Affectively-Align & Culturally Aware ABA Notebook

Hello everyone,

In a couple of months, I’ll be boarding a plane to Lisbon for the ABAI conference. As a graduate student buried in textbooks, ABA journals and BCBA courseworks, the thought of being surrounded by the leading minds in our field is equally thrilling and intimidating.

I’ve been dreaming about what I would say if I were given just a few minutes on that stage. Not as an expert with all the answers, but as a student who passionately believes in the future of our science and its potential to be more inclusive, holistic, and compassionate. Here it goes…

The Unasked Questions: A Student’s Call for Evolution

Hello, and good morning. I am an MS ABA student, part of the next generation you are entrusting with the future of ABA. We inherit a powerful science, but also its significant public skepticism. To steward it responsibly, we need clarity. I don’t have a speech; I have questions— the ones we are grappling within the classrooms, clinics, homes and community.

First, on Methodology: How do we move beyond the data?

1. Where is the line between procedural fidelity and a lack of empathy? Can we standardize moments of genuine connection within our protocols?
2. What is our field’s consensus on blending qualitative data with quantitative, narrative-driven assessment to create a truly holistic understanding of our clients, not just their behaviors?
3. Beyond social validity measures, how are we systematically integrating the client’s felt experience of therapy as a core success metric?

Second, on Public Perception: How do we heal our reputation?

1. The “shock collar” analogy is abhorrent to us, yet it persists. What is our field’s direct, unified, and actionable plan to publicly demonstrate that modern ABA is founded on compassion, not compliance?
2. How are leading researchers actively involving self-advocates and critics in the design of studies and interventions to ensure our methods are not just effective, but also universally dignified?
3. As we push for inclusivity, what concrete steps are we taking to decolonize ABA—to ensure our assessments and interventions are not just translated, but truly transformed across cultures?
4. Our FBA models brilliantly assess the four functions of public behavior, but they often treat the client’s inner world— their private thoughts and feelings —as a black box. How can we systematically integrate the assessment of private events as antecedents and consequences into our standard functional analysis to create a more accurate and compassionate hypotheses?
5. If we accept that private events are behaviors, why do our Behavior Intervention Plans overwhelmingly target only public topography? Shouldn’t a truly robust BIP also include strategies, like Acceptance and Commitment Therapy (ACT)?, that directly teach clients to change their relationship with difficult private events, not just their public responses to them?

Finally, on Our Future: How do we build a science that never stops evolving?

1. What is one thing you will do differently tomorrow to ensure that the ABA of the future is indistinguishable from empathy itself.
2. How can we redesign practitioner training to make empathy or I call it “affective-alignment” measurable, reportable, and reinforced skill, as critical as graphing data?
3. Is our field ready to publish more ‘failures’—cases where rigid ABA failed—to honestly learn and evolve, as a truly self-correcting science must?
4. For a Philosophical/Paradigm Shift Question: Radical behaviorism has always included private events, yet our primary clinical tools often ignore them. Does this mean we are practicing a form of ‘Methodological Behaviorism’ by default? What would it take for our entire field to shift towards a clinical practice that is as radical—and as complete—as our underlying philosophy?

My final question, to every one of us in this room, is this:

If Applied Behavior Analysis is a truly self-correcting science, why does ‘self-correction’ so often feel like a revolution led from the outside—by self-advocates, parents, and other disciplines—rather than a proactive, systematic evolution led from within?

This is the conversation I am ready to have in Lisbon. This is the work I am ready to do. But why wait? The beauty of our community is that we can start building this future together right now. If you will be at ABAI, let’s grab a coffee and chat. I’m open to possibilities! If not, please comment below or send me a message. Let’s discuss how we can continue to evolve this beautiful science of ours to help even more people in even better ways.

Thank you!

Onward,

Daffodil Lucio

P.S I excuse my self from writing this blog post without proper in-text citations and references as this is an informal dissemination of hope for future study and its sole purpose is to encourage a conversation from both the experts and aspiring BCBAs.