Behavioral Consultation Research Articles

In Situ Training to Improve Early Childhood Teachers’ Effective Instruction Delivery

ABSTRACT Noncompletion of teacher instructions is one of the most pervasive difficulties displayed in early childhood educations settings. Fortunately, there are a variety of effective strategies to prevent and address young children’s noncompletion of teacher instructions. However, teachers may require consultation and ongoing implementation support to effectively implement and sustain intervention delivery. As such, the purpose of this study was to test the effectiveness of in situ training with performance feedback delivered in the context of direct behavioral consultation for improving three early childhood teachers’ use of effective instruction delivery. Results indicated all three teachers increased accurate use of effective instruction delivery in target and generalization settings, with concomitant improvements in children’s response to instructions. Results, implications, limitations, and future direction are discussed.

Pilot Study: Behavioral and Medical Clinical Partnership for Optimization of Positive Airway Pressure Therapy in Pediatric Patients

BackgroundTo assess the effectiveness of a structured algorithm for pediatric positive airway pressure (PAP) initiation for the treatment of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). MethodsAn algorithm was created to support pediatric PAP use and identify patients who could benefit from early behavioral consultation and education. Sleep providers implemented a unified introduction to PAP therapy with the PAP therapy toolkit. Through a collaborative approach with the medical equipment companies, pediatric patients were provided with PAP equipment before PAP titration studies and were allowed a gradual initiation of PAP therapy. PAP downloads were reviewed to determine improvements in compliance measured by percent of average days used and average minutes per night used. ResultsThirty-eight pediatric patients completed the PAP therapy algorithm. There was significant improvement in PAP compliance in percentage of days used (paired t test P value = 0.04), as well as an improvement (although not statistically significant) in average nightly use. Patients benefitted from close follow-up visits with the sleep advanced practice providers. Patients seen for the consultation with the pediatric behavioral psychologist showed statistically significant improvement in both percentage of days and average nightly use. ConclusionsOur pilot study shows that a behavioral and medical partnership using a structured algorithm was feasible and resulted in improved PAP compliance for our pediatric patients.

The effect of conjoint behavioral consultation on achieving communication skills in children with autism spectrum disorder.

This study, uniquely designed with tact and mand-modeling procedures presented through the Conjoint Behavioral Consultation (CBC) method, aims to evaluate the effects on the communication skills of preschool children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and the impact on disruptive behaviors (tantrums) at home. A pilot study with the families of three participants informed the adaptations for the main study, which was implemented with the families of nine participants. The research was conducted using an Embedded Mixed Methods Design, a distinctive approach that allowed for a comprehensive understanding of the outcomes. The primary research design was a single-subject research model with multiple probes across participants' designs, ensuring a thorough and individualized assessment. The study was carried out in both home and clinical settings, involving the participation of special education teachers and families. The findings indicate that the tact and mand-modeling procedures presented through the CBC method significantly improved the children's communication skills and led to substantial reductions in tantrum behaviors. All families indicated that the dependent variables held significant social importance. Significant enhancements were noted in the children's communication skills and social engagements after the intervention. The CBC intervention was determined to be feasible and feasible for families, with no additional expenses accrued. The long-term suitability and usefulness of the product in many environments increased its societal acceptance. This study revealed that the CBC approach had a favorable and reliable effect on academic and behavioral advancement.

Effectiveness and acceptability of remote consultation to promote positive behaviors in preschoolers

AbstractOne of the roles of school psychologists is consultation, an indirect service delivery method in which the consultant (i.e., the school psychologist) supports students' academic, behavioral, and social‐emotional functioning through collaborating with teachers and parents. Conjoint Behavioral Consultation (CBC), also known as Teachers and Parents as Partners (TAPP), is unique in that teachers and parents work together during the consultation process to improve elementary, middle, and high school students' functioning. This study evaluted the effects of CBC for children in early childhood when conducted via remote delivery. A nonconcurrent multiple baseline across participants design was used to evaluate the efficacy of CBC at improving outcomes for children in early childhood at home and school. Additionally, teacher and parent acceptability of CBC and CBC provided remotely were assessed. Participants included four parent‐teacher‐student triads. Results found CBC to improve difficulties for preschool children across settings. Additionally, CBC acceptability via remote delivery was high for both parents and teachers.

