Dignity, choice and assent
The learner is a person, and their willingness counts
- RBT
- BCaBA
- BCBA
What the obligation is
Dignity is one of the core principles, and it lives in ordinary details: speaking to someone rather than about them in their presence, protecting their privacy in front of other families, offering choices where the plan allows, and not running a person's day purely for the convenience of the setting. Assent is the specific version of this that comes up every session. A guardian gives consent; the learner gives or withholds assent, in whatever way they can — words, pushing materials away, turning their body, leaving. Assent withdrawal is information, not non-compliance, and a plan should say how to respond to it. Autistic adults have been consistent and public that compliance training which overrides those signals does lasting harm, and that critique has changed what good practice looks like.
In plain language
Treat the learner as a person. Give choices where you can. Watch for signs that they have had enough, and treat those signs as information rather than as defiance.
What this looks like
- Offering a choice of two activities where the program allows it.
- Pausing when a learner signals distress, and recording it for the supervisor.
- Talking to a learner about what is happening next, whether or not they speak.
- Not discussing a learner's toileting or behaviour where others can hear.
Where people get caught
- Reading every refusal as a behaviour to be worked through.
- Assuming consent from a guardian settles whether to continue in the moment.
- Prioritising trial counts over the learner's evident state.
- Talking about someone in the third person while they are sitting there.
If you are not sure
Treat a signal of withdrawal as real, respond the way the plan directs, and report the pattern. If the plan has nothing to say about assent, that is itself worth raising with your supervisor.
In the codes
- RBT Ethics Code (2.0) Section 2 — How you deliver services
- 2.01 Do no harm, and know your mandated-reporting duties
- 2.07 Act when a client's rights or safety are at risk
- Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts Section 2 — Your conduct in practice
- 2.01 Provide treatment that actually works
- 2.09 Involve clients and the people around them
- 2.11 Obtain informed consent, and assent where it applies
- Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts Section 3 — What you owe clients and stakeholders
- 3.01 Act in the client's interest, and know your reporting duties
On the exam
Terms used here
Situations where this comes up
Related topics
Written from
- bacb-ethics-code-2022 — Dignity and assent
- wolf-1978
Written from the codes' dignity principle, the social-validity literature (Wolf, 1978), and the published critique from autistic self-advocates. In our own words.
This entry has not yet been through independent review. Treat it as a draft, and read the official code for anything that matters.