Training Instructors to Support Assent and Assent Withdrawal During Instruction for Students with Disabilities

In recent years, there have been calls to action regarding the integration of compassionate care and assent into behavior analytic practice. Assent, in medical and educational interventions, is associated with an absence of coercion and with a willingness to engage. It is a core foundational value of humane and compassionate intervention across human service professions. A recent review of the research literature (Morris et al., 2021) revealed that attention to assent in applied behavior analytic (ABA) research is scarce. Critiques of the field have implied an inadequate focus on assent in clinical practice as well. There are definitional and measurement challenges associated with assent that are barriers to the integration of it into clinical work. In this study, behavioral skills training (BST) was used to teach instructors to identify individualized indices of assent and withdrawal of assent for learners in their care. The training emphasized verifying assent and adjusting instructional strategies when assent was withdrawn during discrete trial teaching (DTT). This work provides an empirical demonstration of training staff to honor both assent and its withdrawal in learners with multiple disabilities. Limitations and future directions are discussed in relation to measurement, training, and clinical application.