A behavioral support teacher, also sometimes referred to as a behavioral interventionist, specializes in assisting communities, groups and individuals with learning positive behavioral habits. In addition to helping people foster more positive habits, a behavioral support teacher also works to help people eliminate their more undesirable habits as well.
Though a behavioral interventionist may not be able to micromanage every single aspect of the lives of the people that they help, they can still provide a valuable service by leaving the people they help with the right skills to independently manage their own lives in positive ways.
Necessary Education and Skill Requirements
In order to become certified as a behavioral support teacher, it is necessary for an aspiring teacher to be thoroughly educated in the art of counseling. Generally speaking, a high school diploma is sufficient-enough education for the bare minimum requirement; on the other hand, there are many who opt to receive education through a college or university course targeted towards the career.
Whether an aspiring teacher invests in higher education or not, it is still essential for them to have a fundamentally sound understanding of where certain behavioral patents originate from.
In a very similar manner to a community health educator, a behavioral support teacher needs to be in touch with their community in order to give them relevant advice. Different communities will have a different variety of socioeconomic factors that contribute to behavior patterns across the population, which means that a behavioral support teacher needs to be able to account for their special needs in order to fit the context their lives.
In addition to understanding the root cause of what reinforces certain positive and negative behavioral patterns, the teacher needs to be adept at developing organized self-improvement plans that the people they counsel can naturally implement into their daily lifestyle.
Because of the nature of their job, a behavioral support teacher has to be able to abstract a lot of the complex information that people without their training may not be immediately familiar with. Rather than overloading their client with technical jargon, a behavioral support teacher has to find a way to make the things that they convey to their clients make sense in simple terms.
The role of behavioral support teacher doesn’t exclusively fall under one single discipline. Various disciplines that the role of behavioral support teacher can be applied to include psychology, education, counseling, social work, and more.
Because there are so many different disciplines that a behavioral support teacher can apply their skills to, the role can be flexibly found in a number of different institutions and organizations with a diverse range of responsibilities. Depending on the specific demands of the facility that they work for, certain standards for their experience and performance may vary depending on the environment.
Related Resource: How Do You Become an ESL Teacher?
Industry Outlook
According to Glassdoor, the median salary for behavioral support teachers is approximately $40,000. The Bureau of Labor Statistics projects the job growth rate for the career by the year 2024 at approximately 22%, much faster than average for most industries.
