These answers draw in part from “LIVE from Nashville: Feedback in Supervisory Practice: Strategies for How to Give It and Get It” by Tyra Sellers, JD, PhD, BCBA-D (BehaviorLive), and extend it with peer-reviewed research from our library of 27,900+ ABA research articles. Clinical framing, BACB ethics code references, and cross-links below are synthesized by Behaviorist Book Club.
View the original presentation →Performance feedback addresses what the supervisee did — their specific behavior in a clinical or administrative task. Process feedback addresses how they did it — the quality of the approach, the clinical reasoning, the interpersonal manner. Developmental feedback addresses longer-term professional growth trajectories, connecting current performance to future competency targets. Relational feedback addresses the quality of the supervisory relationship itself, including communication patterns and collaboration. Each type serves a different function: performance and process feedback shape specific behaviors in the near term, while developmental and relational feedback support larger professional and interpersonal repertoires.
Specific feedback identifies a precisely described, observable behavior, the criterion it was evaluated against, and whether performance met or missed that criterion. Non-specific feedback names a general domain without behavioral precision. 'Your DTT was good' is non-specific. 'You delivered the reinforcer within two seconds of the correct response on all fifteen trials, which is within the criterion' is specific. For corrective feedback, specificity also requires describing the desired alternative: not just 'your prompting was incorrect' but 'on trials 3, 7, and 11 you provided the physical prompt before the supervisee had the opportunity to respond independently — next session, wait the full three seconds before prompting.'
Treat feedback reception as a behavioral target requiring explicit instruction and practice, not a disposition to wait and hope develops. Define the target behaviors operationally: maintaining composure, listening without interrupting, paraphrasing the feedback to confirm understanding, asking one clarifying question if needed, and stating what specific behavior change will follow. Use BST: describe the expected behaviors, model effective feedback reception in a role-play, have the supervisee practice receiving corrective feedback in a simulated scenario, then provide specific feedback on their reception behavior. Repeat with varied feedback content until the supervisee demonstrates fluent feedback reception under challenging conditions.
The OBM literature generally supports ratios in the range of 3:1 to 5:1 positive to corrective, but this is not a fixed prescription — the functionally appropriate ratio depends on the supervisee's skill level, the nature of the feedback context, and the reinforcement history of the supervisory relationship. New supervisees acquiring skills rapidly may benefit from very high positive feedback frequencies during early learning. Experienced supervisees maintaining established skills may not require as much positive feedback density. The key principle is that positive feedback should be specific and contingent, not vague and habitual, and that supervisors should be as deliberate about identifying what to confirm as about identifying what to correct.
Section 4.07 requires behavior analysts acting as supervisors to provide supervisees and trainees with feedback on their performance. Section 4.04 requires supervision to promote independent professional performance — which requires that feedback be substantive enough to shape the behaviors needed for competent independent practice. Section 4.05 requires supervisors to monitor performance and provide feedback at regular intervals. Collectively, these sections establish feedback not as an optional component of a warm supervisory relationship but as a professional and ethical obligation that must be delivered even when it is corrective and uncomfortable.
Upward feedback requires structural mechanisms, not just open invitations. Anonymous surveys using validated supervisory quality measures allow supervisees to provide honest input without risk of social consequences. Structured end-of-supervision-cycle reviews with specific questions about feedback clarity, goal alignment, and supervisory accessibility provide more targeted data. Inviting supervisees to identify one thing they found most helpful and one thing they would change in the next supervision period normalizes bidirectional evaluation. The critical variable is what happens after feedback is received: supervisors who respond to upward feedback with visible changes to their practice demonstrate that the process is real, increasing the likelihood of honest future input.
Significant errors require immediate corrective feedback delivered with precision and composure. Begin by ensuring the immediate clinical situation is addressed — any necessary steps to protect the client take priority. Then, in a private, non-public setting, describe the error specifically (what occurred, under what conditions, and what the consequence was or could have been), the correct procedure, and the plan for ensuring the error does not recur. Maintain a factual, behavioral focus throughout — the goal is to change future behavior, not to express disapproval of the supervisee as a person. Document the conversation, including the corrective plan, and follow up at the next supervision session to confirm the supervisee has implemented the change.
Remote supervision requires deliberate adaptation of feedback delivery methods. Video observations of clinical sessions allow for time-stamped written feedback that the supervisee can review alongside the recording, improving the connection between feedback and the specific behavior it references. Scheduled video calls for feedback delivery maintain the interpersonal quality that written feedback alone cannot provide. Structured self-monitoring forms completed by the supervisee before feedback calls ensure the supervisee has already engaged in reflective evaluation before receiving external feedback. The primary risks of remote feedback are loss of nonverbal context and increased latency between observation and feedback — both require explicit compensatory design.
An emotionally reactive response to corrective feedback is itself a behavioral target that requires a supervisory response — but it is not a reason to soften or omit the substantive feedback content. In the moment, acknowledge the emotional response without amplifying it: 'I can see this is difficult to hear' is sufficient without further exploration during the feedback session. Continue with the specific behavioral content of the feedback. After the session, debrief about the feedback reception behavior itself using BST to teach more adaptive responses for future occurrences. If emotional reactivity to corrective feedback is a chronic pattern, add it as a target on the supervisee's individualized plan and address it directly.
Teaching feedback delivery skills follows the same BST structure as teaching any clinical skill. Provide a conceptual framework for feedback types and specificity criteria, model effective and ineffective feedback delivery using scripted role-play scenarios, have the supervisee practice delivering feedback to you in a simulated context, then provide specific feedback on the quality of their feedback delivery — which closes a feedback-on-feedback loop that is both instructive and demonstrates the techniques you are teaching. Assign structured observation tasks where the supervisee attends a session specifically to practice feedback delivery and reports their observations back at the next meeting.
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LIVE from Nashville: Feedback in Supervisory Practice: Strategies for How to Give It and Get It — Tyra Sellers · 1 BACB Supervision CEUs · $19.99
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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.