A brief work history….
After completing my degree in Social Science and Psychology I spent 3 years in Japan where I taught English to adults and to children from the age of 6 months up to senior school age. I thoroughly enjoyed this experience, I particularly liked working with children, and all the character, energy and unpredictability that this brings with it! I also enjoyed the freedom and creativity of being able to design and adapt my own lessons in order to maximise the children’s learning experience and keep the lessons fun.
On returning to the U.K I took up a position as a tutor at The Rainbow School (now Beyond Autism), an ABA school for children with ASD. During my time here, I worked with primary and secondary aged children with a range of needs. The lessons were varied and included national curriculum subjects alongside language, play and social skills development. It was whilst working with the children here that I discovered that ABA could make a real difference, I felt that it offered pupils the chance to develop the skills that they needed to communicate effectively; to function as independently as possible and, importantly, to do this in a positive learning environment. Having worked with some of the children here for many years I was able to build up a good rapport with them which made my experience at the school all the more meaningful.
Whilst at The Rainbow School I gained my BCABA qualification and progressed to senior supervisor level. I then went on to study for a master’s degree in ABA and obtained my BCBA qualification in 2012.
As senior supervisor I took on ultimate responsibility for the children’s programmes; this included carrying out assessments; producing progress reports; writing Individual Education Plans, designing behavioural interventions and managing and delivering training and performance assessment to tutors.
Following this experience, I later decided to move on from a school environment and work directly with families as an independent ABA consultant. I have been doing this on a part-time basis since 2014.