State of Current Training for Severe Problem Behavior: A Survey
Half of BCBAs face severe behavior with no backup—fix your supervision plan now.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Colombo and team sent a survey to 1,000 BCBAs across the U.S.
They asked about training, supervision, and support for severe problem behavior.
The survey covered homes, clinics, and schools.
What they found
Almost half of BCBAs said their first severe-behavior case came with zero supervision.
Only 35 % had solid training in functional analysis.
Home settings were the worst—least support and most risk.
How this fits with other research
Li et al. (2018) found the same gap in psych-meds training.
Both surveys show BCBAs get hard cases with little prep.
Lancioni et al. (2009) said video training could fix this, yet Colombo shows we still rely on luck, not media.
Jessel et al. (2019) proved a 5-minute IISCA works, but most BCBAs never learned it.
The gap between what works and what BCBAs know keeps growing.
Why it matters
If you supervise RBTs or new BCBAs, audit your severe-behavior onboarding today. Add a mock IISCA, require live supervision for the first in-home case, and pick one video module from Lancioni et al. (2009) for make-up training.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Ensuring that Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) receive sufficient training in various forms of practice is an area of clinical importance that necessitates additional attention. Given that there is relatively limited information available on the extent to which BCBAs receive ongoing training and support, Reed and Henley (Behavior Analysis in Practice, 8, 16–26, 2015) conducted a study to evaluate the various types of training offered to BCBAs and aspiring certificants. As such, the purpose of the current investigation was to extend the findings of Reed and Henley by surveying BCBA respondents who practice (a) primarily in the home setting and (b) with clients who engage in severe problem behavior. The results are discussed with respect to 3 socially significant findings. First, 43% of respondents had been assigned their first severe case without initial or ongoing support. Second, only 35.2% of respondents received training on functional analyses more than 1 time. Finally, 5 respondents (4%) answered that the majority of their work was with clients 19 years old or older.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2021 · doi:10.1007/s40617-020-00424-z