Association for Behavior Analysis International

Presenting Author: Dr. Matthew T. Brodhead

At ABAI's 2026 Behavior Technician Conference in February 2026, Dr. Matthew T. Brodhead presented Compassionate Care, Assent-Based ABA, and Other Fairy Tales from the Front Lines. Of course, compassionate care and consumer assent are of utmost importance in the delivery of high-quality behavior-analytic services. Though interest in each has (rightly) increased over the last 5 years, little is known about how both technological constructs apply to and can aid in service delivery. Providers, including behavior technicians, should understand this, and be prepared to acknowledge gaps when creating systems of service delivery that are compassionate and consider consumer assent whenever it is appropriate and feasible to do so. Therefore, the purpose of this presentation is to introduce the topics of compassionate care and assent, and then provide behavior-analytic conceptualizations and discuss ethical considerations and nuances associated with each. Ultimately, the author hopes that by the end of the presentation listeners are better equipped as skeptical science-based practitioners to implement behavior-analytic strategies that most definitely align with the values of compassion and honoring consumer assent.

Instruction Level: Basic

Target Audience: Behavior technicians

Learning Objectives:

1. Participants will describe "compassionate care" from a behavior-analytic perspective
2. Participants will describe "assent" from a behavior-analytic perspective
3. Participants will describe the ethical challenges associated with implementing strategies or technologies that lack an evidence-base