Collaboration Plan for SLPs, OTs and Behavior Analysts
When a speech-language pathologist or occupational therapist and a behavior analyst serve the same client, write down who does what, how you share data and how you settle disagreements. This free worksheet builds that plan from your entries, for you to copy or print.
What goes in a collaboration plan
A collaboration plan for a shared client records eight things. Agree on them together, with the client as appropriate and the family or guardians, before the plan is needed in a hard moment.
- Team. A non-identifying reference for the client, each professional's name and discipline, the setting, and how to reach each person.
- Roles. What each professional assesses and treats, within their own scope of practice and competence.
- Shared goals. The goals more than one of you works on, such as functional communication or a self-care routine, and who leads each one.
- Methods and terms. How each of you prompts, reinforces and measures the shared goals, and the words you agree to use for the same thing.
- Data. What each of you records, in what format, and how often you share it.
- Meetings. How you communicate between sessions, how often you meet, who attends, and how the client and family or guardians take part.
- Disagreements. How you raise a disagreement, the information you bring, the options you consider, what you agree, who follows up, and how you record the outcome.
- Consent and review. The consent your setting requires to share information between providers, and the date you review the plan.
The professions' own guidance points the same way. Standard 2.10 of the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts asks behavior analysts to collaborate with colleagues from other professions in the best interest of clients. In 2020 the Practice Board of the Association for Behavior Analysis International published guidance for behavior analysts working with speech-language pathologists, with ASHA's support. It builds on the IPEC core competencies: values and ethics, roles and responsibilities, communication, and teams and teamwork.
Open the free collaboration plan
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For the rest of the team
Frequently Asked Questions
A collaboration plan records who is on the team, what each professional is responsible for, the goals you share, the methods and terms each of you uses, how you share data, how and when you meet, how you settle a disagreement, and the consent and review date. This worksheet builds that plan from your entries.
Standard 2.10 of the BACB Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts, Collaborating with Colleagues, asks behavior analysts to collaborate with colleagues from their own and other professions in the best interest of clients and stakeholders. What that looks like depends on the setting and the team.
Discuss it as a team, with the client as appropriate and the family or guardians. Standard 2.10 of the BACB Ethics Code asks behavior analysts to address conflicts by compromising when possible, always putting the client's best interest first, and to document the actions taken and the outcome. Each professional stays within their own scope of practice and competence; ABAI's 2020 Practice Board guidance says a behavior analyst practices only where the two overlap.
No. The worksheet builds text on this page and does not save your entries. Use a non-identifying reference for the client. Copying or printing creates a record you control and must keep securely.