Behavior Skills Training Overview

Study Notes

BST is a teaching package combining methods for effective teaching techniques
Used for children, adults, and individuals with disabilities to teach a wide variety of skills
Includes written or verbal instructions explaining skills or behaviors to be taught
Includes clear and concise instructions and rationales for the skill/behavior taught
Demonstrating the skill is important using actual or closest approximation of the environment
Practicing to fluency before modeling with visual or video supports

Feedback on correct completion of the skill, or how to achieve correct completion is provided
Correct mistakes immediately while the person can adjust, providing positive praise before corrective comments
Feedback crucial in improving skills
Time constraints may prevent feedback, however, this is a critical step in skill improvement

Treatment integrity measures the extent to which procedures are implemented consistently with their protocols
Independent Variable (IV) integrity measures the degree of intervention implementation matching the description
Low treatment integrity makes interpreting results difficult

Inconsistencies among therapists can affect data
Procedural changes over time may alter behaviors when no planned change in the variable is present

Precise Operational Definition: precise definition of variables, clear and objective.
Simplify, Standardize, and Automate: Clear and simple, easy-to-follow, and consistent
Training and Practice: Train practitioners or provide practice
Assess Treatment Integrity: Actual implementation is compared to the written methods

Identify desired outcomes, specify staff actions for achieving outcomes
Train staff in skills for effective performance
Monitor and support staff performance
Correct any deficiencies in staff skills; analyze reasons for their lack of performance
Monitor staff and consumer outcomes
Continuous evaluation of staff and consumer performance

Formal: Specific purpose, active support/corrective action, prepared tools, observation data used to support or correct performance
Informal: Monitoring specific areas at any time, no prepared tools

Monitor staff performance frequently when concerns or recent training are present
Monitor areas of client outcomes directly

Observer awareness may impact data accuracy or naturalness
Observers may alter their own data collection based on awareness of others evaluating their data
Reduce by unpredictable observation schedules or separating observers by distance

Covert monitoring can become overt, reducing staff acceptance
Behavioral Performance Evaluation (BPE) is useful in training new skills by evaluating how a person performs a task

Components: Praise for correct behavior, description of incorrect behavior, rationale for change, instructions on how to improve, demonstration of correct behavior, opportunity to practice and ask questions
Effective feedback has to be immediate, specific, under the individual's control and in a format that is easy to understand
Feedback frequency should be aligned with the learner's needs and expectations
Informing learners about preferences can improve training effectiveness

Empathetic statements, context-based performance description, rationale for change, instructions and demonstration, opportunities for practice are crucial
Feedback should address specific behaviors or actions, with the focus firmly on the individual's control
Timeliness of feedback and individualized approach are key to effectiveness.

Focus on improvement over “poor performance” and clearly identify the specific behaviors or actions to be improved
Use specific concrete terms, with clear, and objective and straightforward explanations
Focus on accurate graph-based feedback; avoid using variables that may cause inaccuracies

Cultural competency skills and values awareness within practices are crucial for sensitivity and effective action
The ADDRESSING model can help examine a client's background when providing ABA therapy
Cultural humility is important, acknowledging bias, and striving to learn from others while recognizing differences in cultures