The need for qualified professionals across the world to treat autism is growing steadily. The BACB has always faced numerous challenges to maintain their rigorous standards for professionals across nations, and they have decided it stretches their resources too thin to maintain international certifications. This comes at a time when international awareness has grown substantially and the need for autism services is steadily growing, but many challenges remain for achieving consistency internationally whether it be in ABA or any other form of treatment for autism.

While there are BACB certificants living in 94 countries besides the U.S. and Canada, only three of these countries have more than 100 BCBAs residing there. These include the United Kingdom with 364 certificants, Italy with 185, and Ireland with 156. Of the 94 countries, 67 have less than 10 BCBAs residing there.

1) Global Requirements are no Longer Viable for BACB

Most other major industries and professions, such as psychology, medicine, and accounting, have country-specific requirements as the norm rather than global requirements. After extensive research and consultation with experts in certification and testing over multiple years, the BACB has concluded that upholding global requirements is no longer a feasible practice.

2) Language Barriers a Big Impediment to Maintaining International Certification

A major component that the BACB has had to consider is the issue regarding language barriers.

Since international certification involves much more than solely the initial assessment, language and translation is something that plays an important role in getting the correct information to all applicants and certificants. If everyone does not have access to the same information, this creates an unfair learning environment.

3) International Cooperation and Standards Take Significant Effort

Another challenge is due to the volatile nature of international trade restrictions that impact many different countries. These restrictions demand constant supervision and can lead to the disruption of potential and current certificants who reside in the impacted countries.

4) Meeting Accreditation Standards

While evaluating the feasibility of maintaining international certification, the BACB had to consider accreditation standards. The BACB accredits the BCBA, BCaBA, and RBT certification programs by the National Commission for Certifying Agencies (NCCA). The BACB accreditation requires that the BACB operates consistently with testing, certification, and legal standards that are widely in the U.S. and Canada. According to the BACB, “an overarching accreditation standard is that certification requirements be consistent, regardless of location”. The challenge is that these standards block the BACB from making changes to the certification program on a county-specific basis.

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What Now? Other Opportunities Outside BCBA certification

While BCBAs can work in many environments, if you are considering becoming a BCBA, it is important to understand that the majority of BCBAs are highly focused on working with individuals who have been diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). In fact, the Association for Behavior Analysis International (ABAI) sponsors an annual conference that is solely focused on autism. The majority of presenters at the convention speak on the same topic.

With international certification no longer available for BCBAs and their current profession is already highly dedicated to autism, this leaves many countries in a hard spot when it comes to finding qualified practitioners to work with people on the autism spectrum.

Autism Certification can Help Practitioners Better Serve Autistic Individuals

One of the biggest challenges with autism is the way that autistic people tend to respond differently to many therapy techniques such as positive reinforcement. Getting a specialized credential in autism can help therapists, healthcare providers,  and educators of all types to be able to better understand people on the autism spectrum, leading to better outcomes.

While these autism credentials are typically meant for therapists and those in a professional setting, in many countries where services are more limited it may also make sense for parents to go through certification to learn to better help their child.

Board Certified Behavior Analysts go through extensive coursework and training to become proficient in treating people with autism through ABA therapy, while the different tracks to become a Certified Autism Specialist™ credential allow therapists, healthcare providers, or teachers to add autism to their areas of expertise.

This circumvents a number of the challenges associated with international accreditation by allowing people who become therapists, healthcare professionals or educators in their own countries to go through local training and incorporate local norms while also gaining a much needed specialized understanding in autism.

As a professional credential, the Certified Autism Specialist (14 credit hours) or the Advanced Certified Autism Specialist (21 credit hours, includes ABA related training as well) are able to help these workers get recognized for extra expertise in the area of autism.

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