What happens when you apply behavior analysis principles to afterschool programming and parent engagement?

In this inspiring episode, Sarah sits down with Violeta, one of her current supervisees who is transforming how we think about ABA outside traditional settings.

Violeta shares her incredible journey from having no fieldwork hours to creating systematic interventions that doubled parent participation in family engagement events.

If you're a BCBA candidate wondering how to accrue supervision hours outside of autism services, or you're curious about applying behavior analysis in educational and community settings, this episode showcases the powerful impact you can make when you think creatively about where our science can be applied.

Resources Mentioned

• Communities in Schools of the Dallas Region

• ACE Afterschool Program

• Dallas Junior League Kids in the Kitchen Program

• Dallas and Terrell School Districts

• OsteCon Conference (Texas afterschool programs conference)

• Bachelor's in Biology, Master's in Psychology, Graduate Certificate in Applied Behavior Analysis

• Loteria (Mexican bingo game used in programming)

• Bulls Eye Exercise (ACT intervention)

• Facebook groups for BCBA supervision connections

Quotes from This Episode

"I honestly didn't know how I was going to be able to obtain [fieldwork hours] because I didn't have any background in the clinical field where that's the only - in my mind, that was the only way I would be able to accrue them."

"This year, we literally hit the ground running. We started day one after school program... we doubled in parent participation and even more than that in most of the campuses."

"I would say definitely don't be afraid of just seeking out opportunities and making those connections... oftentimes, we are our own selves are kind of like the ones we may limit ourselves."

"When we look at it from a behavior analytic lens, right, like, using a preferences type assessment, and then that reminder, just the simple intervention of providing different reminders and how much of an impact that had."

"Think about everything that we just talked about. Think about the impact that you were able to make with behavior analysis... your clients, a lot of the time, were your site coordinators, your team, and teaching your team how to actually implement the interventions that you came up with."

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