Continuing Professional Development (CPD)

Ethics PDUs must focus primarily on developing ethical knowledge, reasoning, or decision-making in behaviour-analytic practice. Ethics PDUs are intended to support behaviour analysts to identify, analyse, and respond to ethical challenges, particularly in situations involving competing obligations, uncertainty, or potential risk to clients, stakeholders, or the profession.

To qualify as an Ethics PDU, the activity must:

• explicitly address ethical principles, obligations, or standards relevant to behaviour analysis;
• align with ABA Australia’s Code of Ethical Practice; and
• go beyond routine professional procedures.

Examples of Ethics PDUs

• Ethical decision-making in complex or ambiguous scenarios
• Application of the Code of Ethical Practice to hypothetical or real dilemmas
• Managing dual relationships, conflicts of interest, or boundary issues
• Safeguarding client dignity, autonomy, and rights in challenging contexts
• Ethical considerations in assessment, intervention, or research
• Responding to ethical breaches, complaints, or whistleblowing obligations

Examples of content that would not usually qualify as Ethics PDUs include:

• Training that primarily describes standard assessment or intervention procedures without explicit ethical analysis
• General professional skills training where ethics is assumed but not directly taught
• Content focused solely on technical competence or service delivery methods
• Activities where ethical considerations are mentioned only in passing

Ethics PDUs are reserved for activities where ethics is the central focus — not where ethics is mentioned briefly or assumed.

Cultural Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (CDEI) professional development aims to enhance a practitioner’s capacity to deliver culturally responsive and inclusive behaviour-analytic services across diverse populations and practice contexts.

CDEI professional development focuses on understanding how culture, identity, language, social context, and systemic barriers may influence behaviour, service delivery, professional relationships, and access to supports. Learning activities in this category should support practitioners to adapt assessment, intervention, communication, and service delivery practices in ways that are respectful, effective, and consistent with ethical and professional standards.

CDEI PDUs are intended to build practical competence in working with individuals, families, and communities from diverse backgrounds. Activities must explicitly focus on cultural diversity, equity, or inclusion as it relates to behaviour-analytic practice or professional competence; general discussions of diversity, equity, or inclusion not linked to practice do not qualify for CDEI PDUs.

In the context of behaviour analysis, CDEI content supports professionals to:

• Recognise the impact of cultural and contextual factors on assessment, interventions, and service outcomes;
• Demonstrate cultural humility by reflecting on personal biases and assumptions;
• Design and deliver interventions that respect client’s individual and collective identities, values, and communication styles;
• Identify and reduce barriers to participation, accessibility, and inclusion within organisations and systems;
• Uphold ethical, equitable, and rights-based practice across all settings and populations.

Examples include (but are not limited to):

• Working respectfully with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients, families, and communities;
• Culturally responsive assessment and intervention practices;
• Adapting communication and service delivery for clients from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds;
• Understanding how social, cultural, or contextual factors may affect engagement, consent, or service access;
• Communicating effectively with clients and families from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds;
• Promoting accessibility and inclusion for LGBTQIA+ clients or staff within behaviour analysis;
• Identifying and reducing barriers to equitable service access within behaviour-analytic practice;
• Professional learning that explicitly addresses cultural diversity, equity, or inclusion in behaviour-analytic practice.

Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander–specific Professional Development

Recognising the limited availability of behaviour-analytic–specific professional development relating to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples, ABA Australia permits professional development activities focused on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander cultures, histories, perspectives, and contemporary experiences to be claimed as CDEI PDUs.

Eligible activities may include learning that is general in nature and not specific to behaviour-analytic service delivery, provided the content supports practitioners to:

• Develop cultural understanding and awareness relevant to working respectfully with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples; and
• Reflect on how cultural context may influence engagement, communication, trust, and participation in services.

For these activities, the presenter or organisation is not required to be an ABA Australia–approved provider or an authorised continuing education (ACE) provider. This exception recognises that culturally informed learning in this area is often delivered by Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander individuals, community-controlled organisations, or specialist educators whose expertise may sit outside behaviour analysis or formal ABA accreditation systems.

This allowance is specific to Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander–focused learning and does not extend to general diversity or cultural awareness training unrelated to this population.

What does not qualify as CDEI PDUs

Activities that do not explicitly address diversity, equity, or inclusion within a cultural or systemic framework do not meet the CDEI requirement, even if they involve specific client populations. Examples of activities that would be classified as general PDUs, not CDEI, include:

• Workshops on “Toilet Training for Children with Autism”
• Seminars on “Functional Communication Training in Adolescents with ASD”
• Webinars focused solely on disability-specific intervention methods without discussion of culture or contextual components
• General discussions of diversity, multiculturalism, or inclusion without clear application to behaviour-analytic practice
• Broad cultural awareness training not linked to professional decision-making or service delivery
• Content focused primarily on organisational values or advocacy without relevance to practitioner competence

While culturally responsive practice is an expectation of all behaviour analysts, CDEI PDUs are reserved for learning activities in which cultural diversity and inclusion are the explicit and central focus.