From Compliance to Commitment: Seven Habits of the Highly Effective Caregiver Trainer

What You’ll Learn & How It Applies to Your Practice

Caregiver training is one of the most clinically essential — and most commonly avoided — components of ABA service delivery. BCBAs are trained to design behavior programs, but rarely trained to sell them. When caregivers disengage, resist, or simply don’t follow through, the instinct is often to label it noncompliance. This presentation offers a different framework: that caregiver buy-in is not a fixed trait, but a clinical outcome that practitioners can systematically build. Drawing on principles of behavior change, motivational interviewing, and shaping, this session introduces seven evidence-based habits that transform caregiver training from a one-way instructional event into a collaborative, trust-driven process. Attendees will learn how to identify the most meaningful targets for family behavior change, hold honest conversations about barriers without damaging the therapeutic alliance, structure early wins that produce genuine reinforcement for caregivers, and use data visualization as a tool for sustaining momentum into more demanding programming. The session emphasizes a graduated approach: start small, build trust, demonstrate success, then expand.