Ken Huey 0:00

Welcome to The Voice of Hope, where bold leaders and healers share how they're building hope, not just talking about it. I'm Dr. Ken Huey. Let's meet the changemakers transforming lives from the therapy room to the boardroom. Hello, and welcome to The Voice of Hope. Today's guest is Michelle Anderton. She's a board certified behavior analyst and CEO of Compassionate ABA Consulting. She's dedicated to helping children build independence, confidence, and healthy communication through compassionate, evidence-based care. She also serves as an adjunct professor, mentoring the next generation of behavior analysts. Michelle, thanks so much for being with us.

Michelle Anderton 0:39

Thank you for having me.

Ken Huey 0:41

Yeah. You talk a lot about children finding their voice. What first inspired that passion and how has it shaped your approach to care?

Michelle Anderton 0:49

So I did volunteer work when I was in high school with students that were in separate classrooms. And I remember that a lot of teachers that weren't working with them outside of those rooms, there was a common theme where you were hearing, well, they're not on the diploma track, so why do they have to learn math? Or comments like, if they're not able to learn toilet training, why would we teach other skills? And that really stuck with me because they weren't necessarily given the opportunity to learn how to advocate for themselves. And they weren't really given the tools to find out what they were able to do. So my view is on my work is that it's a privilege to be able to provide the keys to as many doors as possible for the learners. So they have these options. So not necessarily putting them in this box and saying this is what's possible. This just showed me that they need the opportunities in order to find out what they're made of.

Ken Huey 1:42

All right. In your experience, what role does hope play in helping families navigate an autism diagnosis?

Michelle Anderton 1:50

So something that really drew me to ABA was that it's very data-driven. I'm a very data-driven decision maker in my everyday life. And there's so much data to support that families should have hope when they get that autism diagnosis. There are so many strengths that should be emphasized when you hear the word autism. They are endless, but some of my favorite things are the ability to specialize in specific areas, the ability to pattern recognize, attention to detail, tenacity for things that are really important to them. These strengths are what makes leaders. It's what makes visionaries, it's what makes inventors. And hope has also really shown to create a better outlook. It drives problem solving, it really builds momentum, which the learner needs in order to blossom. So everyone around them has to have that view on it in order to find those missing pieces.

Ken Huey 2:46

All right. So ABA, applied behavior analysis. What's what are the misconceptions? Parents or anybody else coming in, they're like, ABA, they either don't know or they have preconceived ideas. How do you address those? What are they?

Michelle Anderton 3:00

So there's a whole bunch, but the main ones I see, first one is I hear a lot that ABA is compliance training. Quality ABA focuses on helping the child develop meaningful skills. It's not about having them do skills that everyone else around them wants them to do. We're trying to improve their independence and their quality of life and the family's quality of life, not necessarily what society has defined. The goal is to understand why the behavior is happening, teach those skills to the individual, help them communicate what they need in life, and that's really what's gonna help them be members of society and have them motivated to want to do that. Another misconception that I like to point out is that it's a universal program. That's not true. Every child with autism has its unique features, characteristics, strengths, and you have to approach it in that way when doing ABA therapy. So no treatment plan should look the same for any child. There shouldn't be a designated number of hours a student needs. It's completely individualized and not a universal program.

Ken Huey 4:09

All right, fair enough. What do we do to create an environment at home where children feel safe, where they can grow, make mistakes, and advocate for themselves?

Michelle Anderton 4:19

So my big thing is you have to be intentional with what you do and what you're reinforcing and modeling within the home. So reinforcement really means how are we responding to what the learner is doing? And a big thing about growth and making mistakes is we have to reinforce when a student admits that they've made a mistake or that they need help or that they're reaching out for that because that's gonna make them feel safe and comfortable to do it again. So it gives a positive outcome for them when we respond with this reinforcement procedure. And again, being intentional about it. So making sure that every time it's happening, we're saying to the learner, hey, I love that you tried that, I'll help you through it now, or I love that you came to get me when you still needed help instead of giving up, for example. And the learner needs to know that you're going to set reasonable goals for them. So you're not asking them to achieve something that isn't gonna happen fast because that's gonna make them feel like they need to just give up and why bother because the expectations are too much for them. And really meeting them where they're at is gonna create that safe environment.

Ken Huey 5:27

Fantastic. All right, so let me ask you. So you've recently launched compassionate ABA consulting. What's the gap in the market that you're trying to fill?

Michelle Anderton 5:36

So, really, the point of the company was fill the gap of bringing ABA into the school system, the educational system. So, a lot of the times within the current educational model, ABA is not a part of services. So, students that have individual education plans, they're not signing up for school-based ABA. So, a way to help learners that really benefit from this science is to have everyone use it. So, it's another misconception with that is that it has to be a behavior tech that provides the strategies. It's not. Anybody can do it. So that's really the gap I was trying to fill is to show that everyone can use ABA principles to better help outcomes, especially for neurodivergent learners.

Ken Huey 6:18

All right. Seriously, you're Michelle, you wrote this stuff inside now. Analytical personality, the answer to high stress is give me more data or structure it so I have all the data in front of me. That's what you want. There's four basic personality types. You've done personality testing, but that it one of the ways I like to frame it is that analytical is one of those, and that's very high for you. I love, love, love that personality. And you have to sometimes keep them from getting analysis paralysis and reading everything or whatever, and then you can just shine the way that you are. So that's fantastic. You're doing great. So you supervise and mentor future behavior analysts in this simplified form. What qualities separate a really great clinician from an average one?

