Whether you’re a direct care worker at a group home, a therapist in a clinic/home/community setting, an educator, foster care provider, hospital staff, parent, or the like; there are many ways to tailor your physical environment, even if we have to get creative sometimes to accomplish it. To make this process a little easier, I’ve created a “Learning Environment Checklist” as a quick and easy guide! Take a look at the description version first, followed by an example, and a blank template version for your own use:

Explanation – Learning Environment Checklist

1. What are we trying to accomplish?

This could be described as:

• A goal (academic task, Activity of Daily living, social goal, etc.)
• Specific time period (mealtimes, transitions, outings, etc.)
• Expectations during specific activity (during a doctor appointment or while in the grocery store)

2. What tools do we need/stimuli?

• For the activity: what is needed for the above-mentioned goal?
• For the individual: what the individual needs to be set up for success i.e. a communication device, their jacket, review of a social story beforehand, etc.
• For staff: what do staff need to have to be set up for success i.e. their cell phone, backup reinforcers, protective gear, etc.

3. Our Physical Space

• Furniture: things like tailored seating, lamination of materials, Velcroing materials, plastic covers, turning shelves towards the wall to avoid climbing, etc.
• Removing materials/make the area safe: Locks on drawers, cover sharp corners, slip mats when working with water, non-slip grips while eating
• Peers/others in the environment: seating and spacial arrangements, for outings: lookup or go to the space ahead of time, call the space beforehand to ask questions, etc.

4. Back-up Plan/Plan B (or C or D or F!)

What to do in the event of unexpected changes, like:

• Fire alarm goes off while working at the table
• Store we came to is unexpectedly closed
• Location/material we need is occupied
• iPad I brought as a reinforcer isn’t working
• Stimuli for this activity broke, etc.

4. Emergency or “Just in case” materials

• Things to have with or nearby staff, like first aid kit, important phone numbers, extra snacks, etc.

Examples

Learning Environment Checklist Example #1

1. What are we trying to accomplish?
   • Grocery store outing
2. What tools do we need/stimuli?
   • For the activity: reusable bags (around 3)
   • For the individual(s): wallet, store value card, money from the week, jacket, headphones
   • For staff: 10 passenger van (keys), emergency contact sheet, cell phone, HIPPA compliant “community cards”
3. Our physical space
   • Furniture: Use a smaller pushcart for the individual to shop with (easier for them to manipulate and serves as an incompatible), use cashier for check out vs. self-checkout
   • Removing materials/make the area safe: Avoid Sea Market at the back of the store (trigger: lobster tank), stay no further than 6ft from individual at all times; you should always have a visual on, with no obstacles in between (i.e. display items)
   • Peers/others in the environment: call store first and let them know you’re visiting that day- ask for Jim or Paula if available
4.   Back-up Plan/Plan B
   • Use hand basket if a cart is unavailable
   • Use corner store if the market is overcrowded/closed (call ahead)
   • Sometimes their store reward card doesn’t work- ask the cashier for assistance and/or its ok to use yours if/when that happens
5. Emergency or “Just in case” materials
   • Safety Backpack for outings:  first aid kit, emergency contact protocol, granola bars, back-up headphones, cell charger

