Transcribed Interview
C: Hi how are you today?
A: Im great and you?
C: I am great! So as you know already today I’m just going to ask you a couple of questions regarding your use of the behavioral strategy ABA. And if you ever want to stop because you feel uncomfortable just let me know, okay?
A: Sounds good to me.
C: So, to start whats your name?
A: My name is......
C: How old are you?
A: Ugh...I am 25 years old (laughs)
C:(I laugh) Okay now what type of degree do you have?
A: I have a masters of science in speech language pathology. It was definetely not an easy ride but it is all worth it in the end.
C: Well thats great that you got through it. So, where did you attend school?
A: I first went to Richard Stockton college and was part of the undergrad program known as NJ B.S. Speech-Language Pathology and Audiology. Then I went to LaSalle University where I received my Masters in Speech-Language Pathology.
C: Wow that was a lot of schooling, how many years did that take for you to complete?
A: Eh it seems like it was but it only took me five years. A lot of hard work.
C: Can you tell me why you wanted to become a Speech Pathologist?
A: I always wanted to be a teacher but I realized fast that I did not want to be in a classroom setting. So then someone told me about speech pathology. After observing one session I realized that was what I wanted to do.
C: Thats great you realized that was something you really wanted to do.
A: Yes, I absolutely loved it.
C: Well after you went through all that schooling, what is your current employment?
A: Right now I work in a school district at an elementary school and at a private speech therapy practice
C: And what are the names of these schools you work at?
A: The Elementary school in the district I work at is called the Cecil S. Collins Elementary School and the Middle school is called Barnegat Middle School.
C: Okay thats great. How many students do you teach throughout the day?
A: Every day I see 9 groups for 30 minutes each. The groups have about um 1 to 4 children in them, so it varies. It all depends on the severity, needs, and IEP requirement of the child.
C: And what ages are these students
A: They are aged from preschool to eighth grade.
C: Wow thats a wide range
A: Yes it is, but i love it. I get to be involved with all ages, not just one.
C: Now, what types of disabilities do some of your students have?
A: I see a wide range of disabilities. Each child is unique even if they have the same disability as another student. Some of the disabilities are Autism, ADHD, ADD, OCD, Specific learning disability, Downs Syndrome, Fragile X, Rhetts Syndrome, Barnes Syndrome, Dyslexia, Epilepsy with Global Delays, Expressive Language Delay, Pragmatic Language Delays, and Articulation Delay. Ha wow what a mouthful.
C: Haha yes it was. I don’t know how you keep track
A: Haha me either
C:Well, now I am curious as to what an average day for you consists of?
A: Well its a very busy day. Our school day begins at 8:40. I take my first group at 9:00 and every half hour after that until 11:30. I get my lunch/prep until 1:00 and then take groups every half hour until 3:00. The majority of my caseload is preschool aged students who are in the Preschool Disabled Program and MD students in grades 1-3. The first half of my mornings are typically taken up by groups of 1-3 preschool students. The second half of my morning is typically regular ed language/articulation groups. My afternoons consist of preschool groups from 1-2 and regular ed articulation/ classroom push-in groups from 2-3. On Fridays each week I travel to the Middle School to provide therapy services to both MD and regular-ed students there. There are also days where my schedule is interrupted by IEP meetings, annual review meetings, or evaluations which must be conducted. In these cases the sessions which are missed then have to be made up at a later time.
C: Now that you have explained a little bit about what you do and how your day looks, could you tell me about a behavioral strategy you use in the classroom for the students with disabilities?
A: No problem. Because of the different disabilities, reinforcers are HUGE. Many students know what they are working for when they star a task. I display this reinforcer in a picture schedule for the child to see as they are completing the required classwork. Its also known as Applied Behavioral Analysis.
C: Where did you learn about Applied Behavioral Analysis?
A: I learned about ABA therapy while in school but never actually got to use it until I started my teaching at Barnegat. I also did a lot of my own research on ABA and I watched how other special ed teachers and therapists applied ABA strategies with the students.
C: So what would you say your definition of ABA is?
A: Well lets see...(seems to be thinking) I feel ABA is like a training program of behaviors. Behaviors can be from mild to severe. ABA can also be used for regular ed. students who dont have much motivation. In my opinion it is a work-reward work-consequence system.
C: Nice, you seem really informed.
A: I mean I do it every day.
C: Can you tell me why you choose to use this strategy in the classroom?
A: I mean first of all I have seen the success in it. It doesn’t always work but I have found it to be the most successful approach.
C: Why hasn’t it been successful?
A: Well disabled children at times don’t have a lot of motivation so they have no desire to work for any kind of reward or consequence. So um when this happens using ABA is difficult.
C: Tell me of a story when a student benefited from ABA
- Hmm okay let me think of one. There is so many. Ok... I have a middle school student who suffers from epilepsy with global delays and she is completely non-verbal and has the cognitive abilities of a kindergarten student. Last December she was given an Ipad with the communication system GO TALK NOW downloaded on to it. This”app” became her voice. I trained her on this device using ABA therapy techniques. This training started by placing 4 pictures on her device- headphones for music, fruit snacks to eat, a no symbol for all done, and a pencil to symbolize work. At snack time her iPad was placed next to her with the task of requesting each fruit snack. If the snack was requested properly she was given a fruit snack, if not then she wouldn’t get it. I needed her to understand that by choosing the correct symbol she would get what she wanted. This training went on for months but it was eventually successful.
C: Thats amazing. How did this accomplishment make you feel
A: Oh simply amazing. My student had been given a voice and it was all because of ABA therapy. Its a great feeling for sure.
C: Im sure it is. But has there ever been a time that ABA hasn’t worked for your students?
A: Um of coarse..Students who lack motivation will sometimes not benefit from the ABA strategy.
C: So what do you do when this happens?
A: Well I would just use a different strategy then. Each student is very different and unique in how they learn and how they react to things. It is my responsibility as professionals to be ready and aware of this so we can implement a “Plan B” at any moment.
C: Do you think the positive effects of ABA outweigh the negatives?
A: I definitely think the positive effects outweigh the negatives of ABA. When ABA is successful you open so many doors for A student. If you can train their minds to complete tasks which were previously not even a consideration that is successful in my eyes. There are going to be times where ABA fails you and the student but you can work around those times and implement other strategies to make the failures into success. (She got very excited during this question)
C: You seem to feel very strongly about the use of ABA.
A: Yes, I love it I really do. Its helped so many of my students.
C: Do you think you will continue to use ABA throughout your career?
A: I will 100% continue with ABA therapy throughout my career. Its proven system which I have been able to implement and use with little failure so far haha (fingers crossed). I think it is very important to have a good knowledge of this therapy whether you use it or not.
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