Post on 04-Nov-2021
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The Behavior Analyst as
Supervisor: Creating advanced supervision and
mentoring repertoires
• The importance and goals of supervision
• Five recommended practices
• (1) Establish an effective relationship
• (2) Establish structured approach with specific
content and competencies
• (3) Evaluate effects of supervision
• (4) Incorporate ethics and professional
development
• (5) Continue professional relationship post
certification
• Conceptualization Skills and Mentoring
Overview
The Importance of Supervision
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• Effective supervision is critical to . . .
• Quality of ongoing behavioral services
• Professional development of supervisee
• Continued growth of supervisor
• Overall development of our field
The Importance of Supervision
There is no more
valuable contribution to
the field than the shaping
of the repertoires of our
next generation of
professionals
• Many clearly established guidelines and
requirements for effective supervision
• However
• Specific content and strategies employed
during supervision are not directly dictated by
the BACB.
• We often don’t receive explicit instruction on
how to be a supervisor!
• Non-optimal experiences with supervisors
may influence our behavior
BACB
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“Try to be the
supervisor you
always wanted, but
never had.”
Bailey & Birch (2010)
The Goals and Scope of Supervision
Personal Growth and Professional Development
Clinical Conceptualization
and Decision-making
Professionalism and Ethics
Basic Concepts, Principles
and Procedures
Competency Domains
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Professionalism and Ethics
Basic Concepts, Principles and Procedures
Competency Domains
Recommended Practice Guidelines
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EstablishEffec veRela onship
EstablishStructuredApproachwithSpecificContent,&Competencies
EvaluateEffectsofSupervision
IncorporateEthics&ProfessionalDevelopment
Con nueProfessionalRela onshipPost-Cer fica on
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• Establish an Effective Supervisor -
Supervisee Relationship
• Supervision contract
• Set clear expectations
• Describe process and motivation for receiving
and accepting feedback
• Create a committed and positive relationship
Guideline 1
Supervision Contract
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1.05 Professional and
Scientific Relationships
• (a) Behavior analysts provide behavioral
diagnostic, therapeutic, teaching, research,
supervisory, consultative, or other behavior
analytic services only in the context of a
defined, remunerated professional or
scientific relationship or role.
Code 5.03: Providing Course or
Supervision Objectives
• The behavior analyst provides a clear
description of the objectives of
supervision, preferably in writing, at the
beginning of the supervisory relationship.
• The behavior analyst provides a clear
description of the demands of the
supervisory relationship (e.g, projects,
reports, intervention plans, graphic
displays), preferably in writing, at the
beginning of the supervisory relationship.
Code 5.04 Describing
Course Requirements
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Supervision is an ongoing
experience, not just a meeting!!
But a great meeting helps!
• Teach Supervisees to prepare an agenda
• Lesson learned in doing so:
• Plan ahead and craft thoughtful questions
• Make good use of supervision time
• Prepare information (graphs, data sheets,
articles, related materials, protocols) that will
ensure optimal supervision experience
Agenda
5.07 & 5.08
• 5.07 Feedback to Student/Supervisees
• The behavior analyst provides feedback to the
supervisee in a way that increases the
probability that the supervisee will benefit from
the feedback.
• 5.08 Reinforcing Student/Supervisee
Behavior
• The behavior analyst uses positive
reinforcement as frequently as the behavior of
the supervisee and the environmental
conditions allow.
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• Provide explicit instruction about the fact
that feedback is going to happen
• “You will hear about things that are going well
and things to improve”
• Remind of purpose
• Remind of motivation
• Provide feedback that is positive, direct,
specific, supportive and valuable
Feedback
The overarching goal of the
supervisor should be to develop and
foster a relationship where feedback
and guidance is valued and the
supervisee wants to attend and be an
active participant at the meetings
• Create positive working relationship
• Establish clear expectations
• Provide positive support and feedback
• Address issues quickly as they arise
• Express commitment to experience often
• Model appropriate ethical and professional
behavior
• BE A LEADER AND ROLE MODEL!