Learning Environment Checklist Example #2

1. What are we trying to accomplish?
   • Eating with a fork during lunch
2. What tools do we need/stimuli?
   • For the activity: Spaghetti w/ garlic sauce- avoid red sauce to decrease stains while practicing this skill, large bowl, on top of the slip-grip mat, w/ plastic OT fork, napkins, bin for dirty spaghetti/food (reinforcer = Graham cracker bears)
   • For the individual(s): Communication device w/ cover screen wipes for the screen (food can sometimes get on the screen when communicating during mealtimes) and a water bottle (stays w/ them throughout the day)
   • For staff: Feeding program sheet, spare forks, plastic gloves (multiple), hair up (close proximity during mealtimes)
3. Our physical space
   • Furniture: use the corner table, armless chairs angled away, velcro comm device to the table (so it doesn’t slip), keep dirty food bin on the floor next to the staff, create a clear path to sink
   • Removing materials/make the area safe: clear all other items off the tabletop, remove teaching bin from side of the table, and replace with dirty food bin
   • Peers/others in the environment: One peer can utilize the same table on the other end (not directly next to)
4.   Back-up Plan/Plan B
   • See behavior plan/feeding program in addressing challenging behaviors. If the table is unavailable, use the snack table w/ no other peers. If the individual is not hungry, offer to practice moving spaghetti from one bowl to another w/ fork and move on- try again later in the day or with garlic rice as a backup.
5. Emergency or “Just in case” materials
   • First aid: kit in the kitchen
   • Extra food/water: in the kitchen
   • Emergency/back up reinforcers: chocolate chips (see behavior plan)
   • Mom’s number for change of food approval: 555-555-555

Template

Learning Environment Checklist

1. What are we trying to accomplish?

2. What tools do we need/stimuli?
   • For the activity:
   • For the individual:
   • For staff:

3. Our physical space
   • Furniture:
   • Removing materials/make the area safe:
   • Peers/others in the environment:

4. Back-up Plan/Plan B

5. Emergency or “Just in case” materials

When we talk about and practice the use of Differential Reinforcement (DR), one of the first steps is to pinpoint the desirable behavior (the behavior we want to see more of) that we’ll reinforce. In the beginning stages of this process, its typically best to start small, meeting the individual where they are, as we reinforce a singular desirable behavior through behavior chaining.

For example, if I’m trying to increase someone attending to a new task or skill, I might reinforce that specific behavior on a frequent schedule to increase its likelihood of occurring. But what happens when the skill is more complex, involving several steps? What is the best way to approach teaching these more complex skills? The purpose of this blog is to provide a tool for such situations.

Creating a Task Analysis

Let’s start with an example scenario to help depict the process. Imagine you’re serving an individual who would benefit from learning the skill of eating with a fork. There are many reasons why this goal could be selected, namely, to foster independence in some way. Selecting an appropriate behavior to chain considering this aspect as well as social validity is the first step in the process.

Next, we need to break the complex skill down into practical, measurable steps. A simple way to do this is by creating a Task Analysis (TA), which is identified as “the process of breaking a complex skill or series of behaviors into smaller, teachable units”. Using our sample scenario, let’s run through an example of what a simple TA might look like:

Keep in mind, the above is just an example; there are many ways we
might break down the steps to this skill- for instance, the type of food or
piece size could be specified as well as the grasp used on the fork, and some
steps might be combined or broken apart even further depending on the needs of
the individual.

Defining Behavior Chains

Once we’ve identified and ordered the steps in a TA, we can start the process of creating a behavior chain. Behavior chains are defined by Cooper, et al. (2007) as “a sequence of responses in which each response produces a stimulus change that functions as conditioned reinforcement for that response, and as a discriminative stimulus for the next response in the chain; reinforcement of the last response in the chain maintains the reinforcing effectiveness of the stimulus changes produced by all previous responses in the chain…”

In other words, you need the first step in the process in order to elicit the next, and so on, until the complex behavior is complete. For example, you first have to pick up the fork (step 1) in order to poke a small piece of food with it (step 2) to then eventually get the piece of food to the mouth.

Ways to Create a Behavior Chain

There are three typical ways to go about creating a behavior
chain- forward, backward and total task as outlined below:

• Forward Behavior Chaining
  • Learner is taught/assisted with the first step in the task analysis, while the instructor completes the rest of the steps, teaching the second step only after the first step is completed by the learner independently. Then onto the third step, and so on, until the entire chain is completed independently by the learner.
• Backward Behavior Chaining
  • Instructor completes all but the last step, which is performed by the learner, moving on to teach the second to last step, once the last step is completed by the learner independently
• Total Task Behavior Chaining
  • Learner is taught/assisted through all the steps, each time the TA is practiced until all steps are completed by the learner independently

The type you chose should be based off the complex skill being taught as well as the learner. Because this blog is serving as an introduction to the basic process, we’ll discuss each in greater detail with specific examples as well as the research behind them in a future blog. For now, let’s take a look at one last set of examples, piecing our TA together with a way to track teaching in the three types of behavior chains:

Worksheet Examples

The following sheets are examples across two days/dates that the skill might have been practiced and simulate what documentation could look like.

