Cultural Competence in ABA: Why It Shapes Outcomes

Cultural competence is the skill of working well across cultures. It means you learn a family's values before you set goals. It means you notice when your plan clashes with how they live. Then you adjust, instead of pushing forward.

This skill matters for every BCBA, RBT, teacher, and parent. Behavior does not happen in a vacuum. Culture shapes how families parent, grieve, and show respect. A plan that ignores culture can fail, or even offend the people you want to help.

When a good goal turns rude#

Matt Harrington shares a story from central Florida. A clinician picked a target that made sense on paper. But it clashed with how the family parents.

We can also layer on a cultural competence, right? So there are cultures who, the way that their culture would typically parent is anti and expectation that ABA would take. From the talk. Matt Harrington

The family expected the child to say "yes sir." The clinician was teaching the child to make requests instead. To the family, that looked like poor manners, not therapy.

They're like, not only is this not working because who cares about Skittles, this is rude. So you're teaching my kid the wrong thing, right? So some parents don't come in at zero, they come in at negative. From the talk. Matt Harrington

That last line is the key. Some families start below zero, not neutral. If your plan offends their values, you have to win back trust before anything else works.

Culture shapes how grief looks#

Tricia Lund brings the same lesson to bereavement care. Grief is not one shape. Culture changes how loud, how long, and how open it looks.

truly being culturally competent is really, really, really, really needed because also culture is going to impact the grief responses that you see. You might see someone crying for a long, long period of time because in the culture that they're from, that's how we show grief. From the talk — Tricia Lund

A staff member who does not know this might read long crying as a crisis. In truth it may be a normal way to honor a loss. Cultural competence helps you tell the difference.

Do the homework before you need it#

Lund gives a concrete step for staff. Learn the customs of your clients ahead of time. Do not wait for a loss to start reading.

how can we be culturally sensitive? If we have clients that we already know are from this religion or that religion... this is what the death rituals might look like if they are Muslim. This is what the death rituals might look like if they are Mormon. From the talk — Tricia Lund

A short rundown of a client's faith and customs goes a long way. It prepares staff to support the person the right way. You can hear more of this front-line approach in Grief Support at the Front Lines. Harrington covers the parenting side in Compliance to Commitment: Seven Habits of the Highly Effective Caregiver Trainer.

Ask, do not assume#

The safest habit is to ask first. Do not guess a family's values from their background. Two families from the same culture can hold very different views.

Simple questions open the door. What does respect look like in your home? How do you like to handle hard moments? What goals matter most to you? Their answers should shape the plan.

This also means checking your own defaults. Your idea of a "normal" goal comes from your own culture. It is not the only right way. Naming that bias helps you set it aside.

It is a practice, not a badge#

Cultural competence is not a box you check once. It is an ongoing habit of learning and self-check. You ask about values. You notice your own assumptions. You stay open to being wrong.

This habit protects the work. It keeps goals meaningful to the family, not just to you. And it keeps trust intact, which every plan depends on.

Small clashes add up#

Culture shows up in small daily moments, not just big ones. It shapes eye contact, tone, and how a child greets an adult. A goal can be technically correct and still feel wrong to a family.

The Skittles story is a good example. The reward meant nothing to that family. Worse, the skill being taught cut against their idea of respect. Two small mismatches turned a solid plan into an insult.

The lesson is to sweat the details. Check each goal against the family's daily life. A skill that fits their world will stick. A skill that clashes with it will stall, no matter how sound the science.

What the research says#

Behavior analysts have started to build culture into the field on purpose. One paper argues that ABA can help close mental health gaps for Māori people in New Zealand. But that works only if culture sits at the center of practice (Plessas, McCormack, & Kafantaris, 2019). The authors call for dialogue with disciplines that study indigenous values.

Others offer concrete steps for schools. One article shows how culturally relevant pedagogy pairs with ABA to reduce the effects of racism on students of color (Hugh-Pennie, Hernandez, Uwayo, Johnson, & Ross, 2021). It maps classroom tactics onto the behavioral literature.

Training tools exist too. One group built a cultural responsiveness curriculum for behavior analysts as an actionable step toward social justice (Mathur & Rodriguez, 2021). A related framework urges ongoing self-assessment of one's own cultural competence when working with diverse families (Deochand & Costello, 2022). The shared message is that cultural competence is learned and practiced, never finished.

FAQ#

What is the difference between cultural competence and cultural humility? Cultural competence is the skill of working well across cultures. Cultural humility is the mindset of staying open and admitting you do not know it all. Most experts say you need both, since skills without humility can turn into stereotypes.

Why does cultural competence matter in ABA? Culture shapes how families parent, grieve, and define respect. A goal that ignores those values can fail or even offend. When your plan fits the family's values, they trust it, and trust drives follow-through.

How do I build cultural competence with a new family? Ask about their values and customs before you set goals. Learn a client's faith and traditions early, not during a crisis. Check your own assumptions, and adjust the plan when it clashes with what the family cares about.