Training Manual for Behavior Technicians Working with Individuals with Autism

Jonathan Tarbox,Courtney Tarbox

• Editore: Academic Press
• Anno: 2016
• ISBN:
  9780128122167
• Argomento: Education
• Categoria: Education Teaching Methods

Training Manual for Behavior Technicians Working with Individuals with Autism is a practical manual and ongoing professional resource for frontline staff undergoing training to become Registered Behavior Technicians™ (RBT). RBT™ is the recommended certification of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board™ (BACB) for entry-level staff who implement behavior analytic services. This Manual complements the 40-hour training for RBTs™ and helps those who have completed training prepare for their certification exam. Following the RBT™ Task List set forth by the BACB, it prompts the reader to generate novel examples of mastered concepts, and real-life vignettes.

Training Manual for Behavior Technicians Working with Individuals with Autism also:

• Details the fundamentals of measurement and data collection

• Introduces assessments of both behavior and environment

• Explains skills acquisition and related teaching procedures

• Covers behavior reduction plans

• Includes documentation and planning information

• Looks at ethics and professional conduct

• Details the fundamentals of measurement and data collection
• Introduces assessments of both behavior and environment
• Explains skills acquisition and related teaching procedures
• Covers behavior reduction plans
• Includes documentation and planning information
• Looks at ethics and professional conduct

Chapter 1

Introduction

Abstract

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is a science that uses principles of learning and motivation that have come from decades of scientific research to solve problems of behavior that matter to society. In order to address the most important problems, several levels of practitioners are often needed. ABA services are generally overseen by a masters (BCBA) or PhD (BCBA-D) level Board certified behavior analyst, may receive mid-level oversight by a bachelors level (BCaBA) practitioner, and are implemented directly by Registered Behavior Technicians. Behavior technicians are the ones that work directly with the learners and they are the ones whose behavior most directly affects client outcome. Therefore, when you are working in your future job as a behavior technician, you are going to be the tip of the spear. The job of the behavior technician is hugely important and has tremendous responsibility, but the benefits of the job are truly remarkable. In a very real way, your job will make a meaningful difference in the life of someone every day.

Keywords

Multiple exemplar training; ABA; Registered Behavior Technician; ASD; technical audience

Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is a science that uses principles of learning and motivation that have come from decades of scientific research to solve problems of behavior that matter to society. In order to address the most important problems, several levels of practitioners are often needed. ABA services are generally overseen by a master’s (BCBA®) or PhD (BCBA-D®) level Board Certified Behavior Analyst®, may receive mid-level oversight by a bachelors level (BCaBA®) practitioner, and are implemented directly by Registered Behavior Technicians (RBT™). Behavior technicians are the ones that work directly with the learners and they are the ones whose behavior most directly affects client outcome. Therefore, when you are working in your future job as a behavior technician, you are going to be the tip of the spear. The job of the behavior technician is hugely important and has tremendous responsibility, but the benefits of the job are truly remarkable. In a very real way, your job will make a meaningful difference in the life of someone every day.

Our goal in writing this manual is to provide a written text to be used as part of a 40-hour training program that is based on the Registered Behavior Technician (RBT) Task List (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2013) and is designed to meet the training requirements for the RBT credential. You should print out the task list and refer to it regularly while you read this book and take your training. It is important to note that this book and any training program that it is used as a part of is offered independently of the Behavior Analyst Certification Board® and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the Board in any way.

1.1 Format of the Book

This book contains seven chapters. You are reading Chapter 1 right now and we hope your interest is already captured. Chapter 2, Autism Spectrum Disorder, gives you introductory information about autism and ABA and an overview of ABA treatment for autism. Chapter 3, Measurement and Data Collection, teaches you some of the many ways that you will use data collection to measure behavior. Chapter 4, Assessment, teaches you how you will assist your supervisor in assessing behavior. Chapter 5, Skill Acquisition, is the longest and most important chapter because it explains how to teach new skills to individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Chapter 6, Behavior Reduction, teaches you how to decrease challenging behaviors. Chapter 7, Documentation and Professional Conduct, the final chapter, covers professional issues that are critical to your daily practice as a behavior technician.

In this training manual we are going to teach you to speak in a few different languages. First, we are going to teach you the meaning behind the concepts that you need to learn to perform excellently as a behavior technician and to pass the RBT examination. Second, we are going to teach you the technical definition of those terms. Finally, we are going to teach you how to explain those terms to a nontechnical audience. You will notice that we use very plain language and we make no attempt to sound technical or scholarly. For example, we often write something like “…do the behavior” instead of “…execute the response” or “…having a tantrum” instead of “…engaging in tantrum behavior.” We made this choice of language deliberately because the goal of this book is to teach you the meaning behind the principles and procedures of behavior analysis, not to teach you technically and scientifically perfect language. There is a reason and purpose for technically precise language and we have published other books and articles that are good resources for learning such language. After you achieve your RBT credential and are ready for more training, we encourage you to read Applied Behavior Analysis (Cooper et al., 2007) and Handbook of Early Intervention for Autism Spectrum Disorders: Research, Policy, and Practice (Tarbox, Dixon, Sturmey, & Matson, 2014). For now, we invite you to not worry too much about sounding smart and just focus on learning the meaning behind the many new principles and procedures you are about to be trained in. Similarly, we intentionally left out references to research articles throughout this book. If you are interested, the two books cited above contain thousands of scientific references and including them in this book would only make it less readable.

