Revisiting the social validity of services rendered through a university‐based practicum addressing challenging behavior
University practicum clinics can deliver behavior services that clients see as fair and helpful, yet they must keep checking and fixing small pain points.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Lambert et al. (2022) asked clients, parents, and staff what they thought of a university practicum clinic. The clinic gives behavior help for kids with tough behavior. Students in training run most of the sessions.
The team used a short survey. People rated how fair, useful, and acceptable the services felt.
What they found
Most stakeholders said the services were good and fair. They liked the student team and wanted the clinic to stay open.
They also listed small fixes: quicker replies, clearer goals, more check-ins.
How this fits with other research
Britwum et al. (2020) tells the next chapter. Same clinic switched to telehealth during COVID-19 and kept parent training strong. Together the papers show the model works both in person and online.
Mathews et al. (2022) ran a similar survey with ASD trainees. Both studies report happy stakeholders and call the model feasible.
Byrd (1972) warned us to question the worth of every target behavior. Lambert’s survey now checks that box by asking clients directly.
Why it matters
You can trust university clinics for solid behavior help, but only if you keep asking clients what needs fixing. Use a quick social-validity survey each term. Act on the top three complaints. This keeps quality high while students learn.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This paper represents the third in a three-part series intended to challenge the social validity of the services provided by a university-based practicum for addressing the challenging behavior of individuals with disabilities. In this paper, we surveyed referring stakeholders (e.g., parents, teachers) of past service recipients to explore the acceptability of the service model's goals, methods, and outcomes. We probed for tensions resultant from the model's threefold mission (service, training, and research) and explored how conflicts between these goals affected the quality of our services. Generally, results were favorable and appeared to support continued model implementation, but not without qualification. Emergent themes, areas for improvement, and future directions for intervention research are all discussed.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2022 · doi:10.1002/jaba.939