Therapists and Training

Facts about therapist characteristics, qualifications, training and responsibilities at ACT:

Characteristics

1. Recruited primarily from local universities such as Pepperdine, UCLA, UCSB, CLU, Moorpark, and CSUN
2. 94% percent are current college students or college graduates
3. 67% have completed bachelors degrees
4. 45% are graduate students or hold graduate degrees in psychology, education, marriage and family counseling, speech pathology, or occupational therapy
5. 22% are male

Qualifications

1. Therapists are required to be 18 years or older
2. Previous experience working with children is required
3. Courses in psychology, child development, education and/or behavior analysis are required
4. Experience with autism and ABA is preferred
5. References are required and checked
6. Fingerprinting and TB testing are required
7. Applicants have personal interviews with Dr. Anderson before being invited to training

Training

1. 15 hours of classroom-based instruction are provided on:
1. Autism and Related Disorders
2. Applied Behavior Analysis and Learning Theory
3. Discrete Trial Training
4. Pivotal Response Training
5. PECS
6. Sign Language
7. TEACCH
8. Social Skills
9. Ethics/Policies
2. Therapists must pass a written, free recall examination achieving 85% accuracy
3. Therapists must log 30 – 50 hours of observation and hands-on experience under the supervision of a Supervisor or Lead Therapist (depending on experience)
4. Therapists must pass fidelity of implementation evaluations for DTT and PRT at 80% accuracy
5. Therapists receive on-going training and supervision during mandatory bi-weekly team meetings
6. Unlimited access to Supervisors is provided
7. Optional and mandatory group continuing education seminars are provided
8. Therapists are not officially hired until they complete training and their performance is evaluated

Responsibilities

Therapists are responsible for 1) direct treatment implementation, 2) accurate and systematic data taking, 3) sharing information with parents on daily progress and effective strategies, 4) modeling treatment strategies for parents and other care providers, 5) communicating with supervisors about the program, 6) generalizing new skills to community settings, and 7) facilitating play with siblings and peers.