The staff are not implementing the program reliably

Oftentimes, the lack of changes in a behavior are do to the fact that none of the teaching staff really know what they are doing.  We all have been in a home where Mom tells junior to do one thing and Dad tells junior to do something else.  The result is that junior is both confused and making no progress toward what either parent has in mind.  When a teacher develops an instructional program, he has something specific in mind.  The challenge, however, is to communicate that program to all the people responsible for carrying it out.  

Potential Remedies

Areas to communicate about to those responsible for carrying out an instructional program begin with clarity about the objective.  Then there must be agreement about acceptable performance, about prompting (down to the specific words used for teachers of severly disabled students), about reinforcement, about response cost (a form of punishment) if that is used, etc.  In the delivery of instruction a rule of thumb is that teachers should be immediate (in the delivery of positive or negative consequences for behavior), consistent (in the presentation of instruction and the delivery of behavioral consequences), and contingent (that is only reward the level of performance that you are looking for) in all instruction.  Teachers must also ensure that everyone in the room does the same. 

You can email Dr. McNair at jmcnair@calbaptist.edu

Copyright Jeff McNair/jeffmcnair.com