What SLPs and BCBAs can learn from one another: From a Dually Certified Professional
Kimberly’s Story
We interviewed Kimberly Hull, MS, CCC/SLP, BCBA and Owner at Achieve Ability Therapy Services for National Speech Therapist Day. Kimberly is one of the rare dually certified Speech Language Pathologist and BCBAs.
Kimberly Hull started her career as an SLP working in New York State Early Intervention Program (ages 0-5) in the late 90s. The program was a comprehensive multidisciplinary program with children receiving Special Education, Occupational, Physical and Speech Therapy services. She was given several children on the autism spectrum on her caseload. She began to feel discouraged when these children didn’t respond to her attempts to teach them. She had difficulty maintaining their attention, getting them to sit with her or even look at her.
One day, when arriving at the therapy center, she happened to catch the tail end of a Special Education session with a child that she was struggling with for weeks. This teacher had him sitting with her, giving eye contact, imitating and following simple directions.
“I thought she was magical! I asked her, “What are you doing? Teach me to do it!”
After that day, this teacher became one of her mentors and taught her how to set up therapy sessions in a way that prepared the child to learn. This was based on the science of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Her mentor, Lisa Macaluso received her Masters Degree in Special Education with a minor in Applied Behavior Analysis from Columbia Teachers College under Professor Douglas Greer.
A Transdisciplinary Approach to Autism Treatment
Right away she saw how her training and application of Behavior Analysis helped her serve her clients as an SLP. She saw how the complimentary science of behavior and learning helped her prepare her learners to engage and learn from speech sessions. Kimberly went on to expand her experience working with individuals of all ages and populations across her almost 30 year career.
She eventually created an autism center, Achieve Ability Therapy Services in Florida and brought all that she learned and loved about her experience in New York. Her program now serves over 70 children and teens with disabilities. She set up her center with a transdisciplinary approach which includes Special Education, Speech Therapy, ABA and Social Skills Training. The unique thing about a transdisciplinary approach vs a multidisciplinary approach is that all the different team members are educated across disciplines. For example, their Special Education teachers and SLPs all go through the Registered Behavior Technician (ABA entry level training) training so that all team members can follow the student’s Behavior Intervention Plan.
The transdisciplinary model is truly integrated. All staff create goals together, attend team meetings together, giving each other feedback, RBTs and BCBAs overlap sessions SLPs and vice versa.
What can Behavior Analysts do to be better collaborators with SLPs
Kimberly shared three things Behavior Analysts can do to increase collaboration with SLPs.
Understand and Recognize the contributions and expertise of a SLP. Behavior analysts do a lot of language training but remember, Behavior Analysts don’t usually have formal training and instruction in speech and language development or even child development. SLPs are the experts in the development of Speech and Language and how the mouth and tongue structures move and work together to allow people to talk and communicate. Respect and use that expertise.
Collaborate on Language Goals. (Don’t act like you are the language specialist). Teaching language in a speech therapy session is different than in an ABA session. Our job as Behavior Analysts is to arrange the environment to make language learning meaningful and functional. Recognize that you share a role with the SLP in targeting language goals. It’s a collaborative process. Ask for input. Ask if the words, phrases and concepts that you are targeting are developmentally appropriate for your learner.
Provide Help with Problem Behaviors. Problem behaviors are barriers to learning for SLPs and most would appreciate and are open to help from Behavior Analysts in setting up the environment for success. If you use a token board, show them how it works. If you have a Behavior Momentum strategy that works well for teaching, demonstrate it for them. They will really appreciate it!
To wrap it up, Kimberly expressed that facilitating, collaborating and educating across disciplines, whether it be Speech Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Applied Behavior Analysis, will always benefit the client and make our treatment stronger.
Tatum has over a decade of clinical experience as a behavior analyst. She was formerly the director of a treatment center, and was in charge of implementing clinical solutions using a variety of our competitors’ software systems. She joined Motivity as a support consultant last year, and has quickly taken the lead in managing our support and services activities. She is the go-to person for challenging customer issues, and has earned the gratitude and affection of our clients and our support engineers alike, with her skillful approach to problem solving and her steadfast commitment to customer satisfaction.
Tatum Winslow, BCBA
Director of Clinical Support
Tatum has over a decade of clinical experience as a behavior analyst. She was formerly the director of a treatment center, and was in charge of implementing clinical solutions using a variety of our competitors’ software systems. She joined Motivity as a support consultant last year, and has quickly taken the lead in managing our support and services activities. She is the go-to person for challenging customer issues, and has earned the gratitude and affection of our clients and our support engineers alike, with her skillful approach to problem solving and her steadfast commitment to customer satisfaction.
