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ABAI Presentation Resources · Tool 11

Difficult Conversation Role-Plays

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Three brief scenarios for rehearsal and feedback.

Presentation companion • Newly written educational practice aid informed by the sources identified below. This is not a validated assessment or a diagnostic instrument. Adapt collaboratively within your training, role, and consented services.

  1. Scenario 1: “Everyone keeps telling me what to do. Nobody asks what our life is like.” Practice listening, reflecting, and asking one open question.
  2. Scenario 2: “We did not practice. I am exhausted after work.” Explore feasibility, ask permission to brainstorm, and choose a smaller step.
  3. Scenario 3: “Starting a new school brings up everything again.” Acknowledge the caregiver’s experience without assuming what they feel.
  4. Observer: identify one observable strength and one action to practice again.
  5. Repeat the conversation with feedback; ask the person playing the caregiver whether the response felt respectful.

Conceptual sources: (Parsons et al., 2012; Taylor et al., 2019). The specific prompts and examples are newly written teaching suggestions, rather than tested protocols from these sources.

Reflection & next step

What did the caregiver identify as most important?

What will we change, who will do it, and when will we review it?

How will we ask whether the change was helpful?

Material credit: Newly written instructional synthesis prepared for PBHC’s presentation resource hub. The wording, prompts, illustrative dialogue, and worksheet layout are presentation materials, not reproduced author or publisher instruments. The cited authors are credited for the underlying concepts. These tools have not been validated; citation does not imply author endorsement.

References

Parsons, M. B., Rollyson, J. H., & Reid, D. H. (2012). Evidence-based staff training: A guide for practitioners. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 5(2), 2–11. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391819

Taylor, B. A., LeBlanc, L. A., & Nosik, M. R. (2019). Compassionate care in behavior analytic treatment: Can outcomes be enhanced by attending to relationships with caregivers? Behavior Analysis in Practice, 12(3), 654–666. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-018-00289-3

Didiana (Didi) De La Osa, BCBA-D · ABAI presentation resource page