Cultural responsiveness
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creating a safe, inclusive environment where differences are respected and honored
Cultural responsiveness refers to creating a safe, inclusive environment where differences are respected and honored.
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Results in establishing safe and inclusive environments viewing differences as strengths.
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EX: During initial discussions with new clients, Malcolm makes a point to acknowledge that cultural factors have an impact on various aspects of treatment, such as goals and procedures. He invites his clients to be open and honest with him about their culture and preferences so that he can provide the best treatment possible for them. He lets them know that no one on the team will judge them for their differences. This is an example of:
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Cultural incapacity
The inability of the dominant culture to account for cultural differences and needs.
A situation where the dominant culture within a system does not acknowledge differences and remains biased toward the dominant culture
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Cultural incapacity refers to a dominant culture being unable to account for the differences and needs of a minority culture.
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Ex: Despite laws against discrimination in housing, homes owned by people of color often appraise for much less than those owned by white people, regardless of neighborhood.
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Ex: Chad, a clinical supervisor, explains to his team that the clinic doesn’t have the budget to use kosher foods as edible reinforcers.
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Chad has not allocated funds in the clinic’s budget to provide kosher foods as reinforcers for good behavior, failing to accommodate the learners’ cultural dietary needs. He only states that the clinic’s budget is unable to pay for them.
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Cultural incapacity es la incapacidad del sistema o de la cultura dominante para reconocer y responder adecuadamente a las diferencias y necesidades culturales, lo que produce desigualdades o discriminación. En este caso: Aunque existen leyes contra la discriminación, las viviendas de personas de color siguen recibiendo tasaciones más bajas, lo que refleja una desigualdad sistémica.
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Cultural blindness
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A failure to recognize cultural differences or failure to believe that they are relevant. Treating all the same without acknowledging
Ex: Ronald says, “schools should have a white history month since there is a black history month.”
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Ex: Pamela is working with a family whose primary language is Spanish. She only speaks English with the family and does not get an interpreter because she says she does not want to treat them differently and feels this will help them speak English more fluently. In this example, Pamela is not acknowledging the family's culture, and though she feels she is treating them equally, she is being insensitive to their specific needs.
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Ex: During a training session with one of her students Bailey says, “Behavior is behavior, regardless of culture. Everyone responds to reinforcement no matter their ethnicity.” Bailey‘s statement illustrates her inability to see that culture can affect behavior; she seems to see culture as irrelevant
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Cultural humility
A willingness to become self-aware and learn about biases, power imbalances, and inequalities in our society.
Cultural humility refers to the willingness to self-reflect and learn about power imbalances, biases, and inequalities in our society.
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Cultural competence
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A set of behaviors, attitudes, and policies that enable an individual to work effectively in cross-cultural situations.
Cultural competence refers to an individual’s or organization’s ability to be effective in cross-cultural situations due to their values, beliefs, attitudes, and behaviors.
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Individual; organizational
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Cultural humility requires us to ask questions at both the _______ and _______ level.
At the individual level, cultural humility tasks us with looking at ourselves; including how our own biases and experiences influence our interactions with the world around us. At the organizational level, the goal of cultural humility is to promote an organizational culture of humility. For example, do colleagues promote positive interactions with others who are different from themselves? Additionally, the organizational level might look at staffing and hiring practices, pay discrepancies, and discrepancies in opportunities for professional growth within the organization. While the community and the culture at large are affected by our actions, the levels identified by Wright (2019) are individual and organizational.
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The questions from Wright (2019) can help us achieve:
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An adoption of cultural humility
Wright (2019) can guide practitioners to adopt cultural humility, and develop clear, concrete goals about how to gain that humility and progress towards that growth. For example, Wright asks about professional development and whether those opportunities promote equality or promote biases.
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In the Gatzunis (2020) study, each of the following skills were targeted except:
Interviewing skills - Functional assessment skills - Cultural considerations
* Behavioral skills training (ANSWER)
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The Gatzunis (2020) study
Focused on several target areas, including assessment skills, cultural skills, and general interviewing skills.
