Want to Improve Service Delivery in ABA? Start With a Hug.

I often find myself belaboring the point that ABA isn’t just about clinical progress, behavior plans, or insurance billing. There’s an additional piece that might get overlooked and it’s a no-brainer.

It’s about building relationships—strong, meaningful ones.

You can have the best behavior plan in the world and intervention intentions, loaded with elegantly drawn manding and tacting programs, but if you don’t have a solid foundation of trust between the BCBA, the RBT, and the family, you’re basically setting yourself up for failure.

At the end of the day, service delivery in ABA is relational. It’s not just a science; it’s a people-centered practice. And people don’t always respond to charts and data. They respond to connection. So, how do we measure progress? Not just by the number of behaviors reduced or skills taught, but by the strength of the relationships that support those outcomes.

I like to call it the hug—the service delivery hug.

Think of it like a triangle. At the center, within the three sides of the triangle, is the child and the clinical progress we so terribly want to make with them. This is what we’re all after, right? But around that center are three critical relationships: RBT to BCBA, BCBA to family, and family to RBT.

If these connections are weak, don’t expect the child to make as many meaningful strides as they could. The lines between these points need to be strong, like seriously strong. They’re what form the foundation for the child’s progress.

What we sometimes tend to do, on the contrary, is get so caught up in the clinical stuff—those mands, tacts, and the behavior reduction plans—that we forget the basics. And the basics are people. Yes, behavior reduction is important, but that’s not where you start. Before you get into the thick of your clinical work, you’ve got to lay the groundwork. Without buy-in from the family, without the RBT understanding their role and feeling supported, you're basically just running on a hamster wheel.

Clinical progress isn’t an isolated event. It’s not just about what happens between you and the child during a session. It’s about everyone involved being on the same page, trusting each other, and working together. If the family trusts you and your RBT feels supported, then you’re going to see real change. If not, well, good luck. You might see a little progress here and there, but it’ll be slow and inconsistent.

So, what’s this "ABA service delivery hug" I’m talking about? Picture wrapping all your service delivery in a nice, tight embrace. The family feels supported, the RBT knows they’re part of a team, and you, the BCBA, are managing it all. That’s where the magic happens. The progress flows naturally when everyone is working together and trusting the process.

And let’s be real—this isn’t something that just comes naturally. We’re all busy. The pressure to bill insurance hours, manage documentation, and hit clinical targets can make it easy to forget about the relationship part of the job. But if you want lasting, meaningful change for your clients, you have to make time for it. It’s the foundation for everything else.

Now, you might be thinking, “I already do this.” But do you really? When was the last time you evaluated the strength of your relationships with the families you work with? With your RBTs? When did you last check in to see how they’re doing, not just clinically, but personally? These connections are more than just nice-to-have—they’re essential.

Without strong relationships, your clinical outcomes will always be limited. You might get short-term gains, but they won’t stick. It’s the trust, the buy-in, the sense of partnership that makes real, lasting change possible. And it’s on you, the BCBA, to foster those connections. So, what does that look like in practice? It’s simple: communicate, collaborate, and listen. When families feel like they’re part of the process, when RBTs know their input is valued, they’re far more likely to commit to the work.

We tend to treat these relationship-building tasks as secondary, but they’re not. They’re just as important as the clinical work. It’s easy to get caught up in the technical side of ABA—after all, that’s what we’re trained to do. But ABA is a people-centered field, and it’s the relationships that drive the outcomes.

So here’s my challenge to you: next time you sit down to evaluate a case, don’t just look at the data. Look at the relationships. Are they strong? Are they supportive? If not, that’s where your work needs to start. Because at the end of the day, the quality of your clinical progress is only as strong as the relationships you build.

Think about this over the weekend. Assess your own relationships in that triangle. Are your learners getting the “hug” they need?

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Martin Myers is a BCBA with a passion for helping improve the field of ABA. He is the creator of BxMastery, with over 4,000 goal ideas, sequenced, to inspire your programming. With 10+ years of experience in the field, he’s dedicated to empowering others and fostering positive change through effective leadership and communication. Connect with Martin on LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok for more insights and updates.