A Behavior-Analytic Perspective on Interprofessional Collaboration

Slim et al. (2021) rewrote the teamwork rules for BCBAs. They took the big list of interprofessional skills and turned each one into plain behavior language. Empathy became "watching and labeling another person’s feelings." Cultural humility became "asking questions and changing your own behavior based on the answers."

The paper is a map. It shows how to walk into a team meeting and act in ways other fields can see and count.

The authors found that teamwork skills are just behaviors. If we can define them, we can teach them. They gave sample scripts and data sheets so you can track your own collaboration responses.

Bowman et al. (2021) took the same idea and narrowed it to autism teams. They added six ready-made rules, like "start every plan with one shared client goal." Slim gave the language; Bowman gave the checklist.

Donnelly et al. (2025) built a half-day workshop where ABA, speech, and OT students practice the Slim behaviors together. The workshop is the classroom version of Slim’s definitions.

Spencer et al. (2026) went even wider. They added families and neighbors as full team members and used community projects as training grounds. Slim showed how to speak; Spencer showed who should be in the room.

Coy et al. (2024) created the LADER script for tough talks. It fits inside Slim’s empathy definition like a glove: Listen, Ask, Determine, Engage, Reflect.

You can start Monday. Pick one meeting. Count how many times you label a teammate’s emotion out loud. Write it on a simple tally sheet. That single act is empathy, Slim-style, and it costs nothing. When everyone sees the behavior, the whole team gets calmer and the client gets better care.