Positive Behaviour Support - PDip, MSc

The aim of this module is to teach students about research methodology and the knowledge needed to access and interpret the research literature. For those who take the statistical analysis element, the aim is also to teach appropriate statistical techniques for the analysis of quantitative data. The emphasis will be on methods of data collection and analysis which will be useful in practice settings, so that advanced multivariate techniques will not be taught.

The aim of this module is to develop an advanced understanding of the concepts and principles underpinning applied behaviour analysis.

Topics will include:

• Defining characteristics of applied behaviour analysis

• Operant and respondent conditioning

• Reinforcement

• Extinction and punishment

• Avoidance and escape

• Stimulus control and equivalence relations

• Establishing operations and setting events

• Verbal behaviour and private events

• Using behaviour analytic concepts to interpret complex behaviour.

The aim of this module is to develop competencies in the definition, observation, recording and analysis of behaviour and its controlling variables. Topics will include:

• Observational methods of data collection

• Reliability and validity of observational data

• Practical approaches to checking and calculating reliability

• Visual representation of data

• Descriptive assessment and experimental analysis including internal and external validity

• Practical and theoretical aspects of using reversal, multiple-baseline, alternating treatments and changing criterion designs

• Visual and statistical interpretation of single case data.

The aim of this module is to develop advanced understanding of the design and implementation of positive strategies to improve the social and intellectual functioning of vulnerable populations, and their support by carers and others.

Topics will include:

• Approaches to increasing behaviour

• Approaches to developing new behaviour

• Descriptive and experimental analysis of challenging behaviour

• Barriers to implementation

• Procedural reliability

• Generalisation and maintenance.

The curriculum will include, at an advanced level:

• Ethical and legal issues

• Philosophical underpinnings of ethical practice

• The role of ideology in the development of intellectual disability services

• The development of approaches to individual planning and needs assessment, particularly the role of "person-centred planning"

• Ethical codes and guidelines – does Behaviour Analysis raise special ethical issues?

• Codes of professional practice

• Discrimination and abuse

• Adopting person-centred, values-based approaches to children and adults with complex needs.

• Evidence based practice and practice based evidence

The curriculum will include, at an advanced level:

• Definition and epidemiology of challenging behaviour

• Social significance and context of challenging behaviour

• Historical and policy issues and background on the development of ideas about challenging behaviour and positive behaviour support

• Causes of challenging behaviour (biological influences, functional approach, broader environmental influences)

• Assessment and formulation in relation to challenging behaviour

• Intervention for challenging behaviour (behavioural and pharmacological intervention)

Generally, challenging behaviour is treated as an individual, health-related problem requiring intervention by psychologists, psychiatrists or other behaviour support professionals. But there is a significant literature documenting the difficulties of achieving individual change, leading to a focus on the importance of understanding and changing the systems within which challenging behaviour arises. For example, the problems of difficult behaviour presented in schools have been recognised as requiring a broader approach, more focused on understanding and intervening in the systemic context. The development of school wide positive behaviour support in the USA reflects this kind of approach though, as yet, there has been little attention to the potential for a similar approach in adult social care settings. The curriculum in the current module will include, at an advanced level, consideration of the knowledge and critical understanding required to embed positive behaviour support in human service organisations. In particular, this will include coverage of:

• Current and historical service models and systems of support for people with intellectual/developmental disabilities whose behaviour is described as challenging

• The role of systemic factors in the causation of behaviour described as challenging

• Assessment and analysis of systemic factors in relation to behaviour described as challenging

• System-wide interventions for challenging behaviour

• Models of consulting to family and service settings

• Staff training methodologies

Learning and teaching will focus on consolidating the knowledge and skills developed through taught modules, and supporting application of learning to positive behaviour support practice in the workplace or comparable environment. Students will receive supervision to undertake assessment and intervention with individuals with intellectual/developmental disabilities and/or with staff, carers or organisations that support such individuals. In the course of both group and individual supervision sessions they will be expected to apply knowledge from taught modules to the specific individuals or circumstances with which they are working. They will be directed to academic and professional literature of specific relevance to their individual work and they will be encouraged to behave professionally and ethically both in their practice and in their interactions with other developing professionals in group supervision sessions.

During the first term of the course students will develop ideas for their research project and will be given the opportunity to choose a research project proposed and supervised by members of the course team or other Tizard staff (see Appendix 4 of course handbook for the list of topics for the current year). Students who choose to design their own project will be allocated a dissertation supervisor. Students following the MSc in Analysis and Intervention in Intellectual and Developmental Disability are required to do an empirical dissertation. All other students can choose between either an empirical or a non-empirical (e.g. policy or research review) dissertation.

Students develop a proposal (assessed) for their research project with advice from their supervisor and apply for ethical approval either to the Tizard Ethics Committee (Ethical Review Checklist available on web-based resources) or to another ethics committee such as those in the NHS.