RBT Study Guide - Pages of Examples and Explanations

RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 Introduction and Disclosure This simple and straightforward 46 page study guide covers the entire 2nd edition RBT® task list with a variety of definitions and examples where applicable. The purpose of this study guide is to provide a comprehensive and easy to read study tool to help consolidate the areas covered on the task list. Each page is labelled with the task list area. The information within this study guide is believed to be accurate. This is based on the author's interpretation of each task list item. The author is not responsible for any errors, misinterpretation of information, factual errors or typographical errors. This study guide, this file and its content is in no way, shape or form affiliated with, nor endorsed by the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB ®) in any way. RBT® BCBA®, BACB® or any other BACB® trademark used is/are registered to the Behavior Analyst Certification Board® (“BACB®”). Please refer to www.bacb.com, the Behavior Analyst Certification Board (BACB®) for task list versions, areas, and content. The sole purpose of this study guide is to be used as a study aid only. This study guide should be used in conjunction with other training and study material and should not be relied on as a sole study tool. This study guide does not guarantee a passing result on the real exam. This file and its contents are the property of The Behaviour Lab and may not be distributed, reproduced or duplicated, in whole or in part, physically, electronically, or other means, without written consent from the author. This file, its content, and any part thereof, is subject to change at any time, without notice. Version 1.0, created on February 21, 2021. Please forward all errors, questions and comments to thebehaviourlabmock@gmail.com. Source Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2018). Registered Behavior Technician™ (RBT™) Task List, 2018. Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Registered Behavior Technician Ethics Code™ (RBT™), 2018. Cooper, J. H., Heward, W. L., and Heron, T. E. Applied Behavior Analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 2 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 ↬ TASK LIST A: MEASUREMENT ↫ A-1: Prepare for data collection Data collection is an essential component of any effective and comprehensive Applied Behavior Analysis program. As an RBT, you will be required to take data on a variety of behaviours. Behaviour Analysts make important programming and clinical decisions based on data. Data is a way to track progress, measure behaviour and allow for pattern analysis. Data may be transferred onto a variety of graphs to determine rates, trends, levels and direction of the data path. A variety of data collection methods will be outlined as you navigate this study guide (i.e., rate, frequency, interval recording etc.). Some best practice steps in preparing for data collection: 1. Ensure that you understand the operational definition of the target behaviour. This should be defined by your supervisor and be very clear in regards to what is considered an occurrence or non-occurrence of the target behaviour. 2. Ensure that you are familiar with the data collection procedure for tracking the target behaviour. 3. Ensure that you have all materials required to collect data. This may include an electronic device (e.g., iPad) if collecting data electronically. If collecting data physically, this may include clip boards, pencils, erasers etc. Other resources may include tally counters, timers etc. Ensure all electronics are charged and batteries work for all devices. 4. Fill in the required information on the data sheet. For example, this may include your own name as the observer, the date, time, session length etc. 5. Ensure that unneeded distractions are removed. This may include putting your cell phone on silent, putting other electronics away. 6. Provide your full attention to the individual being observed and collect data. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 3 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 A-2: Implement continuous measurement procedures (e.g., frequency, duration) Continuous measurement is a form of data collection where the observer measures every instance of a target behaviour within an observation period. This is a very time consuming method of data collection as the observer must maintain direct focus on the individual for the length of the observation time. Types of Continuous Measurement: Frequency: This is a count/tally of the number of instances of a target behavior. With frequency, you would be tracking a discrete behaviour (i.e., a clear beginning and end). This may be recorded via a clicker, tally counter, tally marks on a sheet etc. Any method that allows you to keep track of the number of instances/occurrences of the target behaviour. Some example behaviours may include hand raises, pinches, bites, responses etc. Rate: Rate is a combination of frequency count divided by a unit of time. Rate can be an effective method of measurement for behaviours that are frequent and discrete (i.e., clear start and end). Some examples may include hitting, throwing, biting, manding etc.This is best used when trying to compare continuous data across several sessions which may have varied in length. For example, if you observed an individual for 10 minutes and they engaged in 10 behaviours, 20 minutes and engaged in 20 behaviours and 30 minutes and engaged in 30 behaviours, the rate of the behaviour would be represented as 1 instance per minute (1/minute). This was calculated by dividing the total frequency by the duration of the observation (e.g., frequency = 10 divided by 10 minutes = 1 per minute, frequency = 20 divided by 20 minutes = 1 per minute). Duration: This is the total length of time a target behaviour lasts. The target behaviour must have a clear start and end to the behaviour. Duration is typically recorded using a stopwatch/timer or any device which would allow for accurate collection of time. Some example target behaviours may include duration of time a student can remain seated at circle time, duration of time a child interacts with a toy, duration of time spent on a treadmill etc. Inter Response Time (IRT): This is the time between the end of a behaviour and the start of another behaviour. When tracking IRT, begin tracking duration when the target behavior ends and stop the timer/duration when the next target behavior begins. Some examples may include the time between washroom breaks for a toileting program, the time between meals for a feeding program etc. Latency: Latency is the time from delivery of the SD to the start of the target behavior. When recording latency, begin tracking duration from when the delivery of the SD happens to when the behaviour occurs. Some examples may include fluency of responding during discrete trial training, recording reaction time, how long it takes a student to begin a tidy up routine after they have been instructed to do so. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 4 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 A-3: Implement discontinuous measurement procedures (e.g., partial & whole interval, momentary time sampling). Discontinuous measurement procedures only measure a sample of the target behaviour. Observation times are broken down into smaller units of time (i.e., intervals). This method does not track every instance of the target behaviour. This system of data collection can be beneficial in a busy environment or when there may be multiple individuals whose behaviour you need to track. As a result, discontinuous measurement is less valid and less accurate than continuous measurement. Partial interval recording: This measurement includes recording the presence or absence of a target behaviour during a set interval of time (e.g., 2 minutes). If the target behaviour occurs, you would mark a single “+”, if the target behaviour does not occur you would mark a single “-”. You can only score an interval once meaning that once the behaviour occurs, you do not need to necessarily observe for the rest of that interval. Partial interval measurement overestimates the occurrence of the target behaviour because depending on the length of the trial, it may seem that behaviour occurs during every interval while the frequency may only be 1 per interval. An example target behaviour may be a student trying to leave circle time, tracking a student making social initiations etc. Whole interval recording: This measurement includes recording the presence or absence of a target behaviour during the whole interval. Intervals are marked as “+” if the target behaviour occurred during the entire interval and marked as a “-” if the target behavior stopped/didn’t occur at any time during the interval. Whole Interval data collection underestimates the occurrence of a target behaviour because if the interval was 5 minutes for example, and the student was only able to engage in the target behaviour for 4 minutes and 59 seconds, they would still receive a “-”. Some examples may include tracking a student's ability to remain seated at their desk, tracking how long a child can play for, how long a child can socially engage for etc. Momentary time sampling: This measurement involves recording the presence or absence of a target behaviour at the end of a preset interval. Intervals are scored as a “+” if the target behavior occurred at the end of the interval or as a “-” if the target behaviour was not occuring at the end of the interval. PLACHECK is a variation of momentary time sampling which works best in group situations or where a larger number of clients require data collection. This measurement procedure provides the least amount of information because it only captures a small portion of the target behaviour. Some examples may include tracking students working on a group project, seeing if students can carry a social interaction for a set amount of time, seeing if a student can remain on their independent work etc. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 5 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 A-4: Implement permanent-product recording procedures. Permanent product recording: records the end product of a target behaviour or combination of target behaviours. A permanent product is an observable and measurable change in the environment. Some examples may include a painting, a finished craft, a worksheet, an essay, a pattern made with blocks etc. When using permanent products, the observer does not have to actually observe the individual while they are creating the permanent product. The focus of this data collection method is on the final outcome. Advantages: This method is very beneficial when the observer is unable to observe the individual directly for a variety of reasons such as too many students at once, too time consuming etc. This method also allows the observer to score the result of the permanent product on their own schedule. For example, when marking tests, the person marking can mark the tests at a time that works best for them. Disadvantages: The main disadvantage is that you are not actually observing the individual completing the permanent product. This does not allow for feedback, teaching and error correction in the moment. This method works best when the individual is able to complete the permanent product independently. Additionally, reinforcement is typically delayed with this measurement form as the individual does not receive feedback until the observer has had time to observe the permanent product. