When Assent-Based Care Goes Too Permissive

**This is a non-CEU course**

Worried that assent-based care means letting clients do whatever they want? You’re not alone, and you’re not wrong to ask.

As the field moves away from rigid, compliance-based practice (hooray!!), the pendulum can swing too far toward “no rules, anything goes.” In this candid, unscripted Q&A, Liisa Podosek, Hillary Laney, and Kalyn Riggs answer real questions from practitioners. They draw on years of building assent-based care across a national organization, and they talk about where the balance actually sits.

What we cover:

• Honoring assent vs. reinforcing avoidance: A simple way to decide whether to encourage persistence, modify the demand, or back off when a learner says “not right now.”
• Getting unstuck: What to check first when a learner withdraws assent the moment you engage. Spoiler: it’s usually reinforcement and how adults show up during it, not the learner.
• You’re still a behavior analyst: Why shaping, first-then boards, and an enriched environment still belong in assent-based care.
• Where boundaries fit: What a boundary actually is (and isn’t). Also: “I can’t let you” vs. “I’m sorry, we have to,” and handling non-negotiables like diaper changes with dignity.
• Why “no” only at the hardest moments backfires: How a yes-only environment can set learners up for bigger escalations, and how to build in practice with disappointment.
• Setting boundaries early: The “steam, not a volcano” idea, and what the data looks like when boundaries are held consistently.
• Assent-based care in schools: Navigating consultation with school teams, holding your values while staying collaborative, and why it looks different (but still works) in a classroom.