School-Based Transdisciplinary Teaming to Maximize Behavioral Supports

Researchers and clinicians have successfully demonstrated the use of telehealth in supporting parents to conduct functional analyses (FAs) and subsequent functional communication training (FCT). We replicated and extended previous research by utilizing telehealth to train an existing Early Childhood Special Education (ECSE) Behavior Specialist to support parent implementation of behavioral procedures. Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) coached the existing Behavior Specialist via telehealth, who in turn trained and supported parents to conduct FAs and implement FCT in a community clinic. In four children, 3 years of age and younger, the function of challenging behavior was successfully identified according to a multielement research design. Challenging behavior reduced, and the selected appropriate communication response increased for all participants, evaluated using an AB research design. This study provides initial evidence that parents in rural settings can successfully implement assessment and intervention procedures with the support of an existing ECSE Behavior Specialist receiving coaching from BCBAs via telehealth.

Identifying potential qualities and corresponding behaviors that contribute to effective behavior analytic service delivery may assist practitioners in strengthening their behavioral repertoire and overall client/family/staff outcomes. Credentialed (Board Certified Behavior Analyst – Doctoral or Board Certified Behavior Analyst) individuals practicing outside of the United States of America, and award-winning behavior analysts in the field, were presented with the Exemplary Behavior Analyst Checklist (EBAC; Zayac et al., 2021) and rated the extent to which they believed exemplary behavior analysts display each quality and engage in the associated behaviors. Respondents also selected a “top 10” list of the qualities they believe are important to being/becoming an exemplary behavior analyst. Comparisons of these rankings are made to prior research on the EBAC along with a discussion about the implications for training and continued applications of the EBAC in the field. Limitations of the current studies are identified as well as useful recommendations for future research.

Chapter 1 - Introduction to applied behavior analysis, ethics, and core ethical principles

Global Assessment Use and Practices in Applied Behavior Analysis: Surveying the Field

Supervision is paramount within applied behavior analysis. This is particularly true in the case of Board Certified Behavior Analysts® (BCBAs®) and trainees (i.e., those accruing hours and experience to become BCBAs). Given the importance of supervision in shaping future BCBAs (and subsequently the field of applied behavior analysis), researchers have emphasized supervision practices as they relate to BCBAs and trainees. However, what type of work is occurring in this area, such as empirical intervention studies or provision of supervisory recommendations through discussion-style articles, needs to be clarified. Therefore, we conducted the first and most comprehensive systematic review of supervision research related to BCBAs and trainees. Results indicated that most of the articles and work pertaining to BCBA supervision are discussion-style articles, with several survey studies and few empirical intervention studies. We discuss implications and areas for future supervision research.Supplementary InformationThe online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-023-00805-0.

This chapter describes ethical considerations for behavior analysts when providing applied behavior analysis (ABA)-based services for adults with autism spectrum disorders. The framework for this chapter is based on the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB) Ethics Code for Behavior Analysts, the need for consent for services, funding of adult services, related legal and regulatory matters, and evidence-based procedures.

Risk-benefit analyses are essential in the decision-making process when selecting the most effective and least restrictive assessment and treatment options for our clients. Clinical expertise, informed by the client's preferences and the research literature, is needed in order to weigh the potential detrimental effects of a procedure against its expected benefits. Unfortunately, safety recommendations pertaining to functional analyses (FAs) are scattered or not consistently reported in the literature, which could lead some practitioners to misjudge the risks of FA. We surveyed behavior analysts to determine their perceived need for a risk assessment tool to evaluate risks prior to conducting an FA. In a sample of 664 Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) and doctoral-level Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBA-Ds), 96.2% reported that a tool that evaluated the risks of proceeding with an FA would be useful for the professional practice of applied behavior analysis. We then developed an interactive tool to assess risk, which provides suggestions to mitigate the risks of an FA and validity recommendations. Subsequently, an expert panel of 10 BCBA-Ds reviewed the tool. Experts suggested that it was best suited as an instructional resource for those learning about the FA process and as a supporting resource for early practitioners' clinical decision making.

This study was set to determine the effect of integrating ICT use in the delivery of services in public secondary schools in Siaya County, Kenya. Although many secondary schools introduced computers in great numbers starting early 1990s, there are limited information on their use to facilitate delivery of services in school administration and management. The extent to which ICT is being used in school management in secondary schools, the types of administrative uses of ICT by school managers and challenges affecting the integration of ICT in the management systems in secondary schools needed to be adequately addressed. The purpose of this study was therefore to determine the effect of integrating ICT in the delivery of services in public secondary schools in Siaya County. The study objectives were to determine the areas in which ICT is being used in the delivery of management services in public secondary schools in Siaya County and to recommend strategies of enhancing ICT in the delivery of services in public secondary schools in Siaya County. The theoretical framework that guided the study was Social Transformation Theory in Education and Visscher (1992) conceptual model of school information system, which were used to show the relationship between variables. The research design that was used is descriptive survey. The study population consisted of 167 Principals, 167 Secretaries, 167 Deputies, 167 Bursars/Accounts’ clerks and 334 Heads of Departments. Purposive sampling technique was used to identify 48 schools that had incorporated ICT in their management system in secondary schools. Saturated sampling technique was used to select 48 principals. Purposive sampling technique was used to select one head of department in charge of examinations and one in charge of boarding in each sampled schools, giving a total of 96 heads of departments, 48 Deputy Principals, 48 Secretaries and 48 Bursars/ Accounts’ clerk. Questionnaires was administered to the H.O.Ds, Deputy Principals and Bursars/Accounts’ clerks to gather data on the level of ICT incorporation in management in secondary schools. Interviews with school principals and Secretaries captured data on their role in provision of ICT equipment for school management systems and the challenges they face in ICT use in school administration system. To ensure validity and reliability of the research instruments, experts from the School of Education, Jaramogi Oginga Odinga University of Science and Technology scrutinized the research instruments. A pilot study of 5 schools was equally conducted in the schools not sampled for the study. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2015.v6n2p554