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 6 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 A-5: Enter data and update graphs. (Page 1 of 2) Collecting data and recording that data onto a graph is an essential component of an RBT’s job. Graphing data allows for the ability to analyze and visually inspect data to determine trends, levels and variability within the data. As an RBT, you should become familiar with the different types of graphs and data they may encounter. For example, if you are delivering an early intervention program, you may be collecting trial-by-trial data, probe data, mass trials etc. Depending on the skill and program, RBT’s can be expected to collect a variety of different forms of data as well as input the data into graphs. Your BCBA supervisor should be responsible for determining what type of data will be collected, how often it needs to be collected and what type of graph will best represent the data. Data collection materials: The materials required for data collection and graphing may include pencils, erasers, rulers, paper, clip board, calculators, electronics (i.e., computer, tablet etc.). How data is represented on a graph: Duration is graphed as a total duration over the day/session. Frequency is graphed as a total count of the target behaviour over the day/session or can be calculated as rate if you include the length of the day/session. Latency is graphed as the total latency duration or as an average with latency to response. Inter-response time is graphed as a total duration of inter-response time or as an average. Interval data is graphed as a percentage of intervals the target behaviour occurred divided by the total amount of intervals. . Types of graphs: 1. Bar Graph - Displays total count/frequency across different behaviours using columns/bars. 2. Line Graph - Displays change over time and is used to demonstrate a relationship between two variables. 3. Cumulative record - Displays an increasing total amount of responses/goals over time. This follows a stepwise fashion. 4. Scatter plots - Displays the strength, form and direction of the relationship between two quantitative variables. Similar to a line graph except data points are not connected. 5. Semi-Logarithmic charts - Displays exponential growth of a target behaviour over time. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 7 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 A-5: Enter data and update graphs. (Continued, page 2 of 2) Guidelines for graphing: 1. Label the vertical (i.e., up/down axis) axis with the appropriate measurement (e.g., total count, total time etc.). 2. Label the horizontal (i.e., side-to-side axis) axis with session/day. 3. Only one data point should represent each session/day. 4. Data points are connected with a solid line, unless there is a condition line/condition change. 5. Use vertical dashed lines to represent minor changes (e.g., new prompting procedure). 6. Use vertical solid lines to indicate major changes (e.g., teaching a new unrelated target). 7. Multiple behaviours should be represented by different symbols (e.g., biting is represented with circle data points and hitting is represented with square data points). 8. Label each section of the graph (e.g., baseline, treatment (DRO) etc.) 9. Use a legend if you are representing multiple behaviours on one graph Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 8 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 A-6: Describe behavior and environment in observable and measurable terms. (Page 1 of 2) Describing behaviour in observable and measurable terms is an important part of allowing for valid and reliable measurement of target behaviour across multiple observers. When a behaviour is defined in observable and measurable terms, multiple observers are able to agree on what consists as an instance of the target behaviour and what does not count as an instance of the target behaviour. Operational definition: This is a detailed description of the target behaviour in written form which provides parameters around what constitutes an instance of the target behaviour and what does not constitute an instance of the target behaviour. An operational definition of behaviour must be detailed enough that any person could read the definition and have a clear understanding and idea of what the behaviour would look like. For instance, a ‘slap’ may be defined as anytime an open hand makes contact with another individual's face/head regardless of force. Sometimes it may be helpful to include non-example of the behaviour. For example, biting is defined as any time the client’s face makes contact with another person not in the context of a hug or greeting. An operational definition may include when a behaviour starts and when a behaviour stops. For example, elopement starts when the client has left there work space for at least 2 seconds and stops once the client has returned to their workspace for at least 2 seconds. Topographical vs. functional definitions of behaviour: An operational definition may include a topographical definition (i.e., defined on some observable and measurable characteristic of the behaviour). For example, aggression may be topographically defined to include biting, kicking and punching. An operational definition may include a functional definition (i.e., behaviour that falls into a common function). For example, everytime a task expectation is given and the individual leaves or removes the task expectation by any means necessary. An example operational definition for an escape maintained behaviour may include any time the client is given a task expectation and goes onto the floor for at least 5 seconds, after the task expectation has been given a second time and stops once the client has returned to their desk seat and responded to the original task expectation. An example operational definition of throwing behaviour may include anytime an item leaves the client’s hand from at least 1 foot or more from a hard surface, not in the context of game or activity which has been established by an adult. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 9 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 A-6: Describe behavior and environment in observable and measurable terms. (Continued, page 2 of 2) Verbal operants: When assessing language, it is important to understand the function of each verbal operant. Please refer to the definitions and examples of each verbal operant below. Mand: This is also known as a request. This is one of the most basic verbal operants and is typically one of the first verbal operants targeted for teaching as the act of a mand results in access to reinforcement. A motivating operation must be present for a mand to occur, in other words, motivation must be present for a request to occur. Mands can be for items, activities, food, information, help etc. For example, a child sees a box of cookies and requests for a cookie. Tact: This is also known as a label for a person, place, item, action etc. The tact may be evoked by the presence of the item/action/person/place or the addition of a discriminative stimulus (e.g., “what is it?”,written instruction etc.). A tact does not result in access to the item/action/place being labelled. For example, a parent points to a car and asks their child “what colour is it?”. Intraverbal: This is a verbal response to a verbal antecedent in the absence of a visual cue. Most conversations in general would be considered an intraverbal exchange, however, typically a speaker would be making a mand for information while the second speaker would be providing an intraverbal response. For example, speaker 1: “what is your name?” (mand for information), speaker 2: “my name is Jackson” (intraverbal). Listener responding: This is the ability of an individual to follow an instruction. This is also referred to as receptive understanding of language. Some examples may include a person finding something when asked to find that item, following an instruction to perform an action when asked to perform it etc. Example, speaker 1: “touch your nose”, speaker 2: physically touch their nose. Echoic: This is a verbal response that occurs after a model and has point-to-point correspondence with the model. In simpler terms, this is a replication/duplication of a sound/word/vocalization after it is heard. For example, speaker 1: “school bus”, speaker 2: “school bus”. Echoics can be an effective verbal operant for teaching language/vocal production. Motor imitation: This is the ability to copy a physical model performing some type of action/movement. This movement has point-to-point correspondence with the model. In simple terms, this is copying another person's actions/movements. For example, speaker 1: physically knocks on the table, speaker 2: physically knocks on the table. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 10 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 ↬ TASK LIST B: ASSESSMENT ↫ B-1: Conduct preference assessments. (Page 1 of 2). Preference assessments: This is a set of procedures which, depending on the methods, involves some combination of presenting an individual with preferred/potentially preferred stimuli to determine the most-to-least preferred stimuli. The purpose of a preference assessment is to determine which stimuli may be used as reinforcers. As an RBT, you may be asked to both implement preference assessments as well as score data for preference assessments. Another task that an RBT may do is gather preferred stimuli that they believe the client will interact with. It is important to note that a preferred item is not necessarily a reinforcer. A reinforcer must increase the future occurrence of a target behaviour Single item preference assessment: This assessment entails an individual being presented with a single stimulus (i.e., an item, toy, activity etc.) per opportunity to engage with it and then removing that single stimulus and presenting a new one. The total duration of engagement is recorded for each stimulus presented. If the RBT is presenting food items, it would be scored on whether the individual consumed the food, made no response or avoided the item (i.e., push away, walk away etc.). The total amount of time the individual interacted with a stimulus is recorded and compared. In general, the longer the duration of engagement, the more preferred the item may be. It should be noted that longer engagement does not always mean that this is the most preferred stimuli as certain stimuli may be more motivating at different times (e.g., a pea pod seat may be more motivating when a child is tired versus a trampoline). Free operant preference assessment: This assessment involves a variety of preferred and potentially preferred stimuli set out and available for the client. The RBT would record which item(s) the client interacts with and the total duration of interaction. Selected items are put back into the array. The client is able to freely choose which stimuli to engage with and the RBT is asked to not engage with the client at this time. The stimuli are ranked by the frequency of selections and amount of time the client spent with them. Paired choice preference assessment (forced choice): This assessment involves a variety of preferred and potentially preferred stimuli being presented to the client in pairs. For example, holding out an iPad in your left hand and toy car in your right hand. Once the client makes a selection, allow them to engage with the item for about 30-60 seconds. Pairs of stimuli should be randomly paired. It should be noted that the client must have the ability, in some form, to make a choice (e.g., selecting, grabbing, pointing, looking etc.). The RBT would record the frequency of selection for each stimulus and stimuli with the highest frequency of selection would be considered the most preferred. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 11 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 B-1: Conduct preference assessments. (Continued, page 2 of 2). Multiple stimulus preference assessment with replacement: This assessment involves a variety of preferred and potentially preferred stimuli set out and available for the client. The RBT would record which item the client interacts with. The client can engage with the stimulus for about 30-60 seconds. Selected items are put back into the array and the array can be interspersed (i.e., moved around) to avoid any positional/selection biases. The client is able to freely choose which stimuli to engage with and can continue to choose the exact same stimulus if they choose to do so. The stimuli with the high frequency of selection would be considered most preferred. Multiple stimulus preference assessment without replacement This assessment involves a variety of preferred and potentially preferred stimuli set out and available for the client. The RBT would record which item the client interacts with. The client can engage with the stimuli for about 30-60 seconds. Selected items are not put back into the array and the array can be interspersed (i.e., moved around) to avoid any positional/selection biases. The client is able to freely choose which stimuli to engage with and cannot choose an already selected stimulus as it is no longer present. The stimuli selected first in order are considered to be most preferred. