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Quality Behavioral Competencies™ (QBC's) is an innovative self-paced staff training course that provides organizations with an incredibly efficient way to improve staff behavioral teaching skills. Written in simple, clear, easy to understand language, each training module is focused on learning a specific functional skill, such as reinforcement, therapeutic instruction, or behavioral momentum.
All QBCs are based on extensive research in the field of Applied Behavior Analysis. These skills are of incredible value in improving staff effectiveness when working with a wide range of populations, including special education, geriatrics, brain injuries, psychiatric conditions, and developmental disabilities.
Training research has shown that staff training curricula which include peers and direct supervisors in the training and feedback process are highly effective in generating and maintaining staff behavioral skills. The QBC course trains staff mentors and supervisors to teach, monitor, and maintain these important behavioral skills.
Direct or Trainer Training
QBS offers two approaches to QBC training.
Direct Training: QBS instructors can provide training directly to your staff in a classroom setting on-site at your program.
Trainer Training: QBS instructors can certify a group of experienced staff from your organization as QBC trainers. Trainer training classes can be arranged at your site.
Flexible Training System
When one or more members of your staff have been trained as QBC trainers, they can provide training to staff using either of these two approaches:
Classroom Instruction: Staff are trained in groups using a traditional adult learner model. Staff progress together through each model, demonstrate competency according to specific training criteria under the supervision of the trainer, then move on. All modules can be taught in a single classroom day or broken up into smaller modules.
Self-Paced Instruction: Instead of (or in addition to) the classroom instruction model, trainers can use an innovative self-paced instruction program. Staff members can work through modules at their own pace and then work with a trainer to quickly solidify the skill, demonstrate mastery of the material, then practice the skill in real-world situations. As trainees complete each module, they meet specific training objectives and are ready to move on to the next one.
Interested?
Contact us now to find out about customized on-site training, attending an open session, or other options.
QBC Basic Modules
The basic QBC modules are designed to provide staff with important direct competency in practical behavioral skills. As they progress through the training, they learn effective interventions that will make an immediate difference in their effectiveness.
Reinforcement In this introductory module, staff acquire an understanding of the basic mechanism of reinforcement. They learn what it is and how to use it to positively affect outcomes. Reinforcer Delivery How can we use reinforcement most effectively? This module expands on the concepts discussed in the first module by explaining how to use reinforcement most efficiently. Staff learn how to correctly reinforce using the principles of distinctness, immediacy, and reinforcer variation. Differential Reinforcement Many individuals sometimes engage in behaviors that are disruptive or are otherwise problematic. Without proper training, staff may respond by nagging or yelling. They might also inadvertently reinforce those behaviors, causing them to occur more often. The differential reinforcement module teaches staff a simple procedure to stop reinforcing problem behavior and instead encourage positive alternatives. Conditioned Reinforcement We may want to establish certain things such as tokens, stickers, or points as conditioned reinforcers. By doing so, we can expand the individual’s range of rewarding items and activities, as well as teach delay of gratification and expand the person’s choice-making ability. Conditioned reinforcement involves systematic pairing of reinforcers with the chosen conditioned reinforcer. Behavioral Momentum Some individuals are often uncooperative with staff requests. Without coercion or nagging, behavioral momentum provides staff with a simple, easy procedure by which they can increase the likelihood of cooperation. Reinforcement Preference Assessment Studies indicate that staff are not very good at simply guessing an individual’s preferences. By using a simple set of preference assessment procedures, we can much more effectively determine what reinforcers will be most effective. Doing so allows us to implement teaching procedures much more effectively. Graduated Guidance Effective teaching of functional skills may require gentle physical assistance. Graduated guidance provides staff with a procedure that minimizes errors and maximizes the opportunity for reinforcement. As the person becomes more proficient, prompting is naturally faded until independence is achieved. Therapeutic Instructions A large part of any staff person’s job is to provide prompts and instructions. Yet many staff don’t know how to do that effectively. This module provides staff with a simple procedure that will help the individuals staff work with to understand and learn from their instructions.
QBC Advanced Modules
The advanced QBC modules are provided on a customized basis to meet the needs of your organization for a set of specific technical behavioral intervention skills. Available competencies include:
Agenda Management In some settings, staff must often work with confused, wandering individuals. Agenda management is a simple procedure for staff to use when directing a confused or disoriented person back to a safe or therapeutic location.Functional Communication Training Many challenging behaviors can be considered to be “communicative” in nature—they function as a way to get staff to provide some desired reinforcer. Functional Communication Training is a protocol designed to replace challenging behavior with alternative communicative responses to accomplish the same outcome. Behavioral Chaining Sometimes, individuals with cognitive and memory problems can find “easy” tasks difficult. Dressing, showering, and other daily activities require skills that may deteriorate over time. Behavioral chaining is a procedure that breaks such tasks into steps. Those steps are taught in sequence, so that a “chain” of one simple behavior after another is learned. This makes tasks easier to teach and easier to learn. Say-Do Correspondence Among the deficits experienced by those with cognitive disorders, selfmanagement is perhaps the most predominant and debilitating. Traditionally conceptualized as a lack of skill in planning and execution, poor selfcontrol, or selfguidance, “SayDo Correspondence” refers to the verbal control of future behavior. This module focuses upon training the skill of “saying what you are going to do, and then doing it.” Motivational Systems A motivational system is a structured way to reinforce desirable behaviors among a group of individuals. Often referred to as a “token” system, a motivational system provides a structured approach that increases positive behavior while approximating a more naturalistic reinforcing environment. It can be used in a limited setting (such as a few individuals during a one-hour therapeutic activity) or broadly across a whole facility. A properly-designed motivational system works effectively with a wide range of abilities and diagnoses, while providing functional choices about activities and motivators. Behavioral Contracting An important goal in any treatment activity is to promote independent skills. Furthermore, it is always important to capitalize on and make use of skills that each person demonstrates. Many individuals we work with can sometimes demonstrate self-management skills, but may need assistance. Following a structured discussion and using a Behavioral Contract form, the individual and staff member enter into an agreement that specifies the desired accomplishments by the person and the negotiated consequences to those accomplishments. Shaping Many tasks involve performing a specific behavior that is not currently in the person's repertoire—a behavior that the person cannot currently exhibit. Shaping is a gradual series of programmed steps in which successive approximations to a required skill are reinforced until the desired response is achieved.
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