You wrote "non-compliant" in a session note. You believed it was true. There's a real chance it wasn't.
A learner who can't start a task, can't hold four steps in mind, or can't let go of a rule that just changed will look exactly like a learner who's refusing — right up until you know what to test for.
Start the course
For BCBA®s who've written "non-compliant" and want a faster, more precise way to find out what's actually happening before it goes in the plan.
These usually don't get read as skill gaps. They get read as refusal.
- — A learner stares at an assignment without starting, and the plan targets "refusal to work."
- — Someone finishes the first two steps of a routine and wanders off, logged as "off-task."
- — Cleanup turns into a standoff most days, and the intervention is a token system built around motivation.
- — A worksheet comes back half-finished with the operation signs missed, and "check your work" doesn't change it next time either.
- — A rule changes mid-activity and the meltdown that follows gets written up with no antecedent, because nothing "happened."
- — The relationship with a learner wears thin from pushing compliance on a demand they don't yet have the skills to meet.
What this course is — and isn't
This course is
- A way to test whether a behavior reflects a missing executive functioning skill before you write a plan around motivation
- 14 activities across 7 executive functioning skills, built to double as data collection tools
- A three-part formula for building your own version of any activity for any learner
- Two full case studies you practice the framework on before you use it live
This course is not
- A replacement for a functional behavior assessment
- A diagnostic instrument for identifying an executive functioning disorder
- A claim that every behavior traditionally labeled noncompliant is actually a skill deficit
Why I built this
Almost every one of us has written the word non-compliant in a session note at some point. I have too — and there's a real chance I was wrong as often as anyone else.
What I kept seeing is the same pattern: a behavior gets read as refusal, the plan reaches for motivation, and nothing changes — because the behavior was never under motivational control to begin with.
Amelia Dalphonse, BCBA®, is co-founder of Master ABA and the creator of this course. She earned her Master's in ABA from Ball State University and has worked with children since 1996 — specifically with children with autism since 2009.
What kept happening: behavior plans aimed at motivation, applied to behaviors that were never under motivational control.
What I built: a repeatable way to identify, test, and teach the executive functioning skill underneath a demand — without losing the functional assessment already in place.
Why it matters to me: imprecise language leads to imprecise intervention. Precise language is teachable.
The four-step process behind every case in this course
The same sequence, applied to every behavior you'd otherwise be tempted to call noncompliant.
Describe the observable behavior — no interpretation yet.
Break down the demand — what the instruction actually requires the learner to stop, remember, organize, tolerate, or begin.
Generate more than one hypothesis — skill, communication, motivation, sensory, and others.
Change one support, measure, and revise the hypothesis if performance doesn't move.
What you'll be able to decide by the end
Whether a behavior needs a consequence plan or a skill-building plan — before you write either one.
Which of the seven executive functioning skills is the more plausible hypothesis for a specific learner.
How to build a working activity for any client using the same three components every time.
What to measure so you can tell "learning the game" apart from "using the skill in daily life."
When to increase the difficulty of an activity and when to pull back without losing the learner's ascent.
How to bring a team a testable hypothesis instead of a label that ends the conversation.
What's included
Everything you need to run this framework on your own caseload.
Removes the guesswork of where to start with a behavior that's been mislabeled.
Each one includes setup, what to measure, and how to adjust it — removes the need to design assessment activities from scratch.
Practice the hypothesis-testing framework on Malik and Elena before you apply it cold with your own client.
The Master ABA Coach — an AI assistant built for this framework
Once you've finished the course, the gap between "I understand the framework" and "I can apply it to the kid in front of me" is where most training falls apart. Describe a real behavior to the Coach — what the instruction was, what the learner did instead — and it walks you through which skill might be involved, how to test it, and how to turn the answer into an activity or a goal. It's not a replacement for the course. It's what you open when you're stuck on your own caseload.
Released on passing the quiz — save your BCBA® number to your account first.
What BCBA®s say about Amelia's courses
Real reviews from Amelia's other courses — each labeled with which one.
"This was one of the best CEU courses I've taken as a BCBA in 10+ years."
"This course is a great next step to finding 'missing' or weird holes in programming."
"Amelia gave me some great ideas for teaching EF skills and embedding them naturally with students I work with."
"This is an exceptionally helpful course laid out in clear instructions with real-world examples. Highly recommend!"
"Great speaker, and was presented very well — clear, concise."
"Relevant, well explained, great resources."
Rethinking Challenging Behavior
About as long as one supervision meeting — except this one changes what goes in the next ten session notes.
Who this is built for
This is for you if
- You write session notes and want the words in them to hold up
- You're building a plan around a behavior that hasn't responded to consequences alone
- You supervise staff and want them asking what a demand requires before reaching for a label
Worth knowing before you start
- Diagnosing an executive functioning disorder is outside its scope
- It's built to complement a functional behavior assessment, used alongside it
Questions before you start
Does this replace my functional behavior assessment process?
No. This sits alongside a functional assessment, not instead of it. Function tells you what's maintaining a behavior. This course tests whether a missing skill is also making the demand harder to meet. Both can be true at once.
Do I need a background in executive functioning research to follow this?
No prior background is assumed. The course builds from the three-process model — inhibitory control, working memory, cognitive flexibility — into a practical seven-skill teaching framework you can use in a session this week.
Will this tell me exactly which skill a specific learner is missing?
It gives you a way to generate and test hypotheses, not a diagnosis. You'll work through two full cases using the same process before you apply it to your own clients.
How do I get my CEU certificate?
Watch the full video, then pass the quiz. The certificate is released by the quiz, not the lesson-complete checkbox — make sure your BCBA® number is saved to your account before you start.
Replace "non-compliant" with a hypothesis you can test.
For BCBA®s ready to ask what a demand actually requires — starting with the next note you write.
Start the course — $30