Former Behavior Technician Builds a DTT Platform That Moves RBTs to the Learner’s Side of the Table

From behavior technician to builder

SAN DIEGO — Patrick Faga remembers behavior technician work as both incredibly difficult and deeply meaningful. Most of the role depends on judgment, rapport, and the ability to understand behavior in real time. But direct instruction, he said, is different. It is procedural, which makes it one of the few parts of the job that technology can make simpler.

Faga studied behavioral neuroscience as an undergraduate, worked as a behavior technician after graduation, and later earned a master’s degree in behavior science from Penn. He wanted to remain in ABA; however, he chose to do so by building technology for the people who deliver care.

That decision became FirstWork, a tablet-based DTT delivery and visual-schedule platform. The company says the app now has more than 30,000 downloads, serves hundreds of organizations, and is used by customers that include ABS Kids, Children’s Specialized Hospital, Bierman Autism Centers, and public school programs.

“Being a BT was the most impactful job I’ve ever had.” — Patrick Faga, Co-Founder, FirstWork.

Faga described most of the technician’s job as “irreducibly complex.” Building rapport and responding to behavior cannot be reduced to a checklist. Direct instruction can be checked more consistently, he said, because the steps are defined and repeated.

That distinction also shapes his view of RBT training. Faga said operators are working within the structure created by insurance reimbursement and existing business models, not simply choosing to offer less training. The ideal amount of preparation, he said, “would be probably a whole lot.”

His point was not that technology replaces that preparation. It was that technology could make a demanding implementation easier to carry out consistently.

Moving to the learner’s side of the table

In a traditional card-based DTT session, technicians may build arrays, manage error-correction procedures, record each trial, and move materials between targets. Before the session even begins, a team may spend hours printing, laminating, cutting, sorting, and replacing those materials.

FirstWork puts those tasks inside the app. It presents the program, captures trial-by-trial data, manages programmed error correction, and removes much of the physical preparation.

The change is visible in where the technician sits. Faga said RBTs can “move to the other side of the table,” joining the learner instead of sitting across from them and managing the setup.

The RBT still needs to understand DTT. The app is designed to handle the pressure of running the procedure quickly and with fidelity every time, allowing the technician to move from a primarily mechanical role to a more supportive one.

ABS Kids tested that promise during a three-month pilot at its Camino del Rio center. Lisa Nikiforuk, the organization’s director of ABA services, described team burnout tied to the recurring preparation cycle, according to a FirstWork and ABS Kids case study.

The pilot reported that BCBAs saved about two hours each week and lead BCBAs saved about five hours each week. Materials-related costs fell by 16%, net of software costs.

Building independence for learners

FirstWork is not simply a digital flashcard deck. The company says its content is designed for ABA programming and draws from common assessments. BCBAs can also customize targets for individual learners, which Faga described as one reason card-based DTT resisted digitization for roughly two decades.

The app also pairs focused work with digital reinforcement. During a program, it can lock access to other apps in a guided-access-style format. When the learner completes the program, the app can provide reward time in those other apps.

FirstWork says this creates a consistent reinforcement loop without requiring an adult to manage a separate reinforcer after every short block of work.

That setup can turn the tablet into an independent learning station. According to FirstWork, special education teams already use the platform this way, allowing learners to complete programs at their own pace while staying motivated by the reward that follows.

A poster presented at ABAI 2025 offered an early, narrow research signal. In the single-case project, a 3-year-old learner who had stalled on card-based DTT moved from a baseline of 0% to 10% correct responding to at least 90% mastery within eight to 12 sessions. The poster reported a rate of about 20 trials per minute, and RBTs, not researchers, ran the sessions.

The findings require important context. The project was a poster presentation, not a peer-reviewed publication. Faga founded FirstWork; the company provided non-financial support, and the result came from one learner. A second, multi-site study was still in progress as of the August 2026 background brief.

Sending the same program home

DTT often takes place in a clinic or classroom because it requires both prepared materials and procedural knowledge. FirstWork’s home-use model is designed to remove the first barrier and make the second easier to manage.

A BCBA can send the exact program used in session, including the same settings and targets, to a family’s device. Parents can then practice that program at home without recreating the card array or learning the full preparation routine.

“Your BCBA can send you the same programs that they’re working on with your learners in sessions, and you can work on those at home too.” — Patrick Faga, Co-Founder, FirstWork.

The model also creates a counterintuitive benefit inside the center. If setup time and the transitions between trials become shorter, structured learning can take up less of the session. That can leave more room for natural environment training, including time with the learner away from the table and on the playground.

Where FirstWork sits in the technology stack

FirstWork is not a practice management platform. It does not handle billing, scheduling, or claims.

The company’s newer organization portal focuses on program management. BCBAs can send programs to staff and promote programs back into an organizational library. Authorship stamps show who created each program, and a shared library can preserve program continuity when a BCBA leaves.

According to FirstWork’s August 2026 background brief, pricing starts at $24.95 per month for a BCBA with five RBT seats. Additional seats cost $1 each up to 8 seats; organizational plans are available for more than 8 seats. The company bills for RBT seats and does not charge for BCBA seats.

FirstWork also says it does not store PHI on its servers. Learner data remains on the device, and the company will sign a BAA.

The bigger picture returns to the problem Faga saw as a behavior technician. Technology cannot build rapport for an RBT or make a clinical judgment for a BCBA. It can, however, carry some of the procedural weight.

For FirstWork, that is the point: reduce the mechanics so the people in the room have more time and attention for the human parts of the work.

AT A GLANCE

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