Responding Compassionately to Unexpected Behavior in Schools and Clinical Settings: A Panel Discussion

“Responding Compassionately to Unexpected Behavior in Schools and Clinical Settings: A Panel Discussion” offers 2 Ethics CEUs. Your instructors for this course are: Dr. Megan DeLeon (Miller), Bethany Creech, Hillary Laney and Nicola Schneider.

Applied Behavior Analysis has long relied on compliance-based practices to decrease behavioral challenges. Direct feedback from neurodivergent individuals about their experiences is more readily available to mainstream society through social media. This attention on past practices as well as recent research on assent-based procedures within the field of Applied Behavior Analysis is reshaping how we respond to distress behaviors in various environments. Staff in school-based and clinical settings continue to face an uphill battle when attempting to embed the values of trauma-assumed and compassionate care. Using skill-building, rather than escape extinction procedures early in the behavioral escalation cycle, we can not only prevent distress behaviors, but also increase coping and problem solving replacement behaviors. By understanding how and when to honor assent withdrawal we will be better equipped to respond to individuals who are in distress. In reframing our responses to distress behavior, we can leave behind outdated practices without compromising the effectiveness of interventions.