysts.
To be the first to know about new content from 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒔, follow us on Facebook and Instagram!
The Reinforcers eBook
Experts in Applied Behavior Analysis
An eBook powered by the expertise of The Carolina Center for ABA and Autism Treatment’s clinical team.
Inside our eBook you’ll find:
ABA Insights: Expert perspectives on big topics in the ABA field
Coaches’ Corner: Detailed advice on real-world scenarios
Talk The Talk: A deep dive into the vocabulary of behavior analysis
Meet the Team
Daryl Williams, BCBA
Derick Hamilton, BCBA
Aakriti Tripathi, BCBA
Lauren Broadwell, BCBA
Khloe Mossman, BCBA
Lauren Chase, BCBA
The Reinforcers Blog
2024 NCABA Posters
Our team THINKS BIG! The Annual NCABA Conference kicks off this week, and we’re thrilled to showcase the insightful posters our dedicated Kind Behavioral Health team members have prepared.
19 February, 2024ABA Gift Guide
Looking for a few last-minute gift ideas for your learner? Luckily, our team members are experts in reinforcing toys that will help children with Autism have fun and build their skills at the same time!
07 December, 2023Supporting Our Employees: The Buddy Program at CCABA
At CCABA, we take pride in our commitment to nurturing a supportive and inclusive work environment. One of the key initiatives that underscores our dedication to this cause is the Buddy Program. Designed to welcome and empower new team members, this program has proven to...
12 October, 2023Accessible Activities For Families In The Triad, NC
Check out this list of sports, arts, socialization, activities and movie options geared towards families and kiddos with Autism in the Triad, NC area — including Greensboro, Winston-Salem, and High Point.
29 August, 2022Talk the Talk: Don’t Just Sit There…Do Something! Replacement Behaviors
Hey crew, happy to have you back as we continue to explore the ABA terminology! Today we’ll be discussing replacement behaviors. Replacement Behavior: A response that is taught to replace or substitute another behavior in a learner’s repertoire. Usually taught as a safer, more appropriate,...
16 August, 2022Coaches’ Corner: Preparing for the BCBA Exam — Tips from a BCBA
The process of becoming a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) can be time-consuming. On top of going to school and collecting fieldwork hours, the final piece to becoming a BCBA is to pass the BCBA exam. Passing the BCBA exam can be intimidating. An applicant...
21 July, 2022ABA Insights: It’s Not Always Behavioral! Ruling Out Medical Causes to Challenging Behavior
When working as a BCBA (board certified behavior analyst) with individuals diagnosed with autism/autistic individuals, clients often present with challenging behavior. Data show that children with neurodevelopmental disabilities, such as autism, present with an increased risk of engaging in challenging behavior. The risk of an...
21 June, 2022Talk the Talk: What’s the Function? Tangible/Access and Sensory/Automatic Functions of Behavior
Hello friends! Welcome back to Talk the Talk, where we break down some of those tricky ABA concepts and provide real-life examples. As you remember from last month, we are working through the four functions of behavior. In our last post (which you can find...
07 June, 2022Coaches’ Corner: Five Things I Wish I had Known as A New BCBA
A Self-Reflection Five Years’ Post-Certification The first day of any career can be intimidating. As a brand new BCBA, I remember feeling extremely excited, but also overwhelmed. I had spent the last several years of my life working up to this moment: becoming a...
24 May, 2022Coaches’ Corner: Self-Awareness Practices for Autism Providers
I have the pleasure each day of doing work that can be the most fun. Many moments I have in the workplace involve large smiles and belly laughs and I reflect often on how fortunate I am to be doing this “work” and interacting with...
29 April, 2022ABA Insights: 15 Questions To Ask During an RBT Interview
In the interviews I conduct, I always encourage my candidates to relax, have fun, and especially ask me questions! Interviewing should be looked at similarly to a first date: We’re both getting to know one another and are figuring out if I’m right for you...
06 April, 2022ABA Insights: Why I am Seeking to Become a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst
My start in Applied Behavior Analysis I began my journey in ABA and a Registered Behavior Technician (RBT)in 2017 at a behavioral clinic in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina shortly after graduating from college. At the time, I knew little about ABA but I was excited...
28 March, 2022Coaches’ Corner: Valuable Experiences to Have as a Student of Behavior Analysis
Being a student who is seeking to become a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) can be overwhelming. Between coursework, working as an RBT, and completing fieldwork hours, it is sometimes hard to find time to get everything done. However, the time as a student is...
25 March, 2022ABA Insights: Why I Love Being a Registered Behavior Technician
Upon graduating with a BA degree in Psychology in May of 2020, I searched for careers that would allow me to serve others, particularly children, in an underserved area. I had experience working with kids with down syndrome, ADHD, and dyslexia, but had never worked...
