Fox, Robert A.

Rotatori, Anthony F.

English

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Marquette Universitye-Publications@MarquetteCollege of Education Faculty Research andPublications Education, College of1-1-1983Training a Rural Community Service Staff inIndividualizing Program Planning for SeverelyHandicapped Vocational ClientsRobert A. FoxMarquette University, robert.fox@marquette.eduAnthony F. RotatoriUniversity of New OrleansPublished version. Thresholds in Education, Vol. 9, No. 4 (1983): 24-26. Permalink. © 1983 Academyfor Educational Studies.Training a Rural Community Service Staff in Individualizing Program Planning for Severely Handicapped Vocational Clients By Robert Foz and Anthony F. Rotatori In the last ten years, a number of alterna-tives (e.g., foster homes, group homes, half-way houses) to large public institutions have developed for providing services for severely handicapped individuals, This trend is partially the result of the normalization philosophy (Bank-Mikkelson, 1976; Wolfensberger, 1972) and recent court decisions (Pennhurst, 1977) which favor the expedient release and moving of institutionalized handicapped individuals into the community. Fre-quently, these individuals have significant deficits in functional living and vocational skills which result in an early return to their former institutional residences. The latter may be prevented if communities develop service delivery systems which emµiasize skill training in specific functional living and vocational areas required for successful transition and maintenance of these severely handicapped individuals in the community. Such a system must include training procedures such as individualized planning and behavior modification. Currently, little research is available to guide the practitioner in developing and implementing training programs in behavior modifi-cation for the severely handicapped vocational client. Research has tended to examine the specific components of the teaching situation such as the differential effects of role playing, lectures (Garner, 1972), films, videotape feedback (Panyan & Patterson, 1973) and supervisors' feed-back (Panyan, Boozer & Monis, 1970) on staff mem-bers' ability to acquire and apply the principles of learning. Also, many inservice programs include behavior modification (Panyan & Patterson, 1973). Integration of research within a staff training model, and the extensio~ 9f such a model to a rural community setting has not been reported, The present paper describes an intensive 12-week inservice program in Individualized Program Planning with 36 staff members from five day-care (nonmedical) programs which provide services for approximately 160 developmentally disabled adults. Although a range of individuals were represented in these programs, the majority were moderately to severely retarded (AAMD Classification; Grossman, 1977); chronological ages were between eighteen and sixty. The living arrangements for these DI'. Robert Foz is an Assistant Professor of Educa-tional PsrchologV at Marquette llniversit~. Milwaukee. ~iscons~n. DI'. Anthonr F. Rotatori ~s an Associate Professor of Special Education at the llnioersitr of Bew Orleane. New Orleans. Louisiana. 24 individuals included their parents' homes, adult foster care, group and nursing homes. Services provided by the day-care programs varied according to the orientation of the individual program administrators and the population. However, con-tent areas such as acquisition of work skills and on-the-job training, development of social and self-help skills, functional academics, community adjustment and leisure-time activity were repre-sented in all of the programs. The five day care centers serve five counties, respectively, in northwestern Wisconsin. This is a rural region of 9,000 square miles and has a total population of approximately 100,000. Both administrative and contact staff were involved in this project. Attendance and participation in the inservice was requested by the regional Developmental Disabilities administrator and his Board of Directors. The training included teaching and on-site consultation. Teaching Three-hour class sessions were held each week on Friday mornings in the most centrally located program. Each participant received a copy of Whaley and Malott' s book, fil.,ementary principles .Qi .b.e.lli!.Y.i.2.I, The content was divided into four areas: learning principles, functional analysis of behavior, teaching new behaviors and procedures for establishing Individualized Program Planning. Three weeks were devoted to each seqment. The first segment, l.eg~Iling £~in£i£l.e~, introduced the behavioral model which included defining behavior (s), identifying reinforcers, learning the basic behavioral procedures, i.e., positive reinforcement, negative reinforcement, punishment, extinction and time out from positive reinforcement. The second segment, i.l.!Il£.t.iQilgl analysis Qi behavior, covered measuring behavior, including various observat-ional, recording and graphing methods and writing short/long-term