Cara Lechleiter
Director of Sales
Cara is passionate about caregiving and education, and has dedicated her career to various roles within those industries. Her experience includes teaching, behavior analysis, supervising teacher candidates, developing curriculum, founding a music/choral program for learners with special needs, marketing, sales, and client relations. As a lifelong learner, she is dedicated to continuously gaining new skills and experiences.
Cara Lechleiter
Director of Sales
Cara is passionate about caregiving and education, and has dedicated her career to various roles within those industries. Her experience includes teaching, behavior analysis, supervising teacher candidates, developing curriculum, founding a music/choral program for learners with special needs, marketing, sales, and client relations. As a lifelong learner, she is dedicated to continuously gaining new skills and experiences.
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Brian Curley
Director of Product Marketing
Brian is an ABA industry expert with an extensive background working for and building some of the original software in the ABA market. His lengthy entrepreneurial background, paired with both a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree in graphic design, Brian’s strengths come from having a deep understanding of user experience, user workflows, branding, and software and product design.
Brian Curley
Director of Product Marketing
Brian is an ABA industry expert with an extensive background working for and building some of the original software in the ABA market. His lengthy entrepreneurial background, paired with both a Bachelors degree and a Masters degree in graphic design, Brian’s strengths come from having a deep understanding of user experience, user workflows, branding, and software and product design.
Rex Jakobovits PhD
President
Dr. Jakobovits is an experienced business leader who has a long career in clinical software. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Sciences from the University of Washington, then built a successful start up, Vivialog Technologies, which he sold to McKesson in 2008. He served as a Vice President at McKesson for 5 years before leaving to launch Motivity Systems. He is widely published in computer science and informatics journals, and has been awarded several patents. He has raised over $13M in seed capital for his startups through NIH Small Business Innovative Research grants. He is a Research Affiliate with the University of Washington Autism Center.
Rex Jakobovits PhD
President
Dr. Jakobovits is an experienced business leader who has a long career in clinical software. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Sciences from the University of Washington, then built a successful start up, Vivialog Technologies, which he sold to McKesson in 2008. He served as a Vice President at McKesson for 5 years before leaving to launch Motivity Systems. He is widely published in computer science and informatics journals, and has been awarded several patents. He has raised over $13M in seed capital for his startups through NIH Small Business Innovative Research grants. He is a Research Affiliate with the University of Washington Autism Center.
Emaley McCulloch M.Ed. BCBA
VP of Clinical Products
Emaley McCulloch co-founded Autism Training Solutions (ATS), an online learning company, in 2010 which has trained hundreds of thousands of professionals and parents around the globe in evidence-based autism interventions. ATS was acquired by Relias in 2014 and after serving as the VP of Research for 5 years, is currently the Vice President of Clinical Products at Motivity Systems. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and holds an MA in Special Education. She has over 20 years’ experience in the field of autism and ABA and has provided and overseen services to hundreds of individuals between the ages of 18 months to 24 years in homes, schools and clinical settings. For eight years she served as a consultant and Clinical Supervisor at agencies based in Hawaii and Japan where she trained groups of professionals and parents.
Emaley McCulloch M.Ed. BCBA
VP of Clinical Products
Emaley McCulloch co-founded Autism Training Solutions (ATS), an online learning company, in 2010 which has trained hundreds of thousands of professionals and parents around the globe in evidence-based autism interventions. ATS was acquired by Relias in 2014 and after serving as the VP of Research for 5 years, is currently the Vice President of Clinical Products at Motivity Systems. She is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst and holds an MA in Special Education. She has over 20 years’ experience in the field of autism and ABA and has provided and overseen services to hundreds of individuals between the ages of 18 months to 24 years in homes, schools and clinical settings. For eight years she served as a consultant and Clinical Supervisor at agencies based in Hawaii and Japan where she trained groups of professionals and parents.
Catalin Bocirnea
Chief Technology Officer
As Motivity’s CTO and Chief Software Architect, Catalin is the core designer and implementer of Motivity’s architecture and user experience. His industry experience spans more than 20 years, across a multitude of domains. He has 10 patents on diverse applications such as data encoding, user interaction, and latency compensation. Prior to joining Motivity, Catalin was a chief architect of McKesson Corporation’s market-leading, large scale radiology systems. His extensive expertise and diverse background have allowed him to take a unique approach to designing Motivity’s cutting-edge knowledge modeling capabilities.
Catalin Bocirnea
Chief Technology Officer
As Motivity’s CTO and Chief Software Architect, Catalin is the core designer and implementer of Motivity’s architecture and user experience. His industry experience spans more than 20 years, across a multitude of domains. He has 10 patents on diverse applications such as data encoding, user interaction, and latency compensation. Prior to joining Motivity, Catalin was a chief architect of McKesson Corporation’s market-leading, large scale radiology systems. His extensive expertise and diverse background have allowed him to take a unique approach to designing Motivity’s cutting-edge knowledge modeling capabilities.