2.16 Review

As an RBT, that is a very interesting point. I understand that our client’s tend to view their communication devices that are electric, as toys. In this perspective, they tend to utilize the device in that fashion rather than for communication purposes. As an RBT, if you are unaware of the “why” for certain targets, your main concern in your job role becomes focused on collecting data required for your trial counts. (I hope that makes sense, but what I mean is certain companies have expectations on how many targets you should be running with each client for each hour of therapy). This can easily over shadow the functionality of what you are teaching to clients because there is a misunderstanding on the “why” our client needs to master specific targets in the fashion presented by a BCBA and the “when” and “what” you are looking for as a BCBA can be mistranslated. Some feedback to prevent this (not to disrespect you or your position at all, just friendly feedback being in the middle of ABA master’s and experience as an RBT) is to break things down as if you were an RBT to your staff as if they were the client. Explain what you are looking for and the why behind the specifics of what you are looking for and how your clients (meaning your staff’s clients). In my experience, the operational definitions of targets don’t express YOUR intention behind the target and what YOU are looking for specifically all the time and can be very general (at least in my experience). This causes the RBT to look at the target like all behavior related to AAC devices can be counted as correct. Something as simple as “directed at an individual” could clear up the confusion on the part of your staff, or a meeting or any form of communication (with reminders in their notation paperwork for each client) could also help being that some clinics have many patients and reminders are easy ways to quickly check before a therapy session. I hope this helps!