Assessments and the Role of the Registered Behavior Technician

Skills Assessments

  • Assess a client's or student's skill repertoire within specific skill areas or domains.
  • Can focus on one specific skill area (e.g., reading, math) or multiple areas (e.g., academic, social, language, play, daily living, motor skills).
  • Purpose: to gather information about a client's current skill set to determine teaching goals.
  • Conducted at regular intervals to measure progress and growth over time.

Skill Areas Included:

  • Daily living skills: Zipping, using a microwave, pouring a drink.
  • Language skills: Making requests, using pronouns, imitating sounds.
  • Academic skills: Counting, reading, writing.
  • Self-care skills: Putting on a shirt, brushing hair, and tooth brushing.
  • Social skills: Greetings, eye contact, conversational skills.
  • Motor skills: Stacking blocks, throwing, and kicking.
  • Assessment of challenging behaviors.

Methods of Conducting Skills Assessments:

  • Interview: Involves questioning the client's teacher and primary caregiver about the student's skills.
  • Direct Observation: Assessor observes the client during their normal routine.
  • Direct Assessment: Assessor sets up opportunities for the client demonstrate specific skills.
    • The assessor does not help the student during the assessment.

Examples of Skills Assessments:

  • Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scales: Caregiver and/or teacher based assessment.
  • Assessment of Basic Language and Learning Skills Revised (ABLEs): Conducted through direct assessment and observation, covering five skill domains.
  • Verbal Behavior Milestones Assessment and Placement Program (VB-MAP): Primarily assesses language skills, based on Skinner's analysis of verbal behavior.
  • Assessment of Functional Living Skills (AFLS): Focuses on daily living skills across different environments (home, school, community, vocational settings).

Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA)

  • Provides information about the circumstances under which a client demonstrates challenging behavior.
  • Helps to hypothesize the function of the challenging behavior.
  • Function of a behavior: Refers to the reinforcer that keeps the behavior occurring.
  • Identifying the function is critical for developing an effective behavior reduction plan.

Types of FBA Methods:

  • Indirect Assessment Methods: Do not involve direct observation, information is obtained from people familiar with the client.
    • Forms: Interviews, questionnaires, and checklists.
    • Quick to conduct, but may have subjectivity.
  • Descriptive Assessment Methods: Involve direct observation of the client during their normal routine, repeated over a number of days to identify patterns and hypothesize function.
    • More accurate than indirect assessments but more time intensive.
    • Types: ABC recording and scatterplot analysis.
      • ABC Recording: Observer writes down what happens before (antecedent) and after (consequence) the target behavior.
      • Scatterplot Analysis: The observation period is broken into small intervals, using symbols to indicate the extent to which the target behavior occurred in each interval.
        • Empty interval: Zero instances of the target behavior.
        • "x": Target behavior occurred.
        • Black: Target behavior occurred four or more times.
  • Functional Analysis: Involves Experimental assessment during which the potential antecedents and consequences for the challenging behavior are manipulated systematically in a controlled environment.
    • Yields the most precise results, but is the most time-intensive.

Preference Assessments

  • Used to find out what types of items and activities may function as reinforcers during teaching.
  • Informal assessments: Presenting a choice to the client before teaching.
  • Formal assessments: collecting items and activities that can be tested in a formal preference assessment, or asked to collect data as your supervisor implements the assessment.

Role of the RBT in Assessments

  • Assessments are conducted under guidelines, only individuals with specific training should conduct assessments.
  • RBTs do not conduct assessments.
  • RBTs can assist supervisors with certain aspects of assessments:
    • Participate in reporting and describing behavior.
    • Record data for the assessment.
    • Assist with inter-observer agreement (IOA) data.
    • Assist with certain parts of implementation.
  • Reporting and Describing Behavior:
    • Filling out questionnaires or participating in interviews.
    • Describing challenging behaviors and specific skills.
    • Report only what you observed, not personal opinions or what others have said.
  • Recording Data:
    • Taking data during skills assessments and functional behavior assessments (ABC, scatterplot).
    • Taking data during functional analysis sessions.
  • Inter-Observer Agreement (IOA):
    • Two independent observers take data on the same skill or behavior.
    • Ensures the accuracy of collected data.
    • Understand the data collection procedure and ask question if needed.
  • Assisting with Implementation:
    • Setting up materials needed for the assessment.
    • Arranging the environment in a certain way.
    • Testing for certain skills during sessions, following specific instructions from the supervisor.