How To Become A Behavioral Specialist: What It Is and Career Path

What is a behavioral specialist and how to become one

Updated January 8, 2025

5 min read

Quoted expert

Dr. Tommy Casarez Ph.D.

If you have a passion for helping others and want to make a real difference in someone's life, you may consider a career as a behavior specialist. A career as a behavior specialist is a service-oriented and rewarding position that may not only bring you profound gratification but may lead to a good deal of flexibility, job security, variation in duties, and spectacular advancement opportunities. Being a behavior specialist, you'll get a chance to positively impact the lives of hundreds of individuals of different ability levels and dozens of distinct disabilities. Generally, a behavior specialist is a psychological counselor who observes, assesses, and supports adults and children with emotional or behavioral issues that impair learning and social functions. As a behavior specialist, you won't only work with children having autism spectrum disorders and pervasive developmental disorders but will also help adults with severe behavioral problems or intellectual disabilities.

Now, how to become a behavior specialist? There are numerous overlapping education paths you may take to become a behavior specialist. You may become one by earning a bachelor's degree in social work, psychology, human services, or a related field, or just a high school diploma with experience working with individuals with special needs. Also, earning a master's degree in psychology or a certificate in applied behavioral analysis may even help boost your credentials more. To be successful as a behavior specialist, you must be patient, compassionate, and have a strong foundation in behavior analysis.

Becoming a behavior specialist, you may work in diverse workplaces, including schools, clinics, health care, government institutions, and many more. Typically, you may work regular business hours. However, you might have to work some evenings to accommodate appointments with parents and caregivers. Working as a behavior specialist, you may earn a median annual salary of $45,000 along with health and insurance benefits. In addition to higher wages, financial and emotional rewards, the role of behavior specialist may bring a broad spectrum of advancement opportunities to you in the future. According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the job prospects for all mental health counselors expect to grow by 22 percent between 2018 and 2028, which is more than four times the growth rate for the entire job market. So, if you're thinking about going into the behavioral specialist field, now is a good time.

What general advice would you give to a behavioral specialist?

Dr. Tommy Casarez Ph.D.

Dr., Assistant Professor of Historical and Systematic Theology, Vanguard University

Opportunities come in many different shapes and sizes, but they are still out there. Whether you are seeking to land a job in education or the non-profit sector, you will need to familiarize yourself and get used to all things digital, for the sake of communicating effectively. The younger your student or service partner's mindset, the more digitally savvy you will need to be, especially in the classroom and in the non-profit world.

ScoreBehavioral SpecialistUS Average

Salary

3.3

Avg. Salary $42,029

Avg. Salary $59,228

Stability level

9.9

Growth rate 12%

Growth rate 0.3%

Diversity

5.8

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 0.86%

Asian 4.56%

Black or African American 11.43%

Hispanic or Latino 15.39%

Unknown 4.56%

White 63.21%

Gender

female 66.66%

male 33.34%

Age - 37

Race

American Indian and Alaska Native 3.00%

Asian 7.00%

Black or African American 14.00%

Hispanic or Latino 19.00%

White 57.00%

Gender

female 47.00%

male 53.00%

Age - 37

Stress level

9.9

Stress level is very high

7.1 - high

Complexity level

10.0

Complexity level is advanced

7 - challenging

Work life balance

6.9

Work life balance is good

6.4 - fair

Key steps to become a behavioral specialist

Explore behavioral specialist education requirements

Most common behavioral specialist degrees

Bachelor's

58.7 %

Master's

24.6 %

Associate

9.2 %

Start to develop specific behavioral specialist skills

Skills	Percentages
Mental Health	10.37%
Autism	10.13%
Applied Behavior Analysis	7.43%
Crisis Intervention	6.51%
Rehabilitation	6.34%

Complete relevant behavioral specialist training and internships

Accountants spend an average of 3-6 months on post-employment, on-the-job training. New behavioral specialists learn the skills and techniques required for their job and employer during this time. The chart below shows how long it takes to gain competency as a behavioral specialist based on U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics data and data from real behavioral specialist resumes.

Research behavioral specialist duties and responsibilities

Observe patients and strategically prepare and manage clinical analysis of individuals and their progress in conjunction with formulate behavior goals.
Implement a CPR training program for 20 staff serving 50 clients with mental illness.
Guide student achievement according to district's math content standards, utilizing identify needs information.
Assist children with autism or other developmental disabilities with activities and therapeutic socialization to improve social skills and academic performance.

Prepare your behavioral specialist resume

When your background is strong enough, you can start writing your behavioral specialist resume.

You can use Zippia's AI resume builder to make the resume writing process easier while also making sure that you include key information that hiring managers expect to see on a behavioral specialist resume. You'll find resume tips and examples of skills, responsibilities, and summaries, all provided by Zippi, your career sidekick.

Choose from 10+ customizable behavioral specialist resume templates

Build a professional behavioral specialist resume in minutes. Browse through our resume examples to identify the best way to word your resume. Then choose from 10+ resume templates to create your behavioral specialist resume.

Apply for behavioral specialist jobs

Now it's time to start searching for a behavioral specialist job. Consider the tips below for a successful job search:

Browse job boards for relevant postings
Consult your professional network
Reach out to companies you're interested in working for directly
Watch out for job scams

How do behavioral specialists rate their job?

-/5

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Behavioral specialist reviews

A zippia user wrote a review on May 2019

Pros

Working with children's development, building on common knowledge and skills The challenge it brings but knowing the outcome is what it's about.

Cons

There really is not anything that comes to mind.

A zippia user wrote a review on Mar 2019