A User's Guide for Producing Positive Change

By Edward G. Carr, Ph.D., Len Levin, M.A., Gene McConnachie, Ph.D., Jane I. Carlson, M.A., Duane C. Kemp, Ph.D., & Christopher E. Smith, M.A.

Based on extensive field-testing and the dual principles that problem behavior often serves a purpose for the individual displaying it and that intervention should take place in the community, this user-friendly manual details methods for conducting functional assessments, communication-based intervention strategies, procedures for facilitating generalization and maintenance, and crisis management tactics.

Useful for handling intense behavior problems, this book will be invaluable for educators, supported employment and group home staff, behavior specialists, psychologists, social workers, physical and occupational therapists, medical staff, speech-language pathologists, family members, and others working with people who have developmental disabilities. Also included are case studies and checklists of things to do to ensure success.

Foreword, by James W. Halle
Foreword, by David P. Wacker
Preface
Acknowledgments

Part I: Background, Crisis Management and Functional Assessment

1. Preliminary Considerations
2. Crisis Management
3. The Purposeful Nature of Problem Behavior: Conceptual and Empirical Background
4. Functional Assessment: Describe
5. Functional Assessment: Categorize
6. Functional Assessment: Verify

Part II: The Core Intervention

7. Building Rapport
8. Choosing Communication Forms
9. Creating an Appropriate Context for Communication

Part III: Additional Procedures and Programming for Generalization and Maintenance

10. Building Tolerance for Delay of Reinforcement
11. Embedding
12. Providing Choices
13. Generalization
14. Maintenance

Epilogue
Resource Materials
Appendix: Results of Field Tests
Index