Relationship
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• Create a feedback rich
environment that helps
people become better at
what they do
• Create opportunities for
others to shine
Leadership is the
Essence of a Supervisor’s Job
• Positional Power: job title, reporting lines
• Relational Power: affiliation with others
• Personal Power: interpersonal skills
• Trustworthiness, expertise, charisma,
accomplishments, enthusiasm, self-
confidence
• Soft Power: personal status as a reinforcer
• “In it’s simplest form, power is nothing but
the use of reinforcers to change behavior.”
Sources of Power
“Many people give up any semblance of
authority just by the way they manage
people. Managers who are petty and
arbitrary erode their own power to
engage and influence their workplace. ”
Bailey & Burch (2010)
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• Aversive consequences are highly
reinforcing to the person who delivers them!
• Deters annoying behavior
• Might spark renewed effort
• Also evokes lots of other behaviors:
• Count-controlling behaviors
• Avoidance and hiding problems
Negative Effects of Coercion
“You get the best effort from
others not by lighting a fire
beneath them, but by building a
fire within”
Bob Nelson
• Establish a Structured Supervision Content
and Competence Evaluation Plan
• Performance and competency based!
• Knowledge based• Demonstrate an understanding of the concept, principle,
or technology
• Performance based• correct performance of a skill at some indicated mastery
criterion
Guideline 2
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Developing and using competencies
during supervision will ensure the
supervisor has a well-constructed plan
to develop the supervisee’s skills,
enabling the supervisee to have
experiences that will increase the
likelihood of being successful in her
new career
• Checklists
• A list of all competencies for the team member
to manage with opportunity for supervisors to
initial when competencies are met
• Manual
• Includes all competencies with exercises,
answers, teaching strategies and references
• Timeline Graphic
• Suggested progression and timing for each
Overview of Materials
ChecklistsTeam member’s responsibility
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• Overall category
• The competency
• The exercise
• Answers
• Teaching points and strategies
• References
Manual
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• The team member should be able to define and give
at least 2 examples of each of the following:
• Positive reinforcement: the contingent presentation of
a stimulus immediately following a response, which
increases the future rate and/or probability of the
response
• Negative reinforcement: the contingent removal of an
aversive stimulus immediately following a response
which increases the future rate and/or probability of
the response.
Exercise
• If the team member does not define the above
and give at least 2 examples, consider providing
the definition and having the team member say
what it is (e.g., that is an example of positive
reinforcement) and why it is an example of
positive or negative reinforcement. Then, have
them give the definition. Also, generate lots of
examples and have the team member provide
you with examples. Continue until the team
member accurately gives the definitions and
provides 2 examples of each.
Teaching points & strategies
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• Evaluate the effects of supervision
• Track competencies completed• Technical language used
• Types of errors in permanent products
• Monitor improvements in client outcomes• Ongoing, informal, non-threatening
• Solicit feedback directly from the supervisee
• Structured survey for supervisee• Include specific areas (e.g., provision of praise and
feedback)
• Open ended questions (e.g., “What could we do differently
together to enhance the supervisory experience?” )
Guideline 3
Thoughtful reflection, honest
discussion, and measurement
of some performance that
should be expected to change
as a result of supervision will
allow the supervisor to make
well-informed, data-based
decisions about their ongoing
supervision activities.
• Incorporate Ethics and Professional
Development into Supervision
• Often extremely difficult for new clinicians!
• Expose supervisees to a wide variety of
ethical dilemmas
• Actively analyze the situations for the core
ethical issues that should control responding
• Evaluate the benefits and concerns of multiple
potential responses together
• Engage in ongoing discussions about actual
ethical dilemmas as they occur
Guideline 4
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Having ample opportunity to
discuss issues and tackle
hypothetical or real problems in
supervision will increase the
supervisee’s confidence and
skill set in dealing with ethical
dilemmas.
• Encourage subscription to journals
• Model professional behavior
• Share articles and resources
• Encourage conference attendance
• Provide guidance on professional behavior
and strategies for maximizing learning and
networking opportunities during the
conference
Professional Development
Supervisors can model
appropriate professional
development behavior by
consuming literature,
identifying relevant articles,
and analyzing those articles
with the supervisee
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• Continuing the Professional Relationship
Post Certification
• Celebrate!
