Stephanie M. Peterson, Ph.D., is a professor of psychology and associate dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at Western Michigan University. She previously served as chair of the Department of Psychology for eight years. She also serves as the executive director of the Western Michigan University Kalamazoo Autism Center. She earned her doctorate in special education at the University of Iowa in 1994. 

Understanding the role of the behavior technician is critically important to the quality of operations in an autism center. Notably, because behavior technicians are the individuals who most frequently interact with clients and perform those critical job tasks expected to result in desired client outcomes. Their work is critical to the success of the client and, therefore, critical to the success of the organization. As a clinical supervisor, a clear understanding of the technician’s role in ABA therapy is a vital step in determining exactly what the technician should do, what you should observe, and precisely how and when feedback by the supervisor should be delivered to optimize outcomes. This presentation will discuss and illustrate the process of applying performance improvement logic, as described in Carl Binder’s Performance Thinking (R) Network, to define and support the role of the behavior technician in a university-based autism center. Couched within the context of a framework for quality service practices based on the seven dimensions of ABA, the speaker will describe a process for identifying, defining, and characterizing the role of the behavior technician and how this process was used to refine and enhance training and supervision systems that maintain focus on quality of services to the children and families they serve.