1.2 A Brief Note on Studying With This Book

A large amount of research has shown that people learn best when they are taught many different examples of a concept. This is called multiple exemplar training (see section on generalization in chapter: Skill Acquisition) and it works as well for teaching learners with ASD as it does for training adult staff members like you. This book is intentionally written to give you terms, the definitions of those terms, and then multiple examples that illustrate the concept. In order to make the learning experience most effective, you should try to create at least three of your own new examples for every new term in the book. If there are other trainees who are being trained with you, we recommend you form study groups and quiz each other. But more important than memorizing the terms, you should quiz each other on the ability to create new examples. You will know you have mastered a concept when you can create new examples with ease. You can start this process right now with the remaining concepts in this chapter.

1.3 Seven Dimensions of ABA

Three of the founding fathers of ABA, Baer, Wolf, and Risley, published a discussion article in 1968 that defined and discussed seven dimensions that characterized the field of ABA. Forty-eight years later, these same seven dimensions continue to define ABA and it is well worth it to learn them and consider them on a daily basis as you work as a behavior technician.

1.3.1 Applied

The field of ABA focuses on changing behaviors that are important to society. The principles and procedures of ABA are powerful and could be used to change just about any behavior, but we believe it is important to use our limited amount of time and resources to improve the behaviors that matter the most.

1.3.2 Behavioral

Our subject matter is behavior and behavior includes everything people say and do. We focus on observable behavior because that is what we can measure and that is where we can make a difference. For example, we focus on decreasing aggression much more than we focus on anger, we focus on increasing exercise more than increasing feelings of self-efficacy, and we focus on decreasing smoking more than decreasing urges to smoke.

1.3.3 Analytic

We analyze the ways in which changes in a person’s environment affect their behavior and we strive to demonstrate this through careful and systematic manipulation of the environment to observe changes in behavior. We carefully measure behavior before and after intervention and we sometimes (especially in research) use experimental designs to demonstrate how environment controls behavior. We attempt to rule out all other possible explanations for behavior change. We are skeptical of our own effectiveness and we want to know what really works. We hold our procedures accountable for their effectiveness.

1.3.4 Conceptually Systematic

We strive to understand the effects of everything we do in terms of the basic principles of learning and motivation that come from decades of research in behavior analysis. It is not enough to merely notice that a procedure works. We strive to understand why it works in terms of behavioral principles. Becoming fluent at understanding all of human behavior in terms of behavioral principles takes a lifetime of practice, but you will immediately start to recognize examples of all of the principles discussed in this book in your daily life. Thinking like this will help you understand why what we do with learners with autism works and it will help you troubleshoot what to do when things are not working.

1.3.5 Effective

The goal of ABA is to produce substantial changes in behaviors that matter. We are not interested in a statistically significant effect if it did not make a meaningful difference in the learner’s life. For example, decreasing hitting oneself from 100 times per day to 90 times per day is better than nothing. But if one is still hitting oneself 90 times per day, the problem is not solved. An ABA intervention would be expected to decrease the behavior to a level that is reasonable for the client to live with on a daily basis.

1.3.6 Generalized Outcomes

The goal of ABA is to produce important behavior changes that generalize to all relevant aspects of a learner’s life (see section on generalization in chapter: Skill Acquisition). For example, if a child was only potty trained at school but not at home, the problem would clearly not be solved. The lack of generalization from school to home would be considered unacceptable and intervention would need to be continued until the individual is continent in all settings.

1.3.7 Technological

In scientific terms, technological means that a procedure is described clearly enough so that other people could replicate it (it does not mean computer technology). This is important because if ABA procedures are not clearly described, it will not be possible for others to learn from them and to use them with the clients with whom they work.

1.4 Foundational Principles

In this section, we provide brief technical definitions and examples of core concepts and principles that are critical for your training. Keep in mind this list is not comprehensive of all concepts and principles in ABA, but it contains the most foundational ones that will be important to your understanding of the content in the rest of the book. Don’t worry if you do not feel completely confident in your understanding of these terms when you are finished reading this section. It is meant to be a brief first introduction and all of the terms are covered in more depth throughout the book. To get the most out of this section, we recommend you make flashcards of the terms below and find a fellow behavior technician trainee to study with. You should spend a lot of time training each other to fluency. A great way to do this is to practice the following four different types of exercises, where one trainee provides the first part and the other trainee provides the second part: (1) Term—Definition, (2) Definition—Term, (3) Term—Example, (4) Example—Term. Continue practicing with each other until you both can perform quickly and accurately on all four types of drills and where you and your fellow trainee can do exercise 3 and 4 with new examples that you were never trained on. That is, you can create new examples of terms and you can identify the correct term when someone provides you with a new example you have never heard before. Here are the terms you will need to learn:

1.4.1 Behavior

Anything a person says or does. Also known as a response. Examples include saying “Can I have some water, please?”, hitting someone, crying, washing your hands, playing with a toy, reading a book, and so on.

1.4.2 Stimulus

Any object or event that occurs in a person’s environment. For something to count as a stimulus for a particular person at a particular time, that person has to have seen, heard, touched, tasted, or smelled that object or event. Examples include the sight of an apple, a loud noise, the smell of cookies, someone saying “Hi” to you, and so on.

1.4.3 Antecedent

A stimulus that occurred in a person’s environment immediately preceding a behavior. For example, a child’s mother says, “Time to turn off the TV” and the child has a tantrum. When consider...