The Gatzunis (2020) study focused on several skills. These skills included conducting interviews during functional assessment procedures, providing compassionate and empathic care, and following cultural recommendations made towards ABA practitioners. NO - Behavioral skills training was used to teach these skills but was not a skill that was taught explicitly.
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The training methods used within the Gatzunis (2020) study included:
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Correct
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The typical components of behavioral skills training (BST) were used in the Gatzunis study. These included providing oral and written descriptions of the skills to be taught, rehearsal and practice by the practitioners, and performance feedback following skill implementation.
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Behavioral skills training
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Behavioral skills training was used to teach these skills but was not a skill that was taught explicitly. It was NOT TARGET in The Gatzunis (2020) study.
Cultural considerations
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EX: Everett and Debra are ensuring that the client will be able to receive services in their preferred language, which falls under the cultural considerations category.
Culture
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Cultural Skills
Ex: BCBA Saskia works with her supervisee, Adam, to discuss the goals for a new client. They schedule several sessions around the family’s religious practices, with goals that include attending their church’s community events. She asks Adam to review materials about the church’s practices before attending the events with the family. Which area from the Gatzunis (2020) study is being targeted when teaching cultural humility in this scenario? - Culture
Culture is the area from the study that Saskia targets by providing materials for Adam to review prior to attending the church events with the family, ensuring he grows in cultural competency. This is an example of teaching cultural humility and will result in a treatment plan that respects and includes the family’s culture.
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Assessment skills
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Assessment refers to record review, communication skills, preferences, etc.
EX Ellalee and her supervisor practice implementing various assessment procedures before meeting with the client to conduct the assessment.
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In this example, Ellalee and her supervisor are focusing on practicing Ellalee’s assessment skills.
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General interviewing skills
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The use of backchannel and nodding is an example of General interviewing. Backchannel and nodding are subvocal behaviors that occur during interviewing. For example, a BCBA might nod their head as the caregiver is describing how their child performs at school. Nodding is subvocal and indicates that the interviewer is attending to the interviewee’s responses.
General interviewing targets include empathetic, nodding, interrupting, etc.;
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EX: During a group training session, Brent models practical interviewing skills for his supervisees, including nodding, showing minimal expression, and summarizing information at the appropriate time.
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List at least two potential targets related to general interviewing:
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Responding to feedback - Emphatic statements
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”Summarizing information, requesting feedback and correction, interrupting, or nodding and minimal expression”
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Targets for interviewing individuals can be just as important as any other cultural targets. These targets include using expressions, the impact of interruptions (potentially including interrupting mom compared to dad), summarizing information to ensure you are clear and understanding of the caregiver's statements, and requesting correction and feedback as needed.
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Cultural targets addressed in Gatzunis (2020) include preferred language, assumptions regarding values (i.e., stereotypes), roles of family members and “gender norms,” or offensive words and statements (i.e., making an off-topic “joke” about some religion). Empathic statements and responding to feedback are included in the general interviewing targets.
Supervision embedding
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Supervision embedding refers to making the development of cultural awareness a standard part of supervisory activities. In this example, Ling Ma’s supervision practices include regular contact with literature that will facilitate her supervisees’ cultural awareness. Supervision embedding ensures that cultural components are a part of the supervision process.
EX: Ling Ma is responsible for the oversight of several BCaBAs in her agency. Every month, she assigns a journal article or book chapter for them to read and designates one BCaBA to spend 10 minutes presenting the main points of the assigned reading. This is followed by group discussion. Ling makes certain that at least four articles per year are related to diversity or cultural competence.
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Training
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A strategy that organizations can use to support the development of their employees’ cultural awareness. In this example, Sharon ensures the organization’s onboarding process includes training on cultural issues relevant to the agency’s clients.
Training refers to an agency’s (or company’s) specific guidelines, classes, etc., that they use to increase cultural competence in their staff members.
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EX: Sharon, a BCBA, is responsible for onboarding new employees. She assigns all new employees an article to read about overcoming language barriers when working with immigrant families. Later, she shows them a video of her using techniques from the article while speaking with a person whose primary language is different from her own. Afterward, the new employees role play using the techniques with one another while Sharon observes and provides feedback. This is an example of which organizational strategy for developing cultural awareness? En este caso, Sharon no está supervisando a empleados de forma continua; está realizando una capacitación inicial (onboarding).
