HOWARD J.
CHUDLER Jessica Genove Cruz
AND ASSOCIATES, INC
INTRODUCTION
•Viktoria Petrovicova (AKA Vik)
• Behavior Specialist for Howard J. Chudler & Associates, Inc
• Jan 2020 to present
• University of California, Riverside
• BA Psychology
• 2018
• Fluent in English, Spanish, Czech, and Slovakian
INTERVIEW
•I’ve known Vik since 2010
• Went to high school together
•Questions
• How did you get into the field?
• She was working as a research assistant at UCR when one of her professors spoke to her about
Applied Behavioral Analysis
• UCR has an ABA Master’s program
• ABA stands for Applied Behavioral Analysis and is a therapeutic method used to promote positive
behavior for people who struggle with disabilities such as ADHD and autism
• After learning more about ABA, she decided to apply various jobs and accepted a position as a
Behavioral Specialist at Howard J. & Chudler
Who would you recommend this company to?
Vik recommends it to anyone with a background in psychology who is also familiar with behaviorism
and has a heart to help those with developmental disabilities
INTERVIEW CONTINUED
• What does a typical day look like?
• Lots of driving
• Those who are interested should be willing to drive at least one hour back and forth from clients’ homes
• She typically spends one hour at a client’s home and observes their behavior
• Can have 2-5 clients in a day (depends)
• From there, she creates detailed reports that describes her impressions and plans
• Eg. How can she design goals that will limit or eliminate self-injury
• What type of challenges do you face?
• Overall, Vik described her job as easygoing.
• At times, there can be difficult (violent) clients.
• They provide training on how to de-escalate situations
• What do you love about your job?
• Provides an ability to think critically and use what she learned in college
• Opportunity to progress to the position of BCBA (Board-Certified Behavioral Analysis)
APPLIED BEHAVIORAL
ANALYSIS
•Based on the theory of behaviorism
• Basically, we can “condition” or ”train” behavior
• Somewhat controversial
• There are studies that advocate for BOTH the use and discontinuation of ABA
•Relies on positive reinforcement
• Eg. The ABC (Antecedent, behavior, and consequence model)
• What triggered the behavior?
• What was the behavior?
• What was the outcome of the behavior?
HOWARD J. CHUDLER AND
ASSOCIATES
•Established in 1983
•Based in Southern California
•Provides services such as ABA to those with developmental disabilities
• Range of settings
• Schools, homes, day programs
•They offer tuition discounts with Purdue University Global and National
University
MY TAKEAWAY
•This is a great entry level position for someone like me
• Eg. New graduate with a BA in psychology
•Vik mentioned that the following qualities I have would make me a
great fit for the company
• My empathy, my willingness to learn, and my patience
•I turned in a resume and am patiently waiting a response
