Corrections_Today_May_June_2020_Vol.82_No.3

Juvenile Justice News

to help provide alternatives to state custody for adjudicated youth (DYS Grant Funding General Information, n.d.). Further, DYS has committed to improving services provided to youth in state custody. DYS has shown a dedication toward real progress as evidenced by their use of data collection and analysis to inform which programs DYS will fund. One program that has received continuous funding since 1999 is the Account- ability Based Sex Offense Prevention (ABSOP) program (Burkhart, Pea- ton, & Sumrall, 2009). Broadly speaking, the ABSOP program provides therapeutic services to adolescents adjudicated for illegal sexual behavior. Program leaders collect data regularly to help guide therapeutic decisions designed to reduce recidivism. Although recidivism rates are low following treatment in the ABSOP program (Burkhart, 2017; Caldwell, 2016), the original treatment model did not address some self-management skills (e.g., hygiene, self-care) and student-staff member relations (e.g., disrespectful comments by students toward staff members). To address these deficits, the ABSOP director pi- loted an ABA unit in the fall of 2015 to supplement the ABSOP therapy model (Brogan, Richling, Rapp, Thompson, & Burkhart, 2018). The original team consisted of one Master’s student in a local university ABA program and a Ph.D. level BCBA to supervise the student. Across successive years, the ABA team grew to include two supervising doctoral-level BCBAs, two masters- level BCBAs (doctoral candidates), four master’s students, and several undergraduate assistants who serve

as data collectors. During a 4-year period, the ABA team designed over 20 different therapeutic protocols to address problem behavior and skill deficits displayed by youth served by the ABSOP program. In what follows, we highlight examples of modules that we designed for individual student’s behavior, mul- tiple students’ behavior (i.e., group interventions), and staff members’ behavior (in relation to students). The most direct delivery method for ABA treatment services is through individual teaching sessions with a student. Behavioral interventions for individual students The most direct delivery method for ABA treatment services is through individual teaching sessions with a student. Common problems for which facility staff members refer students for ABA services include (a) disrespectful conduct toward dormitory staff and teachers and (b) verbal or physical aggression when preferred activities are not available. Based on these common problem behaviors, the ABA team developed modules for teaching specific behav- iors to address students’ behavioral

deficits. In this section, we described modules to increase “quiet compli- ance,” appropriate reactions to staff requests, and tolerance for delays to preferred events. We designed the “quiet compli- ance” program (see Brogan, Rapp et al., 2017) to teach adolescents to respond to facility staff mem- bers’ directions appropriately and quietly. Prior to teaching, referred students often followed directions but frequently did so with excess behavior (e.g., eye rolling, swearing, arguing); this excessive behavior then produced feedback from staff. Following that feedback, the stu- dents often became increasingly noncompliant with staff members’ directives and sometimes became aggressive toward staff or other students. Thus, we designed this module to disrupt this chain of unfavorable events. Briefly, as a part of this module, ABA specialists provide each student with rules and a rationale as to why quiet compli- ance is a useful skill. Thereafter, the ABA specialist provides the student numerous opportunities to rehearse during simulated demand interac- tions wherein the student earns rewards (e.g., a snack, 10 min of computer time) for decreasing ex- cess behaviors while complying with directives. Once students acquire the skill under simulated conditions, they participate in additional teach- ing sessions with staff members under non-simulated conditions. To date, over a dozen students have successfully demonstrated the skill of quiet compliance. Notably, both students and staff members have ex- pressed their support for the ongoing use of this module. →

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