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 12 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 B-2: Assist with individualized assessment procedures (e.g., curriculum-based, developmental, social skills). (Page 1 of 2). As an RBT, you will be a part of the process of on-boarding new clients as well as re-assessing existing clients. In both scenarios, an assessment is required to determine what current skills, abilities and behaviours they have as well as what challenges or barriers may be present which would impact them reaching a goal. It is not the RBT’s job to determine the type of assessment needed for the client, instead the RBT may be asked to baseline/test a variety of skills as well as record data on a variety of skills/behaviours. Some areas to assess may be job readiness skills, independent living skills, self help skills, academic skills, communication skills etc. The assessment is determined on what the focus of services are. Baseline: An RBT may be asked to baseline a new skill or target. The purpose of a baseline is to determine where a client’s skills or ability is at in regards to a target behavior or goal. When conducting a baseline trial, only an SD (e.g., instruction/cue for behaviour to occur) should be given unless otherwise stated by your supervisor. If the client is unable to produce the target behaviour, the target behaviour should not be error corrected unless stated by your supervisor. Additionally, no prompts should be given during a baseline trial unless stated by your supervisor. An example may be baselining if a client can do a math question on a worksheet, giving the client the sheet and a pencil and delivering the instruction “do the math sheet”. Curriculum-based assessment: Curriculum-based assessment (CBA) and/or curriculum based measurement (CBM) are similar to tools you would see a teacher using. They are a form of direct assessment of targeted behaviours and skills in a variety of academic areas such as science, math, language, spelling and writing. An example of a curriculum-based assessment would be measuring how many grade 1 math equations a child, aged appropriately, could complete correctly. Skill assessments: This is perhaps one of the most common assessments you may come across as an RBT. These assessments help determine where a client’s skills are across a variety of domains. They typically assess areas such as communication, expressive language, receptive language, visual performance skills, intraverbals, daily living skills, school readiness skills etc. These assessments also help with planning for future goals as well as determining next steps in regards to transitions. The most commonly used skill assessments are: - Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills—Revised (ABLLS-R) - Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAPP) - Promoting Emergence of Advanced Knowledge (PEAK) - Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales 3rd edition (Vineland-3). Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 13 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 B-2: Assist with individualized assessment procedures (e.g., curriculum-based, developmental, social skills). (Continued, page 2 of 2). Daily/functional living skills assessments: One of the most common assessment tools in this category is The Assessment of Functional Living Skills. These are broken down into areas such as home skills, school skills, community participation skills etc. These assessments focus on skills people require to function across all environments. They include skills such as cooking, getting a job, grocery shopping, personal hygiene, bathing, toileting, transportation, community safety skills etc. Typically these assessment tools are used with older clients, however, some components of these assessments may be relevant to younger clients as well. Social skills assessments: As an RBT, you may be asked to run social skills groups as well as assess social skills. There are a variety of curriculum style guides with teaching manuals that focus on social skills. Depending on the age of the group, social skills may focus on simple back and forth interactions, social initiations etc. to more complex concepts like intimacy, bullying, relationships, sarcasm etc. As an RBT, you may be expected to implement as well as follow teaching manuals regarding these skills. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 14 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 B-3: Assist with functional assessment procedures. Determining the function of a behaviour is one of the most important aspects in developing effective and sound behaviour interventions. As an RBT, you will be expected to assist with functional assessment procedures. This may include an indirect role taking data or a more direct role helping implement one of the procedures with supervision. It is not the role of the RBT to determine the function of a behaviour, to determine which functional assessment to use or setting up the parameters or conditions of a functional assessment. Functional behaviour assessment (FBA): A functional behavior assessment is a combination of information gathering, data collection and functional assessment procedures used to determine the possible function of a target behaviour. As an RBT, your role may include data collection or helping implement a direct procedure under the supervision of a BCBA/BCBA-D. Indirect functional behaviour assessment procedures: This part of the FBA process involves gathering information from a variety of sources. This might include reviewing reports, reviewing data, reviewing assessments, meetings, questionnaires, interviews, rating scales, medical reports etc.The indirect information can come from anyone involved in the clients life, such as caregivers, therapists, doctors, teachers etc. Direct functional behaviour assessment procedures: This part of an FBA involves directly observing the client and collecting data. The behaviour will be operationally defined and a data collection method will be determined prior to the observation. Antecedent, behaviour and consequence data collection (ABC data) is among one of the more common methods of data collection when trying to determine the function, however, depending on the target behaviour, a variety of other methods may be more appropriate (i.e., duration, interval, rate etc.). Functional analysis/ analog assessment: This method sets up environmental conditions to target the four functions of behaviour. A function is determined when the target behaviour increases under certain environmental conditions. For example, during the demand condition, the client would be given escape from the demand if they engaged in the target behaviour (e.g., throwing worksheet) and if this behaviour increased during this condition, the data may support escape as the function of the target behaviour. It is the job of the behaviour analyst for developing the functional analysis, the procedures and data analysis. As an RBT, you may be asked to help take data, participate in a condition or help with materials. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 15 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 ↬ TASK LIST C: SKILL ACQUISITION ↫ C-1: Identify the essential components of a written skill acquisition plan. As an RBT, you will be expected to review, interpret and implement skill acquisition plans. Your supervisor will be writing the programs for the RBT and training the RBT on how to implement these programs with on-going supervision. Skill acquisition programs focus on building new skills or enhancing/shaping existing skills. Some examples of skills taught may include expressive language, receptive language, daily living skills, social skills, community safety skills etc. Components of a skills acquisition plan: 1. Overall goal/terminal goal for the client (e.g., receptively identifies common objects). 2. Steps to reach the overall goal (similar to a task analysis). 3. The model of teaching used to teach the skill(s) (e.g., DTT vs. naturalistic teaching). 4. The type of prompting procedure to be used (e.g., most-to-least, fade within etc.). 5. Mastery criteria for the goal (e.g., 80% across three consecutive sessions). 6. Schedule of reinforcement (e.g., CRF, VR2 etc.). 7. A plan for generalization and maintenance checks. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 16 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 C-2: Prepare for the session as required by the skill acquisition plan. As an RBT, you will be expected to prepare for a client session in a timely fashion. Depending on the company you work for, typically you will be allotted about 15 minutes of time to prepare for a client session. This becomes especially important for billable hours as well as having all the information and materials needed to provide effective behaviour-analytic services. Being prepared for any and all instances of challenging behaviour as well as programming is essential to ensure your client receives the most optimal experience. Session preparation: 1. Review data/previous session notes to get the most up to date information. 2. Ensure the area/workspace is clear from unneeded items or distractions. 3. Ensure that all programming and data collection materials are collected. 4. Ensure all technology is charged and/or power cords are available. 5. Ensure that client reinforcers are gathered and accessible during your session. 6. Ensure that all baseline/maintenance checks are ready to go. 7. Review any program revisions. 8. Plan your session for goals, targets and areas to focus on. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 17 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 C-3: Use contingencies of reinforcement (e.g., conditioned/unconditioned reinforcement, continuous/intermittent schedules). (Page 1 of 2). Reinforcement is perhaps one of the most important concepts when teaching new behaviour and maintaining current behaviour. As a RBT, you will be expected to not only understand the purpose of reinforcement but be able to implement a variety of schedules of reinforcement effectively. Reinforcer: This is any consequence which increases the future likelihood of a target behaviour occurring. It is important to remember that a preferred item may not necessarily be a reinforcer as well. The stimulus must increase a future target behaviour. For example, if you are teaching a client to request for a preferred food item and provide a piece of the food item after they request for it then their requesting of the food begins to increase, it is likely this is a reinforcer. Punisher: This is any consequence which decreases the future likelihood of a target behaviour occurring. It is important to remember that what we think is a punisher (e.g., verbal reprimand) may not necessarily be a punisher if the target behaviour does not decrease. In some cases it may actually serve as a reinforcer if the behaviour is attention maintained. The stimulus must decrease the future target behaviour. For example, if you remove a token every time a client speaks out of turn and this behaviour begins to decrease, it is likely a punisher. Unconditioned reinforcers: Also known as primary reinforcers, these reinforcers are biological needs that do not depend on a learning history. The effectiveness of these reinforcers also does not depend on learning. Some examples include water, warmth, food etc. Conditioned reinforcers: Also known as secondary reinforcers, these reinforcers are not biological needs and depend on a learning history. Although an individual may immediately prefer a secondary reinforcer, there is still some component of learning history which made this possible. Some examples include toys, iPad, YouTube, money, trampoline etc. Positive reinforcement: This entails adding a stimulus to the environment to increase the future probability of a target behaviour occurring. For example, during discrete trial training, the client appropriately responds to a demand and receives a small piece of an edible. Another example might be a client requesting for an item and gaining immediate access to this item. Negative reinforcement: This entails removing a stimulus from the environment to increase the future probability of a target behaviour occurring. For example, a client has a hangnail and asks you for help and you remove it with nail clippers. Another example might be a loud noise in the environment and the client asking you to turn off the noise and you do. Positive punishment: This entails adding a stimulus to the environment to decrease the future probability of a target behaviour occurring. An example of this may include a verbal reprimand which decreases the future occurrence of a student speaking out of turn. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 18 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 C-3: Use contingencies of reinforcement (e.g., conditioned/unconditioned reinforcement, continuous/intermittent schedules). (Continued, page 2 of 2). Negative punishment: Taking something away that will increase the future probability that the behavior will decrease. Example: a student yells out in class and the teacher takes away a token, the student is less likely to yell in the future. Continuous reinforcement: You may see this on a skill acquisition program as CRF. When implementing this schedule of reinforcement, every response gains access to reinforcement. For example, every task demand the client completes, they receive a food reinforcer. Intermittent/variable reinforcement: When implementing this schedule of reinforcement, not every response is reinforced. This can be based on an interval of time or a ratio of responses. An example of this would be doing discrete trial training and providing reinforcement after 2 responses, after 1 response, after 3 responses, after 2 responses etc. Fixed ratio (FR) schedule of reinforcement: Depending on what the ratio is set at (i.e., a number - FR2, FR3 etc.), reinforcement is delivered immediately after that number of responses is met. For example, on an FR4 schedule of reinforcement, after the client responds to the 4th demand, they would gain access to reinforcement. Fixed interval (FI) schedule of reinforcement: Depending on what the interval is set at (i.e., a time - FI5, FI10 etc.), reinforcement is delivered immediately after the first correct response after that amount of time has passed. For example, on an FI5 schedule of reinforcement, after 5 minutes have elapsed and the client responds correctly to a demand, they would gain access to reinforcement. Variable ratio (VR) schedule of reinforcement: Depending on what the ratio is set at (i.e., a number - VR2, VR4 etc.), reinforcement is delivered on an average around that number of responses. For example, on an VR2 schedule of reinforcement, after the client responds to an average of 2 demands (i.e., sometimes 1 demand, 2 demands, 3 demands), they would gain access to reinforcement. Variable interval (VI) schedule of reinforcement: Depending on what the interval is set at (i.e., a time - VI5, VI10 etc.), reinforcement is delivered on the average of the time and immediately after the first correct response after that amount of time has passed. For example, on an VI10 schedule of reinforcement, after an average of 10 minutes (i.e., 5 minutes, 7 minutes, 12 minutes etc.) have elapsed and the client responds correctly to a demand, they would gain access to reinforcement. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 19 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 C-4: Implement discrete-trial teaching procedures. Traditionally referred to as DTT, this is perhaps one of the most common, well researched and evidence-based early intervention models of ABA that you will encounter. DTT is a model of teaching which uses the principles of ABA to present discrete trials in rapid success with a clear antecedent, expected behaviour and consequence. As an RBT, you are not expected to write a discrete trial training program for a client, you will only be expected to implement it with fidelity. Components of a discrete trial: 1. Discriminative stimulus (SD) known as the instruction. For example, touch nose, clap hands, copy me etc. 2. A target behaviour/response. For example, touches nose, claps their hands, copies your model. 3. A consequence. This can be reinforcement or error correction depending on the response. Example: SD ------------> response ------> consequence Touch nose -> touches nose -> deliver toy as reinforcement With error correction: SD ------------> response ------> consequence Touch nose -> doesn’t touch nose -> move to error correction Repeat SD --------> Prompt -------> response ------> consequence Touch nose -> Physical prompt -> touches nose -> low level reinforcement (social praise) Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 20 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 C-5: Implement naturalistic teaching procedures (e.g., incidental teaching). An important part of all ABA programs is teaching skills which can be generalized to the natural environment. A great method of ensuring this happens is to teach the actual skill in the natural environment. There are a variety of evidence-based and emerging evidence-based naturalistic teaching frameworks such as incidental teaching, natural environment teaching, milieu teaching, pivotal response training and some newer naturalistic developmental behaviour interventions (NDBI’s). Features of naturalistic teaching procedures: 1. Follow the client’s lead. This focuses on the client’s motivation to direct what activity or event teaching will occur. For example, a child may lead you to a bin full of blocks. 2. Reinforcement should be related to the activity. For example, if you are building a tower with the blocks, the excitement of crashing the tower would be an appropriate motivator. Using an edible or iPad would be an unrelated reinforcer. 3. Motivation should be embedded in the activity. For example, the client may like Thomas the Tank Engine and playing with a Thomas train set may be motivating to them. 4. Mastered skills should be interspersed with the new skills being targeted during naturalistic teaching. For example, if the client has mastered the demand “push train” you could intersperse that instruction with a new skill you are teaching. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 21 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 C-6: Implement task analyzed chaining procedures. A task analysis involves breaking down a larger goal into smaller, teachable steps and linking these smaller steps together in a ‘chain’. As an RBT, you will not be expected to develop the task analysis of a larger skill, however, you will be expected to implement behaviour chains which use a task analysis to determine the skills in the chain. Some examples of behaviour chains may include dressing routines, washing hands, shower routine, brushing teeth etc. Task analysis example for washing hands: 1. Turn on tap. 2. 2-3 pumps of soap. 3. Scrub hands for 20-30 seconds. 4. Rinse soap off of hands under water. 5. Retrieve 2 pieces of paper towel. 6. Dry off hands with the paper towel. 7. Turn off taps with the paper towel. Forward chaining: In this procedure, the client is given an independent opportunity to produce the first behaviour/step on a behaviour chain. For example, in our washing hands example, the client is given the opportunity to complete step 1 - turn on tap independently. The remaining steps in the sequence are then taught errorlessly. As the client masters a step, they are then given an independent opportunity to produce that skill. For example, if they are on step 3, it would be expected that they can do step 1 and 2 independently. Backward chaining: In this procedure, the client is given an independent opportunity to produce the last behaviour/step on a behaviour chain. For example, in our washing hands example, the client is given the opportunity to complete step 7 - turn off taps with paper towels. The first 6 steps in the sequence are taught errorlessly. As the client masters the last step, they are then given an independent opportunity to produce the step before that (i.e., step 6). This continues in a backwards fashion until the entire chain is taught. Total task chaining: In this procedure, the client is given an opportunity to complete the entire behaviour chain and will be given assistance as needed for steps they cannot complete independently. Using the hand washing example, the client may be able to do step 1,2,3 need help with rinsing soap off their hands under water, be able to do step 5 and 6 but require help with using the paper towel to turn off the tap. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 22 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 C-7: Implement discrimination training. Discrimination training: This procedure is when teaching appropriate examples and non-examples of a desired response/behaviour. This procedure involves reinforcing the target behaviour (i.e., selecting a picture of a giraffe, when asked, with other pictures of animals in the array) and extinguishing other behaviour (i.e., touching a non-example picture) in the presence of other stimuli. For example, if you are running a discrete trial and tell the client “touch giraffe”, the client would only gain access to reinforcement when they appropriately touch the giraffe. If the client were to select any other pictures, they would not access reinforcement and that behaviour would be put on extinction. Discriminative stimulus (SD): The technical definition of an SD is a stimulus which indicates that a particular response will be reinforced. For example, if touching the picture of the giraffe when a picture of the giraffe is present, this would result in gaining access to reinforcement (e.g., edible reinforcer, tangible reinforcer, social praise etc.). S-delta/ extinction stimulus: The technical definition of an S-delta is a stimulus which indicates that a particular response will not be reinforced. Using the same example, if the client touched any picture either than the giraffe, they would not be reinforced and therefore, touching a non-example would result in extinction. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 23 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 C-8: Implement stimulus control transfer procedures. Stimulus control occurs when the duration, rate, latency or amplitude of a response is altered by the presence of an antecedent stimulus. For example, bringing in a box pizza may increase the frequency of an individual asking for pizza. Stimulus generalization: This occurs when a stimulus shares some similar physical characteristic(s) with the controlling stimulus and evokes the same behaviour as the controlling stimulus. For example, a child has a cat named Sasha and calls all cats they see from now on Sasha. Stimulus discrimination: This occurs when a new stimulus, which may or may not be similar to the controlling stimulus, does not evoke the same response as the controlling stimulus. For example, a client may be able to identify that Tarantulas are a poisonous spider but not all spiders are poisonous. Response generalization: This refers to the use of a behaviour which is similar to the target behaviour and results in a behaviour strengthening consequence. To simplify this, it's the effects of training one behaviour which spreads its effects to other behaviours. For example, if you have a dirty towel, you can put it in the washing machine, you can hand wash it, you can give it to someone else to wash it etc. Development of stimulus control example: SD ------------> response ----> consequence (positive reinforcement) Doorbell rings --> answer the door ---> Receive Amazon package SD --------> response ------> consequence (extinction) Phone rings ---> answer the door -> no one is at the door, no Amazon package Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 24 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 C-9: Implement prompt and prompt fading procedures. (Page 1 of 2). As an RBT, you