RBT- Communication with Families and professional Boundaries

A-B-C (Antecedent Behavior Consequence)

A- what happened just before the behavior B-what was the behavior C- what happened as a result of the behavior -keep your data short and sweet and in measurable language -"reduced by or increased by a certain number"

Prioritize efforts

assist families in prioritizing what is most important. -help them decide what is most important and help them arrange the environment so they can implement it. -sometimes one thing at a time is more productive then addressing several things at once

Incident reports

have various purposes such as for getting hurt, running away, major behavioral incident. - must be written accurately and contain information about the incident & the events before and after -stick with the facts... observable and measurable

Exploitative relationship

relationships involve inappropriate interactions among supervisors and supervises as well as clients

Boundary violations

- spending more time speaking with a fam when the session is over - accepting gifts or giving gifts -talking about personal life -physical contact beyond a handshake

Some agencies might have certain guidelines on communication

-RBTs may be limited to discussing progress -not allowed to discuss pragmatic issues or programming such as schedule changes or therapy location -May be advised to avoid conversations about complaints against programming and staff

Practice Non- judgement with families

-Race -socioeconomic status -sexual orientation -family composition -religion -culture

when discussing progress on program goals, behavior issues or describe what we are doing with clients we use terms that:

-are understandable -describe what we are saying in the most concrete way -describe what we are trying to communicate in an observable and measurable way

As practitioners of behavior analysis or duty is to..

-communicate info using observable and measurable terminology

helpful tips for when becoming overwhelmed by work as a RBT:

-controlled venting: limit it so that you do not relive the stress -change clothes right when you get home so you are on home mode -Don't walk about work after hours -when at work and overwhelmed take a break and then breath * rememberer the work you do cannon be done if you do not get a break form the intensity of your job

Data

-data is most commonly provided in some numeric fashion -some data is provided with words as in the case of A-B-C (Antecedent Behavior Consequence) -

Written communication

-must be observable, measurable, and straight to the point

The Professional and Ethical Compliance code

-preform work with integrity and honesty toward clients and fam. and to do what we communicate we will do - to communicate & interact in a way that is free of bias & discrimination toward any specific group -to communicate in a manner that would discourage any sort of mult. or exploitative relationship -To clearly communicate who is the primary beneficiary of services advocate for that persons interests -to keep communication about the welfare or progress about those who have permission to know

modeling optimization

-showing families you have a optimist outlook. -help show families what their loved ones CAN do & why it is important and remarkable. -

When family members have different opinions

-this can be challenging but it is safe to assume that all family members of the ABA team want the same thing for the person.. which is for the person to get better

When talking to families it is always important...

-to keep interactions focused on the client -more time must be spent on reporting on progress

When talking to families: non-verbal gestures are helpful

-warm facial expressions -head nods -sometimes maintaining eye contact

conflict of interest

a conflict between self-interest and professional obligation

When discussing clients progress with fam.

make sure you use observable and measurable meaning such as specific vs abstract words EX: the word "better" is a relative term and situation specific. Say a specific word and senario of how he improved and what they accomplished and always back up with data.