Conjoint Behavioral Consultation Research and Practice: Taking Stock and Looking Toward the Future

ABSTRACT Family engagement and family–school partnership interventions present significant opportunities to support students who experience identified disabilities or academic or social-emotional challenges. One intervention that brings families and educators together via a collaborative problem-solving process and joint decision-making consultation framework is Conjoint Behavioral Consultation (CBC). Decades of research has documented the efficacy of CBC for promoting positive outcomes for students through the relationship established between teachers and parents. Parent and teacher competencies and practices also improve significantly as a function of CBC. In this paper, we summarize recent research related to CBC’s efficacy for students with or at risk for developing disabilities, articulate important practices aimed at promoting and supporting collaborative partnerships, and lay out an agenda for future work.

Provision of educational psychological services under a high inflationary environment in Masvingo Province, Zimbabwe

The study employed a qualitative research approach using a phenomenological research design since the lived experiences of educational psychologists in Masvingo Province were scrutinized with the intention of establishing the extent to which educational psychologists matched the laid down specifications pertaining to their professional operations during a high inflationary environment. Three males and two females were purposely selected and in-depth interviews were utilized. Four themes emerged from the study: (a) vital roles, successful, and unsuccessful experiences, (b) diverse views on major policy documents, (c) barriers in rendering support services, and (d) perceived solutions. Results indicated that policy documents are outdated and need revision. Human and material resources were viewed a barriers to performance and perceived solutions included multidisciplinary team work, decentralization and increasing the number of psychologists, training of psychologists and reduced continuous professional development points. Educational psychologists focused more on diagnostic and behavioral consultations in urban schools. They distributed schools in urban areas depending on psychologists’ place of residences. Rural schools were minimally assessed with little provision of intervention, prevention, and health promotion services. The results provide important implications for resource provision and policy formulation.

Communication Training Within Partners in School: Feasibility, Acceptability, and Usability

ABSTRACT Partners in School is a consultation model adapted from Conjoint Behavioral Consultation where parents and teachers identify a mutual concern for children with Autism and then implement the same evidence-based practices (EBPs) across home and school. Adding parent-teacher communication training (School Talk) may bolster the effects of this consultation approach. The purpose of this study was to explore parents’ and teachers’ experiences with School Talk, as well as examine the clinical outcomes of Partners in School plus School Talk. Participants were 21 parents and 21 teachers (n = 21 dyads, N = 42 participants) of preschool to first-grade children with Autism. Results indicated that parents and teachers both rated School Talk as feasible and acceptable, but parents rated it as more usable. There was preliminary evidence that Partners in School with School Talk may be associated with improvements in parent-teacher communication, as well as reductions in the frequency of child concerns.

Pesky Pudgy Ponies: Equine Obesity and the Behavior Consultant

Obesity is one of the most common, and also most preventable causes of poor welfare in leisure horses. Research to date has shown that leisure equestrians have a poor ability to visually distinguish between healthy and unhealthy weights for horses. Equine behavior consultants are well-placed to offer advice as they are generally called in when an owner has recognized some problem. Equine behavior consultants should consider investing in their education around recognizing obesity and ways it can be managed and addressed, to best serve their clients as part of the veterinary and behavior team.

