Spilling the R.B.Tea
A Blog Series by River (RBT)
Episode 1
ABA has many forms it takes, in-school, in-home, and clinic-based to name a few. I’ve had the wonderful opportunity to work in all of the above, each with its own unique challenges, benefits, and chances to learn. Besides my own experience, there are a myriad of others who’ve had varying experiences in different aspects of this field. Just like every case is special, each person will have their unique take on it. Let’s break down the concepts and give you a glimpse into the lives of Registered Behavior Technicians (RBTs).
Pizza….aka in-school
Each state, district, and school has its own rules and level of…welcomeness to RBTs. From my own experience, and what I’ve heard from others, it’s often a delicate balance of following the rules they set and following your BCBA’s behavior plan. I personally found that private schools were much more welcoming and easy to integrate into, whereas the public schools were a lot stricter and more narrow in the scope of support you could offer. I still had a lot of fun and was able to support the clients I worked with across settings. I found myself able to help teachers and paraprofessionals see where the client’s needs and skills were. It was nice to share effective strategies and be part of a team where we could keep everyone safe and learning. A lot of what was good or bad about going to schools seemed more dependent on which classroom you were in, which paras you were working alongside, and how the teacher felt about you. This kind of environment encourages establishing professional friendships with educational staff and learning where they placed you.
Carbonara…in-home
I honestly loved working in-home. The families I worked with were all dedicated to helping their child grow and learn, they worked with me and followed through on the BCBA’s training. That’s not to say that it wasn’t difficult. The biggest challenge was the constant driving, planning, and making sure to get my hours. Families have very different schedules and often change things last minute. It made it hard to get hours and sometimes I was already on location when they canceled. The progress I did get to see while helping families see the value of the therapy, made it all worth it.
Working in-home was also far less structured, every household was different, and I had to work around distractors in the environment. It was also the first kind of case I worked on, and it was VERY difficult to get training and/or assistance quickly. Most of my BCBAs were good, but if they were with a client, I wasn’t getting a response or direction any time soon. Lots of it was relying on self-study, instinct, and just doing my best. I learned a lot, but it’s not going to be the best for every RBT starting out.
Tiramisu…Clinic
I’ll be honest, clinics, center-based ABA, is my favorite by far. The training, the support, and the team. All of it lends itself to growing as an RBT and providing a solid base for helping people with ABA. It provides stability, regular hours, and a large support system to rely on. In my other positions, I rarely got to meet other RBTs, but here there’s a sense of community and a vast pool of knowledge to help one another. I’ve heard that there is a range of quality between various centers, but the one I’ve been working at, Behaviorspan, has been nothing but lovely to me.
I get to work with a variety of cases here and learn from other RBTs, as well as several BCBAs on staff. It’s helping me grow in a clear direction and lets me ask questions with quick responses. They help me adapt in real-time with a lot of support no matter what kind of behaviors or challenges come up. I truly love it here, and being guaranteed hours as an RBT is a level of security that really helps. They help me educate myself, teach me things I didn’t know I didn’t know, and overall foster a real sense of community here. They make a job that is fulfilling into one I can excel at.
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