Competence in Aspects of Behavioral Treatment and Consultation: Implications for Service Delivery and Graduate Training

Abstract

This study examined the extent to which competence in applying behavioral procedures (timeout from positive reinforcement) was sufficient to establish competence in teaching others to apply the same procedures. During baseline, graduate students attempted to instruct parents with a history of child abuse and neglect in the use of time-out. Students were then instructed in the use of time-out until they achieved proficiency in a role-play context. They then reattempted to instruct the parents. Finally, the students were instructed in certain consultation skills (i.e., teaching others to apply behavioral procedures) and again attempted to instruct parents in the application of time-out. Observations of students' consultation skills, parents' proficiency at administering time-out, and children's compliance to parental instructions revealed that explicit training in behavioral consulting skills was necessary to produce improvements in these behaviors. Students' proficiency at administering time-out was insufficient to enable them to instruct others in its application. These results were corroborated by surveys of both students and staff. The implications for graduate training and service delivery are discussed.

Evidence-Based Staff Training: A Guide for Practitioners

“…Practitioners must become skilled in employing effective behavioral strategies for training staff, otherwise training is not likely to effectively equip staff to apply the behavioral procedures of concern (McGimsey, Greene, & Lutzker, 1995;.…”

Video training of support staff in intervention plans for challenging behavior: Comparison with live training

“…Despite the noted importance of training staff to implement plans designed to reduce challenging behavior, relatively few investigations have evaluated means of training support staff specifically in this area (e.g., McGimsey, Greene, & Lutzker, 1995;Shore, Iwata, Vollmer, Lerman, & Zarcone, 1995). These investigations represent a small subset of a much larger body of research on the use of behavioral procedures for training support staff to perform other types of duties (see Demchak, 1987;Jahr, 1998;Reid, O'Kane, & Macurik, 2008, for reviews).…”

Teaching Practitioners to Conduct Behavioral Skills Training: A Pyramidal Approach for Training Multiple Human Service Staff

“…Numerous work skills have been trained to staff in the human services through BST including how to teach consumers with disabilities (Sarokoff & Sturmey, 2004) and implement procedures to reduce problem behavior (Miles & Wilder, 2009). The significance of behavior analysts being skilled in BST is highlighted by demonstrations that without such skills, staff training is not likely to be consistently effective even if the staff trainer (e.g., behavior analyst) is skilled in implementing the behavior-change procedure that is being trained to staff (McGimsey, Greene, & Lutzker, 1995;Parsons & Reid, 1995). In short, being skilled in applying a behavior-change strategy with consumers is not sufficient for training others to apply the strategyone must also be skilled in training performance skills to staff (Parsons et al).…”