By Matt Harrington, BCBA · Behaviorist Book Club · Research-backed answers for behavior analysts
Skinner envisioned a science of behavior that would improve the human condition by understanding the environmental variables that influence behavior and designing environments that promote human flourishing. This vision is fundamentally compatible with assent-based practice. Skinner argued against coercive control, not because coercion does not work but because it produces negative side effects and because positive reinforcement-based approaches are more effective and more consistent with human welfare. Assent-based practice reflects this preference by prioritizing interventions that maintain willing participation through positive contingencies rather than forcing compliance through aversive ones. Assent is behavioral in the same way that all human action is behavioral: it is influenced by environmental variables and can be systematically promoted through thoughtful environmental design.
Several common practices raise assent concerns. Compliance training that targets following adult directives regardless of the child's preference can systematically override assent. Extinction procedures for escape-maintained behavior that block the individual from leaving an aversive situation deny the behavioral expression of assent withdrawal. Tolerance training for non-preferred activities can involve sustained exposure to conditions the individual has indicated they wish to leave. Certain prompting hierarchies that involve physical guidance over the individual's resistance override bodily autonomy. Scheduled-based approaches that require the individual to remain in specific activities for predetermined durations regardless of preference can also conflict with assent. Recognizing these conflicts is the first step toward developing more assent-consistent alternatives.
For nonverbal clients, assent must be defined through observable behavioral indicators that are individualized to the specific person. Indicators of assent may include approach behavior toward materials or activities, relaxed body posture, active engagement with tasks, eye contact or visual attention to materials, positive vocalizations, smiling or other positive facial expressions, and independent initiation of activity components. Indicators of assent withdrawal may include turning away from materials, physical withdrawal from the work area, pushing away materials, increased latency to respond, changes in body tension, crying or distress vocalizations, and self-injurious or aggressive behavior. Developing these definitions requires careful observation across multiple contexts and input from people who know the individual well.
In rare situations involving immediate safety concerns, temporary overriding of assent withdrawal may be necessary. Examples include preventing an individual from engaging in dangerous self-injurious behavior, completing a necessary medical procedure, or ensuring safety during an emergency situation. However, these instances should be the exception rather than the rule, should be time-limited, should involve the minimum level of override necessary, and should be followed immediately by efforts to restore the individual's sense of choice and control. Each instance should be documented and reviewed. If assent overrides are occurring frequently, this signals a need to re-evaluate the intervention approach rather than normalizing the practice.
From an antecedent perspective, assent can be promoted by arranging the environment to make participation attractive and voluntarily chosen. This includes offering meaningful choices, conducting preference assessments, providing advance notice of activities, pairing yourself with positive experiences, and embedding demands within preferred activities. From a consequence perspective, assent is maintained by ensuring that participation is richly reinforced and that the balance of positive to negative experiences within sessions strongly favors the positive. When assent withdrawal occurs, the consequence-based response of honoring the withdrawal by pausing or transitioning functions as negative reinforcement for communicating preferences, strengthening the individual's ability to influence their own experience.
Several factors contribute to the slow adoption of assent-based practice. Many behavior analysts received their training before assent was formally included in the Ethics Code and may lack the conceptual framework and practical skills for implementation. There is a persistent misconception that assent-based practice means allowing the client to avoid all demands, which creates resistance among practitioners concerned about treatment effectiveness. The field's historical emphasis on compliance as a foundational skill conflicts with assent-based thinking. Practical challenges around defining and measuring assent for nonverbal individuals create implementation barriers. And the pressure to demonstrate treatment progress through traditional metrics may discourage practitioners from prioritizing client willingness. Addressing these barriers requires systematic training, practical guidelines, and organizational support.
Emerging evidence and clinical observation suggest that honoring assent improves rather than hinders treatment outcomes. When clients are willing participants, they engage more actively with learning opportunities, show faster skill acquisition, demonstrate better generalization, and exhibit fewer challenging behaviors maintained by escape from aversive conditions. The therapeutic relationship is strengthened, which facilitates cooperation during more challenging aspects of treatment. While there may be short-term situations where honoring assent means a specific learning trial does not occur, the long-term trajectory of treatment tends to be more positive when the client's willingness is respected. Treatment delivered without assent may produce surface-level compliance but often fails to produce genuine, lasting behavior change.
Useful assent-related data include the percentage of session time during which assent indicators are present, the frequency, duration, and context of assent withdrawal episodes, the strategies used to restore willing participation and their effectiveness, the specific activities or conditions associated with higher rates of assent withdrawal, changes in assent patterns over time, and the relationship between assent data and traditional target behavior data. These data should be reviewed alongside treatment progress data during clinical decision-making. Increasing rates of assent withdrawal should be treated as a clinically significant finding that warrants intervention modification, even if traditional target behavior data appear satisfactory.
Group settings present unique challenges for assent-based practice but do not make it impossible. Strategies include building choice opportunities into group activities so individuals can exercise preferences within a shared structure, using visual schedules that provide predictability about group activities, embedding preferred activities throughout the group session to maintain a positive balance, creating designated spaces where individuals can take a break when they need to withdraw, training staff to recognize individual assent withdrawal indicators even in a group context, and designing group activities that allow for differentiated participation so individuals can engage at their own level and pace. The goal is not to eliminate all structure but to ensure that structure includes sufficient flexibility to respect individual preferences.
Begin by understanding the parent's perspective and concerns. Parents who expect compliance often have valid reasons, including safety concerns, social expectations, or past experiences where their child's non-compliance led to negative outcomes. Explain that assent-based practice does not mean the child never follows directions or that demands are never placed. Rather, it means that the child's willingness is actively promoted through positive strategies, that their communication about preferences is honored whenever safely possible, and that the overall therapeutic experience is designed to be positive. Share data showing that children who are willing participants tend to learn faster and maintain skills better. Discuss specific examples of how assent can be promoted within the context of the goals the parent has identified. Most parents are receptive when they understand that assent-based practice produces better outcomes for their child.
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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.