Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Planning, Applying, and Evaluating a Treatment Program Chapter 24

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. A Problem Has Been Referred: Should You Design a Program? Questions to answer: –Was the problem referred primarily for the benefit of the client? –Can the problem and the goal be specified such that you are dealing with a specific behavior or set of behaviors that can be counted, timed, or measured in some way? –Is the problem important to the client or to others? –Have you eliminated the possibility that there are complications involved in this problem that would necessitate referring it to another specialist? –Is the problem one that would appear to be easily manageable?

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. A Problem Has Been Referred: Should You Design a Program? (continued) –If the goal is reached, might it be easily generalized and maintained? –Can you identify significant individuals in the client’s natural environment who might help to record observations and manage controlling stimuli and reinforcers? –If there are individuals who might hinder the program, can you identify ways of minimizing their potential interference? –On the basis of your tentative answers to these eight questions, do your training qualifications, daily schedule, and available time seem adequate for you to participate in the program?

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Selecting and Implementing an Assessment Procedure For reliable baselining, define the handicap in precise behavioral terms. Select an appropriate baselining procedure that will enable you to: –Monitor the problem behavior –Identify its current stimulus control –Identify the maintaining consequences of the problem behavior –Monitor relevant medical/health/personal variables –Identify an alternative desirable behavior Design recording procedures that will enable you to log the amount of time devoted to the project by the professionals working on it. Ensure that the observers have received appropriate training in identifying critical aspects of the behavior, applying the recording procedures, and graphing data. If the baseline is likely to be prolonged, select a procedure for increasing and maintaining the strength of the record-keeping behavior of the data recorders. Select a procedure for ensuring the reliability of the baseline observations. After beginning to collect baseline data, analyze those data carefully to select an appropriate intervention strategy and decide when to terminate the baseline phase and begin intervention.

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Considerations for Assessment Procedures What daily times can the mediator(s) schedule this project? Will others in the situation help or hinder your data collection? Will the surroundings help or hinder your assessment? What is the frequency of the existing behavior? How rapidly should the behavior change?

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Strategies for Program Design and Implementation 1.Define the goal, identify the target behaviors and their desired amount and stimulus control. 2.Identify individuals who might help to manage controlling stimuli and reinforcers. Also identify those who might hinder the program. 3.Examine the possibility of capitalizing on antecedent control. Can you use: –Rules? –Goal setting? –Modeling? –Physical guidance? –Situational inducement? –Motivating operations? 4.If you are developing a new behavior, will you use shaping, fading, or chaining? What motivation establishing operation will you use?

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Strategies for Program Design and Implementation 5.If you are changing the stimulus control of an existing behavior, can you select the controlling S D s such that they: –Are different from other stimuli on more than one dimension? –Are encountered mainly in situations in which the desired stimulus control should occur? –Evoke attending behavior? –Do not evoke undesirable behavior?

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Strategies for Program Design and Implementation 6.If you are decreasing behavioral excess: –Can you remove S D s from the problem behavior? –Can you withhold reinforcers that are maintaining the problem behavior, or present motivation abolishing operations for those reinforcers? –Can you apply DRL? –Can you apply DRO, DRI, or DRA? –Should punishment be used? 7.Specify the details of the reinforcement system: –How will reinforcers be selected? –What reinforcers will be used? –How will reinforcer effectiveness be continually monitored, and by whom? –How will reinforcers be stored and dispensed, and by whom? –If a token system is used, what are the details of its implementation?

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Strategies for Program Design and Implementation 8.Specify the training setting. 9.Describe how you will program generality of behavior change by: –Programming stimulus generalization. Can you: Train in the test situation? Vary the training conditions? Program common stimuli? Train sufficient stimulus exemplars? Establish a stimulus equivalence class? –Programming response generalization. Can you: Train sufficient exemplars? Vary the acceptable responses during training? Use behavioral momentum to increase low probability responses within a response class? –Programming behavior maintenance. Can you: Use natural contingencies of reinforcement? Train people in the natural environment? Use schedules of reinforcement in the training environment? Give the control to the individual?

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Strategies for Program Design and Implementation 10.Specify the details of the daily recording and graphing procedures. 11.Collect the necessary materials. 12.Make checklists of rules and responsibilities for all participants in the program. 13.Specify the dates for data and program reviews and identify those who will attend. 14.Identify some contingencies that will reinforce the behavior modifiers and mediator. 15.Review the potential cost of the program as designed and judge its merit against cost; reprogram as necessary. 16.Sign a behavioral contract. 17.Implement the program.

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Program Maintenance and Evaluation 1.Monitor your data to determine whether the recorded behaviors are changing in the desired direction. 2.Consult the people who must deal with the behavioral handicap, and determine whether they are satisfied with the progress. 3.Consult other sources to determine if your results are reasonable in terms of the amount of behavior change during the period the program has been in effect. 4.If 1, 2, 3 are satisfactory, proceed to step 8. 5.If 1, 2, 3 are unsatisfactory, answer the following questions: –Have the reinforcers that are being used lost their appeal? –Are competing responses being reinforced? –Are the procedures being applied incorrectly? –Is there outside interference that is disrupting the program? –Are there any subjective variables that might be adversely affecting the program? 6.If none of the answers to questions are yes, check if additional programming steps need to be added or removed. 7.If the results are now satisfactory, proceed to guideline 8; otherwise consult with a colleague, or consider changing a major aspect of program, or redoing functional analysis.

Copyright © 2011 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Program Maintenance and Evaluation 8.Decide how you will provide appropriate program maintenance until the behavioral objective is reached. 9.Following attainment of the behavioral goal, outline an appropriate arrangement for assessing performance during follow-up observations and assessing social validity. 10.After successful follow-up observations have been obtained, determine the costs for the behavioral changes that occurred. 11.Where possible and appropriate, analyze your data and communicate your procedures and results to other behavior modifiers and interested professionals.