23 February, 2022Talk the Talk: Functional Communication Training (FCT)
Welcome back to another exciting post from your Talk the Talk crew! Today we’ll be doing an overview of a major focus of many behavior change programs, functional communication training (FCT). As you know, being able to communicate wants and needs is essential for ensuring...
23 February, 2022Coaches’ Corner: Providing High-Quality Supervision
The role of being a supervisor is a big one. Providing high-quality supervision is arguably one of the most important, time-intensive, and challenging aspects of being a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). The rewards can be great, but the repercussions of providing below-average supervision can...
15 February, 2022ABA Insights: Why I Love Being a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst
When I went off to college, like most recent high school grads, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my life. All that I knew was that I wanted to study psychology and learn how I could make an impact on children....
10 February, 2022Talk the Talk: Echoics
Welcome back with another Talk the Talk post for our series on verbal operants, the basic components of verbal behavior. We have previously discussed mands, tacts, and intraverbals so if you missed those posts, you can brush up here! Today we will be diving into...
04 February, 2022Talk the Talk: Tacting
Hello again! It’s your Talk the Talk team here with another exciting post about verbal behavior. Just to refresh your memory, we’ve been diving into the components of verbal behavior, specifically the most common verbal operants. As you may recall, verbal behavior is “behavior whose reinforcement is mediated by a listener” (Cooper, Heron, &...
18 January, 2022Talk the Talk: Intraverbals
Hey all, welcome back to our Talk the Talk series on the verbal operants, a key component to understanding verbal behavior. Today we’ll be covering intraverbals. An intraverbal is a verbal behavior in which the form of response is under the functional control of a...
15 December, 2021Talk the Talk: Manding
Hey all, welcome back to Talk the Talk! We’ve covered a lot in our posts so far and now we’ll be moving on to a pretty big component of behavior analysis: Verbal Behavior. As defined in Cooper, Heron, and Heward (2020), verbal behavior is “behavior whose reinforcement is...
13 December, 2021ABA Insights: Important Questions to Ask In a BCBA Interview
Over the last 11 years, the job demand for BCBAs has increased by 4, 209%. From 2019 to 2020 alone, a 17% increase in BCBA job postings was observed (BACB, 2020). The need for BCBAs in greater more now than ever. In North Carolina alone,...
06 December, 2021Coaches Corner: The First Step to Behavior Reduction
One of the critical areas of interest in behavior analysis is tackling the reduction of challenging behaviors. Most people seek interventions when they’ve identified a need to change or improve behaviors in themselves or others. For instance, wanting to reduce one’s behaviors of “Eating Junk...
15 November, 2021Talk the Talk: Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence
In the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA), we analyze not only behaviors targeted for increase or decrease, but the environmental cues and contexts that surround them as well. ABA uses something called the three-term contingency, or the ABCs of behavior, to examine how behaviors are evoked by certain aspects of the environment. We...
08 November, 2021Coaches Corner: Finding Time For Unrestricted Hours
Students who begin accruing fieldwork hours must earn two types of hours: restricted and unrestricted. According to the BACB, students who will be testing after 2021 must earn 2000 fieldwork hours, with at least 60% of these hours (1200 hours) being spent in unrestricted activities. Unrestricted activities is time in...
25 October, 2021Coaches Corner: The Responsibility and Joy in Growing Access to Services through Fieldwork Supervision
In the US, it is estimated that 1 in 54 individuals are diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (CDC, 2021). This increase in diagnoses places a great demand on service providers to enable access to applied behavior analytic treatment. The issue here is that the rate...
11 October, 2021Talk the Talk: Discriminative Stimulus
Aspects of the environment, like the behavior of others, signs, specific sounds, or even smells, can have a profound effect on people’s behavior. The presence or absence of certain environmental cues can predict the consequence of a particular behavior. For instance, imagine a woman is...
29 September, 2021ABA Insights: The Value of Learning about Behavior Analysis
We all behave! And by that, I mean we all act or conduct ourselves in a specific way, especially toward or in response to specific events or people around us. For example, responding to your friend’s greeting by saying “Good morning” is a behavior. Responding to a parent’s tickles...
28 September, 2021Coaches Corner: Problem Solving Through Self-Management and Adaptability
A self-management system must meet your current needs, including flexibility to complete your goals and manage erupting barriers. Life is a fluid process with no two weeks or days presenting the same topography. Collecting data on how well the system meets your needs will allow...
23 September, 2021Talk the Talk: BCBAs and RBTs
Clients receiving ABA therapy are part of a treatment team that is comprised of their family, a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), and one or more Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs). Clients and families provide important information about day-to-day life, important cultural practices, long- and short-term goals, and clients’ interests. Board-Certified Behavior Analysts and RBTs both use their training in ABA therapy to help clients...
17 September, 2021ABA Insights: A Review of Medical Recommendations for ABA Service Hours
When a family first begins services with an ABA provider, a board certified behavior analyst (BCBA) will conduct an initial assessment. In this initial assessment, the BCBA will work with a family to identify goals for both caregivers and their children. Goals may be created in areas such as communications skills,...
