Amanda Badia, a student in the online Master of Arts in Applied Behavior Analysis program, won Best Overall Poster at the 2025 Florida Association for Behavior Analysis (FABA) Conference, held Sept. 18鈥�20 in Ponte Vedra Beach, Florida.
Badia鈥檚 poster, "Assessing Modality Preferences in Functional Communication Training," highlights her research and work as a registered behavior technician (RBT) at the University of Florida鈥檚 Center for Autism and Neurodevelopment, where she has worked since 2023 under the supervision of Kacie McGarry, PhD.
"Our center provides specialized services for individuals exhibiting severe challenging or maladaptive behavior," said Badia. "For some of our clients, such as those participating in the study, their challenging behaviors had hindered their accessibility to speech therapy."
Badia's research explores how individuals with developmental disabilities develop preferences for different communication modalities 鈥� often favoring high-tech options like speech-generating devices. The study began as a degree requirement and evolved into a collaborative project that connected her academic research with her fieldwork at the center.
"Receiving this recognition at FABA was very exciting, to say the least," said Badia. "As a first-generation graduate student and full-time RBT accruing fieldwork hours, it was an honor to be recognized among such talented peers."
FABA is Florida鈥檚 leading behavior analysis association and one of the largest in the nation, with a poster session that draws competitive submissions from ABA programs across the state.