Scenario Planning of Digital Transformation in Indonesia’s Fast-Moving Consumer Goods Sales Organization: Uncertainties and Possibilities

Since uncertainty in the business domain has increased the urgency for scenario development as a strategic tool, the research examined a relationships between a leadership model, organizational citizenship behavior, and sales management control variables using scenario planning. The questionnaire’s scaling using a Likert scale was done toward results from discussions and in-depth interviews with several experts in Fast-Moving Consumer Goods (FMCG) organizations, FMCG organizational leaders (Chief Executive Officers/CEOs), leadership experts, organizational behavior consultants, and organizational performance practitioners. The research finds that external and internal forces determine the success of digital transformation. External forces consist of digital technology availability, consumer expectations,business competition maps, and digital talents. Internal forces are budget allocation, competency trap versus growth mindset, organizational structure, and organizational culture. The scenario matrix plot forms four scenarios of the digital transformation in the sales organization of Indonesia’s FMCG companies (realistic, pessimistic, optimistic, and superoptimistic), where realistic (iteration improvement scenario) is largely predicted to occur for companies carrying out digital transformation. Such scenario requires sales organizations to have a growth mindset to deal with the uncertainty of customer/consumer expectations properly. The strategy appearing as an FMCG digital transformation compass is expected to advise FMCG companies in Indonesia when executing and overseeing the digital transformation within theircompanies.

Teachers' needs for an FASD-informed resource: a qualitative interview needs assessment based on the ADAPT-ITT framework.

Fetal alcohol spectrum disorders (FASD) represent a wide range of neurodevelopmental differences associated with prenatal alcohol exposure and are highly prevalent. The current study represents the initial stages in adapting the Families Moving Forward (FMF) Program, an evidence-based behavioral consultation intervention for caregivers of children with FASD, to a website for teachers. To understand teachers' needs and preferences for an FASD-informed intervention website and to assess the goodness of fit of the FMF Program to teachers and the school setting. Twenty-three teachers with experience teaching students with FASD were interviewed. Interviews were conducted via Zoom and lasted about 53 minutes on average. Data were transcribed verbatim and analyzed using qualitative content analysis in Dedoose. Three overarching themes represented teachers' needs for an FASD-informed resource: teachers need evidence-based FASD information and strategies, teachers have very little extra time, and the needs of special and general education teachers vary. Teachers were positive about the concepts of the FMF Program and felt they would have good fit. Teachers need an evidence-based FASD-informed intervention that is easy to use, concise, and responsive to varying needs and levels of experience. Results will inform the adaptation process of the FMF Program.

Examining treatment integrity in conjoint behavioral consultation in middle schools: A mixed methods study.

Family-school partnership interventions can effectively address behavioral concerns in students (T. E. Smith et al., 2020). However, little is known about factors impacting the successful delivery of behavioral strategies by parents and teachers in the context of such interventions, particularly for adolescent populations. This study used a mixed methods design to examine the treatment integrity of behavior support plans (BSPs) for adolescents in middle school. Parents and teachers of eight middle school students at risk for emotional or behavioral difficulties engaged in conjoint behavioral consultation to develop and implement BSPs. Participants completed measures of stress and student behavioral severity prior to implementing BSPs, and treatment integrity was monitored during implementation. Open-ended survey questions gathered qualitative implementation information from parents and teachers at the conclusion of the intervention. Quantitative findings indicated negative correlations between parenting stress and days of implementation (r = -.93) and between teacher perceptions of student behavioral severity and adherence to the BSP (r = -.81). Qualitative findings identified barriers to implementation (e.g., time and scheduling, intensity of student behavior); facilitators of implementation (e.g., alignment with values and practices, collaboration across participants); and parent endorsement of changes to parenting practices. Quantitative and qualitative results were in partial agreement regarding the relationship between student behavioral severity and implementation, and the triangulated results expanded our understanding of barriers and facilitators to implementing BSPs. Limitations and implications for science and practice are discussed. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Exploring how general education teachers use school‐based consultation

AbstractUnderstanding general education teachers' experiences with and goals for school‐based consultation is warranted to address class‐wide and individual student concerns. In a sample of 66 general education teachers, we described their experiences with (1) informal consultation with colleagues, (2) school team meeting consultation, and (3) ongoing, structured consultation. Results indicated teachers received consultation most often for challenging individual student behavior and individual student academics (rather than for class‐wide behavior management or academic instruction) and received consultation from teachers and administrators (rather than from school psychologists or behavioral consultants). Teachers reported higher satisfaction during informal consultations than in team meetings. When teachers received ongoing, structured consultation, most reported three or more sessions with one to two observations. Implications for assessing and improving school‐based teacher consultation are discussed.

