Association for Behavior Analysis International

While Evidence-Based Interventions (EBIs) for children on the autism spectrum have been clearly identified, there is considerably less research on how to train first line staff to deliver the interventions with fidelity, particularly in group settings such as classrooms and residential treatment facilities. Barriers related to this problem are twofold. First, there is often a lack of adequate training in EBIs for direct service staff responsible for creating a strong instructional environmental. Second, supervisory staff often do not have training in basic organizational behavior management skills. Devereux's Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports-Autism (D-PBIS-Autism) model was designed to address both of these critical issues. The model provides a tiered system of EBIs with an increasing focus and intensity across the broad domains of communication, socialization, independence, and safety. Additionally, the use of organizational behavior management (OBM) technology creates the structure for staff training and supervision. Key OBM elements include on-line and classroom training combined with performance-based checklists, in vivo coaching and performance feedback, and graphed performance monitoring. Following implementation of the model in multiple classrooms and residential units, longitudinal data suggests well-maintained, systemic increases in staff use of EBI's and reduction in client challenging behaviors.

The main objective was to demonstrate the use of the Behavioral Systems Engineering Model in the improvement of the services provided by the Center for Autism and Social Inclusion, (CAIS-USP). The method applied was action research and the participants were the coordinator (1), supervisors (3) and the therapists (11) of the CAIS. The results were the establishment of feedback data from the processor system, which before the study did not exist, such as the results of the discrete trial assessment and data on the frequency in class. The results of the receptor system were information about the alumni, regarding the performance in the autism area and the results of the children's assessments in the VB-Mapp. Another important result was the creation of a specific undergraduate discipline, entitled Applied of Behavior Analysis to Autism, guaranteeing greater visibility and stability of the work carried out by CAIS. The conclusion is that the most fundamental stage of application was the definition of the macrosystem and the mission of the CAIS. From these definitions, several processes had been redesigned and tasks were distributed, allowing the collection of feedback data, fundamental for the planning and decisions taken in each semester.

Social interactions with clients are an important component of rapport building and creating instructional control within the therapeutic environment. Additionally, when working with children, therapists are expected to provide age-appropriate interactions that model positive social skills. The current study assessed the use of mindfulness exercises with ABA therapists to increase the number of positive interactions within a therapy session. The study was conducted with three undergraduate ABA therapists in an on-campus clinic using a multiple baseline design across subjects. Following baseline, each therapist completed a self-report measure on psychological flexibility before their sessions and then listened to a 5-min guided mindfulness exercise. Positive interactions were recorded at the beginning and end of each session for 15 minutes each using partial interval time sampling. Additionally, fidelity for therapeutic interventions and other self-report measures were recorded and assessed. The results of the study indicate that mindfulness exercises may influence the number of positive interactions from therapists to their clients during therapy sessions. These results suggest that even brief mindfulness practices may be of important and effective utility within clinics and when working in the human service field, particularly with children. The next phase of this research will assess how identifying values in addition to mindfulness exercises may impact these same dependent variables.

We developed a delay discounting questionnaire where the manipulated commodity was treatment success that was either immediate or delayed. The delay to treatment success was quasi-exponentially manipulated and in terms of reasonable time estimates that could be expected for a behavioral intervention to achieve successful outcomes with clients. The cost that was titrated in the survey was the amount of time per week that staff would be required to implement a given behavior change strategy. Results from 40 direct care staff from a day treatment program for adult clients, all of whom had prior experience implementing behavior analytic treatment strategies, suggest that the subjective value of successful treatment is discounted as the treatment is delayed. Consistent with prior research in this area, the decay is appropriately modelled using a hyperbolic curve function fit to the obtained data. The results have implications at the organizational level for predicting and influencing staff buy-in of behavior analytic strategies by quantifying estimates of response cost and delay to outcome.

The field of behavior analysis places a strong emphasis on the collection and analysis of behavioral data to make data-based decisions about clinical practices. Community-based residential programs for people with intellectual and developmental disabilities pose a unique logistical constraint due to the behavior analyst often not being able to be on site to ensure data are collected and give timely feedback to staff. The purpose of this case study is to develop a cost-effective performance management intervention to increase the amount of data collected for people who live in a community-based residential program. Specifically, the study aims to increase the percentage of target behaviors for which data are collected across all direct support professional shifts. During baseline, data were only collected during significant behavioral episodes. An intervention consisting of task clarification, staff training, reorganization of materials, and prompts increased data collection to an average of 35.4% (range, 0 to 64.3%) across all shifts each day. Next, ongoing performance feedback will be provided to direct support professionals and their supervisors. Results are anticipated to show that a cost-effective performance management intervention will effectively increase and maintain the percentage of behavioral data collected within the home.

The organizational behavior management literature includes few studies evaluating the effectiveness of various preference assessment methodologies on behavioral staff performance (Waldvogel, J.M., & Dixon, M.R., 2008; Wine, B., Reis, M., & Hantula, D., 2014). The current study evaluates the effectiveness of a survey and ranking preference assessment method in identifying potential reinforcers for staff behavior. The effectiveness of preference assessment method is measured by comparing several staff performance measures before and after contingent reinforcer delivery across 9 months. Staff performance measures evaluated in this study include the number of appointment cancellations, percent of clinical objectives mastered, and frequency of staff caseload changes each quarter.