Association for Behavior Analysis International

Providing behavioral consultation to teachers of students with challenging behaviors within authentic school environments can be difficult, specifically in establishing teacher/consultant alliance and sustaining intervention implementation. This symposium will describe a federally funded project, Project Enhancing Behavior Analytic Services (EBAS), to enhance training for behavior analysts and school psychologists to work collaboratively in addressing student behavioral needs in public- school systems. The symposium focus will be on the interdisciplinary training process and the implementation of the Prevent-Teach-Reinforce (PTR) model, a manualized team-based process for guiding school teams to conduct functional behavior assessments and function-based behavior intervention plans as applied within schools. The first paper will describe the overall goals and outcomes of EBAS. The training model, including supervision/coaching sessions, will be described along with the aggregate data outcomes from 32 students with, or at-risk-for, disabilities who were the recipients of the collaborative behavioral supports. The second and third papers will describe how the enrolled EBAS graduate students in behavior analysis and school psychology have worked collaboratively with school teams to implement the PTR model to address behavioral needs of individual students with challenging behaviors. The first paper will describe the process and outcomes for a first-grade student with challenging behavior, while the second paper will describe the process for an elementary student with an emotional disturbance (ED). Successes and challenges of the process as well as data outcomes showing decreased challenging behaviors, increased replacement behaviors, and implementation fidelity will be shared.

Professionals providing school-based consultation Graduate students

Project Enhancing Behavior Analytic Services (EBAS) is a 5-year grant funded by the U.S. Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs. The project is a collaboration between two University of South Florida graduate programs, the Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) Master’s Program and the School Psychology Program with the purpose of preparing graduate students to engage in interdisciplinary behavior analytic activities that enhance success of K-12 students with severe emotional and behavioral disorders and challenging behaviors. To date, Project EBAS participants have designed interventions for 32 school-aged students with, or at-risk-for, disabilities. One of the interventions used by the project is the Prevent-Teach-Reinforce (PTR) functional behavior assessment (FBA) and behavior intervention plan (BIP) model to develop individualized behavior supports that have contextual fit for teachers to implement willingly and with fidelity. This session will provide an overview of Project EBAS and the PTR model and the framework used to enhance collaboration between two sciences. Aggregate data outcomes from the first two years will be presented including student demographics and behavior change.

The Prevent-Teach-Reinforce (PTR) model is a manualized functional behavior assessment (FBA) and behavior intervention plan (BIP) process that has been evaluated with two randomized controlled trials and found to be more effective than services as usual. PTR is a team-based process, guided by a coach with behavior analytic experience to develop interventions that will decrease student challenging behaviors and increase appropriate behaviors). The presentation will describe how the PTR model was used to develop a function-based hypothesis for disruptive behaviors of a first-grade student and development of an individualized behavioral support plan. An embedded coaching process using behavior skills training (BST) to train the teacher to implement the plan with fidelity will be described. Data outcomes of the intervention resulted in reduction of disruptive behavior and a concurrent increase in academic engagement behaviors. The teacher implemented the intervention with high fidelity. Challenges as well as successes will be highlighted, and practical suggestions for delivering behavioral consultation in schools will be discussed.

Extant research indicates challenging behaviors of students in schools is a significant impediment to academic success. Further complicating this matter is that educators, specifically teachers, struggle with devising and implementing effective behavior interventions. The Prevent-Teach-Reinforce (PTR) model of functional behavior assessment uses a systematic process to collaborate with and gain buy-in of teachers to derive evidence-based behavior analytic interventions. This presentation will review the use of the PTR process to conduct a functional behavior assessment and develop a behavior intervention plan for an elementary student with emotional disturbance who engaged in task avoidance behaviors. The session will describe the PTR process including adaptations made to have a better contextual fit for the teacher. Data from an AB design will be presented demonstrating the effectiveness of the intervention strategies in reducing task avoidance behaviors and increasing the replacement behavior of asking for a break. Challenges that impacted teacher implementation fidelity will be discussed along with limitations that impact school-based behavioral consultation.