14 September, 2021Coaches’ Corner: Evaluating the Effects of Supervision
Providing supervision to RBTs, students, apprentices, and others eager to learn in our growing field is a BIG job. While it is certainly a rewarding experience, supervising is also a huge responsibility. For newer BCBAs this can sometimes feel overwhelming. While accruing the extensive experience...
13 September, 2021Talk the Talk: Satiation vs. Deprivation
Satiation and deprivation are key elements to the shaping of any behavior. If a person is in a state of satiation, they have little to no motivation to gain access to a particular item or activity. If they are in a state of deprivation, that motivation increases and we’re...
09 September, 2021ABA Insights: Advocating for Positive ABA Experiences
Behavior Analysts use various ABA interventions and intervention packages to guide behavior modification. While many ABA interventions exist, specific interventions within certain client contexts may result in aversive experiences, at the same time, others may result in more positive ones. Hence bringing an essential consideration to the forefront- Interventions of behavior analysis...
03 September, 2021Coaches’ Corner: Preparing for the BCBA Exam
Through our student and apprentice programs at The Carolina Center for ABA and Autism, we strive to build both knowledge and performance-based skills for our students. Preparing students to sit for the BCBA exam is no easy feat and takes a lot of dedication and hard...
27 August, 2021ABA Insights: What is Caregiver Training?
In ABA treatment, several different services are provided to help aid in reaching a client’s long-term treatment goals. One of these services provided by the Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) is caregiver training. The purpose of caregiver training is to work to teach caregivers the same strategies that...
24 August, 2021Coaches’ Corner: Task Management
We often look at our to-do list with a feeling of dread. How does one possibly get many tasks done in time? There are many tools and procedures available to help with time management and meeting goals within Behavior Analysis. Let us look at a few helpful...
03 August, 2021ABA Insights: Who’s Who on an ABA Treatment Team?
When a family begins ABA treatment, they are paired with an ABA treatment team. This ABA treatment team has many key players. Let’s dive into who these members are and the different roles that they play. The leader of a treatment team is a Board-Certified Behavior Analyst...
03 August, 2021Talk the Talk: Response Prompts
One of the goals of applied behavior analysis (ABA) is to help people learn the skills they need to be successful in their daily activities. Said another way, teaching a person what to do (i.e., target behavior) in a situation (i.e., cue) to get a preferred outcome (i.e., reinforcer). Learning often occurs through rules and/or direct experience. An example of a rule is a parent telling...
03 August, 2021Talk the Talk: Stimulus Prompts
Learning often occurs through rules and/or direct experience. When learning through direct experience, ABA therapists often use prompts, which helps a learner complete the task. The supports (or prompts) can be categorized as a response or stimulus prompts. In an earlier blog, we discussed response prompting....
02 August, 2021Coaches’ Corner: Fieldwork Hours
Individuals who are interested in becoming Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) have to meet a few different requirements: They must have a master’s degree in behavior analysis, psychology, education, or a related field. They must have completed a coursework sequence in behavior analysis. They must...
26 July, 2021Talk the Talk: Task Analysis
In this edition of Talk the Talk, 𝑻𝒉𝒆 𝑹𝒆𝒊𝒏𝒇𝒐𝒓𝒄𝒆𝒓𝒔 will be providing an overview of “task analysis,” a very important concept in the field of ABA! Technical definition: Identifying the critical parts of a complex behavior and separating them into a series of simple...
16 July, 2021Coaches’ Corner: Feedback
Feedback should not be viewed as a scary thing. It’s a valuable tool to enhance performance. Feedback includes both a description of the performance behavior and an evaluative statement about the quality of the behavior. For instance, saying that someone did a “great job” only...
12 July, 2021ABA Insights: Collaboration 101
Working with people with whom you do not align can be a real struggle. Considering the social world we belong to, we humans need to involve ourselves with other social beings to get many needs met and a chunk of our work done. As a result, this...
08 July, 2021Coaches’ Corner: Putting Academics to Practice
Working in the field of behavior analysis is often accompanied with a practitioner that his highly invested in the individuals they serve. This emphasis is delightful and allows for strong delivery of aim for best care. However, a byproduct of this can be that this clinician...
29 June, 2021Talk the Talk: Reinforcement
Technical definition: A change in the environment that occurs after a behavior and increases its occurrences in the future. Reinforcement can be positive or negative. If the change added something to the environment (e.g., a peer starts talking to a learner), it is referred...
21 June, 2021ABA Insights: A Humanistic Approach to Client Care
Written By: Lauren Broadwell, M.S., BCBA The application of behavior analysis to humans took off with the publishing of an article entitled Some Current Dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis. This article has served as guide to behavior analysts for decades. One of these dimensions is...
14 June, 2021
