What drives me to make a positive difference in the lives of children with autism and other developmental difficulties

My name is Andreea Istrate. I am a Board Certified Behaviour Analyst (BCBA) with a Masters in Clinical Psychology and Mental Health Services from Goldsmiths University and a Postgraduate degree in Applied Behaviour Analysis (ABA) from the Florida Institute of Technology.

My desire to become a behaviour analyst was sparked by initially pursuing a career in clinical psychology. My profession has always involved working with children with various mental health difficulties. However, two fundamental experiences changed my path. Between my second and third year of university, I have volunteered at a small Romanian ABA clinic for children with autism. I discovered how incredible these children’s progress could be if taught using specific teaching techniques and guided by passionate people. I immediately decided I wanted to work with children like them, so after finishing my Batchelor’s at the University of Manchester, I pursued my Masters in Clinical Psychology from Goldsmiths University. However, after delving into what the UK health services can provide for these children and how limitative the spectrum of interventions is, I knew I did not want to continue down the clinical psychology path. I quickly understood that by continuing on that path, I wouldn’t be able to make the kind of positive impact on children’s life that I was seeking. I discovered that ABA was a much better tool to prepare children for an integrated life in society and support children with developmental disorders and an Autism Spectrum Disorder diagnosis.

During my Masters, I worked part-time as an ABA tutor in in-home programmes. Later on, after finishing my Masters, I worked as an ABA tutor for BeyondAutism (former Rainbow School), where I learned the basic and more advanced skills needed for becoming a behaviour analyst.

While working at Rainbow School, I had the opportunity to be trained by extraordinary professionals, who instilled in me the work ethic necessary for this job as well as the skills to listen to the needs of both child and parents. I learned how to teach a variety of communication skills, from sign language to early learners, to requesting for information to more advanced learners. I learned how to teach children skills ranging from basic identification of objects to matching, to the more advanced academics using ‘Intensive Teaching’ by making it very fun and rewarding. I also taught children with different ability levels how to take care of themselves, from dressing skills to accessing social community spaces such as restaurants and gyms.

After a year and a half at Rainbow School, I started working again in in-home programmes under the supervision of a fantastic BCBA, Mikaela Green, with over 14 years’ experience in the field. Mikaela was my supervisor during the time I collected my 1500 experience hours. By working with Mikaela, I improved my skills and knowledge of running in-home and mainstream school ABA programmes. Moreover, I learned how to design and implement behavioural interventions and behavioural reduction programmes, conduct assessments and write reports, liaise with parents and school staff, thus further refining the skills I had acquired at BeyondAutism.

From February 2017 to present, I have progressed through three roles and associated responsibilities:

- Started as a lead tutor, in charge of keeping the programme running, by updating the targets and creating fun learning activities

- Progressed to being a supervisor, in charge of training tutors on the programmes, updating and adding new targets and keeping the consultant informed at all times on the child’s progress

- To currently being a consultant, in charge of developing and implementing individualised behavioural interventions based on an initial assessment, training both tutors and parents in implementing the intervention, designing data collection systems to monitor the child’s progress, reviewing the progress and data regularly and updating the child’s programme

Working with children with autism and other developmental difficulties is my dream career.

My drive as a BCBA is to help children achieve their best potential by applying ABA in all aspects of their lives.

If you’d like to collaborate, please email me at andreeaistratebcba@gmail.com.