Christian Tsetsos works as an insurance authorization coordinator for the head office of LEARN’s Behavioral Concepts (BCI) in Worcester, Massachusetts, while serving, on the side, as a neurodiversity advocate and Asperger’s/autism speaker.

In the autism field, the services market has evolved and expanded, leading to significant variety among ABA providers. Consequently, the term “ABA” has become associated with a broad spectrum of services, some of which do not meet the standards and definitions of true applied behavior analysis.

In a recent interview, Becky talked about her journey with autism, the pitfalls and triumphs along the way, and the lessons learned as both a parent and practitioner in the field. In honor of Mother’s Day, she gives advice to other moms—and all parents and caregivers of kids with autism—about the challenges and rewards.

As parents and caregivers, we’re hard-wired to respond to our children’s cries with efforts to comfort and soothe. Nothing is more frustrating, however, than when our efforts fall short—and our child spirals into a meltdown. What can help? In a few words: a calm-down kit.

Our new series, “Spotlight on Black Professionals in ABA,” continues with an interview with Maia Jackson, the clinical development manager of LEARN Behavioral’s Autism Spectrum Therapies (AST) office in Oakland, California, in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Years ago, in an undergraduate social psychology class, I recall my professor focusing an entire lecture on how the industrial revolution affected our relationship with nature. Specifically, the professor talked about the migration to cities and the increasing amount of time children spent inside, whether working or at school.

Last fall, when Xavier DeGroat received an opportunity to work at the White House as an intern in the Office of Presidential Correspondence, he packed his bags at his home in Lansing, Michigan, and relocated for three months to the thriving metropolis and national capitol of Washington, D.C

When Evie Mutsch, at age two-and-a-half, started applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy at the Wisconsin Early Autism Project (WEAP), she spoke no words and tended to express herself in tantrums, her mom, Kelly, says.

Eye contact. “Quiet” hands. These were goals for autistic children everywhere in ABA programs in the 1990s. As a generation of autistic children have come of age and grown into autistic adults, we’ve heard their criticisms, a few of them being: eye contact is painful; stimming is soothing; I shouldn’t need to change myself for your comfort.

As you know, April has been Autism Awareness Month for several decades now. This year, after careful consideration, we are shifting our focus for the month from Autism Awareness to Autism Acceptance. Why Acceptance, instead of Awareness?

This week, in honor of Women’s History Month, we asked three female leaders at LEARN what it’s like to work in a STEM field—and how they use science, math, and data analysis in their positions. The women include Chief Clinical Officer Hanna Rue and Senior Vice President Sabrina Daneshvar, in addition to consultant and Women in Behavior Analysis (WIBA) Conference Director Devon Sundberg.

Preparing a child who has autism spectrum disorder (ASD) for any routine change can be a significant challenge. In fact, insistence on sameness, inflexible adherence to routines, or ritualized patterns of verbal or nonverbal behavior are common traits and characteristics for children on the spectrum.