Pros
Working with the clients was very rewarding.
Cons
No support from majority of management. The BCBA's had online degrees and didn't seem to understand the underlying principles behind what they were asking us to do. They also seemed to have poor management skills and would avoid providing supervision wherever possible. The same can be said to a majority of the CAs - they were all enrolled in online programs and really didn't understand the underlying reason for why we were running certain programs - and when asked by front line staff, they would answer "Because I said so" or would get frustrated and walk away. They also would avoid overlapping staff, especially with the more difficult clients. My biggest issue was that they would teach kids who have full sentences and words to communicate using PECS - this does not help the child advance at all when it comes to functional communication. I only saw two supervisors during my time there who would actually work on their clients using their words rather than using PECS. Finally, the upper upper management (corporate side) did not follow the principles of behavior analysis at all. Go look at their website - it isn't even stated anywhere on their mission statement that they use evidence-based practices (which is literally the only reason why ABA is said to be the best treatment because of all of the scientific evidence that supports it). The upper management seems to care more about billing for services rather than ensuring their employees are well trained and are providing quality services to the clients. Clients should be the number 1 priority - not money.
