BA285 Unit 6 Culturally Responsive Practice Paper Example

Gelatin, Ramadan and a Grandmother Who Speaks Bosnian: A BA285 Unit 6 Culturally Responsive Practice Paper

[Student Name]

Purdue University Global

BA285: Ethics in Behavior Analysis

Unit 6 Culturally Responsive Practice Paper

[Instructor Name]

[Date]

The writer, her agency and the family are composite; the code and articles cited are real.

The Family

As a registered behavior technician, my home visits take me across Bowling Green, Kentucky, a city with a large Bosnian community that grew after refugees resettled there in the 1990s. In January of this year, I began working with Amina, a five-year-old autistic girl, and her family. Her mother stays home with Amina and her baby brother, her father works long night shifts at a manufacturing plant, and her grandmother, who speaks Bosnian and little English, lives with them and cares for the children much of the day. The family is Muslim.

Amina's treatment plan, written after an intake conducted in English with her mother, targeted requesting, imitation and tolerating new foods. Within three months, three separate problems had surfaced, each of which I had helped create.

Three Missteps

First, reinforcers. Amina's plan listed fruit gummies as a primary reinforcer, and I had been using them for weeks. In March, her mother quietly asked what was in them. Many gummies are made with gelatin, often derived from pork, which the family does not eat. She had not wanted to object, assuming we knew and had a reason.

Second, scheduling. During Ramadan, the adults in the family fast from dawn to sunset. My sessions ran from four to six in the afternoon, the hours when the household was most tired and preparing for the evening meal. Amina's mother managed it all without complaint, but the sessions competed with the most important part of her family's day.

Third, communication. Every conversation about Amina's goals and progress happened with her mother, in English. Her grandmother, who spends more waking hours with Amina than anyone, was never asked what she saw, what mattered to her or how she handled Amina's behavior. She usually watched sessions from the kitchen doorway.

None of these problems came from disrespect; all of them came from never asking.

What the Code Requires

On culture, the behavior analyst code expects practitioners to actively engage in professional development about cultural responsiveness and diversity, to evaluate their own biases and how they affect their work, and to provide services in a way that respects clients' and families' values (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2020). It treats culture as part of competent, ethical practice, not an optional addition.

Fong et al. (2016) proposed a framework for developing cultural awareness in behavior analysts. They recommended that practitioners examine their own cultural identities and assumptions, learn about the cultures of the families they serve, and adapt assessment and intervention, including the selection of goals, reinforcers and procedures, to fit families' values and practices. They emphasized asking families directly rather than relying on generalizations about cultural groups.

Beaulieu et al. (2019) surveyed behavior analysts about their training and practices regarding cultural diversity. Many respondents reported little formal training in the area, and many said they did not routinely assess clients' cultural backgrounds or adapt services, even though they considered diversity important. The gap between valuing culture and acting on it is exactly what I found in my own work.

What Changed

After the gummy conversation, I raised all three issues with my supervisor. We scheduled a meeting at the family's home with a Bosnian interpreter from a local community organization, and invited both the mother and grandmother.

The meeting changed Amina's plan in several ways. Gummies were replaced with gelatin-free fruit snacks and dried apricots, which the grandmother said Amina loves. During Ramadan, sessions moved to late morning, when the household was rested, and resumed their usual time afterward. The grandmother, speaking through the interpreter, said Amina's biggest challenge at home was refusing to sit at the table during family meals, which she found shameful when relatives visited. That goal, sitting with the family for meals, became a priority, and the food tolerance target was adjusted to include traditional dishes the family serves. The grandmother began joining part of each session, and the agency arranged for an interpreter at monthly progress meetings.

Examining My Own Assumptions

Fong and colleagues' framework begins with the practitioner, so I tried to apply it to myself. I grew up in a Protestant family in a small Kentucky town, where food rules rarely came up, decisions about children were made by parents rather than grandparents, and the adults who mattered in a child's life usually spoke English. Without noticing, I had built Amina's services around those assumptions. I treated the mother as the only decision-maker because she was the parent who spoke English with me, and I never asked whether the grandmother's role in the household might give her a voice in Amina's care. I chose reinforcers from the agency's standard list without asking about the family's diet.

Recognizing these assumptions did not mean replacing them with new generalizations about Bosnian families. The interpreter herself warned me against that, noting that families in the community differ widely in religious practice, language and how decisions are made. What changed was a habit: at the start of services, and again whenever something seems off, I now ask families who should be involved, what foods and activities are acceptable, and what times of day and year matter to them.

Tensions

Miller et al. (2019) argued that behavior analysis has tensions with cultural responsiveness, including a tendency to define goals and reinforcers from the practitioner's perspective and to treat culture as background noise rather than part of the behavioral context. They also argued that behavior analysis has tools well suited to cultural responsiveness, since it focuses on the individual's environment and history, if practitioners use those tools to understand families on their own terms.

Amina's case shows both sides. The original plan reflected my assumptions about which reinforcers and goals mattered. The revised plan used the same behavioral tools, preference assessment, goal selection and contextual analysis, to fit the family's world.

Conclusion

Three missteps in Amina's services, a non-halal reinforcer, sessions during the Ramadan fast and a grandmother left out of every conversation, came from never asking. The ethics code, Fong's framework and research on training gaps show why such missteps are common and what responsiveness requires. Asking, with an interpreter and with every caregiver at the table, produced a better plan and a goal the family cared about most.

References

Beaulieu, L., Addington, J., & Almeida, D. (2019). Behavior analysts' training and practices regarding cultural diversity: The case for culturally competent care. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 12(3), 557-575. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-018-00313-6

Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2020). Ethics code for behavior analysts. Author.

Fong, E. H., Catagnus, R. M., Brodhead, M. T., Quigley, S., & Field, S. (2016). Developing the cultural awareness skills of behavior analysts. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 9(1), 84-94. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-016-0111-6

Miller, K. L., Re Cruz, A., & Ala'i-Rosales, S. (2019). Inherent tensions and possibilities: Behavior analysis and cultural responsiveness. Behavior and Social Issues, 28(1), 16-36. https://doi.org/10.1007/s42822-019-00010-1