Gateway Pediatric Therapy QA Director Publishes Research on Quality Assurance Concepts in ABA Clinical Supervision

April 23, 2026

Dr. Bryant Silbaugh, QA Director at Gateway Pediatric Therapy, has published an article in Behavior Analysis in Practice titled Quality Assurance Concepts in Applied Behavior Analysis for Clinical Supervision. The article examines the essential role of quality assurance (QA) systems in providing effective and meaningful applied behavior analysis (ABA) services for individuals with autism.

“Applied behavior analysis (ABA) services can improve the quality of life for autistic people. Autistic people and their families are more likely to continue using ABA services when behavior analysts deliver high-quality services with relevant outcomes throughout their service journey. High-quality services can be facilitated by robust quality assurance (QA) systems. It is suggested that robust QA systems comprise strategically arranged environmental contingencies that are selective for clinical and operational practices that result in high-quality services. Wide variability in how behavior analysts conceptualize quality is associated with a lack of research on QA in ABA service settings. As a result, research on the selective effects of QA system contingencies that positively impact quality is lacking, and ABA service organizations are left to build QA systems without a robust behavior analytic QA research base. This paper addresses these issues by introducing behavior analysts to established universal principles of managing for quality and providing examples of how clinical supervisors can apply these principles for QA purposes. Adoption of these quality terms and concepts could increase consistency in how behavior analysts conceptualize quality and accelerate research and the development of robust QA systems throughout the ABA autism services industry.“

Read the full article here.