Developing a Hungarian ABA Literature

By Alexandra Herman, 2021 Public Awareness Grant

Alexandra Herman graduated in MSc in Psychology at Eötvös Loránd University in Hungary in 2009. She started working as an ABA therapist in the same year, and has been working in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis ever since. She graduated with a distinction in Applied Behavior Analysis at Bangor University in 2018, receiving her second MSc, then qualified as a Board Certified Behavior Analyst in the same year. Alexandra spent more than four years living and working in the UK as an ABA therapist and consultant working mainly with children with ASD and language impairment in home, school, and community settings. Her main areas of expertise are early intervention, delivering therapist and teacher training, and most importantly dissemination of the science of Behavior Analysis in her home country. Hungary currently has four Board Certified Behavior Analysts who practice in the country. Alexandra has been working together with her colleagues on dissemination in the last 10 years, creating an ABA Therapy Center for children with autism in Budapest, delivering trainings, consultation, and workshops for parents, supporting mainstream schools in integrating children with special educational needs, as well as presenting at conferences throughout the country.

Alexandra is the VCS coordinator of the first ABA university course sequence in Hungary. With the support of the 2020 International Development Grant, the Hungarian Association for Applied Behavior Analysis (Magyar Alkalmazott Viselkedéselemzés Egyesület, MAVEE, www.mavee.hu) was established in January 2021. Alexandra is currently the president of the organization.

The 2021 Public Awareness Grant will support the Association’s first project: developing a Hungarian ABA literature. Together with Kis Lépések Alapítvány (Small Steps Foundation, www.kislepesek.hu), MAVEE will create educational booklets with educational video materials and infographics about the science and applications of Behavior Analysis, both for professionals and the general public. The Association will publish online booklets with supporting materials for professionals and for the general public, following three mini-conferences between the summer of 2020 and 2021.

MAVEE members aim that the outlined project can serve as a conceptual model for other countries with no or little infrastructure of ABA.