Examining Conjoint Behavioral Consultation to Support 2e-Autism Spectrum Disorder and Gifted Students in Preschool with Academic and Behavior Concerns.

Conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC), as adjusted for 2e children with academic and behavioral difficulties, was the focus of this single-subject design study. Three young children from a preschool participated, together with their parents and teachers. Academic enablers for students-intervention, maintenance, and generalization phases; academic and behavioral competencies-intervention, maintenance, and generalization phases; and teachers', parents', and students' perceptions of the intervention's social validity data were collected among the outcome measures. Findings from multiple participant-related probes pointed to constructive improvements in the phases of intervention, maintenance for listening behavior, and improved on-task skill in intervention, maintenance, and generalization. Additionally, during the consultation, parents and teachers noted improvements in the outcomes of the target behavior such as rhythm keeping, picture-word matching, writing the pictured concept in Turkish, writing the pictured concept in English, short personal story writing, short personal story telling, and verbal math problem solving, and each stakeholder gave the intervention a grade for its social validity. Limitations, potential routes for future study, and implications for preschool CBC intervention are highlighted.

The human-animal bond and at-home behaviours of adopted Indian free-ranging dogs

Free-ranging dogs (FRDs) represent the largest population of dogs around the world. Their lives are not under direct human supervision and these dogs can be found in and around all possible forms of human habitation. Increased urbanization, poor population management measures and open garbage dumps have compounded their population over the years, leading to increased dog-human conflict, especially in the Global South. Pet keeping has been on the rise in India but most dogs are commercially acquired and are typically foreign breeds. Adoption of FRDs may be a potential solution for both population management and better welfare. While many studies have been conducted on dog behavior across the Global North, studies pertaining to adoptability, dog-human bonds, and welfare of FRDs have been largely missing. We investigated the in-house behaviour and human-animal bonds among adopted FRDs in India using a mixed method approach. Participants were recruited using social media using a snowball method. Data were collected on demographics and lifestyle of both the owners and their dogs, along with owner responses on the Canine Behaviour and Research Questionnaire (C-BARQ, Survey I) and the Monash Dog Owner Relationship Scale (MDORS, Survey II). Questions on reasons for adoption, not sterilizing their dogs and behaviour consultation were kept as open responses. Exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted on the C-BARQ items to investigate differences in factor structure from previously established studies in Europe and United States. Influence of demographic and lifestyle parameters on factor scores were investigated using logistic regression. We received valid responses from 1484 respondents for Survey I and 427 responses for Survey II from participants, who had filled the surveys for the same adopted FRD. A 13-factor structure emerged from the EFA- Stranger directed aggression, Owner directed aggression, Dog directed aggression, Fear, Nonsocial fear, Touch sensitivity, Separation related problems, Attachment, Excitability, Energy, Chasing, Elimination and Stereotypy. Comparison of scores across sex and neuter status of the dogs revealed differences. Various demographic factors influenced the behaviour of the adopted dogs. Owners reported a very high Emotional Closeness, low Perceived costs and average dog-owner interaction. The dog-owner relationship was mostly influenced by lifestyle and demographic factors rather than the dog’s behaviour. Overall, our results indicate that FRDs can adapt to a domestic life and make good pets. This study is a first attempt to bridge the ethnocultural gap on dog-keeping from India and lays the foundation for multiple avenues for future studies on the welfare of FRDs in the Global South.

