Kasper Enterprises, LLC

Today we honor SLPs, but more important is the mutual respect that SLPS and BCBAs can have for each other. One of the individuals who embodies collaboration is Dr. Kevin Luczynski. He gave me a crash course on what AI tools can actually do for clinical work — opened a door I didn't know was open — and his clinical and technical input and expertise helped shape the HOPE profile and assent adjacent skills checklist! Patient, generous, scholarly, deeply practical. The kind of mentor whose questions make your work sharper without making you feel small. He has my deep respect and my deeper thanks. Here's to SLP/BCBA collaboration.
So in that spirit — bring a friend to my ABAI 2026 workshop and you'll both learn more together.
🎯 Workshop #15: Assent-Based Treatment with Science, Compassion, and Common Sense — 8 Steps Assent Toolkit 📅 Friday, May 22, 2026 · 8:00–11:00 AM 📍 Moscone Center West, Level 3, Room 3020
Bring a colleague and both of you will have access to two additional tools to support staff training in Assent Informed Treatment and Interprofessional Collaboration:
▸ Indicating Response Practice — a 6-minute video training on recognizing the subtle cues (gestures, eye gaze, vocalizations) that precede intentional language
▸ AMIC-M Clinical Tool — a digital meeting guide built on the Applied Model of Interprofessional Collaboration (Kasper, Slim, & Reuter-Yuill, 2024)
Better tools, better together. See you in San Francisco.

The HEART Worksheet started with a question on a clipboard, nine years ago.
I was sitting next to a newer BCBA, watching her client work with a behavior technician. The learner was struggling — not refusing, not melting down, just... not willingly engaging. So I started rattling off the questions I always run through in my head when something isn't clicking: How is reinforcement set up? What about instructional pacing? Are the goals actually meaningful? Have we taught the prerequisites? Is this developmentally appropriate?
She looked at me and said, "Can you just make a troubleshooting checklist for all of that?"
We started writing it on a blank form that afternoon. That conversation became the HEART Worksheet.
What it really is: a seasoned BCBA sitting next to you.
It walks you through identifying withdrawal of assent — calm, strong, or dangerous — and gives you language to define it for every learner, even the ones who don't use words. It checks staff integrity in honoring assent. It troubleshoots reinforcement, instructional practices, goals, prerequisite skills, developmental appropriateness, and the biology / environment / history / trauma variables we sometimes forget. It generates a concrete action plan you can hand to your team.
Because compassionate care isn't a vibe — it's a checklist of decisions, made well, again and again.
I'll be sharing the HEART Worksheet at ABAI 2026 in San Francisco as part of my workshop, Assent-Based Treatment With Science, Compassion, and Common Sense — the 8 Steps Assent Toolkit (Workshop W15).
Friday, May 22, 2026 | 8:00–11:00 AM PDT
Moscone Center West, Level 3, Room 3020
BACB / IBAO Ethics CE | Intermediate Level
Register at ABAI — link BELOW.
Tamara S. Kasper, MS, CCC-SLP, BCBA
Kasper Enterprises, LLC

What if the first step in effective ABA wasn't a program — it was a conversation?

The HOPE Profile is a caregiver interview tool I built to do exactly that. Honor what the learner is already communicating. Observe what brings them joy. Pinpoint their preferences. Expand from there.

This screenshot is from the interactive tool I'll be sharing at ABAI 2026 in my workshop: Assent-Based Treatment With Science, Compassion, and Common Sense — the 8 Steps Assent Toolkit (Workshop W15).

Here's what we'll cover:

How to define and measure assent and assent-withdrawal for every client — not just the ones who use words.

The HOPE Profile — how play patterns, indicating responses, and caregiver interviews become the foundation for individualized, motivation-driven intervention.

Assent Adjacent Skills — structured checklists to establish rapport, condition social stimuli, and fade in instruction with minimal escape extinction.

The HEART Framework — Honor, Empathize, Analyze, Rethink, Troubleshoot — for ethical response to assent withdrawal.

Video analysis, role-play, BST, and 8 tools you leave with — including video shorts, procedural checklists, troubleshooting guides, and flowcharts.

This work started in 1990. It became HOPE. HOPE became HEART. And now it's changing how entire organizations think about compassionate care in ABA.

Friday, May 22, 2026 | 8:00–11:00 AM PDT
Moscone Center West, Level 3, Room 3020 | San Francisco
BACB/IBAO Ethics CE | Intermediate Level

Register at ABAI —