Caseload inheritance — the process by which a BCBA assumes responsibility for clients whose treatment was previously designed and implemented by another practitioner — is one of the most common and most underaddressed transitions in clinical ABA practice. It is particularly challenging for less experienced BCBAs, who may inherit programming that is technically complex, whose theoretical underpinnings they do not fully understand, and whose history with the client they cannot access through direct experience.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via Verbal Beginnings
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Join Free →BCBAs, specifically less experienced BCBAs, struggle when navigating the inheritance of a client or caseload. Inheritance demands time and interdisciplinary collaboration in order to be successful. BCBAs exhaust their time attempting to figure out how and what to prioritize versus what to compromise. Comprehensive service providers involved in the collaborative aspects of inheritance frequently notice that opportunities for collaboration are the first thing to be sacrificed. This is due in part to the BCBA's limited time and the increased response effort in "fixing" clinical programming during the hand-off of a child (ie. "inheriting a child"). Is there something we can learn from comprehensive service providers who inherit a client and what they deem non-negotiable? How can comprehensive service providers support BCBAs in order to provide what is absolutely necessary while understanding that -in most cases- they are competing for the BCBAs' time.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | Supervision |
| COA | 1 | — |
Ben Sarcia joined Verbal Beginnings as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst in 2015. He has served as the Clinical Director of the Healthy Beginnings Behavioral Feeding Program since the program’s inception in 2016. Ben began his experience with the treatment of pediatric feeding disorders at the Southeastern Pennsylvania Autism Resource Center as a graduate student. After completing a master’s degree in clinical psychology, Ben went on to work as a behavior analyst in the Feeding Disorders Continuum at the Kennedy Krieger Institute in Baltimore, MD. Ben’s research interests include functional analysis of inappropriate mealtime behavior, as well as exploring the long-term outcomes of children treated for food refusal utilizing an applied behavior analytic approach. He is also the father of two boys and enjoys lake trips with his family whenever time allows.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
280 research articles with practitioner takeaways
256 research articles with practitioner takeaways
244 research articles with practitioner takeaways
All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.