Forward Behavior Chain

Backwards Behavior Chain

Total Task Behavior Chain

Loved this Behavioral Blog? Read more of our series of Behavioral Blogs: Group Contingencies for Positive Behavior or How to Make Reinforcement Effective.

To learn more about Safety-Care and the services that we offer at QBS, email info@qbs.com.

References:

Cooper, J. O. H., Heward, T. E., William, L., Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied Behavior Analysis.

We all know “being healthy” is a good thing for many reasons; mainly because it means our minds and bodies are set up to function well and do their best work. Like we learn in Safety Care, it’s far better to prevent something first (in this case, health issues and unwellness) than to have to manage them later. But if you’re anything like me, even with a solid understanding of why we should make healthy choices, that isn’t always enough for consistent follow-through. Sure, there are stretches of time when I’ve chosen grilled chicken over fried or started exercising consistently during the week but, when I think about what prompted these changes (the antecedent to my healthier behaviors, if you will) it’s almost always because I had felt unhealthy first.

For example: after seeing how many Christmas cookies I can eat in one week over the holidays, or during Northeastern winters when it’s cold, dark, and the only thing calling my name in the evenings is my couch. In response, I eat grilled chicken and go to the gym. Unfortunately, as my feeling of unhealth fades, so do my healthier choices. Then, I’m back to square one where I’m feeling unhealthy again. So, I found myself asking – how do we break this back and forth cycle? How do we replace it with attainable, long-term healthy habits? Well, I decided to use myself as a guinea pig to answer that very question.

Here’s how it went:

Like any good experiment, I started with consulting research on the subject (because I’m by no means an expert!) and took a course led by Michael J. Cameron, Ph.D., BCBA-D called Fat and Skinner: Behavior Analysis for Weight Loss and Fitness. This course outlined characteristics of a quality program that targets how to actually keep these healthier eating and exercise habits outside of just the construct of “losing weight” because losing weight is not synonymous with being healthy. It set a great foundation for how Behavior Analysts can use our skills to target, elicit, and maintain these healthy behaviors. However, it doesn’t have to take a behavior analyst to accomplish the task!

Based on this research, I compiled an outline of what I felt were the key ingredients to an achievable program for the average busy adult who might not have the time, access, or the patience for a more extensive version. So far, I have been very happy with my personal outcome! Please keep in mind that my personal application (the information in the third column) is just one way to set up this plan and can easily be adapted and look very different considering individual needs at every step.

* I chose to make these 3 goals into habits for the following reasons:

1. I have a killer sweet tooth. Other than bringing sweet, sweet joy from its taste, sugar has no real benefit for the health of your body and when eaten in excess, actually does the opposite. It’s linked to fatigue, inflammation, and high blood pressure. My average baseline intake was close to 3x the recommended amount and I had zero clue- I thought it wasn’t anywhere near that much!
2. I have a habit of putting hot sauce (and sauce in general) on absolutely everything. I again had NO idea how much sodium was in sauce! For me, I am directly impacted by sodium’s ability to store excess fluid in the body and found myself uncomfortably bloated and swollen 80% of the time. Now I know why… I’m keeping my average baseline intake to myself to save my own sanity.
3. The health benefits of healthy fats are extensive and includes everything from lowering risks of heart disease and cholesterol levels to reducing inflammation (which clearly I needed after all that sugar and sodium!). I also needed a healthier alternative to the items I was eating that contained higher amounts of the latter and healthy fats fit that need for me.

Exercising, as I’m sure we all know, also has an extensive list of promoting overall quality of life both physically and mentally, so being active on a regular basis helps to support that.