There has been an emphasis placed on conducting function-based assessments (FBA) prior to selecting treatment for challenging behaviors for individuals with developmental disabilities (IDD). Research has demonstrated that treatment that first identifies the function of behavior is more effective for reducing challenging behavior than treatment not based on FBAs. There is little information regarding whether the practitioners responsible for behavior modification are employing FBA in applied settings. The purpose of the current study was to distribute a survey to assess the degree to which FBA are implemented in agencies serving IDD in the state of Massachusetts. The survey asked practitioners to indicate their perception about and use of the various categories of functional assessment (e.g., indirect assessment [IA], descriptive analysis, and functional analysis [FA]). From the 275 responses, the most frequently used FBA was descriptive assessments, which involves direct observation of behavior but no manipulation of environmental events. Results suggest that even though the majority (68.2%) of practitioners believe FA to be the more informative assessment tool for selecting behavioral treatment, only 26.1% of respondents indicate that they typically use FA (alone or in combination with IA or DA) to inform the development of a behavior plan. Board certified behavior analysts (BCBA) were no more likely to use FAs than were individuals without BCBA-certification. In fact, contrary to published research questioning the validity of DA for identifying function, 52.8% of BCBAs believe that descriptive assessments alone are sufficient for determining behavior function. Barriers to conducting FAs are discussed.

The field of behavior analysis is growing rapidly, and high-quality supervision is essential to producing thoughtful and effective Board Certified Behavior Analysts. There is little empirical information about the behaviors that supervisors engage in to support trainees in developing critical skills. Therefore, our purpose in this study was to survey supervisors (n = 317) about their supervision practices to better understand how frequently they engage in recommended supervision practices and whether the frequency with which they engage in recommended practices is related to demographic characteristics. Our results suggest that there is wide variability in the extent to which individual supervisors engage in recommended practices, and that supervisors engage in practices more frequently for which there are concrete guidelines and supports in place (e.g., behavioral skills training). We discuss the implications of our results for supporting supervisors to engage in recommended practices and for future research.

The practice of behavior analysis has become a booming industry with growth to over 30,000 Board Certified Behavior Analysts (BCBAs) who primarily work with children with autism and their families. Most of these BCBAs are relatively novice and have likely been trained in graduate programs that focus primarily on conceptual and technical skills. Successfully working with families of children with autism, however, requires critical interpersonal skills, as well as technical skills. As practitioners strive to respond efficiently and compassionately to distressed families of children with autism, technical skills must be balanced with fluency in relationship-building skills that strengthen the commitment to treatment. The current article provides an outline of important therapeutic relationship skills that should inform the repertoire of any practicing behavior analyst, strategies to cultivate and enhance those skills, and discussion of the potential effects of relationship variables on treatment outcomes.

The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of a video modeling (VM) procedure at teaching three staff members who were working with children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to implement a token economy, use an error correction procedure, and conduct a multiple stimulus without replacement preference assessment. The study was conducted at a summer camp for children with ASD located on a university campus and at a school for students with special needs in mainland China. All participants successfully generalized instructional skills learned during the VM intervention to sessions with children with ASD. Maintenance of instructional skills was also seen during follow‐up. These results indicate VM to be an economical and effective approach to training staff to implement various behavioral strategies. Moreover, the validity of VM as an effective intervention for staff training is increased by inclusion of blind ratings by five Board Certified Behavior Analysts.

Successfully working with families of children with autism requires technical behavior-analytic skills and critical interpersonal relationship-building skills. Taylor, LeBlanc, and Nosik (2018) suggested that many Board Certified Behavior Analysts might have been trained in graduate programs that focus primarily on conceptual and technical skills with little coverage of skills related to building therapeutic relationships. The current paper provides the results of an online survey of the precredential and postcredential training experiences of behavior analysts. The majority of behavior analysts surveyed indicated that they received no explicit didactic training or reading assignments on relationship-building skills in their graduate coursework in behavior analysis. Approximately half indicated that their practical experience supervisor provided guidance and mentoring on these skills. The majority of behavior analysts indicated that it is very important or extremely important that professional training programs develop formal training in this area.

Enhancing Supervision through Compassion: Registered Behavior Technicians’ Perceptions of their Supervision by Board Certified Behavior Analysts

The increasing demand for behavior analytic services and the number of individuals pursuing credentials to provide these services evoke questions regarding certification and how the requirements for becoming a Board Certified Behavior Analyst® (BCBA®) compare with those for other professions. In this paper, we compared licensure and board certification requirements across similar behavioral health professions (i.e., behavior analysis, clinical social work, educational psychology, marriage and family therapy, and clinical psychology) and found that the minimum requirements for certification of behavior analysts were commensurate. We discuss the implications of our comparisons for practitioners, consumers, and the field and offer some recommendations for future consideration.