Soft Skills: The Case for Compassionate Approaches or How Behavior Analysis Keeps Finding Its Heart
Track your own warmth with a short checklist to keep families listening and collaborating.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Rohrer et al. (2021) wrote a position paper. They asked: how can behavior analysts show more heart?
The authors made a checklist. Teams can use it to train and track compassionate care.
What they found
The paper says warm, empathic teamwork is not extra. It is core to good ABA.
The checklist gives concrete steps. Listen first. Use kind words. Check your own tone.
How this fits with other research
Rodriguez et al. (2023) took the idea further. They turned compassion into a skill you can score. This builds on the 2021 checklist and makes it fit autism services.
Henderson et al. (2023) showed the same warmth helps when you work with doctors, teachers, and SLPs. Their review says ethical teams need the soft skills the checklist promotes.
Winett et al. (1991) saw the problem first. They warned that cold, rigid ABA fails in the community. The new paper answers that warning with a fix you can use today.
Why it matters
You can print the one-page checklist. Use it in supervision. Rate yourself after each parent meeting. Ask staff to do the same. When everyone tracks warmth, families stay engaged and referrals grow.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
As the field of behavior analysis expands, our need to develop ourselves as more effective collaborators, particularly with families who may be the primary consumers of our science, becomes paramount. As scientists, our training lies primarily in the behavior analytic technologies that we study and apply. But our ability to disseminate our science, collaborate with non-behavior analysts, and ultimately grow our field hinges on our ability to navigate interpersonal situations in a way that puts forth compassion and humanity. We have the opportunity and capability to use our empirical procedures to implement and assess the effectiveness of interventions that target the soft skills of our field. The current article discusses the benefits of empathic and collaborative approaches in fields related to behavior analysis and provides suggestions for current behavior analysts to incorporate compassionate care into their practices. We provide a checklist for compassionate interactions accompanied by possibilities for its use as a tool for self-evaluation, procedural fidelity, and comprehensive training in the area of collaboration with families. Finally, we discuss areas for future research with respect to assessing and improving behavior analysts’ compassionate approaches to treatment.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2021 · doi:10.1007/s40617-021-00563-x