The Pier Center for Autism offers internship opportunities for individuals looking to learn more about individuals with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) or the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Internship opportunities run year-round but may be limited by our client capacity. We currently offer internship opportunities to individuals at various stages of their educational careers including, but not limited to:
- Undergraduates seeking internships that fulfill course requirements and that are tailored to the needs of the student and their university. Unpaid undergraduate interns’ experiences will vary with their personal goals and individual university requirements. Undergraduate interns can expect to have some or all of the following opportunities: observation of a variety of clients, participation in graduate level reading groups, program implementation, graphing, and supervision from a Board Certified Behavior Analyst.
- Graduate Students or Post-Graduate Certificate students looking to meet the BACB®’s supervision hours requirements. We offer individuals working toward becoming a Board Certified Behavior Analyst the opportunity to gain experience hours through supervised fieldwork or concentrated supervised fieldwork with proper contracting. Individuals seeking this option can expect to be immersed in the field of behavior analysis on a daily basis with routine supervision and feedback.
Currently, the Pier Center for Autism offers internship opportunities in the areas of clinical application and/or research within the field of applied behavior analysis.
Those interested in clinical applications can expect to learn about skill acquisition, behavior reduction, writing and interpreting clinical program protocols, building and interpreting data collection procedures, and graphing behavioral data. This internship would prepare the student in how to implement behavior analytic services in a clinical setting.
Those interested in research within the field can expect to learn about how and why research is conducted, how research can be an active part of clinical work, how to implement research procedures by following a written protocol, how to collect inter-observer agreement data, and how to collect measures of protocol integrity and social validity. This internship would prepare the student in the preliminary applications of research within the field. This internship route would fit well with those seeking advanced graduate study or who have a special interest in novel applications of behavioral procedures.
Both focused internship routes would include weekly discussions on empirical studies and articles within the field of behavior analysis. These discussions would also include in-depth discussion on the ethical obligations of those within the field and the responsibilities we have to our clients and families that we serve.
Please note that either internship route does require the applicant to pass a background check.
To inquire about current internship opportunities please download the application HERE or contact us via email at [email protected] or by phone at 712-522-2961.