RBT STUDY SET

Who can be an RBT?

18 years of age
Highschool Diploma
Criminal Background Check

Maintaining your RBT?

Renewal Competency Exam & 5% of hours supervised

Training Requirements

40 hour course/ Competency Exam/RBT Exam

7 dimensions of ABA

Applied
Behavioral
Analytical
Technological
Conceptually Systematic
Effective
Generality

Applied (Dimensions of ABA)

Goals & intervention are selected because they are socially significant to the individual & caregivers

Behavioral (Dimensions of ABA)

You work on things that you can observe and are able to measure. It focuses on what the individual is doing or needs to do, not what they are thinking and feeling

Analytical (Dimensions of ABA)

Interventions are selected based on the data. This is essential to ensure strategy effectiveness or to determine if modifications are needed.

Technological (Dimensions of ABA)

It is outlined so well that anyone can use it. Procedures and strategies are outlined in detail, allowing for others to read them & implement them accurately.

Conceptually Systematic (Dimensions of ABA)

Procedures are described in terms of relevant ABA principles and relate to research supported behavior analytic concept (positive reinforcement, prompting methods, shaping & etc.)

Generality (Dimensions of ABA)

Positive behavior change & learned skills are maintained over time & can be demonstrated in different settings, with different people & under a variety of contexts. (seeing progress)

Effective (Dimensions of ABA)

Making sure that your intentions are effective, if its not effective, you change it.

Steps for Data Collection

1.) Read background material
2.) Determine the type of data
3.) Gather materials
4.) Fill out the identifying info.
5.) Minimize distractions
6.) Take data

continous measurement

Measures all instance of behavior during the observation period (more intensive)

discontinuous measurement

snapshots of the behavior within the observation period

Frequency

a count of how many times a behavior occurs during a period of time

how is frequency collected? and with what type of behavior?

it is collected with a tally count. A behavior that has a clear ending and beginning and occurs at a medium or low rate (does not occur a lot).

Pros & Cons of Frequency

Pro: Straightforward & most common data
Con: Difficult to collect when the rate of the behavior is high, and the behavior does not have a clear beginning and end.

Examples of Frequency

Raising a hand in class
Asking for the desired item
hitting a sibling
biting nails

Rate

When you collect data on a learner's behaviors the amount of time you observe might change from day to day or session to session. Rate takes time into account,, you can report it per hour, per minute, per day etc.

Examples of Rate

If you observed 1 hour on Monday & saw 5 instances of hitting & 2 hours on Tuesday and saw 5 instances of hitting but only graphed the count of the behavior, it would look as if the amount of hitting did not changed.

Rate helps by...

showing if the behavior increases or decreases over the span of a few days.

Duration

The length of a behavior

How do you measure duration?

You start the stopwatch when the behavior occurs & stop the stopwatch when the behavior ends. Can be done with a stopwatch, phone or computer.

Examples of duration

How long a tantrum lasts
Length of social play
How long it take for a child to get dressed

IRT (Inter Rate Response)

The time between responses

How do you measure IRT?

You begin the stopwatch when a behavior ends and stop the stopwatch when the behavior begins

Latency

The time it takes for a behavior to start. Typically the time from the prompt to the response.

How do you measure latency?

Start a stopwatch at the end of a prompt and then stop it when the behavior begins. It's important to take the average at the end.

Example of latency

Time-lapse from peer asking about the favorite move to response. *Autistic children take a while to respond.

Whole Interval

Timing & duration of behavior

Partial Interval

Records that the behavior occurred during an interval, if it happens at any point.

Permanent Product

Not recording behaviors but recording the product behavior procedures.

Example of permanent product

how many questions a student answered on a worksheet/ bruises/ math worksheet

What falls under continuous measurement ?

IRT
Latency
Rate
Duration
Frequency

What falls under discontinuous measurement?

Whole Interval
Partial Interval
Momentary Time sampling

Pros & Cons of Permanent Product

Pro: You can record info from permanent products anytime
Con: You are not actually recording behavior. For example, a parent could've completed the worksheet for a client.

Operational Definition of Behavior

An explicit definition that makes it possible for 2 or more observers to identify the same behavior.

