BCBA. It always surprises me that there are so many varied emotions associated with these 4 letters. For those of us who get to write them after our name, that emotion is pride in being affiliated with a field that matters greatly to us. For others there is sometime defensiveness or denial. I hear so often "I am not a BCBA but I know all of the things to be one" or "I have been doing this for 20 years, I just don't have the letters." Parents with children on the autism spectrum often ask about the letters. But there is a lot of confusion there as well.

Why do these letters matter so much? What makes them so important? Why should parents care if their provider is a BCBA?

Let's start with the basics. BCBA stands for Board Certified Behavior Analyst. The Behavior Analyst Certification Board, (BACB), is the governing board that grants the BCBA designation. It describes BCBA's as "independent practitioners who also may work as employees or independent contractors for an organization. The BCBA conducts descriptive and systematic behavioral assessments, including functional analyses, and provides behavior analytic interpretations of the results." (BACB, 2014). So what does this mean? And as parents why should you care?