Increasing Staff Healthy Behavioral Practices in Programs for Adults with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities
Issue Date
2019-01-01Author
Kamana, Bertilde U
Publisher
University of Kansas
Format
189 pages
Type
Dissertation
Degree Level
Ph.D.
Discipline
Applied Behavioral Science
Rights
Copyright held by the author.
Metadata
Show full item recordAbstract
Problem behavior is common in adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD; Lowe et al., 2007). Some research has suggested that movement from institutions to community-based programs has resulted in challenges to service provision for these individuals, specifically with respect to managing problem behavior (Beadle-Brown, Mansell, & Kozma, 2007). Decades of research on training staff to provide active treatment (e.g., Parsons, Rollyson, & Reid, 2004) has suggested (a) its importance for decreasing problem behavior and increasing appropriate behavior and (b) the efficacy of empirically derived organizational behavior management procedures (e.g., behavioral skills training [BST; Parsons, Rollyson, & Reid, 2012] and on-the-job feedback [Van OOrsouw, Embregts, Bosman, & Jahoda, 2009]) for increasing important staff behaviors in programs for adults with IDD. Regardless, organizations continue to have challenges in training staff and ensuring staff compliance with these and other important skills (Harchik & Campbell, 1998). Furthermore, even though decades of research on functional behavior assessment (FBA) and function-based intervention suggest effective procedures for decreasing problem behavior (Hagopian, Dozier, Rooker, & Jones, 2013), the individualized approach of this process has its challenges. Recently, discussion papers (e.g., Ala’i-Rosales et al., 2018) and a few research studies (e.g., St. Peter & Marsteller, 2017) have suggested the potential utility of using FBA and function-based intervention literature to derive preventive approaches as a Tier I model for preventing and decreasing problem behavior. Therefore, the purpose of the current study was to create a prevention approach in which we took what is known about common functions of problem behavior and effective function-based interventions to create four healthy behavioral practices to train staff. Then, we used BST and on-the job feedback to increase staff implementation of these practices across a large number of staff and programs in a large community-based organization serving adults with IDD. Namely, we trained staff to provide frequent positive interactions, effective instructions, correct responses to problem behavior, and to promote consumer engagement with items and activities.
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