Toward trauma‐informed applications of behavior analysis
ABA needs trauma-informed micro-skills—choice, warnings, caregiver team-ups—to stop re-traumatizing clients.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Rajaraman et al. (2022) wrote a position paper. They did not run an experiment.
They asked: How can ABA stop re-traumatizing clients? Their answer: add trauma-informed care.
They list small moves you can make today—offer choices, warn before touch, and team up with caregivers.
What they found
The paper finds ABA has a public-trust problem. Harsh or rigid tactics can echo past trauma.
Embedding choice, assent, and caregiver voice lowers that risk and may lift outcomes.
How this fits with other research
Austin (2025) is the next chapter. It keeps the trauma-informed idea but says, “Now test it.” Austin lays out a full research agenda so we can learn what actually works.
Kolu (2025) turns the idea into six daily policies—sleep, food, movement, calm spaces, nurturing ties, and mental-health checks. It shows how to bake buffers into every behavior plan.
Allen et al. (2024) and Flowers et al. (2023) sing the same tune. They push ongoing assent and identity-first language for neurodiverse clients. Together the papers form one chorus: treat the person, not just the data.
Why it matters
You can start Monday. Ask, “Would you like to sit here or there?” before the session. Tell the child, “I will touch your arm in three seconds,” then wait for a nod. Text the caregiver one strength you saw today. These micro-moves cost nothing but can prevent trauma flashbacks and keep families at the table.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Despite a growing acknowledgement of the importance of understanding the impacts of trauma on therapeutic approaches across human service disciplines, discussions of trauma have been relatively infrequent in the behavior analytic literature. In this paper, we delineate some of the barriers to discussing and investigating trauma in applied behavior analysis (ABA) and describe how the core commitments of trauma-informed care could be applied to behavior analysis. We then provide some examples of how trauma-informed care might be incorporated into ABA practice. We conclude by suggesting opportunities to approach trauma as a viable avenue for behavior analytic research and argue that omitting trauma-informed care from ABA could be detrimental not only to the public perception of ABA, but to the effectiveness of our assessment and treatment procedures.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2022 · doi:10.1002/jaba.881