The inclusion of clients in their own care planning and programming development is not merely a best practice recommendation — it is an ethical imperative that is increasingly recognized by funding agencies, accreditation bodies, and the BACB Ethics Code itself. Yet in many ABA service settings, clients remain passive recipients of programming designed entirely by professionals, with minimal input from the individuals whose lives are most directly affected by the treatment decisions being made.
Provider: BehaviorLive — via Women in Behavior Analysis
Take This Course →Including ethics, supervision, and topics like this one. New live CEU every Wednesday.
Join Free →Involving all stakeholders, including the client, in programming development and healthcare decisions is a crucial component of plan development across service settings (Hawbaker, 2007; Howard et al., 2021; Lanzi et al, 2017; Moore & Kaplan, 2018) and is advocated for by funding agencies and the ethics code (BACB, 2022; DDS, 2020; IDEA Title 34, 2007). The type of involvement may differ, though, based on the client's age, the setting, their learning style, communication modality, their interests, and interfering behaviors (Ratti et al, 2016). Therefore, this workshop will focus on specific approaches and materials care providers can use to meet this goal for a variety of clients (school-aged to adult with a range of diagnoses) across multiple care environments (healthcare, school/residential/day habilitation programming, transition meetings, etc.). This workshop will use a Behavior Skills Training (BST) Model to teach these strategies (Miltenberger, 1997). Specifically, the presenters will introduce the strategies, give real examples, provide materials, model the approaches, and give workshop attendees a chance to practice the techniques in role play scenarios that are followed by feedback. Workshop attendees will leave this workshop will a toolkit of strategies to better integrate students and adults into their person-centered programming and healthcare plan development meetings.
| Certification Body | Credits | Type |
|---|---|---|
| BACB® | 3 | Ethics |
| COA | 3 | — |
Jenna Gilder, Ph.D., BCBA, LABA, is the Director of Clinical Services and Training at May Institute. She received her doctorate in Developmental Psychology from Claremont Graduate University and is a -certified and licensed behavior analyst. Dr. Gilder’s clinical and research interests focus on helping to create an enriching environment with meaningful person-centered programming that meets the needs of the individuals served by May Institute.
Dig into the research behind this topic — plain-English summaries written for BCBAs.
212 research articles with practitioner takeaways
200 research articles with practitioner takeaways
195 research articles with practitioner takeaways
Side-by-side comparison with a clinical decision framework
Research-backed educational guide for behavior analysts
Research-backed answers to common clinical questions
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.