How feedback is delivered in supervision is not incidental to whether it works — it is one of the variables that determines whether it works. BCBAs who deliver technically accurate feedback in ways that trigger defensiveness, shame, or disengagement produce the same functional outcome as BCBAs who deliver no feedback at all: the behavior they are trying to change does not change.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via Consultants for Children, Inc.
Take This Course →Including ethics, supervision, and topics like this one. New live CEU every Wednesday.
Join Free →Non Violent Communication (NVC) can be a powerful framework to provide feedback to those you supervise. NVC integrates qualities like empathy, sincerity, and respect to facilitate good relationships between you, your supervisee and the families they serve. Since most BCBAs work with children with autism, working with these families requires critical interpersonal skills. (Taylor et al 2018). Empathy and compassion are viewed as essential aspects of clinical care in most other health disciplines and appear to be associated with several positive outcomes (e.g., Schneider, Kaplan, Greenfield, Li, & Wilson, 2004). Behavior analysis, however, has fallen behind in relationship training, perhaps due to subjective concepts such as empathy and compassion. In all supervisor/supervisee communication—emails, team meetings, and 1:1s -- we need to be present, aware, and respectful when delivering information, mainly when it involves personal critiques. Strategies for delivering performance feedback using NVC under different circumstances will be covered. Developing inclusion and empathy (as NVC suggests) in the workspace is possible.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 1 | Supervision |
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Research-backed educational guide for behavior analysts
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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.