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Social validity assessments
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Social validity assessments help develop cultural awareness by ensuring that clients have opportunities to provide feedback about all aspects of the services they are receiving. Social validity assessments identify whether the family finds the treatment meaningful.
EX: the provider uses regular surveys to assess the social validity of their services.
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Ex: Jessica accepts a transferred case. She evaluates the treatment strategies, looks at the data displays, and reviews the parent-satisfaction surveys. She asks the family if they find the interventions and changes meaningful.
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Cultural officer.
Someone who consults with staff members regarding cultural issues and leads the way in developing cultural training.
What kind of intervention is appointing a cultural officer?
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An organizational intervention
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Organizations can take steps to train and supervise others in a way that promotes cultural competence and awareness of differences. Appointing a cultural officer would be an intervention by an organization.
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A social validity intervention and supervision support are also organizational interventions that can be implemented along with appointment of a cultural officer.
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Parents were also asked to provide comments about what may contribute to their concerns about their child’s behavior analyst. These concerns included having their own agenda, underestimating the child’s ability, focusing too much on problem behaviors and skill deficits, failing to communicate, being authoritative, seeming too busy or distracted, having unfavorable opinions of other professions interfering in treatment, interrupting parents, and using too much technical language.
Having unfavorable opinions of other professions
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Ex: A client's mother has attempted several times to discuss interventions suggested by the OT with her child's BCBA. The mother feels it would benefit her child if the OT and BCBA collaborated. The BCBA only cites research on ABA and refuses to discuss OT procedures. Which action by the BCBA may be contributing to the problem?
Seeming too busy or distracted - Using too much technical language -- Underestimating the child’s ability. - Interfering in treatment - Having unfavorable opinions of other professions - Being authoritative
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In this example, the BCBA refusing to discuss OT procedures and letting his/her opinions of OT interfere with treatment could create problems in the relationship with the family.
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• Interfering in treatment: La conducta problemática específica es rechazar la colaboración con otra profesión, no interferir directamente en un tratamiento.
• Being authoritative: Aunque podría parecer inflexible, la clave del escenario es su actitud hacia otra profesión.
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Using too much technical language that the family does not understand
Using too much technical language is an example of a factor that can contribute to problems in therapeutic relationship. EX: Desiree’s reference to VB-MAPP levels is confusing to the client’s family. Instead, she should translate the levels into everyday language that will make sense to the family.
Underestimating the child’s ability
Dreyman works with a 16-year-old learner who does not have a verbal repertoire. The mother says she wants to be able to communicate with her son. Dreyman says that, while they can implement a simple functional-communication training program to teach the child to request preferred items, it’s unlikely he will ever have complex conversations.
The behavior analyst underestimates the learner’s ability by saying the child will never have complex conversations.
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Focusing too much on challenging behavior
Ex: an example of that would be if Dreyman only considered behavior to be reduced and identified no targets for increase.
Focusing too much on the child’s deficits
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Creating their own agenda about the direction of the child’s program
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Collaboration
Collaboration is all about working together with others.
Ex: Sarai’s client mentioned that a primary concern of their family is that they cannot attend regular church services on Sundays, due to the client’s loud vocalizations. Sarai is not a religious person and, thus, this is not an important goal for her. However, it is important to the client and their family, so Sarai focuses on understanding why it’s a concern and how she can help the family regularly attend church.
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This includes seeking caregiver ideas and approval, as well as avoiding judgments. In this scenario, Sarai recognized her own biases but did not let them affect her services. In this example, there is no explicit discussion of empathy (i.e., acknowledging and respecting other’s feelings) or positive social interactions.
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Empathy
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Empathy Statement
Empathic statements include those statements which show an understanding and value of another’s values, opinions, and experiences. In this example, the BCBA clearly values the father’s input and is empathetic toward his recent experience. This can help build rapport and trust, as well as a better understanding of how outside contingencies might be influencing their behavior during interviews and sessions.
