Cultural responsiveness
Adapting how services and communication are delivered so they respect and fit the client's and family's culture, language, values and preferences, under the supervisor's direction.
Cultural responsiveness is acting on cultural awareness. It means recognizing that a family's language, beliefs, values, routines and preferences matter for what goals are meaningful and how services should be delivered, and adjusting accordingly. Behavior analytic procedures can stay effective while the way they are delivered, the examples used and the goals chosen fit the family.
The RBT Ethics Code (2.0) requires RBTs to work directly with their supervisor to ensure they are culturally responsive in their work, to evaluate their own biases and ability to work with people of diverse needs and backgrounds, and to obtain any needed training under their supervisor's direction. It also requires RBTs to behave toward others in an equitable and inclusive manner and not to harass or discriminate. Task F.10 covers cultural humility and responsiveness in service delivery and professional relationships.
For an RBT, culturally responsive practice can include using the family's preferred language or interpreter services as arranged by the employer, using materials and examples that reflect the client's life, respecting family customs about dress, food, holidays and religious practices, and communicating in ways that fit the family's preferences. Changes to goals or procedures are made by the supervisor; the RBT shares what they learn from the family and suggests ideas through the supervisor.
Cultural responsiveness avoids stereotyping: it responds to this family's actual preferences, which the RBT learns by listening and asking.
Example and non-example
| Example | A family tells the RBT that their child is expected to address adults with a title. The RBT shares this with the supervisor, who updates the greeting target, and the RBT teaches the greeting the family prefers. |
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| Non-example | An RBT assumes a family will want holiday-themed materials based on the family's ethnicity and brings them without asking. Acting on an assumption about a group is stereotyping, not responding to this family. |
Don't confuse it with
| Cultural humility | Cultural humility is the ongoing self-reflection and openness to learning, while cultural responsiveness is the adjustment of services and communication that follows. |
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| Choice making | Choice making is an antecedent strategy that offers options during sessions, while cultural responsiveness shapes services to fit a family's culture and values. |
Test yourself
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Question 1A family tells the RBT that, in their culture, eating with the hand is customary, and they do not want their child's utensil goal. What should the RBT do?
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D: Respect the family's view and ask the supervisor to review the goal with them. Cultural responsiveness means taking a family's values seriously. Goals belong to the supervisor and the family, so the RBT relays the concern quickly and respectfully.
- A: Stopping a goal is a plan change the supervisor must make.
- B: Sending the family elsewhere does not get the concern to the supervisor.
- C: Arguing for the goal disregards the family's values, and goal decisions are the supervisor's.
Task E.1 · RBT Ethics Code 2.06 · RBT Ethics Code 1.07
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Question 2A caregiver speaks through an interpreter during a session and shares a concern. When relaying it to the supervisor, what should the RBT report?
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D: What the caregiver said, as interpreted, and that an interpreter was used. Reporting what was said, and noting that it came through an interpreter, gives the supervisor accurate information and a clear picture of how it was communicated.
- A: Filtering the concern leaves out information the supervisor needs.
- B: The RBT's guess about meaning may distort the concern.
- C: Waiting for English is not timely and is not culturally responsive.
Task E.1 · 40-hour curriculum section F
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Question 3Before a holiday, a family offers the RBT a small plate of homemade food they traditionally share with guests. Its value is a few dollars, and the agency has no stricter policy. What should the RBT do?
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A: Accept it graciously as an occasional thank-you. A small, occasional gift that carries cultural meaning and brings no financial benefit is within the code. Accepting graciously respects the family's tradition.
- B: The code does not ban small, occasional gifts, including food.
- C: Returning gifts starts a cycle of exchange the code is meant to prevent.
- D: The code limits gifts to $10 or less; it does not ban them, so this would also misinform the family.
Task F.8 · RBT Ethics Code 1.11 · RBT Ethics Code 1.07
Answer every question to see your score.
On the RBT exam
This term belongs to task F.10 Cultural humility and responsiveness in content area F, Ethics, which is 11 of the 75 scored questions.