Knowing What You Don’t Know: A Student Guide to Competence in ABA

Written by: Remy Asta, Sarah Avery, and Grace Mielke  

Edited by: Dr. Odessa Luna

It doesn’t take long to spot a coworker or supervisor who is out of their depth within clinical practice. These clinicians are usually the ones who confidently dive headfirst into a complex behavior intervention plan or try an advanced procedure they read about in the literature, completely unaware of the potential risks they are creating. Being truly skilled in the field of behavior analysis as a student isn’t only about avoiding obvious mistakes; it’s about self-awareness of the topics or procedures one has yet to learn. If students want to avoid becoming the colleague they worry about, they must master arguably the hardest skill as a student: knowing what they don’t know in behavior analysis. 

Competence

So, what do we call knowing what we do know? The Behavior Analyst Certification Board ([BACB], 2020) refers to this as competence. Competence describes a person’s ability to provide consistent and proficient  services across their career. Competence varies across the field of applied behavior analysis.  Even students who attend and graduate from the same master’s program will have different ranges of competence. We will use Brodhead et al. (2018) to help frame our discussion of competence and what this looks like for a student in the field.

What Brodhead et al. (2018) Want Future Behavior Analysts to Know

The main message of Brodhead et al. (2018) is simple: being an ethical behavior analyst isn’t about knowing everything. A BCBA must know their limits and take steps to address them. Brodhead et al. discuss the difference between scope of practice (what behavior analysts are allowed to do) and scope of competence (what an individual behavior analyst is qualified to do based on their training and experience). They argue that competence should be viewed as our skill set we continuously develop throughout our careers, not something we automatically gain through coursework or certification. To help practitioners make ethical decisions about their skills and readiness, the authors introduce the Competence and Confidence Checklist (CCC), a tool designed to guide self-reflection and professional growth.

Risk of Practicing Outside Your Competence

As ABA students, we’re constantly learning new procedures, assessments, and intervention strategies. It is exciting to gain new opportunities and responsibilities, but excitement can sometimes make it easy to overestimate our readiness to implement with clients. Think about your practicum or fieldwork experience. Maybe, like us, you’ve worked primarily with young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. A supervisor presents an opportunity to help with a teenager who engages in severe aggression. Or maybe you’ve learned and read several papers about feeding interventions in class. However, you have never actually seen a feeding procedure implemented. It can be tempting to say yes because we want to gain experience and prove ourselves. When we practice outside our competence, it can lead to ineffective treatment, poor client outcomes, and ethical concerns. Most importantly, it can put clients at risk.

One of the things we appreciate most about Brodhead and colleagues’ work is that it normalizes not knowing everything. In graduate school, it feels like we should always have the answer. In reality, ethical practice often looks like saying, “We’ve learned about this, but we need more support before doing it independently.” Recognizing those limits isn’t a weakness.  It’s what protects our clients and helps us grow into competent professionals. Luckily, there are helpful tools to develop awareness of our competence as students.

Competence and Confidence Checklist: A Practical Guide for Students

To help behavior analysts navigate these situations, Brodhead et al. (2018) developed the Competence and Confidence Checklist (CCC). The checklist acts like a pause button before taking on a new case, procedure, or responsibility. Rather than asking, “Can I do this?” it encourages us to ask, “Am I truly prepared to do this well?”

Note. From “A call for discussion about scope of competence in behavior analysis,” by Brodhead, M. T., Quigley, S. P., & Wilczynski, S. M, 2018, Behavior Analysis in Practice, 11(4), p. 424-435 (https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-018-00303-8). Copyright statement.

What makes the CCC especially useful for students is that it asks us to think about both competence and confidence. Competence refers to our knowledge, training, and hands-on experience. Confidence is different. It isn’t about whether you’re shy or outgoing. Instead, it focuses on whether you have the resources, know the literature, and have the experience needed to perform effectively. For example, I might feel competent explaining how a functional analysis works because I’ve read, studied, and discussed it in class. But if I’ve never participated in conducting one, my confidence in conducting one independently should probably be much lower.

What we like most about the CCC is that it doesn’t tell us to avoid opportunities that push us outside our comfort zone. Instead, it helps us identify what support we need to be successful. Maybe that means observing a procedure first, seeking additional supervision, reviewing the literature, or collaborating with someone who has more experience. This approach aligns closely with the BACB Ethics Code’s emphasis on maintaining competence through ongoing learning and professional development.

Competence isn’t a finish line. Remember, it’s something we keep building, case by case, throughout our careers. The colleague we described at the beginning of this post, the one who dives in without stopping to ask whether they should, isn’t a cautionary tale about bad intentions. They’re a cautionary tale about skipping the necessary pause. The CCC gives us a structure for that pause. A structured way to check in with ourselves honestly before we say yes.

We’re still learning to do that, and we imagine you are too. Have you ever been in a moment where you realized mid-situation that you were in over your head? What did you do? Share your experience in the comments below! 

References 

Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2020). Ethics code for behavior analysts. 

Brodhead, M. T., Quigley, S. P., & Wilczynski, S. M. (2018). A Call for Discussion About Scope of Competence in Behavior Analysis. Behavior analysis in practice, 11(4), 424–435. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-018-00303-8

AI Statements

Remy, Grace, and Sarah used Gemini to generate initial ideas for the hook and for some examples and wording throughout the blog; they expanded and revised them to be more relevant to the materials and to flow better with their personal experiences.

Dr. Luna used Claude (Anthropic) to support the editorial review process for this post. Specifically, Claude provided line-level grammar and clarity edits delivered as tracked changes, identified structural and citation issues for professor review. All editorial decisions, including which suggestions to accept or reject, were made by Dr. Luna.