Internships

In order to apply for board certification as a Behavior Analyst or an Assistant Behavior Analyst (after you complete your program here at Antioch University New England) you will need to follow some complex directions outlined by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board

Our ABA classes have been approved by BACB as meeting the educational coursework requirements you will need to sit for the exam. Applicants will have to meet additional requirements to qualify for certification. One of these is having completed clinical supervised experience.

All the regulations pertaining to this process are outlined at http://www.bacb.com/pages/experience_BCBA_B.html, and we strongly encourage you to visit that site to inform yourself fully about the Board's regulations.

What we discuss below pertains to applying for certification as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA). Bachelor's level students can only be certified as Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analysts (BCaBA), which has different clinical and supervision requirements http://www.bacb.com/pages/experience_BCABA_B.html. But AUNE is encouraging all its ABA students to train to the higher standards of the BCBA clinical supervised experience.

If you enroll in AUNE's ABA certificate program, you will be required to familiarize yourself with these regulations and it will ultimately be your responsibility to ensure your clinical supervised experience meets BACB standards.

At this point, however, you need this information to decide whether your current job can serve as your clinical supervised experience - known to BACB as "Supervised Independent Fieldwork" - or whether you need to apply for a placement through Antioch University New England - known to BACB as "Practicum". (Note: BACB describes a category called "Intensive Practicum". This option is not available through AUNE's ABA program.)

The BACB regulations are a little hard to find on their site, so we include here an overview of their Supervised Independent Fieldwork and Practicum requirements, and we describe how these requirements align with Antioch University New England's practicum options.

Amount of Supervised Experience Required

Supervised Independent Fieldwork: Students must complete 1500 hours of Supervised Independent Fieldwork in behavior analysis. The distribution of Supervised Independent Fieldwork hours must be at least 10 hours per week, but not more than 30 hours per week, for a minimum of 3 weeks per month.

Practicum (completed as part of a University program only): Students must complete 1000 hours of Practicum in behavior analysis within a university experience program approved by the BACB. The distribution of Practicum hours must be at least 10 hours per week, but not more than 25 hours per week, for a minimum of 3 weeks per month.

Amount of Supervision Required

Supervised Independent Fieldwork: Students must be supervised at least once every 2 weeks for 5% of the total hours they spend in Supervised Independent Fieldwork. Total supervision must be at least 75 hours. A supervisory period is two weeks.

Practicum**: Students must be supervised at least weekly for 10% (7.5% minimum) of the total hours they spend in University Practicum. Total supervision must be at least 100 hours (75 minimum). A supervisory period is one week.

** Supervision requirements for Practicum and Intensive Practicum are given at both recommended and minimum (italicized) levels. The BACB reserves the right to enforce supervision at the recommended levels pursuant to reasonable notice.

COMPARISON OF CATEGORIES

	Supervised Independent Fieldwork	Practicum
Total hours required	1500	1000
Supervised hours: % of total hours	5%	10% recommended (7.5% minimum)
Total number of supervised hours	75	100 recommended (75 minimum)
Frequency of supervisor contacts	1 every 2 weeks	1 every week

Onset of Experience:
Students may not start accumulating experience until they have begun the coursework required to meet the BACB coursework requirements.

Appropriate Student Activities

In helping you to determine if you can use an existing job as your clinical supervised experience, here is a listing of appropriate activities that BACB requires:

The student's primary focus should be on learning new behavior analytic skills related to the BACB Third Edition Task List. Activities must adhere to the dimensions of applied behavior analysis identified by Baer, Wolf, and Risley (1968) in the article Some Current Dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis published in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis.

Students are encouraged to have experiences in multiple sites and with multiple supervisors.

Appropriate experience activities include:

Conducting assessment activities related to the need for behavioral interventions,
Designing, implementing, and monitoring behavior analysis programs for clients,
Overseeing the implementation of behavior analysis programs by others,
Other activities normally performed by a behavior analyst that are directly related to behavior analysis such as attending planning meetings regarding the behavior analysis program, researching the literature related to the program, talking to individuals about the program; plus any additional activities related to oversight of behavioral programming such as behavior analyst supervision issues, or evaluation of behavior analysts' performance. The supervisor will determine if activities qualify.

Examples of activities that are not appropriate as experience activities include: attending meetings with little or no behavior analytic content, providing interventions that are not based in behavior analysis, doing non-behavior analytic administrative activities, or any other activities that are not directly related to behavior analysis.

Appropriate Clients

Clients may be any persons for whom behavior analysis services are appropriate. However, the student may not be related to the client or the client's primary caretaker. Students must work with multiple clients during the experience period.

Required Supervision

Supervisor Qualifications:
During the experience period, the supervisor must be:

A Board Certified Behavior Analyst in good standing, or
Approved University Experience: A faculty member who has been approved by the BACB as an instructor in the university's approved course sequence.

The supervisor may not be the student's relative, subordinate or employee during the experience period. The supervisor will not be considered an employee of the student if the only compensation received by the supervisor from the student consists of payment for supervision.

Contractual and Ethical Considerations:
The supervisor and student should execute a contract prior to the onset of the experience that states the responsibilities of both parties, delineates the consequences should the parties not adhere to their responsibilities (including proper termination of the relationship), and includes an attestation that both parties will adhere to the BACB Guidelines for Responsible Conduct. The parties should pay particular attention to Sections 1, 2, and three of the Guidelines and consider the supervisor to be the client of the student except as noted above.

Nature of Supervision:
The supervisor must observe the student engaging in behavior analytic activities in the natural environment at least once every two weeks. The supervisor must provide specific feedback to students on their performance. During the initial half of the total experience hours, observation should concentrate on student-client interactions. This observation may be conducted via web-cameras, videotape, videoconferencing, or similar means in lieu of the supervisor being physically present. Supervision may be conducted in small groups of 10 or fewer participants for no more than half of the total supervised hours in each supervisory period. The remainder of the total supervision hours in each supervisory period must consist of direct one-to-one contact. Supervision hours may be counted toward the total number of experience hours required.

Documentation of Supervision:
University supervisors are responsible for providing documentation for each supervisory period on a feedback form provided by the BACB. The feedback form will require documentation of number of hours of experience, number of supervised hours, feedback on the student's performance, the supervisor for each supervisory period, and signatures of the student and supervisor. The supervisor must review the completed feedback forms with the student each supervisory period. The university supervisor is responsible for retaining copies of the forms. Universities may apply for approval of a feedback form containing the core documentation. The BACB reserves the right to request this documentation at any time following an individual's application to take the certification exam. In addition, the university supervisor will be required to verify the student's supervision on the Experience Verification Form that is provided within the application for examination.

Policies and Forms

Applied Behavior Analysis Practicum Search Handbook - Policies and procedures for students who are seeking an Antioch practicum. This includes information on site requirements and a draft practicum contract.

ABA Practicum Tracking Form - Used for Antioch practicum students to tack their contact hours at an Antioch practicum.

ABA Supervised Independent Fieldwork Tracking Form- Used to track hours for those students who are using their job as a supervised independent fieldwork.

Practicum Information Form - A form used by students to convey correct contact/mailing information for their practicum sites. This is completed at the beginning of the fall semester and returned to the Professional Seminar leader at the beginning of class.

BACB Fieldwork and Practicum Experience Supervision Form - BACB Form used to record supervision sessions.

BACB Faculty Qualification Form

The trademarks "Behavior Analyst Certification Board, Inc.," "BACB," "Board Certified Behavior Analyst," "BCBA," "Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst," and "BCaBA" are owned by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board. All rights reserved. Copyright © 1998-2009 by BACB® All rights reserved.