Ex:During a parent interview, the client’s father states that the family moved from their previous home after his spouse passed away. The BCBA states that she is sorry for the family’s loss and that the transition and experience sounds like it was very challenging.
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In this example, the year anniversary of a spouse’s passing might be a trigger for the other spouse, leading them to cancel sessions or withdraw during parent training sessions.
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Compassion
Es sentir preocupación por el sufrimiento de alguien y desear ayudar. Aquí no se enfatiza el sufrimiento, sino el respeto por las metas y valores de la familia.
Positive social interactions:
Se refiere a habilidades de comunicación positiva, como escuchar activamente, ser amable o establecer una buena relación. Eso no es el foco principal del escenario.
Communication skills
Communication skills for building cultural competence include developing relationship-building skills including how to address different family members and becoming skilled in engaging family members. In this example, Riley has identified that it is important in this client’s culture to engage all generations in decisions that affect the family. EX: After observing the family interactions, Dom realized that Cleo’s grandfather would need to be on board with the treatment plan in addition to the parents. Dom saw that the family based their cooperation on the grandfather’s opinions. Dom is using which strategy for building and defining cultural competence. ¿Con quién debo comunicarme y cómo debo involucrarlo?
Perception
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Knowledge
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Knowledge strategies for building cultural competence include gaining knowledge about practices that are common in the client’s culture and letting this understanding guide our clinical decisions. Knowledge refers to gaining an understanding of the history and culture (i.e., values, beliefs, and practices) of diverse children and families.
EX: Riley, a BCBA, learns during an intake interview that the teenage client still sleeps in the bed with their parents every night. Riley collects information to learn if this is a typical practice in this family’s culture.
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In this example, Riley seeks out cultural information to guide their approach to a potential target behavior.
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Ex: Cecilia just began working with a Native American family living on a reservation. She is unfamiliar with life on a reservation, so she seeks to learn more about the culture.
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Ex: Marcella accepts a client who attends a local Muslim school. She asks staff members for materials about common Muslim practices so she can study the information before her first client session. Marcella seeks to gain knowledge on the cultural beliefs her new client may have that could affect treatment.
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Awareness strategies
Awareness strategies can include engaging in self-reflection, determining how ready you are to serve a population, and immersing yourself in the culture of your client. Awareness strategies refers to the need for self-reflection, preparedness, cultural immersion, and other approaches that increase one’s cultural competency.
ASHA’s Policies and Procedures Tool
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The policies and procedures tool is used to rate an agency’s policies and procedures.
Ex: My agency/program has a mission statement which states that all persons shall receive appropriate services.
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My agency has an EOE policy is an item on the policies and procedures tool.
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ASHA’s Service Delivery Tool
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The service-delivery tool instructs practitioners to rate statements from “Things I always do” to “Things I rarely do,” such as: “I include the clients and their families as partners in determining outcomes for treatment.” Ex: I provide written information for clients to take home in their preferred languages;
I include the clients and their families as partners in determining outcomes for treatment;
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I recognize differences in narrative styles and pragmatic behaviors that vary across cultures;
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I learn about acceptable behaviors and customs that are prevalent in my clients’ cultures
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I consider my clients’ beliefs in both traditional and alternative medicines when I prescribe a treatment regimen.”
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ASHA’s Personal Reflection Tool.
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This checklist helps practitioners assess their own views of cultural differences in order to work on being more culturally competent.
“My treatment decisions are sensitive to cultural variables.” This Personal cultural competence tool contains this statement
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Ex: “I treat all of my clients with respect for their culture;
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I do not impose my beliefs and value systems on my clients, their family members, or their friends;
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I believe that it is acceptable to use a language other than English in the U.S.;
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I accept my clients’ decisions as to the degree to which they choose to acculturate into the dominant culture.”
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I Understand that a client’s use of a foreign accent is not a reflection of their intellectual capacity
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I understand that views of the aging process might influence the client’s decisions are items on the personal reflection tool.
