Non-Compliance or Freedom to Learn?

Non-compliance, refusal, oppositional behavior, you name it, we’ve all seen it. In grad school, most of us were trained to force compliance through procedures like extinction. But, what if I told you that I prefer my learners engage in non-compliance? That would be a novel, even a radical idea! So, why non-compliance? First and foremost, compliance is dangerous and makes a vulnerable population even more vulnerable. When you train a child to believe that they must always give in to the demands of an adult, you remove their autonomy over their minds and their bodies. When they are then placed in the position where an adult may take advantage of them, they believe they have no right to their own safety and security. Our first job, as ethical practitioners, is to teach learners that they deserve to be safe, that we want to keep them safe, and how to be safe. We cannot do that with compliance based practice.

Second, compliance based practice does not breed assent based care. Assent promotes independence, love of learning, and creates an environment of trust. It also creates an environment where relational learning, rather than mere trained or rote learning, is likely to take place. When we allow a learner the opportunity to say “Not right now,” it gives them the opportunity to experience self-direction. Letting them say “Not right now,” does NOT mean never coming back to a task, but it does honor a learner’s place in the experience of treatment. We are not overlords in the grand scape of ABA. We should be helpers on the path of learning, creating opportunities for growth and change. So next time you consider writing “non-compliance” into a behavior plan, think about what we are trying to accomplish in making our learners comply and if it is worth the potential cost.