Behavioral Consultant Responsibilities
Each Behavioral Consultant must possess a Bachelor of Arts or Science Degree as specified in California Title 17 as well as either twelve semester units in applied behavior analysis and one year of experience in designing and/or implementing behavior modification intervention services; or two years of experience in designing and/or implementing behavior modification intervention services.
The Behavioral Consultant is primarily responsible for insuring the correct implementation by the therapists of the procedures prescribed by the program director for the child. They serve as the leaders of their teams. They are the first resource for parents and subordinate employees to turn to for clarification on virtually all issues of each program.
The Behavioral Consultant is primarily responsible for reviewing data and determining when new techniques or procedures may be needed, and can implement some changes in procedures independently of the clinical program director as well as bring other issues to the clinical program director’s attention for review. They can change the form a lesson will take (response form), change the individual targets that may be approached, implement different reinforcers and reinforcement strategies, and set the reinforcement strategies for entire sub-programs such as toileting. They view and offer recommendations on potential parts of the program such as preschools. They give professional advice on behavioral methods to the teachers in classrooms and administrators who work with the clients. They set reinforcement strategies for entire teams when needed. They arrange the data books so that they are easily accessible and understood by subordinate staff.
The Behavioral Consultant will assist with implementing initial functional assessments, design training materials for workshops, presenting training workshops for staff and parents, oversee therapists in program implementation, perform data analyses, functional analysis of problem behaviors and updating of client programs under the supervision of the program director.
Each Behavioral Consultant directly supervises the therapy teams for each client assigned to them. There is one consultant per team. Each team is composed of 1-5 people. Each team is a discrete unit. The consultant decides which team members will work which shifts, when and how training will happen, and will train or assign training to the staff under him or her.
The Behavioral Consultant runs weekly clinic meetings and notifies the director of any relevant incidents that should come to his or her attention. They prepare and implement agendas for team meetings on a weekly basis, using information from their own observations, input from subordinate employees, program directors, community members and parents. Training also is provided by the Behavior Consultant at these meetings.
The Behavioral Consultant is carried under the liability of Bridges.
The Behavioral Consultant supervises and may perform data collection for functional analyses of problem behaviors and implement interventions for these behaviors into student programs, train staff in their implementation, and collect data to assess the effectiveness of the intervention under the direction of the program director.
The Behavioral Consultant continually monitors the data and may modify each child’s program accordingly to move the child farther in a given procedure or to modify a procedure if needed under the direction of the clinical program director.
The Behavioral Consultant may implement new procedures and programs designed by the clinical program director to address client skill deficits and/or behavior excesses.
The Behavioral Consultant may be responsible for providing data for generating functional assessment reports, functional analyses reports, assessment and update reports, and any other reports that child’s program may require. The Behavioral Consultant will be overseen by the clinical program director. The Behavioral Consultant will use the procedures outlined by the clinical program director for reports.
Behavioral Consultants conduct regular evaluations of therapists assigned to their cases, and report on recommendations for raises, etc., to the director. They also interview and screen potential new therapists, decide whether to hire or fire a therapist for a team, when and how to train a new therapist, how much training to provide an experienced therapist coming over from a different team, set schedules for therapists, decide whether and when to discipline a subordinate and what form that disciplinary action should take, give their input on who to promote to senior staff positions, and decide who needs extra training and how that should be accomplished, including if an entire team needs extra training.
Behavioral Consultants decide what stimuli (materials) are most appropriate for each prescribed technique, what issues may be best addressed by parent training, and how the team’s daily routine will be structured, (running which sets of lesson in which order, setting up guidelines for subordinates to follow when difficulties in implementation arise, etc).
The Behavioral Consultants train parents in stimuli preparation and keep them appraised in a timely manner of any other necessary materials the client will need as his or her program progresses.
The Behavioral Consultant is encouraged to improve his or her professional skills at appropriate conferences, etc. The Behavioral Consultant must be a BCABA or have documentation of the equivalent experience and competencies of a BCABA. BCABAs are preferred.
The Behavioral Consultant will prepare his or her monthly schedule and provide it to the program director, office staff, and the relevant parts of it to parents no less than two weeks before the beginning of the month. Behavioral Consultants have full discretion and independent judgment over the course of every day, including for where and when they see their clients and how to train and supervise subordinate staff to insure consistent implementation of programs.
Page Updated June 2007