Supervision Behaviors of Board Certified Behavior Analysts With Trainees

Hajiaghamohseni et al. (2021) asked 317 Board Certified Behavior Analysts how they supervise trainees. They used an online survey with 80 questions about goals, feedback, and training tasks.

The team wanted to see if supervisors follow the five best-practice steps laid out by Sellers et al. (2016). They also checked if clear written rules made practices more consistent.

Supervision looks very different from one BCBA to the next. Some use goal sheets and feedback every week. Others wing it with little structure.

When agencies gave written checklists, supervisors followed the five recommended steps more often. Without checklists, practice was hit-or-miss.

Sellers et al. (2016) first listed the five key supervision moves. The new survey shows real-life use is spotty, proving the 2016 advice is still needed.

MSáez-Suanes et al. (2023) reviewed every BCBA supervision study and found most are opinion pieces, not data. This 2021 survey is one of the few hard counts we have.

Brown et al. (2025) asked newly certified BCBAs about the supervision they get after passing the exam. Together, the two surveys reveal a gap: trainees see loose structure, and even fully certified analysts still get uneven support.

Garza et al. (2018) handed readers ready-made tools like BST checklists. Hajiaghamohseni shows those exact tools sit unused unless an agency writes them into policy.

If you supervise trainees, pick one tool this week—maybe a five-item goal sheet—and make it mandatory for every supervisee. Write the steps into your contract or policy. The data say that single act will pull your whole team closer to best practice and give every trainee the same quality ride.