A descriptive evaluation of long-term treatment integrity.

The team looked back at 15 years of behavior plans. They checked how closely staff followed each step.

They wanted to know if small mistakes still worked over time. They studied both reward and punishment plans.

High accuracy mattered most for punishment or timeout plans. When staff missed steps, bad behavior came back.

Extinction plans were different. Staff could miss some steps if they gave big rewards every time. The bad behavior still dropped.

Castañe et al. (1993) showed that most 1980s studies never checked accuracy. Arkoosh et al. (2007) proves why that was a problem.

Falakfarsa et al. (2022) found that even in 2019, half of new studies skip accuracy checks. The field still repeats the 1980s mistake.

Aherne et al. (2019) tested one fix. They showed staff can keep high accuracy for weeks if they use a simple self-check sheet. This gives us a tool to reach the high standards Kathryn et al. demand.

Check your behavior plans today. If you use timeout or response cost, measure every step. If you use extinction, still check, but focus more on heavy reinforcement. Add a 30-second self-check sheet for staff to keep accuracy high after training.