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Ex: I learn about acceptable behaviors and customs that are prevalent in my clients’ cultures
Ex: I am driven to respond to others’ insensitive comments or behaviors
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Ex: I provide services to clients are GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, or questioning) – (refleja la disposición personal del profesional para atender a poblaciones diversas).
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Ex: I ask clients’ family members and friends about the clients’ ability to use their native language(s)
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Ex: My agency/program provides materials that are health literate
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Ex: My program actively recruits bilingual employees
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Identify areas to improve compassionate care:
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In the Taylor et al. (2018) article, researchers surveyed parents regarding their experiences with behavior analysts and developed a list of areas for improvement in compassionate care. Areas of improvement listed in listening and compassion included compromising during a disagreement, inquiring about satisfaction, and clarifying roles. Areas of improvement identified in empathy and compassion included the ability to show care about the entire family, acknowledging mistakes or treatment failures, being patient, and being reassuring. Providing credentials would not demonstrate a sense of compassion. Convincing a caregiver to accept ABA is not a compassionate way to approach care and treatment and can be considered coercive.
Inquiring about satisfaction
Inquiring about satisfaction refers to gathering information on the family’s view of the services provided.
Role clarification
Ex: Freya works in a family home, and her treatment program has helped the child demonstrate great progress. When Freya arrives, the parents greet her and retreat to another room. She worries the family is not participating in services, and she discusses her concerns with her BCBA. The BCBA calls a team meeting to discuss parent involvement in sessions. Which area should the team improve upon for a more-involved therapeutic relationship?
Role clarification ensures that all treatment team participants are informed of, and understand, the responsibilities of each team member. The BCBA should ensure that the parents are aware of the expectations placed on them during the treatment process.
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Being reassuring
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Compromising during a disagreement
When disagreements occur, it is important to identify compromises that can protect the rights and preferences of everyone involved.
Ex: Kyle lives in a supported living apartment with one other client as a roommate. Lately he has been getting very agitated when his support staff turn off the loud rap music he loves listening to. The behavior analyst says that Kyle should be allowed to listen to his preferred music. The staff believe the music is violent and has a bad effect on the other resident in the home. Nonetheless, the behavior analyst insists that Kyle is within his rights to listen to whatever music he likes during free time. Given this scenario, which area should be improved upon to improve the therapeutic relationship through compassionate care?
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In this example, the behavior analyst failed to consider any possible compromises. This therapeutic relationship could be improved by exploring alternatives, such as earbuds or schedules, that could allow Kyle to enjoy his music without disturbing others.
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Demonstrating care about the entire family
Results of parent surveys in a 2018 article by Taylor et al. indicated parents felt behavior analysts could show empathy and compassion by demonstrating that they care about the entire family and not just the individual client in services.
Ex: Merril is working with a client who has two older siblings. The parent often spends time discussing how treatment takes their time away from the other children and would like to balance their time better. Merril disregards the concerns and quickly shifts the focus back to the client. How could Merril improve compassionate care?
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In this example, the practitioner failed to acknowledge concern for the siblings of the client by not spending some time listening to the parent discuss his/her other children. He could improve compassionate care by discussing other family members, which could be beneficial in treatment planning for the client. Inquiring about satisfaction, role clarification, and acknowledging mistakes or treatment failures are important components of providing compassionate care; however, these are not demonstrated in this example.
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Being patient
Being patient involves the BCBA and team members demonstrating patience with families and clients throughout the treatment process, in addition to meetings they attend.
Joining with the family
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Behavioral assessment
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Acknowledging mistakes or treatment failures
Mistakes are bound to happen in therapeutic relationships. When they do, it’s important to acknowledge them in order to repair the relationship and move forward.
Acknowledging a mistake or treatment failure occurs when expectations are not met, or when errors occur during the treatment process.
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Ex: Alexis receives a complaint from a family who has been receiving in-home services for only a few weeks. The family is upset because technicians are wearing their outside shoes inside the home. They say they have a “shoes-off” household and no one is respecting their wishes on this issue. Alexis says there’s no way the technicians could have known that, but she will direct them to remove their shoes on future visits. Given this scenario, which area should be improved upon to improve the therapeutic relationship through compassionate care? - Alexis failed to acknowledge the oversight she and her technicians made.