Frequency data are summarized...

as rate per sessions or day

Latency data are summarized...

as average latency

Interval data are summarized...

by percent of intervals, the behavior occurred

Important Rules for graphing

1) Graph one data point for every session
2) Draw a solid line connecting data points in the same phase. Don't connect if they are in the same phase.
3) Different symbols are used for different behaviors

Properties of Behavior Change

Level, trend & variability/stability

Level

Value on the vertical axis around which a series of data points converge

Trend

The overall direction taken by the data path (trending up & trending down)

Variability / Stability

Frequency & degree to which multiple measures of behavior yield different outcomes

Behavior

Is everything a person does. Behavior is not just problem behaviors.

What should you NOT do when discussing someone's behavior?

Associate a feeling to that behavior. For example, if Kate hits someone you can not assume Kate is angry or anger caused that behavior.

Why do we engage in behaviors?

We engage in behaviors that work and you are less likely to engage in behaviors that do not work.

Principles of Behavior

1) Almost all human behavior is learned
2) Behaviors occur for a reason
3) No behaviors "occur out of the blue"
4) Behaviors continue to occur because they are effective
5) Behaviors stop occurring because they are ineffective

The characteristics of Operational Definitions

1) Objective: It has an objective (directly observable aspects of behavior)
2) Clear: Anyone without prior knowledge should be able to understand the definition.
3) Complete: The definition has all information necessary
4) Individualized: No behavior is the same, they are all different in their own way.
5) No emotion: The definition does not include emotion in its description.

Which interval recording is the most conservative?

Whole Interval

You are asked to take a whole interval data on a behavior you record...

if the behavior occurs through the same interval

Preference Assessment

A set of procedures is used to determine if one or more stimuli may function to increase the rate of a specific behavior or behaviors when delivered following the occurrence of that behavior.

What are you trying to learn through the Preference Assessment?

You are trying to determine which reinforcers are most effective and this type of assessment is done throughout the course of therapy.

Free Operant Observation

Just observing the person.

What to do in a Free Operant Observation?

1) The therapist does not interact with the learner
2) Observing the learner with multiple possible reinforcers
3) The learner is free to choose which reinforcer or multiple reinforcers they engage in.
4) The therapist records the time with each reinforcer

Single Item Preference Assessment

Simply present one item at a time to the learner and record whether he consumes/interacts with it, makes no response to it, or avoids it.

What to do in Single Item Preference Assessment?

1) Present: Simply present one item at a time to the learner and record whether he consumes/interacts with it, makes no response to it, or avoids it.
2) Present: For edible items, show a small piece or one bite of the item
3) Allow: For non-edible items, allow the learner to interact with the item for 30 seconds or more & then present the next trial
4) Present: Present all the items on your list in a random order like books, ipad etc.
5) Present: Present each item 3 times in total. Tally the number of times each item was consumed/interacted with.

Paired Choice Preference Assessment

Developed to address the con of the single item preference assessment. It requires that the learner makes choices between items & therefore reliably produces a hierarchy of preference for items.

Con of a single item preference assessment?

A learner may consume and interact with all itens in which case you will not be able to identify which items are more highly preferred,

What do you do in a Paired Choice Assessment?

Designate how you are going to pair each item with every item once
- You can randomly pair items yourself or you can use a datasheet that has pre-randomized all the pairing you need for an assessment which includes 7 ITEMS

Important things to remember of a Paired Choice Assessment

- It allows the child to produce a hierarchy of their preferred items.
- You write it down on a data sheet
- During the preference assessment you allow the client to play with the items ( 7 items )

Multiple Stimulus Preference Assessment

A procedure that can be conducted much more quickly and can therefore be a good choice for learners who have the ability to scan multiple items before making a choice.
- Should be conducted between 3 & 7 items.

What to do in a Multiple Stimulus Preference Assessment?

- Place all the items in a line on a table, in front of the learner
- If the learner tries to choose more than one at a time, block them and re-present the trial
- When the learner picks ONE item record which one and allow the learner to interact with it for 30 seconds
- Repeat the trial process until no items remain. Summarize the data and the terms of frequency in which the items were chosen.
REMEMBER this assessment takes the LEAST amount of time

Multiple Stimulus WITHOUT replacement Preference Assessment

After the learner chooses an item, that item is not replaced in the array of items when presenting the next trial

Multiple Stimulus WITH replacement Preference Assessment

The item that the learner chooses is replaced when presenting the next trial.
THIS IS THE MOST commonly used variation

Baseline & Probing

Trying to understand where your client is before deciding what to do

How to baseline a skill?

