Assent is one of the most important and underappreciated concepts in applied behavior analysis. While informed consent from legal guardians is a well-established requirement in ABA practice, assent addresses something fundamentally different: the ongoing, moment-to-moment communication from the client that they are willing to participate in treatment.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via Verbal Beginnings
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Join Free →Consent is a concept that is well known in ABA, we acquire consent on a near daily basis to begin interventions, assessments, and releasing protected health information to collaborate in interdisciplinary teams, just to name a few. Assent is less well known, but arguably more important. Assent is the verbal or nonverbal communication of a client that indicates that they want to participate in treatment even when they could not otherwise legally consent. Assent is pivotal in compassionate behavior analysis. This presentation will define assent, and provide strategies for incorporating assent based interventions into skill acquisition and behavior reduction as well as address some common concerns.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | Ethics |
| COA | 1 | — |
Tessa Divine, of Verbal Beginnings LLC, is a Board Certified Behavior Analyst with 5 years of experience with an additional 4 years of experience as an RBT. Born and raised near Nashville, TN, she attended Purdue University Global and focused on Complex language development and Relational Frame Theory. Tessa has spent the last 2 years assessing clients and providing informed treatment recommendations to clinicians using her knowledge of The PEAK Relational Training System and Derived Relational Responding (DRR) to create long-lasting, socially significant, and life-changing treatments for dozens of clients. Additionally, Tessa has been a dedicated force in informing and training other clinicians in the assessment, treatment, and troubleshooting of DRR skills.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
279 research articles with practitioner takeaways
256 research articles with practitioner takeaways
252 research articles with practitioner takeaways
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All behavior-analytic intervention is individualized. The information on this page is for educational purposes and does not constitute clinical advice. Treatment decisions should be informed by the best available published research, individualized assessment, and obtained with the informed consent of the client or their legal guardian. Behavior analysts are responsible for practicing within the boundaries of their competence and adhering to the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts.