About a year ago we have had
several inquiries about "Certified
ABA Therapists" that prompted writing an article to explain that there is
no such thing.
More recently we have had several
calls asking us to confirm that we "Certified" an in-home ABA
therapist. This was confusing because we have already stated, in the
article linked to above, that no such thing exists. Well, apparently
in-home therapists who worked for us briefly, briefly, in the past are
using their former affiliation as in-home therapists with us as a marketing
technique in order to gain families for their services.
Reinforcement Unlimited
does not now, nor have we ever, "certified" therapists. We do
train our in-home therapists to implement the ABA programs developed by our
Board Certified Behavior Analysts™ (BCBA). Our training is on how to
work with children and implement programming that is written by someone with
extensive graduate training, supervision, and experience in the area. We
have some fabulous in-home therapists, and good direct therapists are
essential to great ABA programming. We value their hard work, their
dedication, and their input to us on how the child is doing in their ABA
program. However, they are not BCBAs and are not qualified to
independently design, develop, implement, or otherwise run ABA programs
without the ongoing supervision of a BCBA or equivalent supervisor.
We refer callers to this website
and specifically to this article when they want to know how to find qualified
staff to assist them with ABA programming:
"How do I
Hire a Qualified Behavior Analyst?"
We refer callers to this article
when they want to learn about what a BCBA is:
What is BCBA™
anyway?
We realize that families are free
to hire whomever they choose to work with their children. We feel
honored every time a family chooses our company to support them. We are
also aware that this is often a huge financial burden for the family and do
everything in our power to minimize that cost while maintaining the highest
standards for the program. These factors are why we are willing to
provide the range of supports for families from consultation to full program
development and implementation for them. It's also why we have published
our fees on our website and make everything as transparent as we know how to
in order to empower the family in making the decision that is best for
them. To the best of our knowledge we remain the only company providing
in-home ABA in the Metro Atlanta area that has published its prices for
services so the family does not have to come into the office and meet with a
marketing team just to find out what the costs are involved in these
services.
Fees are not the only factor in
making a decision about treatment for a child. We think its important to
look at the qualifications and skills of the staff. In the two instances
that we are aware of where former in-home therapists have used their former
affiliation with Reinforcement Unlimited as a marketing
technique neither is eligible for rehire with our company.
As always, if you have questions
about anything you find on our website - please call the office and we'll be
happy to assist you with additional information, resources, and/or
referrals. Thank you.
