Using Behavioral Skills Training to Teach Functional Assessment Interviewing, Cultural Responsiveness, and Empathic and Compassionate Care to Students of Applied Behavior Analysis

The researchers built one telehealth BST package. It taught three skills at once: how to run a functional assessment interview, how to show empathy and compassion, and how to be culturally responsive.

Graduate students in applied behavior analysis joined the Zoom sessions. The team used live models, practice, and feedback to train the skills. They tracked each skill separately to see what improved.

After the Zoom training, every student performed all three skill sets better than before. Most kept the gains weeks later.

The students also said the training felt useful and respectful. One package covered both technical and "soft" skills without extra classes.

Slane et al. (2021) looked at 20 older studies where BST taught teachers and staff to run behavior plans. Their review shows BST works for staff training; Gatzunis et al. (2023) now shows it can layer empathy and cultural pieces on top.

Wolchik et al. (1982) first used BST to teach clinical interviewing in person. The new study swaps Zoom for the classroom and adds cultural responsiveness, so the method moves online and grows richer.

Simmons et al. (2024) also used Zoom BST for interview skills, but they taught general job interviews. Gatzunis et al. (2023) targets FA interviews plus empathic care, so the content, not the tech, is the new piece.

You can train empathy, cultural awareness, and technical FA skills in one short Zoom series. No extra travel or semester-long course needed. Try adding a short empathy model and cultural checklist to your next remote BST cycle. Your supervisees can leave the session ready to interview families with both skill and respect.