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Learning from other disciplines to promote a community of practice
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Allocating meeting time to discuss cultural factors
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Seeking new experiences by exposing oneself to unfamiliar traditions
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One of the suggestions Miller et al. recommend is to seek experiences that are different from yours. This means learning about other cultures, people, and traditions that are different from your own.
Ex: Julio hears about a training event hosted by his local university on holiday celebrations of North African people and cultures. This is not something he is familiar with, so he decides to make it a point to attend. What best describes what Julio is doing? - Here, Julio decides to attend a training session that is focused on the culture of people with whom he is not familiar
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Area of Awareness described in the Vancouver Cultural Competence Self-Assessment Checklist?
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Accept ambiguity
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Awareness - (Conciencia)
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Accept ambiguity – Aceptar la incertidumbre
Competence Self-Assessment Checklist addresses our awareness and knowledge of culture and cultural differences. Some examples of awareness include our acceptance of ambiguity or uncertainty in cross-cultural situations, our awareness of any stereotypes we may have, our awareness of social justice issues for a given population, and our awareness of certain privileges we may have if we are white.
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Some examples of awareness include our acceptance of ambiguity or uncertainty in cross-cultural situations, our awareness of any stereotypes we may have, our awareness of social justice issues for a given population, and our awareness of certain privileges we may have if we are white.
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Sentirse cómodo con la incertidumbre cuando interactúas con personas de otras culturas. Por ejemplo: No asumir que entiendes completamente una cultura. Aceptar que puede haber diferencias que todavía no comprendes. Estar dispuesto a hacer preguntas y aprender en lugar de sacar conclusiones. Reconocer los propios estereotipos o prejuicios. Ser consciente de los problemas de justicia social que afectan a determinadas poblaciones. Reconocer los privilegios que uno puede tener (por ejemplo, privilegios asociados a ser una persona blanca).
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• Awareness = Reflexiono sobre mis actitudes, prejuicios y conciencia.
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Which of the following is an area of Knowledge described in the Vancouver Cultural Competence Self-Assessment Checklist?
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Know my limitations
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Know my limitations
The Vancouver Cultural Competence Self-Assessment Checklist addresses our awareness and knowledge of culture and cultural differences. Some examples of knowledge listed in the Checklist are an understanding of how a culture can change and the influences it can have, a willingness to continue learning more about our clients’ cultures, an understanding of how discrimination and attitudes towards a certain culture can encourage violence toward them, and an ability to understand limitations of our knowledge of different cultures.
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Some examples of knowledge listed in the Checklist are an understanding of how a culture can change and the influences it can have, a willingness to continue learning more about our clients’ cultures, an understanding of how discrimination and attitudes towards a certain culture can encourage violence toward them, and an ability to understand limitations of our knowledge of different cultures.
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• Knowledge = Reconozco lo que sé y lo que no sé sobre otras culturas y continúo aprendiendo.
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Commitment to lifelong learning
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Develop a plan for improvement
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A plan for improvement should be developed that includes specific actions that will be taken to improve on the areas. Every area with a score of 2 or less should be addressed. Taking the test again in a few months without developing a specific plan will likely not lead to substantial improvement. Telling one’s clients is not the best approach, especially if no plan of improvement has been developed and followed.
Ex: Thiago scored a 1 on two categories of the Culturally Responsive Supervision Self-Assessment Tool. What should he do to address these areas?
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Complete a 500–1,000-word paper discussing the scores
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Paddy completed the CRSS tool. What is the suggested next step?
Retake the self-assessment to ensure accuracy
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Develop an action plan
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Nothing, completing the self-assessment is the final step
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Complete a 500–1,000-word paper discussing the scores
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After completing the self-assessment tool it is suggested to write a paper to discuss the scores and assess how one came to those answers. This is a good way to integrate concepts in a more specific individualized way. Retaking the self-assessment is not recommended at this point. An action plan should be developed, though it is suggested to develop the plan after the written paper. Completion of the self-assessment is the first step, not the final step.
