Effectiveness of the Alta California Regional Center behavior management and skills training of treatment providers for developmentally disabled persons

This project was a curriculum and 6-week seminar, offered as a public service, that was designed to introduce administrators, day program directors, and other staff who work with people who have developmental disabilities in care homes the principle of applied behavior analysis. Pre- and posttesting indicated that the students significantly increased their knowledge of the principles. A questionnaire that was taken by several of the participants indicates a need for training such as this 6-week seminar, as the results revealed that these care providers had little comparable training during the course of their employment prior to opening a care home. By providing training in the area of behavioral management and skills training to these services providers, there is a potential for increasing the consumer's overall quality of care, while reducing the number of serious incidents and requests for one-to-one staffing.; Results of the pre- and posttests were collected for three areas in addition to the overall results. There was an overall increase of 41% in final scores on posttests that were given to the students as a final exam, bringing an average score of 49% to an improved average score of 90%. A 27% improvement rate was identified in the area of concepts, a 53% rate of improvement was identified in the area of application, and a 34% rate of improvement was identified in the area of assessment. Of the participants who answered the questionnaire, only 16% reported having taken formal classes, and only 19% of those who have taken a formal class reported learning the ABC model of a functional analysis.