Last month, the Gateway team attended the Behavior Analysis Association of Michigan (BAAM) annual conference, held at Eastern Michigan University. The BAAM conference offers valuable opportunities for our staff to gain continuing education credits and professional growth and development by attending presentations from members of the behavior analysis community all across Michigan. The conference also allows our team to keep up with the latest research and practices in the field and opportunities to meet and network with peers, experts, and industry leaders. This year, one of our own team members was a presenter at the conference.

Lauren Bauer has been with the Gateway team since 2015, where she started as a behavior technician. She attended Eastern Michigan University to obtain her Masters of Science in Clinical Behavioral Psychology, graduating in 2018. Lauren is currently a Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) at our Bingham Farms location, as well as serving as Practicum Manager for the Bingham Farms, Flint, and Lake Orion locations and running a company-wide study group for individuals preparing for their BCBA certification exam. Lauren has presented posters at the BAAM conference in 2019 and 2020, highlighting specific clinical projects such as a procedure to increase a young child’s vocalizations and a procedure to improve toileting habits with an adolescent.

This year, Lauren presented on “Investing In Success: Employer-Sponsored BCBA Exam Preparation Strategies.” The presentation addressed the urgent need for more BCBAs to become certified, both in Michigan and nationwide. While our field continues to grow rapidly, the demand for ABA services has been outpacing staff availability. This can lead to clients being placed on waitlists, not only at Gateway, but at ABA centers all around our state. The presentation reviewed the current challenges to becoming BCBA certified, including the difficulty of the certification exam as well as study materials for the exam can be expensive and time consuming. Due to these challenges, Gateway Pediatric Therapy provides a study group for its employees which is free to attend and is offered during work hours, which provides an in-depth review of the content that is addressed on the exam in order to help staff prepare for this exam. Lauren presented information and data about this study group, encouraging those from other ABA clinics to consider similar programs for their staff. Findings from Gateway’s study group were presented, indicating that individuals who have attended the group have had higher exam pass rates than those who have not attended, with a strong positive correlation between number of study sessions attended and exam pass rates.

Overall, the BAAM conference provided invaluable insights and networking opportunities for our team, and Lauren’s presentation underscored Gateway’s commitment to supporting the professional growth of its staff and improving outcomes for our clients.