will be expected to use a variety of teaching techniques as well as fade out these teaching techniques as a client demonstrates independence. Your supervisor will determine which prompting procedures to use and what criteria to use to fade out prompts. Physical prompt: This can be used as a full physical prompt (i.e., hand over hand assistance) or as a partial physical prompt (i.e., tap on the elbow to get the arm to move). In both scenarios, physical prompts are perhaps one of the most intrusive prompts and are typically faded as quickly as possible. An example of a full prompt may be teaching a client how to prepare a meal and using a full physical prompt while using a knife to chop food. An example of a partial physical prompt may be giving a client a gentle push on the back of the elbow in order to get them to reach for an item. Verbal prompt: This can be used as a full verbal prompt (i.e., giving the client the verbal response). or as a partial verbal prompt (i.e., giving the client the beginning sound of the verbal response). For example, a full verbal prompt would be holding up a picture of a lion and saying “lion”. An example of a partial verbal prompt would be holding up the picture of the lion and saying “li…”. Model prompt: This prompt involves the instructor demonstrating the target behaviour. For example, if you are teaching a child how to kick a soccer ball, the instructor would give the instruction “kick” and then model kicking the ball. Gestural prompt: This prompt involves using some form of a gesture (i.e., point, eye gaze, pointer stick etc.) which indicates the target response to the learner. For example, telling a client “touch circle” and pointing to the picture of the circle. Positional/proximity prompt: This prompt involves placing the target stimulus closer to the client to increase the likelihood they select that stimulus. For example, if you have an array of three pictures in front of the client, you would place the target response closest to them (e.g., if you ask them to “find bike”, you would put the picture of the bike closest to them). Visual prompt: This prompt can be used to support with scheduling, predictability and behaviour chains. This can also be used as written instructions. For example, having a visual schedule for washing hands in the bathroom to prompt the client to wash their hands appropriately. Least-to-most prompt fading: This process involves giving the client an independent opportunity to produce the skill and successively increases the amount of prompt required to produce the target behaviour. For example, you ask the client to wash hands, and they do all the steps except turn off the taps so the instructor gestures to the tap. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 25 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 C-9: Implement prompt and prompt fading procedures. (Continued, page 2 of 2). Most to least prompt fading: This process involves giving the client enough support to produce the skill/target behaviour and successively decreases the amount of prompt required to produce the target behaviour. For example, you ask the client to wash hands, and begin teaching it hand over hand and then begin to fade to just modeling the skill for the client. Time delay prompt fading: This process involves giving a small delay after an instruction is given before delivering a prompt. For example, you ask the client to wash their hands, wait briefly for them to start the sequence and if they don’t after about 3 seconds, you gesture towards the tap. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 26 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 C-10: Implement generalization and maintenance procedures. Generalization focuses on spreading teaching effects to new materials, novel situations and new environments and maintenance focuses on the ability to retain skills that are taught. Your supervisor should program generalization into the teaching procedures and should have a set maintenance check schedule to ensure that clients are maintaining skills across various lengths of time. Types of generalization: 1. Stimulus generalization involves a target behaviour that occurs in the presence of one stimulus occurring in the presence of another stimulus. For example, if a client is able to label a 2D picture of a dog and then sees a real dog walking on the street and is able to label that dog. 2. Response generalization involves a target behaviour that occurs under one set of environmental conditions occurring under another set of environmental conditions. For example, if a client had learned to use a spoon to eat their yogurt then spontaneously goes to the fridge and begins eating a bowl of jello with a spoon. Eating with the spoon would be an example of response generalization. Methods of teaching generalization: 1. General case analysis - this entails identifying common stimuli, relevant examples in the natural environment, multiple examples, response requirements. For example, examining the components of a classroom that the student may contact. 2. Programming common stimuli - teaching using stimuli that have the critical components of the stimuli in the natural environment. For example, teaching the same bike they would see at home and at school. 3. Training loosely - this involves teaching a variety of miscellaneous examples which do not share the features of stimuli in the natural environment. For example, teaching a 2D picture of a dog, a 3D toy of a dog and a real dog all as examples. 4. Indiscriminable contingencies - providing reinforcement on an unpredictable schedule. For example, using a variable ratio schedule. 5. Mediation - ensure that you are teaching skills in the natural environment or facilitating the transfer of skills to the natural environment. 6. Teaching multiple exemplars - including multiple examples of the stimuli. For example, 5 pictures of 5 different types of dogs. 7. Teaching negative examples - include examples where responding should not occur. For example, having distractor pictures in an array for a receptive identification program. Maintenance: This is a check on the client’s ability to retain skills. Depending on the program, your supervisor would schedule a probe check (i.e., single opportunity to produce the skill) on a weekly, monthly, semi-annual or annual basis. For example, check if a client can still tie their shoes a week after it has been mastered. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 27 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 C-11: Implement shaping procedures. As an RBT, you will be expected to teach a variety of skills. As your client is learning new skills, they may need to be broken into smaller components. When using shaping, you are differentially reinforcing approximations to a larger target behaviour. For example, if you are teaching a client to do a jumping jack, you may first reinforce their ability to jump. Next, you may reinforce only when they both jump and spread their legs. An analogy for this would be a staircase and each step has a target behaviour which is closer to the final goal. As you move up the stairs, the previous stair is put on extinction and the current stair is differentially reinforced. Shaping process: 1. Operationally defined target behaviour (e.g., washing hands, dressing routines etc.). 2. Determine baseline level or current level of producing the target behaviour. 3. List all of the steps of the target behaviour (i.e., task analysis). 4. Teach the skill and differentially reinforce independence of the current step. 5. When the current step is mastered, put this step on extinction and differentially reinforce the next step. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 28 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 C-12: Implement token economy procedures. In your role as an RBT, you will come across a variety of reinforcement systems. Token economies provide a system of receiving generalized conditioned reinforcers (i.e., tokens, points etc.) for engaging in target behaviours to exchange for a menu of backup reinforcers. You may see these systems as a token board, tally tracker, point system etc. One of the most common forms of a token economy for ourselves is money. Money is a generalized conditioned reinforcer which allows us to exchange for reinforcers. Seven components of a token economy: 1. Target behaviour(s). These should be operationally defined in observable and measurable terms. For example, responding to instructions, remaining seated, raising their hand to answer a question etc. 2. Type of tokens. For example, points, stickers, squares etc. 3. Menu of back-up reinforcers. For example, toys, iPad, edibles etc. 4. Schedule of reinforcement. For example, VR2 schedule. 5. Criteria for exchange (i.e., how many tokens are required to redeem for a backup reinforcer?). 6. Where/when tokens will be exchanged for backup reinforcers (i.e., after a token board is complete, one per period etc.). 7. Response cost (this should only be used when there is a specific intervention stating that tokens can be removed). This involves the removal of tokens for problem behaviour. This is considered a punishment procedure and should only be implemented under the direction of your supervisor. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 29 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 ↬ TASK LIST D: BEHAVIOUR REDUCTION ↫ D-1: Identify essential components of a written behavior reduction plan. Part of the role of an RBT includes implementing behaviour reduction plans using a variety of procedures and strategies to help reduce problem behaviour. It is not the job of the RBT to write these plans or to determine which intervention techniques to use. The RBT is only required to be familiar with the components of the plan and how to implement the plan. The RBT should be able to access all essential components of the behaviour reduction plan to implement the plan with fidelity. In general, you may see a behaviour reduction plan for any behaviour which impairs or significantly disrupts the client's ability to participate in an environment or gain skills in an environment. Components of a behaviour reduction plan: 1. Operational definition of the target behaviour (i.e., defined in observable and measurable terms). 2. The function of the target behaviour (i.e., access, attention, escape, automatic). 3. Antecedent strategies/proactive strategies (i.e., visual schedules, first/then boards etc.). 4. The replacement behaviour (e.g., function communication response). 5. Consequence strategies (i.e., schedule of reinforcement, DRO, positive punishment etc.). 6. Behaviour-analytic team/people responsible (i.e., service team, parents etc.). 7. Emergency protocol/measures (i.e., crisis intervention, 9-1-1 protocol etc.). Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 30 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 D-2: Describe common functions of behavior. As an RBT you may experience a variety of challenging behaviour which may be maintained by one or more functions. The ability to quickly identify a potential function maintaining a behaviour can result in more effective and successful reduction of the challenging behaviour. It is not the role of the RBT to determine the function of behaviour for behaviour reduction plans, however, it is the job of the RBT to manage challenging behaviours while working directly with a client. Escape maintained behaviour: Escape maintained behaviours typically look like an individual trying to get out of an expectation, situation or environment. This may appear as physically leaving an environment (e.g., leaving their work area), destroying property (e.g., ripping their worksheet), refusing to participate (e.g., not responding to a question) etc. In most scenarios, some form of follow through is typically recommended to help reduce escape maintained behaviours as well as providing a functional replacement skill (e.g., asking for a break, asking to come back to it later etc.). In general, individuals typically engage in escape to access something (e.g., another activity, free time, an item etc.), however, escape maintained behaviours can also be used to remove an aversive. Access to tangible: Access to tangible maintained behaviours includes behaviours which allow access to a preferred item/activity or attempt to allow access to these items/activities. This definition does encompass a large variety of items/activities such as food items, toys, games, technology, environments, equipment etc. In general, most interventions will focus on a combination of teaching the client a replacement skill to gain access to these items/activities (e.g., functional communication training) as well as teaching a combination of tolerating denial, delayed and denied access to these items/activities. Access to attention: Attention maintained behaviours have a social mediation component to them (i.e., to get the attention of another person). One important note about attention maintained behaviours is that the individual engaging in the behaviour may be looking for positive and/or negative attention. For example, they may rip up their worksheet to receive a verbal reprimand or may throw an item across a classroom to try to get other students to laugh. In general, most interventions would focus on teaching the client a replacement skill to access attention in more appropriate ways (i.e., functional communication training). Automatic/sensory maintained behaviours: Automatic maintained behaviours tend to occur across all situations and environments. These are also perhaps one of the more difficult functions to determine as these behaviours may be serving a purpose which is not observable or measurable (e.g., a client feeling itchy due to a certain material). In general, interventions typically focus on providing the client with an appropriate way to access their sensory needs (e.g., providing a client with a stress ball who is seeking deep pressure with their hands). Another alternative may be providing functional communication or providing a more appropriate replacement skill (e.g., pushing a cart with books on it to provide heavy work) Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 31 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 D-3: Implement interventions based on modification of antecedents such as motivating operations and discriminative stimuli. (Page 1 or 2). Antecedent strategies are an effective way to help avoid problem behaviour before it occurs. Antecedent strategies are used as proactive measures prior to the occurrence of problem behaviour. For example, using a visual schedule, priming, using first/then language etc. These strategies are all used to modify the environment so that a client is less likely to engage in problem behaviours. As an RBT, these should be used consistently and intentionally. Establishing operations (EO): This concept refers to the increased value of a stimulus based on deprivation. To summarize this concept, an item can become more valuable when it is needed. For example, food becomes more valuable as the duration from the last meal increases. If you eat breakfast and it is getting closer to lunch time, food begins to become more valuable as time increases as you begin to feel more hungry. This can be used in direct work with a client by limiting access to highly preferred items (e.g., limiting the time they spend on YouTube) to ensure that these items become highly motivating and maintain their value as reinforcers. Abolishing operations (AO): This concept refers to the decreased value of a stimulus based on satiation. To summarize this concept, an item can become less valuable when you have too much of it. For example, food becomes less valuable immediately after a meal. This happens because your body sends a signal to indicate that you are full so food is not valuable at that moment. When thinking about direct work with a client, edible reinforcers are likely to not be effective immediately after the client eats a meal. The same can apply to the YouTube example in that a client may not be motivated to work for YouTube if they have been on YouTube for the last several hours. Non-contingent reinforcement (NCR): This strategy involves providing reinforcement to a client regardless of their performance or a target behaviour. This serves as an abolishing operation of the reinforcer because the individual will continue to gain access to the reinforcer and not be required to seek it. Typically this procedure would follow a fixed interval of time (e.g., every 5 minutes) and reinforcement would be delivered. In general, this procedure works for an individual who is going to attempt to access reinforcement via a problem behaviour and instead provides them with consistent and predible access to reinforcement so they don’t need to use problem behaviour to access it. For example, providing access to an iPad for about 2 minutes every 15 minutes so that the client does not have to engage in problem behaviour to gain access to the iPad. Demand fading: This strategy involves systematically increasing demand expectation across time. This is typically used to help reduce escape maintained behaviours. For example, sessions start with two task expectations then access to reinforcement. After five successful repetitions, three tasks are now expected to gain access to reinforcement. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 32 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 D-3: Implement interventions based on modification of antecedents such as motivating operations and discriminative stimuli. (Continued, page 2 or 2). Task modification: This strategy involves changing the presentation, delivery or materials associated with a task or work expectation. For example, if teaching a child how to label a dog, if they are refusing to learn the skill at the table, you might go for a walk to find a dog in the park to label. This strategy is typically used for escape maintained behaviour which may look like not responding to instructions, trying to leave a teaching space or destroying materials. High probability request sequence/behaviour momentum: This strategy involves providing 3-5 mastered demands with a history of high compliance and presenting the skill acquisition demand or more difficult demand at the end of the sequence. This should be done using discrete instructions (i.e., close ended instructions: touch nose, copy me, do this etc.) which the client can do rapidly. The purpose of this strategy is to build momentum into a more difficult expectation. As a general rule of thumb, you should be varying between 3-5 mastered demands each time (e.g., 4 demands 1st trial, 3 demands 2nd trial, 5 demands 3rd trial etc.). Choice: Choice is a great strategy to provide the client with some control over the session. Choice can be offered in a variety of ways. You can offer a choice as a yes/no choice if no is a valid option (e.g., “would you like to work for the iPad?”). You can offer choice as a forced choice/choice between two (e.g., “do you want to work for YouTube or the train set?”). You can offer choice as an open ended question (e.g., “what would you like to work for?”). The type of choice you offer should depend on the client’s ability to make a choice. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 33 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 D-4: Implement differential reinforcement procedures (e.g., DRA, DRO). (Page 1 of 2). Differential reinforcement procedures focus on building functional replacement behaviours for problem behaviours or increasing functionally appropriate behaviours already in a client’s repertoire. As an RBT it is not your job to develop or determine which differential reinforcement procedure a client needs. It is the role of the RBT to follow the procedure with fidelity as well as collect data as required. These are the variety of differential reinforcement procedures you may encounter below. Differential reinforcement of other behaviour (DRO): This intervention involves reinforcing any behaviour other than the problem behaviour. For example, if the client has not engaged in hitting behaviour for a 5 minute interval, they would receive differential reinforcement (e.g., iPad for 2 minutes). This focuses mostly on the absence of behaviour and the ‘other’ behaviour can be any behaviour which is not the target behaviour. Differential reinforcement of alternative behaviour (DRA): This intervention involves reinforcing a functional replacement behavior that serves the same function as the problem behaviour. For example, if a child uses biting to attempt to access a preferred item, the ‘alternative’ behaviour may be teaching a functional communication response (e.g., “I want…”) which provides an alternative response to get their desired item. Differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviour (DRI): This intervention involves reinforcing a behaviour which cannot physically occur during the same time as the problem behaviour. For example, if a student hits other children while transitioning through the hallways at school, an ‘incompatible’ behaviour would be keeping their hands in their pocket while walking. In this example, you can’t both be hitting and have both hands in your pocket as it’s not physically possible. Differential reinforcement of lower rates of behaviour (DRL): This intervention involves reinforcing a lower, but not zero, rate of behaviour. This is typically used for behaviours which are socially acceptable but may occur too often. For example, if a student speaks out of turn in class too frequently, you may want to lower this behaviour but it may never necessarily be completely at zero and that might be realistic/tolerable in a social setting. With this intervention, reinforcement is delivered if a behavior occurs below a predetermined level/criterion. For example, if that same student spoke out of turn 10 or less times during their math lesson, they would gain access to a reserved reinforcer. Differential reinforcement of high rates of behaviour (DRH): This intervention involves reinforcing a desirable behaviour which is not occurring at a high enough rate. For example, if we wanted to increase the amount of spontaneous social interactions our client has with peers, we would set a criteria and if the student reached that criteria or more, they would gain access to a reserved reinforcer. Behavior occurs above a predetermined level/criterion. For example, if that same student engaged in 4 or more conversations, they would get access to reinforcement. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 34 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 D-4: Implement differential reinforcement procedures (e.g., DRA, DRO). (Continued, page 2 of 2). Differential reinforcement of diminishing rates of behaviour (DRD): This intervention involves reinforcing a progressively lower criterion of the target behaviour until completely zero. This is used for problem behaviours which do not serve a functional purpose or are socially inappropriate. For example, if a student is spitting in class to get attention, this procedure would continue to lower the acceptable rate of spitting until completely zero. In this example, the criteria would continue to go lower (e.g., starting at 5 and lowering to 4, then lowering to 3 etc. until 0). Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 35 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 D-5: Implement extinction procedures. (Page 1 of 2). In some cases, a problem behaviour may need to be put on extinction. In general, extinction means the removal of reinforcement. For example, if a problem behaviour was maintained by negative attention, the removal of negative attention (i.e., reinforcement) would put the behaviour on extinction. As an RBT, it is not your role to determine extinction procedures or when to use extinction procedures. Your supervisor will determine when these procedures need to be used. Whenever extinction is being used, a replacement behaviour will be provided which serves the same function as the problem behaviour and produces reinforcement. Extinction burst: An extinction burst happens initially when the reinforcement maintaining the problem behaviour is removed. The individual will increase their rate/intensity of problem behaviour and may produce new behaviours in an attempt to access reinforcement. An example may be a client who normally scratches to get negative attention now bites, kicks and throws property when negative attention is no longer occurring. Spontaneous recovery: This happens when the problem behaviours reappear after they have been put on extinction for some duration of time. The problem behaviours may reappear in the absence of the original reinforcer. Resurgence: This occurs when the problem behaviour put on extinction reappears as a result of the schedule of reinforcement being thinned for the alternative/replacement behaviour. For example, if the replacement behaviour was functional communication training and the client’s functional communication is not being honoured, they may use the problem behaviour again to try to access reinforcement. Attention extinction: In this procedure, attention is removed. This is also known as planned ignoring in some cases. An example of this may be a client who engages in disruptive classroom behaviour (e.g., yelling in class) and no one reacting to his yelling. In this instance, if the client was not yelling or used functional communication to get attention, he would be given attention immediately. Tangible extinction: This procedure involves completely denying access to a tangible item/activity. For example, removing an iPad or locking up an iPad so that the client cannot physically gain access to it. Escape extinction: This procedure involves preventing a client from leaving a demand situation. For example, if a client attempts to leave their work area, they may be fully prompted to complete the task before leaving the area. Another example using an environmental escape extinction would be laminating a worksheet that a client tries to rip up so that they cannot escape the task by ripping the laminated worksheet. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 36 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 D-5: Implement extinction procedures. (Continued, page 2 of 2). Sensory extinction: This procedure involves preventing a client from engaging in a sensory behaviour. For example, if a client bites their fingernails, they may be required to wear gloves. Another example may be physically preventing a client from engaging in a sensory behaviour or response blocking to ensure a behaviour does not occur. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 37 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 D-6: Implement crisis/emergency procedures according to protocol. As an RBT you may find yourself in an emergency situation or crisis situation. Every workplace will have a different set of guidelines and procedures regarding these situations, however, these situations are not always clear. As a general guideline, a crisis or emergency situation involves some degree of risk or imminent risk that an individual can be seriously hurt or harmed. This includes all parties involved (i.e., staff, client, bystanders etc.). Emergency medical situations: Some clients may have specific protocols around medication doses, side effects, allergies etc. There may be instances when you find yourself in a medical emergency situation. The first step is always asking for help when available. It is important to remain calm and evaluate the situation to the best of your ability based on experience and knowledge. This may include calling emergency services/9-1-1 for injuries. Emergency physical situations: In some instances, a problem behaviour may escalate to unsafe levels for the staff and/or the client. In some cases, a restraint may be required to ensure that an immediate risk can be reduced or eliminated. Physical intervention should always be used as an absolute last resort when no other strategy would be effective at maintaining safety for both the staff and client. Every workplace should provide specific training around non-violent crisis prevention intervention models. Training that is available: Depending on where you live, the available models of non-violent crisis prevention intervention models may differ. Some more familiar ones may include CPI, safe schools, safe management, behaviour management systems and Pro-ACT. These models of intervention typically provide a variety of preventive and proactive strategies as well. In general, the physical intervention portion of these training sessions are only used as an absolute last resort unless otherwise stated in a behaviour reduction plan. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 38 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 ↬ TASK LIST E: DOCUMENTATION AND REPORTING ↫ E-1: Effectively communicate with a supervisor in an ongoing manner. Effective communication is an essential part of collaborative team work. In your role as an RBT you will be working collaboratively in some manner. Whether it is just yourself and your supervisor or you have a large team of professionals, communication is a key factor in delivering effective behaviour-analytic intervention. Documentation and communication go hand in hand and it is imperative that important and pertinent information is documented clearly, professionally and objectively to allow for effective communication across the team. In some cases, an RBT may be assigned as a ‘primary’ to a client and will be responsible for bringing updates, information, data and on-going questions to their supervisor about the client. This may also include bringing that information to team meetings. Session note documentation: Comprehensive and objective documentation skills ensure that important information is captured and that any member of the team working with the individual receiving services will have up to date information. Session notes may also be used during problem solving, disputes, planning next steps, supervision and in some cases, court subpoena of records (i.e., custody disputes, insurance etc.). Areas you may want to document: 1. Any ecological variables shared by a caregiver and/or affecting the session 2. Programming/goals that were worked on during the session 3. Effective reinforcers used 4. Any challenging behaviour 5. Any additional materials or missing items required 6. Any objective information that another team member should know Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 39 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 E-2: Actively seek clinical direction from supervisor in a timely manner. Active communication is important both when support is needed but also when everything is going well. The purpose of supervision is to continue to grow your skills, knowledge and expertise as an RBT but also to provide the best care for the individuals you work with. Seeking out clinical direction in a timely manner is both a responsible and required process of being an RBT. In general, non-emergency questions should be asked within 24 hours which should be sufficient time for your supervisor to get back to you before your next session. As an RBT, it is your duty to ensure that you are seeking out clarification and that clinical decisions around programming, interventions and planning are kept as the role of the supervisor. An example of actively seeking supervision may be when a new program is introduced and the RBT is unfamiliar with a prompting procedure. The RBT should reach out to the supervisor for some possible training and/or coaching around effective implementation of the prompting procedure. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 40 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 E-3: Report other variables that might affect the client in a timely manner. There are a variety of variables that can affect a client. When we consider our own lives, something as simple as getting 30 minutes less of sleep can have a significant impact on the day ahead. The same holds true for the individuals we work with that different variables can have different impacts on their day. It is important that when a caregiver reports these variables that we record them in our session notes. It is also important that we consider our own observations and experiences with the client and document these objectively. For example, the client appeared to be responding to instructions slower than usual today and attempted to take a nap on the bean bag chair at 1:25pm. This may be a situation where a caregiver may share that the client didn’t sleep well last night or might be a prompt for the caregiver to continue to monitor the client. Ecological variables to report: 1. Sleep routines, late bedtimes, early wake ups etc. 2. Changes in prescribed medication or delivery of over the counter medications 3. Illness or atypical behaviour which may be interpreted as illness 4. Changes in routines (i.e., holidays, long weekends, breaks etc.) 5. Any challenges around eating (e.g., not eating, missing a meal etc.) 6. Changes to the home environment (i.e., staying at a family member's home etc.) Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 41 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 E-4: Generate objective session notes for service verification by describing what occurred during the sessions, in accordance with applicable legal, regulatory, and workplace requirements. Just as behaviour is defined in an objective manner, it is imperative that session notes use the same language and degree of clarity. Session notes provide a variety of purposes which may include supporting insurance/billing, court subpoena of records, data analysis, planning, future programming, problem solving and communicating across the team. Depending on the workplace, you may be required to document specific information (e.g., session lengths, indirect hours etc.) which may be used for a variety of purposes. Objective writing: Objective writing means that you are writing session notes exactly as you see or hear. Challenging behaviour should be defined based on the operational definition and should include data based on the assigned data collection method. For example, the client engaged in 5 instances of hitting behaviour. This provides a clear indication of how the behaviour was measured and what the actual behaviour was. You can also include parameters such as intensity if a rating scale is operationally defined. For example, the client engaged in 5 instances of level 3 aggression. Professionalism: Best practice would state that we use professionalism across all aspects of service delivery. This includes how we interact with clients, with families, co-workers, external providers etc. Using professionalism within your session notes not only provides dignity to the client but also ensures that you can feel confident with anyone reviewing your notes (i.e., a parent, external service provider, co-worker etc.). When using professional language, avoid adding unobservable behaviours or personal interpretations of behaviour. For example, you should not say that the client is a biter because they were annoyed with the therapist today. Instead, this could be written as the client engaged in 6 instances of biting behaviour when presented with a task demand. Incident reports: These are used to document most common injuries. Your workplace should have policies around what constitutes an incident. Depending on the laws of where you work, these documents may be required for investigations of incidents as well as workplace insurance claims. Some common examples of incident reports would be slips, trips, falls, drawing blood, wrong doses of medication, dangerous objects/materials in the workplace, spills etc. If you are unsure if something is an incident, always follow up with your supervisor to clarify the situation. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 42 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 E-5: Comply with applicable legal, regulatory, and workplace data collection, storage, transportation, and documentation requirements. Depending on which country, state and city you work in, applicable laws and policies may differ. For example, if practicing in the United States of America laws around confidentiality include Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) and the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) Privacy Rule. In Canada, this is referred to as the Personal Health Information Protection Act (PHIPA). These acts outline how personal health information should be handled. Your supervisor and workplace should provide training around these acts and have specific procedures in place to ensure that client information remains confidential. Any information with the client’s identifying information should be kept confidential. When using electronic data everything needs to be uploaded to an encrypted and confidential database usually with multiple measures of security. Storing personal health information: Depending on the country you work in, most personal health information protection acts require personal health information to be double locked. For example, keeping data sheets and client reports in a locked cabinet inside of a locked office/building. When transporting personal health information, materials should be in a lockbox stored in the trunk of the car. These are examples which may differ based on country, however, best practice usually includes at least two measures of security in protecting personal health information. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 43 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 ↬ TASK LIST F: PROFESSIONAL CONDUCT AND SCOPE OF PRACTICE ↫ F-1: Describe the BACB’s RBT supervision requirements and the role of RBTs in the service-delivery system. Once you have obtained your Registered Behaviour Technician certificate, there are a variety of supervision requirements you must follow to maintain your certification. Please refer to www.bacb.com for the BACB®’s most recent and up to date guidelines for RBT supervision requirements. Summary of supervision requirements: 1. An RBT must obtain a minimum on-going supervision of 5% of the hours spent delivering/providing behaviour-analytic services per month. 2. Supervision must include at least two face-to-face, synchronous contacts per month, with at least one of those having the supervisor directly observe the RBT. 3. An RBT must keep documentation of supervision for a minimum of 7 years. 4. Inform the BACB® of any changes in name, address or email within 30 days. Role of the RBT: RBT’s are responsible for the implementation of behaviour-analytic programming and intervention. RBT’s provide direct service to the recipients of behaviour analysis. Intervention and programming should be designed by a BCBA or BCBA-D. The role of the RBT is not to be designing or creating plans, but rather implementing them. As an RBT, your input is extremely valuable and your BCBA supervisor may ask for input or feedback around specific targets, goals and areas to focus on. As an RBT you can share your thoughts and insights and it is up to your BCBA supervisor to determine what feedback should go into programming. It is not the RBT’s role to make clinical changes to programming, interventions or strategies outlined in any behaviour-analytic report/intervention. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 44 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 F-2: Respond appropriately to feedback and maintain or improve performance accordingly. As an RBT receiving 5% of supervision for your behaviour-analytic service delivery hours, it should be expected that you will continuously be receiving feedback. It is not always easy to receive feedback, however, it is important to view feedback as a tool to promote growth and ensure that the clients you work with are receiving optimal service delivery. One evidence-based model of supervision includes the Behavioural Skills Training (BST) model. Your supervisor should be trained in this model of service delivery and can be used for your supervision meetings. Behavioral Skills Training (BST) model components: 1. Instruction: This includes the rationale/explanation of the skill to be taught. For example, if supervision is focusing on a variable schedule of reinforcement, your supervisor may describe the science behind this concept as well as how it should be implemented. 2. Modelling: As a general rule, the skill should be modelled approximately three times. In the previous example, your supervisor would model implementing a variable schedule of reinforcement with your client. 3. Rehearsal: The RBT would then attempt to demonstrate the skill across approximately three attempts. In the previous example, the supervisor would switch spots with the RBT. 4. Feedback: Your supervisor will provide feedback in the moment. The feedback should be objective and specific. For example, the client responded rapidly when you were implementing the VR2 schedule precisely. Feedback should also include a follow-up supervision date with specific goals or areas to focus on. How to respond to feedback you disagree with: You may receive feedback that you do not necessarily agree with. There could be a variety of reasons for this which may include a miscommunication, not enough information gathered or external factors affecting your performance. It’s important that if you do not agree with feedback that you seek clarification in a professional and respectful manner. For example, if you disagree with your supervisor's analysis of your skills, you can ask for more clarification or ask for specific examples to support their feedback. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 45 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 F-3: Communicate with stakeholders (e.g., family, caregivers, other professionals) as authorized. As an RBT, your role is to provide direct behaviour-analytic services to clients. Since you are likely spending the most time with the client and/or family, there may be times where you are required to communicate with stakeholders. You may also be asked to join meetings to share information about a client (e.g., attending a school meeting, attending a transition meeting etc.). Any meeting you are asked to join should include your supervisor. Your role is not to make clinical decisions or talk about the future direction of programming. That is the role of the supervisor. If a stakeholder asks you these questions, the RBT can pass this question along to their supervisor and allow the supervisor to follow up. Questions an RBT can answer when asked by a caregiver: 1. Objective information about the session (e.g., client ate their entire snack). 2. Objective information about areas of focus during the session (e.g., we worked on his patterning tasks this session). 3. Objective information about reinforcers (e.g., client selected iPad 10 times today). 4. Any general reminders or messages to pass along (e.g., the supervisor will be calling you this evening at 6:00pm to discuss next steps). Questions an RBT should not be answering: 1. Future programming or direction of programming. 2. Rationale behind a behaviour intervention plan. 3. Why staff have been assigned to a client. 4. Modifications to programming or interventions. 5. Ethical justification of interventions. 6. Next steps for programming/targets. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 46 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 F-4: Maintain professional boundaries (e.g., avoid dual relationships, conflicts of interest, social media contacts). As an RBT working directly with the client and family, the therapeutic relationship may begin to feel comfortable and the family may be more open to sharing information not related to the behaviour-analytic services. It is important that the relationship with the client and family remains as a therapeutic relationship and that professional boundaries are not crossed. May workplaces have specific policies around dual-relationships, social media and conflicts of interest. These can all be harmful because they can have a negative influence on the delivery of behaviour-analytic services and impair our clinical judgement. Working in the home: As an RBT you may be required to work in a family’s home which can pose a lot of potential opportunities to blur the therapeutic relationship. One common offering you may encounter is being offered a meal during your session. Best practice would be to politely decline the offer. A few ways around this may be having your supervisor address this at the on-set of the therapeutic relationship. Another method may be bringing your meal and informing the family that you already have food. Remember to always be professional and courteous but ensure that ethics are not broken in the home. Dual relationships: These occur when a relationship with the client or family happens outside of behaviour-analytic service delivery. Common examples of this include a family inviting you to their personal family events, offering you to stay and relax after a session, asking you to join them during family outings etc. It is important that the relationship remains therapeutic and that these offerings are politely declined. A non-example may include your workplace hosting a meet-and-greet during working hours where new clients can meet the therapists and explore the workplace. Conflicts of interest: These are perhaps one of the more grey ethical areas as conflicts of interests are not always straightforward. In general, a conflict of interest occurs when someone has access to information and/or has an external stake or factor which may affect their judgement or ability to deliver behaviour-analytic service. An example of a clear conflict of interest would be providing behaviour-analytic services, providing respite and getting paid on the side to babysit the client. A less clear example of a conflict of interest may be an RBT working part time for two different workplaces in the same catchment area. Social media: Social media is continuing to grow across a variety of platforms (e.g., LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram etc.). You should not be accepting a client or client family member as a contact. You should also not be communicating with a client or client family via social media. It is also important that you remain professional while using social media as anything you post may be made public and have negative repercussions as a result. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 47 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 F-5: Maintain client dignity. Providing caring and professional support entails client dignity. Regardless of how challenging a behaviour may be, the client is still a person and deserves respect and dignity. The role of an RBT is to help individuals reach their full potential and build new skills. A good rule of thumb is to treat clients how you would like to be treated. Listen to their communication, support their independence and be supportive in your teaching approaches. It is important that you do not talk about clients behind their back in a negative way and that you do not share their information and events as stories to your peers or social network. How to maintain client dignity: 1. Talk about clients using objective and professional language. Do not refer to a client as a hitter, biter, spitter, runner etc. When talking about a behaviour, use the operational definition name and provide some measurement around the behaviour. For example, the client engaged in 15 instances of spitting today. 2. Do not refer to client’s as annoying, pain in the neck etc. These are hurtful ways of speaking about a person and don’t serve a functional purpose in helping the client. 3. Try to allow for as much independence as possible with personal care routines (i.e., changing, bathing, toileting etc.) as well as privacy when it is safe to do so. 4. Do not label clients as their diagnosis. For example, the client received a diagnosis of autism, they are not suffering from autism. 5. Avoid over generalizations. For example, do not make statements along the lines of “all kids with autism do…”, “that was very autistic…”. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 48 RBT® 2nd Edition Study Guide - Version 1.0 References Behavior Analyst Certification Board. (2018). Registered Behavior Technician™ (RBT™) Task List, 2018. Behavior Analyst Certification Board. Registered Behavior Technician Ethics Code™ (RBT™), 2018. Cooper, J. H., Heward, W. L., and Heron, T. E. Applied Behavior Analysis. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2007. Source: Cooper, J., Heron, T., Heward, W. Applied Behaviour Analysis (2nd Ed.) Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson; 2007. Property of The Behaviour Lab. Do not distribute, reproduce or duplicate without written consent. Page 49