Michelle Anderton 7:03

So, my biggest thing is that when you're a BCBA, you usually have this notion that you know all the answers or you have to be like the expert in the case. What really shows that you're a great clinician versus a good clinician is knowing that an expert doesn't know everything. It's somebody who is able to be humble and is able to ask questions and know that it requires continuous learning. The reason that we have to do CEUs is not just for a number in order to keep our certification. It's to stay relevant and make sure that we know the topics and what is currently happening and what our learners are also giving us feedback on, whether it's that a certain technique really isn't ethical to do anymore because it's not actually benefiting the learner, making sure that you're not just having the science and saying this is how you apply it, but thinking outside the box. What is gonna fit for my learner? What is gonna fit for my learner's family, their culture, their environment, or even the skill level that the families have? You have to tailor it to them. So if you just try to apply the science, that's gonna be a good clinician. You understand ABA, but you're not necessarily applying it in the way that's gonna get the best outcomes.

Ken Huey 8:17

Trauma and behavior, they're just so intimately connected, right? How do you get caregivers to get beyond looking at the behavior and understand what the child's actually trying to communicate?

Michelle Anderton 8:30

So it's all mindset. That's where I take it is just working with the families at first of understanding instead of looking at a behavior and saying, this is a problem, it's defiance, it's making things difficult, how do I just get rid of it? Instead, looking at it from the learner's perspective, which is what's happening in the environment right now that is leading to this, and what skill am I missing that is leading to this behavior? So, like you said, behavior is communication. So if you step back and you look at it from the start, okay, this is communicating something and really getting to define what that is, you're gonna make the change for the student and yourself. And when you try to go about in a way of this is just a problem, a lot of the times our kiddos can feel that and our learners know that we are coming at it from that compliance base, and you're not gonna get that behavior change, and you're also not gonna teach them a skill that they can actually use to get the needs met.

Ken Huey 9:29

You've recently posted about authentic leadership, compassionate leadership. Speak to that a little bit. Help us understand what you're trying to tell us.

Michelle Anderton 9:37

So the big thing with that is the answer isn't you should be solving all the problems as a leader. It shouldn't be that when somebody is working for you or with you that they feel like you are able to just make everything better. It's more so that they feel like they can come to you with the problem and engage in problem solving together. So that's a big part of what I am a proponent for, is that your staff and the people you're working with should feel like they can come to you and say, Hey, I don't think this is working. What else could we try? Or I've noticed this. Can I have help with this? And feel like those that are working with you can come to you and give you feedback. So if you're also doing something that isn't helping, you need to know that in order to change it. So, in order to be compassionate, it's not that you try to run everything and you're the overarching person. It's that you are just the one leading the team, you're the one guiding the questions. You might be the one that are determining the systems aren't working. What do we need to do to change the system then instead of the employee? So having that leadership that isn't just about control, but really bringing in the team.

Ken Huey 10:42

Michelle, look in your crystal ball for me. You look forward five years. What's gonna happen? What's gonna change in the behavioral health care, mental health care, autism space? Do you believe?

Michelle Anderton 10:54

I'm really hoping that we're going in the direction of kind of bringing together that medical model, which is what you hear mostly for ABA therapy, is that they come into the home or the child goes into the clinic, or you're addressing it through that medical model, which is that insurance-based pay, and really bringing it in so that it can be the education system, the doctors, the speech therapists, the occupational therapists, and everybody is so much more connected and it's respected through all the disciplines so that the insurance understands that these collaborations are not just something you add to a treatment plan, it's a necessity. And it's something that we need to look at as a whole because again, just having ABA therapy or just having another field is not gonna give the student the full outcome they're looking for. And the families really need that support where they feel like they can have that team. And it's not necessarily right now set up for that across states.

Ken Huey 11:49

Reflect on your own journey, if you would, for me. Starting a business, saying, I'm gonna put myself out there and do things in a different way, or I'm gonna build this. What in the world gives you the confidence to go do that?

Michelle Anderton 12:03

To be honest, I wouldn't say there was like any specific thing that happened. It was more so I was watching things around me and looking at it as like this doesn't fit what I'm trying to do. It's not my mold, and trying to fit into it wasn't working. And I thought, okay, so what do I need to do in order to get and accomplish what I'm looking for? And it kind of gave me the boost of I need to learn how to do this so that I can provide this. So I wouldn't necessarily say confidence was a big part of it. It was almost I had the need to do it.

Ken Huey 12:35

Michelle Anderton, you are on the front lines building a business that does things to shape humanity, not just a widget, not some new tech, but shaping lives. And I want to say thank you very much for doing that and spending time to help us understand it. Thanks.

Michelle Anderton 12:51

Yeah, I love doing this. I love to show that altism really is this magical thing that everyone around can really support and help blossom in order again to create those leaders, those visionaries and those inventors. Like they have those baseline characteristics that can build that.

Ken Huey 13:10

Great. Thank you, Michelle.

Michelle Anderton 13:12

Thank you.

Ken Huey 13:13

Thanks for joining us on The Voice of Hope. If you were inspired, share the light. And remember, hope's not just a feeling, it's a force. We'll see you next time.