Behavior Skills Training Overview

Behavior Skills Training (BST)

• 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

BST Training Package Instructions

• Instructions can be written or verbal
• Trainers explain how to perform skills or behaviors
• Instructions and descriptions should be clear and concise
• Rationale for teaching the skill should be included

BST Training Package Modeling

• Skill demonstration
• Showing what to do is crucial
• Model the skill in the actual environment or closest approximation
• Practice skill fluency before modeling
• Visual supports and video modeling can enhance this step

BST Training Package Rehearsal

• Trainees practice skills under supervision
• Role-playing practice in real-world scenarios is necessary
• Master skills, focusing on fluency (accuracy and flow)

BST Training Package Feedback

• 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 and Program Integrity

• 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

Treatment Drift

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

Reducing Procedural Integrity Threats

• 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

Evidence-Based Supervision

• 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

Types of Monitoring

• 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

When to Monitor Formally

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

Observer Reactivity

• 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

Overt vs Covert Monitoring

• 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

Effective Feedback

• 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

Giving Corrective Feedback

• 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.

Additional Considerations for Feedback

• 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 Considerations in ABA

• 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