Training residential staff and supervisors to conduct traditional functional analyses.
Four hours of BST turns novice residential staff into accurate, independent FA implementers.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The authors taught 12 house staff and four supervisors to run a full, Iwata-style functional analysis.
Training lasted only four hours. It used modeling, practice, and feedback.
All trainees had little or no FA experience. The study took place in two group homes for adults with developmental disabilities.
What they found
After the short BST package, every staff member hit 90 % or better on a 21-step FA task list.
They could run all four conditions alone, including the tricky tangible session.
Supervisors also learned to score and graph the data correctly.
How this fits with other research
Sellers et al. (2019) later built on this idea. They used remote coaching to get supervisors to run trial-based FAs. Both studies show residential staff can learn FA skills fast.
Petscher et al. (2006) found a similar boost when they added self-monitoring to token-economy training. Short BST plus a simple check tool keeps skills high across very different tasks.
Nesselrode et al. (2022) reviewed school studies and saw the same trend: brief or trial-based FAs are replacing long analog versions. The current paper helped start that shift in residential care.
Why it matters
You no longer need a BCBA on site for every FA session. A half-day BST workshop lets direct-care staff collect clean, trustworthy data. Pair the training with a one-page task analysis and weekly five-minute feedback. You will cut assessment wait time and give your analysts room to focus on treatment design.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
In this study we extended a training outlined by Iwata to behavioral technicians working for a residential service provider for adults with developmental disabilities. Specifically, we trained ten supervisors and four assistants to organize, conduct, collect data for, and interpret the results of traditional functional analyses (FA; Iwata et al.,1994). Performance was initially low and improved across all measures following training. Results extend previous FA training research by including a tangible condition and by demonstrating that individuals with little to no prior experience conducting FAs can be taught all of the skills required to autonomously conduct them in a relatively short period of time.
Research in developmental disabilities, 2014 · doi:10.1016/j.ridd.2014.02.014