Karen has over 14 years in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis and is the CEO and founder of Special Learning, Inc., an education technology company that delivers web-based continuing education training and educational resources, virtual supervision, and consultation to BCBAs, Psychologists, Speech Therapists, Occupational Therapists, Educators and family members of those living with autism across the globe.
Aside from her work with Special Learning, Karen has been at work building the Ethics Standards Board for ABA Providers (ESBAP) to establish a code of Ethics for ABA Provider Organizations to promote and maintain ethical practices to ensure quality outcomes for recipients of ABA services and to establish standards and best practices in staff recruitment and retention to reduce turnover and increase access quality ABA and related autism intervention services across the industry.
The national database of ABA provider organizations will individually and collectively be rated by former and current employees and clients using the Ethics Scorecard to allow the autism ecosystem to quickly identify and support quality, outcomes-driven provider organization. ESBAP is creating a resource available to the public, to help shift and support those organizations that are behaving ethically, doing quality work, and outcomes-oriented that have opportunities for RBTs to find a career path to mentorship.
Karen’s mission is to improve and elevate the current state of the Behavioral Analysis field, exploring the challenges of rapid growth, the demand for services, as well as the gaps in the ethics code, and how that fails to regulate the quality of treatment from large private equity firms. In recent months, Karen has expanded into recruitment services to support and empower ethical ABA agencies to build the team they need to meet the demand for services and reduce their waitlist numbers. The end goal is to help as many individuals receive the services they need and deserve.
Being an RBT for me was extremely fun because where were you going to find a place where you can be completely silly without having to worry what people thought about you? This was the only job that made me feel like I could make a dramatic difference while being myself.
I also liked to be surrounded by people that had the same goals of wanting to help kids and the teamwork made the job much easier and more enjoyable.
Change and progress was the ultimate goal for our kiddos. The early intervention program was seriously only a miracle because I saw changes in the kiddos that from day one, you wouldn’t even recognize who they were.
Changes from being able to utter 3-4 words where they can only make a syllable from when they started, the behavior decreases in which kiddo that used to engage in 30-40 0 self-harm to only half, learning how to wait during games, table work where they use to swipe and drop to the floor if they had to.
My favorite was when the parents would tell us what amazing progress they were making at home. I used to tear up and felt for these parents so much because it was already difficult for them and now, they can trust and rely on ABA and the therapists knowing their goal was ours.
By Emma Rogers, BA, RBT
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