The common saying “he can talk the talk, but can he walk the walk?” refers to some people who can talk a really good game. But you put a kid in front of them, and they have no idea what to do.
Now in behavior analysis, we believe that “talking the talk” does help you “walk the walk.” If you learn the professional vocabulary and analysis, you will improve your ability to design and implement high quality programs. But there are limits to “talking the talk.” For example, the great football coach Lou Holtz once broke two of his fingers trying to demonstrate a football skill to one of the players. There are plenty of situations where you might be an expert – but that doesn’t mean you can implement.
In order to have a high-quality program, we need both someone who can “walk the walk” and someone who can “talk the talk.” That someone doesn’t necessarily have to be the same person.
When considering who should design and run behavior change programs, I think there are two common mistakes:
Mistake 1: We think that if people can’t “talk the talk,” they shouldn’t work with an individual. Some people are not very strong on academic-type tasks, but, wow, can they teach! Often a behavior change program can make great progress using someone like this – we don’t care that they don’t know what the hell a Conditioned Reflexive Motivating Operation is, as long as they are successful with the student (e.g., reducing problem behaviors and teaching important skills).
Mistake 2: We tend to be overly impressed with people who can “talk the talk.” There are plenty of people that sound great in the meeting, but you don’t want them anywhere near a kid – even to train or coach staff.