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Prioritization of targets
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Considering cultural impact on prioritization of targets means we determine what is most important to the client and family and address those concerns first. Culture can impact many areas of service delivery. In this example, the difference in the client’s culture and the BCBA’s culture is affecting which targets are selected for change.
Ex: A client’s family regularly attends services at a local mosque. Lately, the client has been screaming during the service. While discussing program goals, the BCBA states that behavior related to the mosque should not be included, as religion is not something behavior analysis should address. The example does not describe any impact on the procedures or consequences being used or the client’s access to services.
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Ex: Trinity collects information about challenges the client family faces. The mom says their child engages in high rates of aggression, property destruction, spitting, and self-injurious behavior. She asks Trinity to focus the treatment plan on spitting for it’s considered incredibly disrespectful to others.
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Use of procedures
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Procedures to use
Terry, a BCBA, is working with a family to teach their child a selection-based communication method. Terry believes that he should use PECS. The child's mother feels that carrying a book around to communicate is not normal and wants to use a tablet, instead.
In this example, the parent expressed disapproval of the use of PECS, so the BCBA must be sensitive to this and work with the family on another procedure.
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Accessibility to services
Accessibility of services is how culture impacts a family’s comfort level with: (a) a diagnosis, (b) an intervention, and/or (c) their comfort level with others providing services in the home. Ex: Sofia, a BCBA, is working with a client from a large family. Her client's father is embarrassed and concerned about his family’s reaction to his son's need for therapy. He refuses to interact with Sofia or participate in treatment.
Treatmente expectations
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Punishing/rewarding
Considering cultural impact on what is punishing or rewarding means that stimuli may or may not function as a punisher or reinforcer depending on the culture of the family. What is punishing/rewarding can be influenced by culture. For example, social praise can be aversive in some cultures, and types of punishment can be culturally determined.
Behavioral consequences
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Provide feedback in their next supervision meeting and assign additional training on cultural competence
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Ex: Tali is a BCBA overseeing Sam, a BCaBA. During an overlap, Tali hears Sam tell an RBT that their client needs to learn to make eye contact to be successful, even if parents find direct eye contact rude. Given this scenario, what would be the best course of action to take?
Sam’s advice to the RBT fails to consider the client’s culture and preferences. This oversight isn’t immediately harmful to the client, so interruption of the session or termination are not warranted. However, Tali should address the issue afterward and take steps to improve her supervisees’ cultural competence.
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Observe interactions with families
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Assign articles and reviews
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Use rubrics
Miguel is supervising two students working toward BCBA hours. He is working to embed the concepts into their supervision. What are ways he could do that?
Observe interactions with families - Assign articles and reviews - Use rubrics
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Ways to embed concepts into supervision are assigning articles, creating assignments, conducting assessments, using rubrics, and observing interactions with families.
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Students may make materials, but this is not embedding concepts into supervision work. Making materials does not lead to further understanding and application of concepts.
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In the case of gifts and gift-giving, what factors are important to balance?
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“We need to balance allowing a family to express their gratitude in a way that doesn’t disrespect them while also working to align ourselves with the ethical code”
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There is a constant balancing act within these scenarios. We must balance the fact that the family wants to express their gratitude while aligning ourselves with the ethical code. If we accept all gifts and ignore the ethical code, this has obvious ethical and practical considerations. If we decline all gifts by rigidly adhering to the ethical code, we may push our clients away and, thus, negatively impact their ability to receive services.
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Why is it important not to force our ideas of what goals might be best on our clients?
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Because they are the primary decision makers
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“We have to recognize that what is important and valued by us may be assessed differently by our clients. We should not impose our vales or assumptions on a client. Our experiences can guide us and our decisions, but we must put the client’s values first. Our services are meant to improve our client’s quality of life, whatever that means to them”
Each of our clients and supervisees are different. They come from different backgrounds, have different experiences, and have different values, goals, and feelings. By assuming that one group of clients will all want the same thing, we (by definition) are ignoring the individuality of that client. Remember, what is important to one client may not be important to another. Because of this, we need to be open, honest, and promote transparency when working with clients to determine how we can best help them achieve goals important to them.
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