Components of a Successful Classroom: A Factor Analysis for Initial Validation of a Measure Assessing Tier 1 Classroom Management

The literature has identified the use of data-based, problem-solving as an essential element in the promotion of positive behavior interventions and supports (PBIS) within the classroom. The Components of a Successful Classroom (CSC) tool is an instrument which has undergone initial validation to support its use for measuring critical features of Tier 1. This study provides initial support for the validation of this classroom management observation tool as part of a problem-solving consultation framework by examining the extent to which items on the CSC tool sample the constructs of interest in classroom management. Behavioral consultants utilized the tool to evaluate Tier 1 behavior management strategies implemented by teachers in the classroom. An exploratory factor analysis (EFA) was conducted to determine factor structure of the classroom management observation tool. Findings of the EFA supported a unidimensional construct best measured with three factors (i.e., preventive supports, feedback provision and engagement, and expectations and consequences). Currently, this tool may be useful to practitioners by guiding general education consultation after identifying main concerns in teacher’s implementation of Tier 1 supports and supporting implementation of PBIS practices in the classroom.

A Longitudinal Study of Behavioral Consultation in Inclusive Preschool Classrooms

Teachers in early childhood classrooms face a diverse child population, including children with developmental delays and differences (DD), requiring teachers to exhibit professional skills to address a broad spectrum of developmental needs. At times, early learners with and without DD exhibit challenging behaviors (e.g., aggression, tantrums). Nevertheless, teachers find themselves ill-prepared to manage such behavior and teach under these circumstances due to limited training in classroom behavior management. Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is an effective treatment for children with various developmental differences and has proven successful in classroom settings when applied. This report describes a behavior consultation model used in a four-year project in 44 early childhood classrooms with 196 teachers and 97 children identified as having developmental delays and challenging behavior. Recommendations for choosing a behavior consultant for similar settings and a discussion of recurring behavior strategies recommended are presented.

Participating in the digital world: a consensus statement on digital social contact for people with disabilities living in sheltered care facility homes

Introduction Digital social contact is increasingly being used, which accelerated during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study aimed to determine the consensus among stakeholders regarding recommendations for the use and facilitation of digital social contact for people with intellectual disabilities living in sheltered care facility homes. Methods This consensus statement was developed in three consecutive rounds of questionnaires (rapid online modified Delphi design). The expert-groups included people with disabilities (N = 6) and their families (N = 10), support professionals (N = 9), behavioural consultants (N = 7), managers of sheltered care facility homes (N = 10), scientists and industry experts (N = 15). Findings Four main themes were identified: 1. Reasons for and types of digital social contact; 2. Support and training needs; 3. Materials and other requirements needed to enable digital social contact; and 4. Best practices and future developments. For each theme, several recommendations were formulated. Discussion and conclusion This study resulted in a consensus statement aimed mainly at care professionals, families of people with intellectual disabilities and managers of sheltered care facility homes. Findings show that digital social contact can contribute to societal participation of people with disabilities. Additionally, tailored exploration of digital contact is recommended, as well as aiming for inclusive-by-design technology developments with developers and stakeholders working together.

Teaching Polite Play

Most people who add a dog to their family are excited to see their dog play with canine friends. Not every dog is a paragon of social skills, however, so it is important for trainers to be able to show their clients how to recognize signs of impolite play. With a few simple and lighthearted examples, trainers and behavior consultants can show people who are new to sharing their lives with dogs how to get ahead of potential problems and enjoy a happy and playful experience.

SMARTER Goal-Setting for Animal Behavior Professionals Part 2

SMARTER is a mnemonic used to define measurable goals. This article builds on the concept of SMARTER goals introduced in part 1 and gives examples of how trainers and behavior consultants can give their clients goals that meet the last 4 criteria (Relevant, Time-bound, Evaluated, and Reassessed).

DOG: A Framework for Behavior Modification and Training Plans to Help Build and Maintain Resilience: The Resilience Rainbow

Resilience is an individual’s ability to recover from and resist the negative effects of stress. Understanding the physiological and behavioral bases for higher levels of resilience can help animal trainers and behavior consultants develop interventions that build and maintain resilience. This article introduces a framework for resilience-building interventions, called The Resilience Rainbow.