behavioral objectives. The third segment, ilg.C.h.ing lli:)l .12.e.b.a.vj&r, covered the following topics: shaping, forward/backward chaining, task analysis, modeling and instructional learning. The fourth segment, £.r.2.C.e.Q.l.!.r..e§ ifil .en.al:lli§b.ing individualized ~ID planning, provided a frame-work which enabled staff to select content objec-tives and task-appropriate instructional tactics for a given individual, The Minnesota Develop-mental Programming System was also introduced at this time to: (a) assist the staff in determining behavioral objectives for a given individual's individualized program planning and (bl provide the basis for program-wide accountability. Briefly, the system provides a manual of 18 behavioral scales each developmentally sequenced along a continuum of dependence to independence. 'l'hese scales generate specific information about functional skills, ranging from simple eating skills to more complex community orientation skills for the severely handicapped population. The items on the behavioral aelllea were designed to be used as behavioral objectives for individual planning. The system was especially useful in t hat it quickly pinpointed a client's deficits, was easy to administer and functioned as a measure of individual progress over time. A variety of teaching modalities were employed during the inservice. Jl:n attempt was made to incorporate relevant research. For example, Gardner (1972) found that a lecture format was superior to role playing for teaching behavior modification principles while role playing was more effective for teaching applica-tion of skills. Consequently, the first segment of the course primarily used lectures. During the last three, role playing and other modeling experiences were empiasized. The use of modeling was especially helpful in teaching techniques of behavioral measurement and for demonstrating various applications of the learning principles. consultation Nine hours of on-site consultation time was provided hy a leader each week. This time was divided into three-hour periods. Thus, each of the five programs received three hours of consul-tation every two weeks. The consultations func-tioned as the generalization component of the inservice. Initially, each participant selected one client to work with throughout the 12-week pro-gram. During the first segment, homework assign-ments were given to provide relatively immediate application. For example, one early assignment required the participant to identify simple behaviors of their chosen client along with the learning principle(s) believed responsible for maintaining those behaviors. As the program pro-gressed, each participant was required to design and implement an individualized program plan for their client. This plan involved: (a) an overall assessment of the client's skills using the Minnesota Developmental Programming System, (b) identifying one behavior that needed change or a skill which was needed, (c) measuring the designated behavior to obtain a baseline, (d) writing an• instructional plan including short and long-term objectives, (e) implementing the plan and (f) charting progress. At the end, an evalua-tion of the results and reasons for success or failure were required. To insure a good first experience with the training materials, the leader approved programs prior to implementation. Simple behavioral change programs ·were favored over more elaborate ones. Typical programs developed by the participants included: reducing frequency of temper tantrum behavior, teaching number recogni-tion and increasing 'time-on-task' behaviors, e.g., drill press operation, rug hooking. Time was allowed for participants to discuss their problems with the inservice materials. The individual IPPs and results of the class projects were presented by the particiµlnts during the last meeting. Results Cuff (1977) noted that although there was an increa1:1ea frequency of short-term instructional courses in behavior modification, few had been evaluated with respect to their effectiveness. Three evaluation measures were used during this inservice project. weekly quizzes were given at the end of each class session to determine the amount of immediate learning and to identify con-cepts to be clarified. These quizzes were usually composed of 10 objective questions which were corrected and returned the following week for discussion. The scores obtained on the quizzes did not enter into the final grade but were designed to give the participants a measure of progress. TWO comprehensive criterion-referenced exams were used to assess the effectiveness of the training. An 80% criterion was established for successful completion of the program. These examinations, given at the end of segment 1 and 4, were objecti'll'e in nature. The results of these two evaluations are summarized in Table 1. Table 1 Percentage Scores of Criterion Referenced Exams Measure Total Range Mean S.D. Exam I 74 78-199 92.7 5.8 Exam II 83 77-198 90.8 7.8 .M Accumulated Score 157 81-100 92.1 9.2 '!he third evaluative measure involved