You baseline a skill by presenting the instruction without a prompt and record the learners response
- Baseline is typically flat on a graph (---)
- Between 3-5 data points

Individual Assessment

When your BCBA asks you to collect data on skills, about your client.

Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment & Placement Program (VB-MAPP)

This is an assessment that has a skill-tracking system to assess the language, learning & social skills of children with autism & other developmental disabilities
(Ages 2-6)

Assessment of Basic Language & Learning Skills-Revised (ABLLS-R)

A skills based system of assessment, curriculum & tracking system that address the basic language & functional skills of an individual with autism & other development delays ( Ages 0-12)

Vineland - 3 is ____ a direct measure of adaptive skills

NOT

Environment (Function)

-it is social meditated
-you gain a toy, food, activity, etc.
-you escape a person, task, or food.
Example: Waking up ESCAPE a alarm clock

Body ( Automatic)

-a sensory behavior where you gain something that is self-stimulatory
-Associated with escaping pain
Example: you take a medication to ESCAPE a headache, and then it goes away

Indirect Procedures

Little to no contact with the learner, you are interviewing & reviewing the reward of the learners
- The interviews can be structured & unstructured

Direct Procedures

- ABC data recording
-Observations
- Any procedure observing the learner

Functional Assessment Analysis (FAA) Procedures

Manipulating the environment to find the function of the behavior.

5 WAYS to elicit the behavior for FAA procedure

Through Attention, Escape, Tangible, Alone & Play.
-For example with Attention, the behavior is maintained by attention. When the learner engages in behavior you provide attention.
-With Alone, you leave the learner alone without stimulation
- With tangible the learner engages in the behavior you allow access to the item.

ABC Data Collection

A= Antecedent - What happened before the behavior?
B= Behavior - What was the behavior?
C= Consequence - What happened immediately after?

A preference assessment can be done in all of the following ways except?

Naturalistic environmental teaching

If you ask someone would you rather have your iPad or cookie, you are using?

Forced choice preference assessment

A written skill plan includes target skills needed for teaching, prompting strategies, mastery criteria, reinforcement strategies &...

A plan for maintenance

Skills Plan

A behavior plan will specify exactly what the learner needs to learn, how to teach it to the learner, how to take data on the learning and when you can consider that the learner has mastered the material

Parts of a Skills Plan

1) The skill being taught, 2) Prompting strategies that are being used & the consequences for or correct or incorrect responding, 3) Mastery criteria, 4) Reinforcement strategies, 5) Plan for generalization & maintenance

2 types of goals in a skills plan

Terminal & Incremental Goal

Reinforcer

Something that increases the likelihood that a specific behavior will occur

Unconditioned Reinforcement

The effectiveness of the reinforcer is not dependent on the learning history. (Water, food & pleasure & etc.)

Conditioned Reinforcement

The effectiveness of the reinforcer does depend on our learning history (Money, electronics, toys etc)

You do not us unconditioned reinforcement in therapy only...

conditioned reinforcement

Positive Reinforcement

Adding something to the environment to increase the future probability of the behavior occurring

Negative Reinforcement

Removing something from the environment to increase the future probability that the behavior will occur

Positive Punishment

Introducing something that will increase the future probability that the behavior will decrease.

Negative Punishment

Taking something that will increase the future probability that the behavior will decrease.

Unconditioned Punishment

(Primary Punishment) An unconditioned punisher is a stimulus whose presentation functions as punishment without having to pair it with other punishers (Getting pinched or burned)

Conditioned Punishment

A conditioned punisher is a stimulus change that functions as punishment as a result of a persons conditioned history (ex: taking away ipad)

Continuous reinforcement

Learner gets a reinforcer for every correct response (A.K.A Fixed Ratio)

Intermittent Reinforcement

All other schedules when reinforcement does not occur after every response (This schedule is more prone to extinction)

A Fixed-Ratio Schedule of Reinforcement

For every response they get a reinforcement

Ratio Schedules

Based on the number of response not the amount of time

Fixed Ratio 2 is reinforcing...

every 2 correct responses