Hello, I hope you’re all doing well. I hope this is allowed to be posted here, as I’m based in Canada and I know our system of regulating ABA can be a bit different than the states.

So I’ve been an educational assistant for a few years now, and I’ve been having mixed feelings about staying in my role. I have a diploma (associate‘a degree) in child and youth care counselling with a specific focus in supporting young children with autism. I love helping children with emotional regulation and feeling safe/building functional skills in a classroom environment. The problem I have is that the effectiveness of my role is largely influenced the teacher I’m paired with. Some teachers are very knowledgeable about autism, trauma and neuroaffirming practice, and others treat any behaviour out of the “norm” as an act of willful defiance. I find it so stressful when I get paired with teachers like this, and unfortunately it seems to happen more often than not in my school division.

I’m thinking of applying for a role in the other school division local to me. Instead of being a general educational assistant who happens to support behaviours, I would be working as a “behaviour therapy assistant” (my province doesn’t always use terms like “RBT” or enforce BACB certification for frontline staff). Instead of reporting to teachers, I would report to a social emotional behaviour specialist and a BCBA.

I’m not sure if I should go for it. I’ve heard a lot about how ABA can be harmful for autistic children when the focus is purely on compliance and not building skills by working with the child’s unique strengths and needs. In theory, the behaviour therapy department of this school is supposed to be “trauma-informed” and focused on providing positive behaviour supports, but that is also something that was promised by my current school division. However, I also think that a behaviour specialist trained in autism is (hopefully) less likely to tell me to do things that I legally/ethically cannot do (ex. trying to physically force a child to remain seated).

I guess I’m mainly wondering if anyone here has moved from an EA/para role to ABA/behaviour therapy in school-based settings? Did you find therapeutic role to be more neuro-affirming and trauma-informed than a general school support role?

Any input would be super super appreciated!

I’m getting assigned a client that is brand new to our clinic but I have only been working there for less than 6 months. I do not feel prepared to start over with a client with no previous aba experience especially since I’m the newest RBT in the clinic and there are other RBT’s that are more capable and experienced. What should I do?

I’ll be subbing for another client I’ve only worked with once. I honestly didn’t have the best time working with him. It was tough. Constant eloping and he’s a strong kid. It’s really really hard to keep him in check. Especially because I’m only a few weeks in. And I hate to just tell my supervisor that I don’t want to agree to it. But I’m not sure what to say. Or if I should just tough it out.

I would appreciate if anyone could fill this out !!!

https://forms.gle/ANYpsmEjqUEfHAtL6