Recommended Practices for Individual Supervision of Aspiring Behavior Analysts

Abstract

Practicing behavior analysts and behavior analysts in academic settings often provide supervision for young professionals who are pursuing certification as a behavior analyst. Effective supervision is critical to the quality of ongoing behavioral services, the professional development of the supervisee, the continued growth of the supervisor, and the overall development of our field and its practice. The Behavior Analyst Certification Board recently instituted several new requirements including training in supervisory practices prior to supervising those who are accruing hours toward the experience requirement for certification. However, few published resources exist to guide supervisor activities and recommended practice. The paper summarizes five overarching recommended practices for supervision. For each practice, detailed strategies and resources for structuring the supervisory experience are provided.

Appendices

Appendix A

Sample Individual Supervision Agenda created by supervisee

Individual BCBA Supervision Agenda

Wednesday May 27^th, 2015; 1 pm-2:30 pm

Supervisor: George Collins, Ph.D., BCBA-D

Supervisee: Jill Smith

• General check in (5 min)

• Review and discuss updated hours tracking system, discuss activities for next week (10 min)

• Follow up action item from last week’s competency (#40, creation of line graph) (15 min)

  • Corrected color on graph

• New Competency 2: changing mentalistic explanations into environmental explanations (20 min)

• Review new protocol for consumer A on teaching mands for information using “how” (20 min)

• Review feedback on performance and complete supervision documentation (10 min)

• Review plan for next supervision meetings (10 min)

Appendix B

Sample Knowledge-Based Competency

Distinguish between mentalistic and environmental explanations of behavior when provided with scenarios.

The team member should be able to respond to at least two examples you give to tell you whether the example meets the criterion for an environmental explanation of behavior and if not, why. Read each example and have them label it as an environmental explanation or a mentalistic explanation and then have them describe why they classified it as such.

• Example 1: Jack engages in challenging behaviors such as hitting and kicking because he knows he will get away with it.

  • This example does not meet an environmental explanation of behavior because it relies on an inner or mental explanation (“knowing”) to explain Jack’s behavior and does not describe observable events or Jack’s interaction with the environment.

• Example 2: After an academic task is presented to Jack, he engages in problem behavior in the form of hitting and kicking. When he does this, social attention is provided from the teacher’s aide and Jack continues to engage in this problem behavior when presented with academic tasks.

  • This example meets an environmental explanation of behavior because it relies on observable environmental events (i.e., academic tasks are presented, social attention is provided), and it relies on the interaction between Jack and his environment (his teacher, academic tasks, etc.).

• Example 3: Jill does not ask for things she wants because she has not yet made the association between using language and getting things.

  • This example does not meet an environmental explanation of behavior because it relies on an inner explanation (“making the association”) to explain Jill’s behavior. It does not use observable events or Jill’s interaction with her environment to describe her behavior.

• Example 4: Jill vocally requests “juice” approximately 50 times per day because in the past, her mom has provided her juice each time she requested it.

  • This example meets an environmental explanation of behavior because it relies on observable environmental events (i.e., her mom provides juice contingent on her asking for it) and it relies on the interaction between Jill and her environment.

Teaching points and strategies:

If the team member does not respond correctly to at least two of the above examples, use the following points and strategies to teach them to distinguish between these types of explanations. Continue providing examples until the team member is able to respond correctly to at least two of them.

• Have them provide the definitions:

  • “A mentalistic explanation of behavior relies on hypothetical constructs or explanatory fictions to account for some portion of causality.”

    • Explanatory fictions take the place of observable events, are hypothetical, and do not attribute to a functional account. Examples include: “intelligence,” “associations” “awareness.”

    • Hypothetical constructs are unobservable processes. Examples include “temperament” “personality,” “the superego.”

  • “An environmental explanation of behavior relies of observable environmental events and person-environment interactions to account for causality.”

    • An environmental explanation is often more parsimonious, more action-oriented, more pragmatic, more likely to lead to effective change, less likely to lead to circular reasoning, more likely to be scientifically testable.

• Talk the team member through the reason a behavior analyst would want to use environmental explanations of behavior and avoid mentalistic ones.

References:

You may direct the team member to these resources if additional study is needed and use them yourself to generate new examples and obtain more teaching points and strategies.

• Cooper, J.O., Heron, T.E., & Heward, W.L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis (2 ^nd Ed.) (pp. 10-14). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

Appendix C

Sample Performance-Based Competency

Design and describe a functional analysis protocol; Graph and interpret the results

The team member should bring a permanent product to supervision that contains the following:

• Informed consent from consumer

• Evidence of incorporation of information from descriptive assessment

• An operational definition of the target behavior(s)

  • Clear description of which behaviors are to be included for contingency manipulation or data collection only

• A description of the measurement system

• A description of & rationale for each test condition

  • There must be a control condition

  • Starts with basic conditions (alone/no interaction, attention, play, demand) and individualizes conditions only based on DA results

  • Only includes tangible if strong evidence to do so

• Specification of relevant materials per condition

  • Preference or demand assessment used for all conditions

• A statement about session order

• Discrimination aids

• Safety criteria with termination criteria if behaviors are potentially dangerous

• A plan for training staff to implement all conditions utilizing BST approach

The team member should also provide a rationale for selection of that type of functional analysis (see Iwata & Dozier, 2008 for details).

The team member should bring a graph of a completed functional analysis and interpret the results

Note: If the team member brings a hypothetical protocol and graph, have him/her run a brief (e.g., 2 min) mock test condition or two

Teaching points and strategies:

Consider having the team member observe and practice with a team member who is proficient in this area to gain more experience in creating and conducting functional analyses. Create many hypothetical examples and break the pieces of the FA process into small steps and work on one step at a time until proficient (e.g., spend one supervision session focusing on creating the operational definitions for the FA. Once proficient, practice describing a measurement system etc.).

References:

You may direct the team member to these resources if additional study is needed and use them yourself to generate new examples and obtain more teaching points and strategies.

• Call, N. A., Pabico, R. S., & Lomas, J. (2009). Use of latency to problem behavior to evaluate demands for inclusion in functional analyses. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 723-728.

• Cooper, J.O., Heron, T.E., & Heward, W.L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis (2 ^nd Ed.) (pp. 500-524). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.

• Hammond, J. L., Iwata, B. A., Rooker, G. W., Fritz, J. N., & Bloom, S. E. (2013). Effects of fixed versus random condition sequencing during multi-element functional analyses. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 46, 22-30.

• Hanley, G. P., Iwata, B. A., & McCord, B. (2003). Functional analysis of problem behavior: A review. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 36, 147–185.

• Iwata, B. A., & Dozier, C. L. (2008). Clinical application of functional analysis methodology. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 1 (1), 3-9.

• Schlichenmeyer K. J., Roscoe, E. M., Rooker, G. W., Wheeler, E. E., & Dube, W. V. (2013). Idiosyncratic variables that affect functional analysis outcomes: A review (2001-2010). Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 46, 339-348.

Appendix D

Potential Study Guide for Journal Clubs

• 1) List two recent changes in the BACB supervision and experience requirements that are pertinent to the supervisor’s preparation to supervise.

• 2) Explain why a detailed and clear supervision contract is a critical tool to help with establishing an effective supervisory relationship.

• 3) List three critical pieces of information that should be included in a contract for supervision.

• 4) Explain how having a list of competencies related to the BACB task list helps to structure the supervision experience and why this is important.

• 5) What are three strategies you might use to evaluate the effects of the supervision that is being provided?

• 6) Why is it important to continue the mentorship relationship beyond the completion of the required experience hours and how might the supervisor facilitate the continued relationship?