• Overall analysis of experience
• Provide feedback to one another
• Relationship should transition but not end
• Plan for ongoing mentorship and collaboration
for the future
Guideline 5
The supervisor should
become an ongoing source
of support for the supervisee
though the nature and
frequency of contact and
support will necessarily
change.
• Invite to peer group for networking
• Continued regular meetings
• Share articles and other resources
• Introduce supervisee to other professionals
• Letters of recommendation
• Introduce to next group of supervisees
• Work on research or clinical projects
together
• BE A MENTOR OR HELP THEM FIND ONE
Ongoing Support
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Personal Growth and Professional Development
Clinical Conceptualization
and Decision-making
Professionalism and Ethics
Basic Concepts, Principles
and Procedures
Competency Domains
Conceptualization and clinical
decision making skills
• Teach people how to think about their own
decision-making and problem solving
• Ethics, Clinical Choices, Interpersonal
choices
• How and why do you design programming,
data collection, intervention components,
etc the way you do?
• Guiding Values, Evidence Base, Special
Considerations
Purposeful Decision Making
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• Any situation for which you do not have an
immediate response that is likely to work
• Any situation for which you have multiple
potential solutions with a single clearly
advantageous one
What is a problem?
• Prompting and probing your own
behaviors
• Your actions to alter stimulus conditions
enough to evoke the “appearance of a
solution and response that is likely to be
reinforced.”
What is problem-solving?
• Responding quickly even though you don’t
have a probable solution at the ready -
impulsivity.
• Waiting doing nothing. Problems don’t
get better with time, they get worse with
inaction.
What is NOT problem – solving?
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Problem Solving Steps
• Detect or identify the problem
• Define the problem
• Generate some possible options
• Evaluate the possible options and pick one
• Evaluate how well that worked
• The crisis is a RESULT of the problem rather
than the actual problem
• Detect the subtle indicators of a problem or
the conditions that produce problem states.
• “Nuanced Noticing” – subtle change and the
missing things
• Analyze the A, B, Cs
Detect/Define the Problem
• Universe of possible solutions but people tend
to do “the thing that worked before”
• Pause and think systematically
• Try to describe how this situation is
DIFFERENT – specific questions
• Link your solution ideas to the causes from
STEP 2 – function based solution
Generate possible solutions
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• Do a thorough pro-con analysis of each
option
• Determine if you need more data and
EXACTLY what that is and how to get it
• THEN PICK ONE or more of the options you
have - no “analysis paralysis”
• Try, evaluate, revise as needed
Pick One and Evaluate
http://jim-carr.net/geiger.pdf
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Mentoring and Ongoing Professional
Development
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What is mentoring?
What is a mentor?
Understand Yourself!
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• How were you introduced to behavior
analysis and what motivated you at the
time to pursue it as a career?
• How did your relationship with your
major professor and other faculty
influence you?
• Early in your career, who were your
primary leadership role models and
what did they teach you?
Ask yourself . . .
• What advice did your mentor give you
that still influences you?
• Of all of the roles you have served,
which ones have you valued/enjoyed
most
• Is it important to have mentors that are
the same gender?
Ask yourself . . .
Mentoring and
Mentor Trees
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Critical
Formative
Mentors
Mentors for
Principles,
Procedures, &
Professionalism
Career /Life
Mentors:
Professionalism,
Conceptualization,
Decision-Making
Career &
Life
Mentors
Critical
Formative
Mentors
Mentors for
The Basics
Parents
Vol Coord
School
Counselor
Matson
Vollmer
Northup
Hagopian
Piazza
Fisher
Matson
Lerman
Deb Smith
LeBlancs
Fuqua
Spates
Dickinson
Malott
Piazza
Fisher
Friman
Charlop
Shook
Favell
Linda’s Mentor
Tree
Critical
Formative
Mentors
Mentors for
The Basics
Career &
Life
Mentors
Your Mentor
Tree
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• The importance and goals of supervision
• Five recommended practices
• (1) Establish an effective relationship
• (2) Establish structured approach with specific
content and competencies
• (3) Evaluate effects of supervision
• (4) Incorporate ethics and professional
development
• (5) Continue professional relationship post
certification
• Conceptualization Skills and Mentoring
Overview