Client

The client is the direct recipient

The current BACB Ethics Code defines the client as the direct recipient of the behavior analyst’s services. A stakeholder is another person or entity affected by and invested in those services.

A parent receiving direct caregiver training or an organization receiving consultation can also be a client for that service. Name the role and service rather than assuming one permanent client for every activity.

Preferred terms vary

Some people prefer “client,” “learner,” “patient,” “student,” “participant,” or “person receiving services.” Identity-first and person-first language preferences also differ. Ask and record the person’s preference when possible.

Terminology should clarify the relationship and show respect. “Learner” can become limiting when it implies the person is always being taught while everyone else decides.

A caregiver and client have different roles

A caregiver may share history, support routines, provide legally valid consent when authorized, learn procedures, and report outcomes. The client may communicate different priorities, discomfort, or preferences. Record each source and avoid treating one person’s report as another person’s voice.

Legal authority also differs from involvement. An emergency contact or involved family member does not automatically have authority over treatment, records, or every decision.

The client should participate directly

The BACB ethics page identifies the current Code, which addresses understandable communication, client and stakeholder involvement, consent, assent when applicable, assessment, intervention, risk, and ongoing evaluation.

Participation can include choosing goals, describing priorities, selecting settings, comparing alternatives, reviewing data, rating comfort, and deciding how to communicate. Use speech, AAC, sign, gesture, writing, movement, or another reliable form. Keep communication tools available.

Goals should have value to the person

A measurable goal can still be poorly chosen. Ask what the client wants to do, avoid, access, communicate, or change. Consider relationships, privacy, autonomy, safety, culture, school, work, play, rest, and daily burden.

Translate broad priorities into observable outcomes without replacing their meaning. “Participate in art club with chosen supports” says more about value than “increase compliance.”

Consent and assent stay distinct

The person legally authorized to decide provides informed consent when required. Assent concerns the client’s communicated willingness when the client cannot provide informed consent. A representative’s signature does not erase the client’s dissent.

Define how willingness, pause, withdrawal, discomfort, and correction appear for this person. Train partners to respond. Silence, stillness, or task completion should not automatically count as willingness.

Privacy belongs to the client

Families and staff may need information to support care, but access should follow the applicable ethical and legal route. Explain who receives updates, which information is shared, and how the client can ask questions or request privacy when applicable.

Protect dignity in meetings, session notes, photographs, video, testimonials, social media, supervision, and public spaces. Convenience does not make a disclosure respectful or authorized.

A fictional makerspace example

Ravi is a fictional thirteen-year-old who uses speech and AAC. His team proposes a goal about sitting quietly during a makerspace group. Ravi says his actual priority is asking for a soldering tool or a quieter workstation when the room becomes loud.

Across six eligible opportunities, partners recognize Ravi’s chosen message in 2 of 6. After partner training and an accessible tool menu, they respond within ten seconds in 7 of 8 opportunities. Ravi rates five of six later visits worth attending. These measures describe communication access and experience. They do not establish that ABA caused the change or that sitting quietly was an appropriate goal.

Organizational services can have group clients

In organizational behavior management, the direct recipient may be a team or organization. Individuals affected by the work still have rights, privacy, safety, and employment protections under applicable rules.

Define who commissioned the service, who receives it, who is affected, which data are collected, and who may make decisions. A contract does not remove duties to people affected by the intervention.

Questions families and clients can ask

Ask whom the practice identifies as the client for each service and how the person participates. Request an accessible explanation of roles, goals, data, privacy, consent, assent, complaints, and service-ending conditions.

Ask how staff respond when the client and a caregiver, payer, school, or clinician prefer different goals. A strong process names the conflict, protects immediate safety, and keeps the client’s welfare and rights central.

Ask which outcome measures come directly from the client and which come from observers or records. Each source can add useful evidence, and each should retain its own label.