parti-cipants' presentations. The general consensus was that the projects had been a successful approach for helping the participants acquire practical experience with the classroom materials. Most participants indicated that their clients' behavior had changed in the desired direction, i.e., toward the objectives. These presentations generated discussion about problems associated with designing and implementing Individualized Program Plans for the severely handicapped and suggestions for remediation. Follow-up The regional develo~mental disabilities administrator assigned tw·o Ph.D. psychologists to consultant to programs upon termination of the training. This consultation and monitoring of the system was conducted within each program on a monthly basis. Sixteen months after initiation of the training, the regional administrator, the two consulting psychologists and four of the day-services administrators reviewed the status of the 6ystem and overall effects of the training upon functions. 'lhe four administrators indicated that they were continuing to: (1) use the data collection method established during the training program to formulate and monitor individualized programs, (2) use the assessment tool to pinpoint skills which required training, and (3) educate new staff in individualized planning and the learning principles. All four administrators felt that having the on-site consultation/training session coupled with 25 the presentations was an extremely important com-ponent in successful transfer of learned skills, A need for an intensive training packa_ge for new staff members was indicated. Discussion The inservice was well received by the parti-cipant& '!be on-site consultation sessions com-bined with the establishment of individual program plans and class projects appeared to be a crucial component of the inservice. These sessions pro-vided an opportunitj for the participants to chal-lenge the learning materials and to experience with supervision, the plethora of problems involved in applying learning principles in the natural setting, Approving only simple class pro-jects insured immediate success in applying the learning principles. The MDPS provided an excellent format for developing a sound accountability system in pro-grams previously lacking this quality. Other systems such as Developmental Pinpoints (Cohen, Gross & Haring, 197 6) , the TARC system ( Sailor & Mix, 1975) and the AAMD Adaptive Behavior Scale (Nihira, Foster, Shellhaas & Leland, 1974) would also be useful for establishing IPPs for the severely handicapped vocational client. The dura-tion of this inservice may be too long for many programs, However, the teaching model involving classroom, consultation and generalization experiences should be a useful strategy for staff training programs regardless of their intensity, References Bank-Mikkelson, N.E. Denmark. In R, B. Kirgel & A, Shearer (Eds.) ~sing ,p.a,t..t.ll.n.§ in n.s.i=. dential services .to.I. .the .m.entally retarded, Revised edition. Washington, DC: 1976. Cuff, G. N, A strategy for evaluating a short course on behavior modification, .Mental Retardation, 1977, l.5., 6, 48. Cohen, M, A,, Gross, P, J, & Haring, W. G. 26 Developmental L. J, Brown handicapped, 1976. pinpoint& In N. G. Haring and (Eds.) Teaching .the severely New York: Grune & Stratton, Gardner, J, M. Teaching behavior modification to nonprofessionals. .J.Q..U..t.n.al .2.f APRli.e.d Behavior Analysis, 1972, i, 517-521. Grossman, H. J, (Ed.) M.a.IlY£1 .2n .t..fil'..minology .a.ru1 .cl.a.s.s.i.fi.c.a.ti.o.o ..i.o .m.en.t.al .r.e.t.a.r.d.a.t.i.o.n. Washington, DC: American Association on Mental deficiency, 1977, Minnesota .m:.Y.e.l.o.l?.m.en.t.al p.r.2g.r.amm.ing .sy.s.t.em. Outreach Training Program, 301 Health Service Building, University of Minnesota, St. Paul, MN 55108, Nihira, K,, Foster, R,, Shallhaas, M. & Leland, H, AAMD .a.d.ap.t.i.Y.e .b.eh.a.Yi.2.r. .s.c.al.e m.a.n..u.al, Washington, DC: American Association on Mental Deficiency, 1974. Panyan, M,, Boozer, H, & Morris, N. Feedback to attendants as a reinforcer for applying operate te~hnigues • .J.Q..U.t.n.al .Qf Applied Behavior Analysis, 1970, 3, 1-4. Panyan, M, & Patterson, E. Teaching attendants the applied aspects of behavior modification: An empirical approach. Paper presented at the 81st annual meeting of the American Psychological Association, Montreal, canada, August, 30, 1973. Pennhurst Decision, Civil Act, No, 74-1345, u.s. District of Pennsylvania, December, 1977, Sailor, w. s. & Mix, B, J, ~.m {users manual). Enterprise, 1975. .the .TA&: assessm.e.n.t Lawrence, KS: H & H wolfensberger, w. ,The principle .Qf normalization in .hwo.a.o services. Toronto: National Insti-tute on Mental Retardation, 1972, 

Training a Rural Community Service Staff in Individualizing Program Planning for Severely Handicapped Vocational Clients

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Training a Rural Community Service Staff in Individualizing Program Planning for Severely Handicapped Vocational Clients

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