A former educator for 10 years who taught ESL classes abroad recently shifted careers, embarking on a social mission to help all parents raise their children using proven methods, with no fees attached.
Culpeper resident Matthew Hilley, 40, is a board-certified behavioral analyst licensed by the Virginia Department of Medicine, allowing him to provide treatment to people diagnosed with autism and other developmental disabilities. He is founder of Applied Behavior Analysts, behavior change experts, providing parenting training for families in Culpeper.
“I realized I could make a bigger impact by helping all parents,” Hilley said in a Jan. 16 interview at Raven’s Nest.
The timeframe is way too long from the point someone realizes something may be wrong with their child, to the point they find a developmental pediatrician who can give them a diagnosis required for insurance to fund services to mitigate the effects of autism and other developmental disabilities, he said.
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“The process can take months to years for people, and all that time, children are going untreated and getting medical advice from who knows where. I not only want to reach those folks, but every parent in need of help with their children’s behavioral issues—no diagnosis necessary,” Hilley said.
An informational meeting for parents about this family-centered initiative will be held at 10 a.m. Feb. 1 at Culpeper Baptist Church, first level. Parents can sign up for a 10-week parenting training class in February at the church.
Parents of “neurotypical” kids with behavioral issues grasp at straws trying to find help, Hilley said. There are many parents out there who just don’t know how to be parents, said the husband and father of a 4-year-old and 8-year-old.
“I feel like there’s been a rift in our society, a change from when I grew up. Parenting has changed over the years and so now we’re at a point where people need help to know what to do so their child can thrive in their environment where they live,” he said.
“With all the screens nowadays, that’s the change,” Hilley added. “Before, kids were outside all the time, they interacted with other kids, modeled their behavior, so they were able to learn without direct intervention from a parent to teach them. Now we have all these screens and kids are glued to the screens and that’s creating a problem. It’s like our kids are being taught by whatever they’re watching on TV.”
In offering parenting training, Hilley oversees a team of 20 behavior analysis students who stay in contact with parents attending the classes, speaking weekly over the phone or online. To help all families and remove barriers, he opted in December to waive fees for the classes teaching empirical, peer reviewed, evidence-based practices on how to handle challenging behavior.
This level of accessibility garnered a lot of interest from master’s students and above of behavioral analysis from around the country, he said, establishing the pro bono model. The effort is privately funded by grad students working from all over the country, contributing to the cause while earning fieldwork hours.
“The students were interested in my social mission to break down the barriers for people to receive help.”
One of the master’s level students helping with the mission is Maaria Lodhi, based in Texas. She learned about Applied Behavior Analysts on Reddit, she stated in an email to the Star-Exponent.
“Matt reached out to share his mission to support as many families as possible,” she said. “His vision truly resonated with me especially when we discussed how some firms leave families waiting for critical answers. That inspired me to be part of a team dedicated to making a difference.”
Many board certified behavior analysts charge hefty fees and offer little meaningful work for trainees, Lodhi said.
“Matt’s enthusiasm and commitment to creating real impact were contagious and I knew I had to be part of this mission,” she said.
Once his students become behavioral analysts, Hilley said he wants them to copy his business model across the country, training more students while hosting free parenting classes at churches, libraries and other community gathering places. Hilley uses the parenting methods on his own children.
“We don’t spank our kids ever anymore. To convince my 4-year-old to make the right decision, I arrange the environment to make the changes that need to be made,” Hilley said. “And she’s happy while she’s doing it, she’s not crying, and that’s what I want to teach other parents … I am passionate and motivated and I want to help as many people as I can.”
He mentioned his experience after college of teaching English as a Second Language to adults in South Korea. It provided him with the presentation skills for teaching parenting classes.
Hilley grew up on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and holds a bachelor’s degree in conflict analysis and dispute resolution from Salisbury University. After graduation in 2009, took the position in Korea, where he met his wife, got married and had his first child, returning to the states in 2017.
Hilley taught ESL at Osbourn Park High School in Manassas Park in 2019 when family circumstances became a catalyst for making a career change.
“I felt like there were kids that were lost in the system and were not getting the resources they needed to thrive.”
He went back to school and got his master’s degree in education in 2023 from Regent University. He and his family moved to Culpeper. Hilley received training in applied behavior analysis from Florida Institute of Technology, including 2,000 hours of supervised fieldwork, passed the state exam, got his license in September and immediately started working with families.
“Since that time, I have been training students all around the country to help me prepare for the influx of new parents I expect will want to join our parent training classes once I give my presentation at Culpeper Baptist,” Hilley said.
Parents already taking classes now are getting more than enough support, he said, with more grad students than parents at the moment.
“Normally, it’s the opposite. The waiting lists for families to receive behavioral services is months to years long, all over the country. I want to change that.”
The science of parenting is for everyone, he said, adding he uses it successfully with his own kids.
“It’s about arranging the environment so the children are much more motivated to listen and likely to listen and do what you’re asking them to do.”
Methods include positive reinforcement, teaching parents to teach desirable behavior in children by using rewards and praise.
“We manage challenging behavior by providing tools to effectively manage that behavior without resorting to punishment,” Hilley said. “There is no punishment used in my teaching. It’s all based on reinforcement techniques.”
Based on interest at the Feb. 1 informational meeting, Applied Behavior Analysts will start offering a 12-week class locally, a one-hour weekly for up to 10 families per class. Hilley is working with various local churches for venue options to conduct the in-person course.
Classes will teach enhanced communication and social skills for parents and their children, how to navigate social interactions and build friendships, how to teach children organization, problem solving and time management, how children can identify and express their emotions in healthy ways, and how to improve academic success by teaching parents techniques such as task analysis and goal setting.
“Our classes help foster a stronger bond between parents and children and ways to meet their needs without resorting to meltdowns,” Hilley said.
“We promote healthy habits in a child’s routines related to hygiene, nutrition, sleep and exercise and we teach parents how to increase their child’s motivation to participate in those routines. Finally, we reduce stress for parents because our classes equip parents with actionable tools to address challenging situations making them feel more confident.”
All parents in Virginia are welcome to the informational meeting as well as professionals in school systems and day cares. The goal, like with any practice, is to train parents and caretakers so that the professional technicians can fade out of service.
“This stuff makes it easier for parents,” Hilley said. “I completely changed, I’m a better version of myself. I wanted to set a good example for my entire family because they’re representative of me.”
What parent doesn’t have issues with parenting, he said.
“The majority of people don’t know what to do or where to go for help so they turn online and sometimes they get advice that’s not very good,” Hilley said.
“I want to provide an avenue for parents to say, hey, we’re here, we can do it and it’s free, come figure out how we can help you. Our mission is to make behavioral therapy in the form of parent training free and available to all who need it, all over Virginia, and hopefully one day, all over the United States.”
For information, see appliedbehavioranalysts.com; contact 540/729-8940 or contact@appliedbehavioranalysts.com
