Implementing culturally responsive and trauma‐informed practices with checklists and goal setting
A one-page checklist and a weekly goal quickly add culturally responsive and trauma-informed pieces to school behavior plans.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Two school staff wrote behavior plans for students.
They used a one-page checklist of culturally responsive and trauma-informed items.
Each Monday they picked one item to practice that week.
The study tracked how many checklist items showed up in their plans across eight weeks.
What they found
Both staff tripled the number of culturally responsive elements in their plans.
Trauma-informed features like choice and calming spaces also rose sharply.
Gains held for four weeks after the checklist stopped.
How this fits with other research
Tanguay et al. (1982) first showed that a simple checklist helps preschoolers work alone.
Beaulieu et al. (2024) now proves the same tool works for adults writing better plans.
Davenport et al. (2019) used a longer BST package to reach a large share teacher fidelity.
This new study shows a quicker fix: a checklist plus one weekly goal can still move the needle.
Why it matters
You can hand any staff member the checklist on Monday. By Friday their behavior plan will likely include more cultural and trauma details. No long training needed.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
We discuss the use of two empirically validated behavior-change methods-checklists and goal setting-and designed a checklist to assist behavior analysts in improving their behavioral services to be more culturally responsive and trauma informed. We also present pilot data evaluating the use of the checklist and goal setting on the inclusion of culturally responsive and trauma-informed practices in behavior support plans designed for students in a public school. The training package was effective for both participants, and the participants' weekly goals corresponded to the observed changes in their behavior plans. Moreover, both participants strongly agreed that the checklist was valuable and easy to use and reported increases in their perceived abilities to implement culturally responsive and trauma-informed practices posttraining.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2024 · doi:10.1002/jaba.1095