Dr. Smita Awasthi, BCBA-D
Founder, Chairperson, & Clinical Director
Dr. Smita Awasthi completed her Masters (Psych) as a University topper in 1983 and a PG Dip in Counseling from NCERT, India. She completed her ABA Education from Univ of North Texas, USA (2004) to became the first Board Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA) from India. She subsequently completed her PhD from Queen's University, Belfast, Ireland as an external student, making her a BCBA-D. She continues to maintain her certification by completing CEU's.
Dr. Awasthi is the Founder, Trustee, & Past President of the pan-India NGO - ABA-India - a non-profit organization formed in 2009, advancing the science of ABA in India. She has pioneered the ABA movement in India and is involved with Advocacy, Training, Mentoring, & Application of ABA Principles in the field of Education, Developmental Disabilities, & Autism in India & the region. With a career spanning 35 years; she started her career on a UNICEF project in 1984, working on a rehab project for children with special needs, in villages in India. Later she was involved with counseling, teaching psychology students at Mithibai College Mumbai. Between 2000 – 2008 she was involved with ABA training for the staff of Dubai Autism Center, Action for Autism Delhi, MPVSS Ujjain, ASWB Kolkata, Autism Awareness & Action Lucknow and many other NGO's across India. Since 2004 she has conducted workshops for parents of children with autism and professionals across India ( Bhilwara, Korba, Raipur, Bhubaneshwar, Madurai, Lucknow, Kanpur, Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Pune, Bangalore, Chennai, Tirupati etc ) and abroad (Dubai, Muscat, Belfast, Abu Dhabi, Al Ain, Bangladesh).The Social Welfare Department of Chhattisgarh invited her for a 5 day workshop in 2007. She was invited in 2009 by MISHACON (Speech & Language Professionals Conference) for a presentation on Verbal Behavior. She continues to mentor ABA professionals, and several of her mentees are now certified behavior analysts. Since she started working with children with Autism in 1994 she has spent more than 50,000 hours in the field, working hands-on with children between the ages of 1.8 months to 20 years.
Smita shifted to India in 2010 & started Behavior Momentum India as a 1:1 intervention center. She is directly involved with training and programming for children with autism to teach them various skills like language development, play, adaptive skills, academics and runs the first behavior clinic in India.
Dr. Awasthi has done workshops from the best in the field like Dr. Carbone, Dr. Pat Mc Greevy, Dr. Sundberg (VB-MAPP), Dr. Partington, Dr. Andy Bondy, Michelle Winner, Dr. Karen Wagner etc to teach parents and professionals working with Autism. She continues to enhance her knowledge by attending research papers by senior professionals at ABA International conferences.
Dr. Smita Awasthi is a Full Member of the ABA International, USA. She has presented papers and posters at conferences organized by ABA International between 2005 – till date. She was a panelist at the Association for Professional Behavior Analysts in 2012, and was a keynote speaker at the QUART conference (2012) at Belfast. In 2010 she was awarded by Society for Advancement of Behavior Analysis USA, (ABA International) with the International Development Grant, & in 2005 by the Governor of Uttar Pradesh as a "Special Awardee" for her Autism awareness work in the state while she lived abroad.