Sulzer-Azaroff & Associates, Applying Behavior Analysis Across the Autism Spectrum: A Field Guide for Practitioners
PART 1
FOUNDATIONAL BEHAVIOR INTERVENTION SKILLS
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Sulzer-Azaroff & Associates, Applying Behavior Analysis Across the Autism Spectrum: A Field Guide for Practitioners
Competency-Based Checklists
Teaching Core Competencies
During the past half-century, leading researchers and teachers (e.g., Koegel & Koegel, 2006; Lovaas, 1987;
Cohen, Amerine-Dickens & Smith, 2006). have developed, applied, functionally analyzed and conducted
wide-scale assessments of the impact of numerous programs designed to enable youngsters on the autism
spectrum to gain valuable skills. Given how powerfully effective these programs have been shown to be, in
Part One of this manual we have elected to begin your applied training by assigning you to teach a set of
these to one or more students. After you have demonstrated your mastery of the skills necessary to
implement those programs, we then move on to the second portion of this curriculum, in which you will
undertake a more independent role as an applied behavior analyst by designing a behavioral intervention to
apply with a given student. Here we describe the first portion in more detail.
Competency-based Checklists
For the first part of this workbook, you will be demonstrating core competencies necessary to teach
students with autism. You will set up sessions working with a student, and a supervisor will observe you
working with your student. You will demonstrate the following competencies during your sessions:
 Preference Assessment
 Social Responsiveness
 Discrete Trial Teaching
 Preference and Choice
 Most-to-Least Prompting
 Graduated Guidance
 Least-to-Most Prompting
 Time Delay Prompting
 Shadowing
 Incidental Teaching
 Running a Program
SAYING AND DOING
THE CHECKLIST TRAINING PROTOCOL
Part 1–Oral Checklist: Before working with your student, your supervisor will implement a checklistbased program that will ask you to describe the rationale and the procedure for implementing the
competency. Being able to describe what you are doing, and why you are doing it, is essential for you to be
able to communicate clearly among all the important people in the student’s life.
 First, you will want to be able precisely and simply to explain what you are doing to the student’s
caregivers, as they eventually will be carrying over some aspects of the intervention for
generalization.
 Second, you will need to be able to describe what you are doing so you can eventually train others.
 Third, we need a common language among colleagues and practitioners for efficient
communication.
For this reason, your supervisor will question you orally about the content and process of teaching the
particular skill at hand. S/he will immediately acknowledge correct responses and correct any inaccurate
responses. Your supervisor then will re-administer the oral portion of the checklist until your oral
descriptions reach pre-set criterion levels.
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Sulzer-Azaroff & Associates, Applying Behavior Analysis Across the Autism Spectrum: A Field Guide for Practitioners
Part 2–Performance Checklist. After passing the oral portion, you will be asked to demonstrate your
ability competently to instruct up to three students. As we know, being able to accurately describe what you
should be doing is no guarantee that you will be able actually to perform the skill precisely. Therefore you
will be provided with opportunities to practice each skill until you can do it correctly. To learn how to
execute the skill, you will follow these steps:
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
Watch your supervisor or other trained adult provide a live or videotaped demonstration of how to
teach each particular skill.
Take data on the student’s performance while you observe the above demonstration. Next, compare
your results with those of the trainer, and repeat this scoring exercise until you achieve 80%
interobserver agreement.
With an adult partner, role-play teaching the competency.
Practice the competency with a student in the trainer’s presence, while receiving ongoing feedback.
Continue practicing the skill on your own, using the checklist to self-monitor your performance.
Submit a DVD of your best performance of that instructional competency to your supervisor.
Your supervisor will review the DVD. If necessary, s/he will schedule one or more sessions to
observe you working with the student,* providing you with feedback sufficient to allow you to
satisfactorily demonstrate your competency.
*We recommend you work with approximately three students of varying abilities to demonstrate
generalization of teaching core competencies across clients.
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