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LESSONS FROM THE FIELD: RBT Career Advancement

While we continue to bring to surface issues and begin to identify the root cause of BT/RBT turnover, we should also acknowledge, celebrate and share best practices from the field.

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Here’s a contribution from J.J. Tomash, Ph.D., BCBA-D, CEO and Founder at BehaviorSpan regarding RBT Career Path…

We believe that the implementation side of ABA (RBT) has been very under-appreciated. It is equal in importance to the programming (BCBA) side. Once we realized this, we started making promotions for our RBTs, to reflect those that become great at implementing plans and teaching others. We have some amazing RBT’s, and we wanted d them to know they can stay with us forever and have fulfilling careers, full of advancement and appreciation. We also do a few times every year and offer substantial pay raises. We prefer to reward those that stay with us longer and pay them increasingly well. I look forward to a day when we have RBT’s with our company retiring, having had a fulfilling career, and having seen their job advance and reach its potential.

Our first level of promotion is to Lead RBT. Lead RBT’s are selected through nominations and discussions among the admin team and BCBA’s. We decide whether to offer them the opportunity to become a Lead-In Training (LIT). LIT’s must go through a training course where we not only validate that they are exceptional in the skills required of RBT’s (they will almost certainly have had this to be accepted) but teach them additional leadership skills to manage a team of three RBT’s that they will mentor and help manage. Towards the end of the training, they are given one RBT to mentor, and that RBT’s performance then begins to reflect on them as a leader. This tests if they have not only the competencies, but the active soft skills required to lead. If they do well, they are promoted to Lead RBT.

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One of my lead tech guys is out this week but when he gets back, I will ask him to create a resource center on our website where we can keep a running list of ideas that others can reference.

Thanks for sharing JJ!

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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

Mother Child
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