The Behavior Support Specialist Certificate is awarded to those who demonstrate mastery of all of the following competencies:

Behavior

• Define behavior
• Distinguish behavior from non-behavior
• Distinguish behavior from its outcomes (or products)
• Operationalize problems and concerns into acceptable behavioral terms
• Write clear and accurate behavioral definitions
• Distinguish between operant and respondent behavior
• Distinguish between public behavior and private events
• Identify antecedents and consequences that are related to behavior

Reinforcement

• Distinguish reinforcers from reinforcement
• Identify how changes in consequences can alter the likelihood that certain behaviors will occur
• Distinguish positive from negative reinforcement
• Identify the 2 categories of reinforcers (primary and secondary)
• Identify the most common sub-categories or types of reinforcers

• Consumable
• Sensory
• Tangible
• Activity
• Social
• Exchangeable

• Identify the effect of contingent presentation on a reinforcer
• Identify the effect of immediacy on a reinforcer
• Identify the effect of size/amount on a reinforcer
• Identify the effect of satiation and deprivation on a reinforcer
• Describe when it is appropriate to use contrived or extrinsic reinforcers
• Identify effective reinforcers
• Apply the Premack Principle

Punishment

• Distinguish the technical definition of punishment from the common, everyday use of the term
• Distinguish Type I and Type II punishment
• Identify common side effects of the use of aversive consequences
• Explain the effect of satiation on punishment
• Identify examples of aversive consequences in classroom and everyday situations

Extinction
• Define extinction
• Identify the problems and side effects of extinction when it used as an isolated technique
• Develop an appropriate extinction procedure

Building Resistance to Extinction

• Identify situations appropriate for continuous or intermittent reinforcement
• Describe how different schedules of reinforcement affect the frequency or rate of behavior

Developing New Behavior

• Explain the technique of shaping and how it occurs
• Explain the chaining techniques and why and how they are used
• Develop a task analysis

Making Behavior Last

• Describe maintenance, stimulus generalization, and response generalization
• Identify the steps necessary to use “behavioral trapping” to promote long-term maintenance of behavior   
   change
• Describe the effect of “resistance to extinction” on maintenance of appropriate or problem behavior
• Describe the way in which natural reinforcers promote maintenance and stimulus generalization
• Identify classroom and non-classroom examples of response generalization

Measuring Behavior

• Collect permanent product data and determine interobserver agreement (IOA)
• Collect frequency data and determine interobserver agreement (IOA)
• Calculate rates of behavior
• Collect partial-interval data and determine interobserver agreement (IOA)
• Collect whole-interval data and determine interobserver agreement (IOA)
• Collect time-sampling data and determine interobserver agreement (IOA)

Functional Behavioral Assessment (FBA)

• Operationally define the target and replacement behaviors
• Gather interview data from informants
• Gather interview data from the student, when appropriate
• Collect and analyze A-B-C data
• Use the Function Matrix to determine the function of a target behavior
• Identify the strengths and limitations of the current FBA data base
• Suggest potential solutions to issues that may compromise the validity of FBA results

Designing Function-Based Interventions
• Use the Function-Based Intervention Decision Model to select the correct intervention method(s)
• Design a function-based intervention
• Identify a measurement system appropriate for testing the intervention
• Conduct brief probes to verify that a function-based intervention is effective
• Report the results of intervention testing

Behavior Intervention Plans (BIP)

• Write an appropriate function-based BIP that includes:

• Behavioral Definitions
• Rationale
• Baseline Data
• Function of the Behavior
• Behavioral Objective
• Intervention Procedures
• Fading and Generalization
• Data to be Collected
• Program Review Date
• Personnel and Roles
• Emergency Procedures

Ethical Issues

• Identify ethical issues in conducting FBAs and implementing BIPs
• Apply ethical standards to BIPs in order to assess whether they are ethical

Addressing Environmental Factors

• Assess the physical, instructional, and behavioral variables that support and inhibit effective classroom
   functioning
• Develop a correction plan based on the assessment data

Effective Instruction

• Assess the instructional design of a classroom lesson
• Assess the presence of effective instructor behaviors in a classroom lesson
• Develop adjustments to correct problems with the design and delivery of instruction

Social Skills Instruction

• Identify the elements of social skills instruction
• Sequence the elements into appropriate social skills instruction
• Assess the merits of a social skills curriculum

Factors the Affect Intervention Success
• Define and assess social validity
• Define and develop a plan to assess treatment integrity (intervention implementation)
• Identify ways to enhance generalization and maintenance of intervention outcome

Implementation and Monitoring

• Implement an intervention
• Monitor IOA and treatment integrity during intervention
• Assess social validity
• Graph the results
• Make data-based decisions about whether to fade, change, or continue an intervention

Schoolwide Positive Behavioral Support
• Assess a school's discipline system with respect to the schoolwide PBS model.

Crisis Intervention
• Identify typical but ineffective strategies for addressing problem behavior in the classroom
• Identify and implement proven strategies for dealing with antisocial behavior
• Identify the critical steps in a problem-solving plan
• Identify the basic steps in a nonconfrontational crisis-prevention procedure

Legal Issues

• Identify the implications of FERPA with regard to providing behavioral support services
• Explain the technical and legal ramifications of basing BIPs on FBA results
• Explain the legal provisions that apply when problem behaviors impede learning
• Identify and describe acceptable methods for determining whether problem behaviors impede learning
• Assess whether a FBA and BIP meet legal guidelines

Teaming and Collaboration
• Identify the characteristics of effective collaboration
• Identify the common barriers to effective collaboration
• Identify the factors that contribute to effective and ineffective team functioning
• Explain the elements of the behavioral consultation model and the variables that influence its effectiveness
• Use the A-B-C model to identify the contingencies that affect people in different roles in a complex system