Evaluating a Supervision Program for Developing and Maintaining Therapeutic Staff‐resident Interactions During Institutional Care Routines

Abstract

This study evaluated a program to teach and maintain language training interactions between institutional staff and profoundly handicapped children during a routine care task. Following baseline observations of bath sessions, staff were sequentially taught in multiple baseline fashion to vocalize more during the bath, praise child vocalizations, imitate sounds, and provide sound prompts. Procedures included a brief in-service meeting followed by a series of supervisory prompts and feedback. Results indicated that staff acquired the interaction skills in the bath sessions and that the skills generalized to another direct care task, dressing. The number of days on which components of supervision were implemented decreased from 47% of all days during the experimental conditions to 19% of the days during a 19-week maintenance period with no decrease in staff behavior. The interactions were shown not to interfere with the quality of the direct care task nor to increase the amount of time necessary to complete it. Also, some increases were noted for child vocalization frequencies. The advantages of providing therapeutic interactions during care routines are discussed along with the need for staff management techniques with long-term maintenance value.

A Supervision Program for Increasing Functional Activities for Severely Handicapped Students in a Residential Setting

“…Despite those educational qualifications, however, the staff were quite young and inexperienced compared to other residential agencies. It is encouraging to note that similar supervision strategies have been effective with employees who have less formal education (Ivancic et al, 1981;Iwata et al, 1976). Before definitive statements can be made about the generality of the results obtained in this study, further replications in other agencies will be necessary.…”

“…As in other studies (Ivancic et al, 1981;Montegar et al, 1977), the supervisory program used in this study also involved multiple components. It is therefore difficult to determine which of these components were most effective in causing the positive change in the planned activities.…”

“…More recendy, methods used to change staff behavior have included public notices (Greene, Willis, Levy, & Bailey, 1978), contingent money (Pommer & Streedback, 1974), behavioral lotteries (Iwata, Bailey, Brown, Foshee, & Alpern, 1976), and supervision and self-management (Burg, Reid, & Lattimore, 1979;Burgio, Whitman, & Reid, 1983;Montegar, Reid, Madsen, & Ewell, 1977). Ivancic, Reid, Iwata, Faw, and Page (1981) evaluated a program involving brief in-service training, supervisory prompts, and feedback. Results showed that this program developed and maintained therapeutic language interactions between staff members and profoundly handicapped children.…”

Participatory Management: Maintaining Staff Performance in a University Housing Cooperative

“…We thank the members of Sunflower House and the board of the University of Kansas Student Housing Association for their cooperation in conducting this study. We (Ivancic, Reid, Iwata, Faw, & Page, 1981), activity schedules (Greene, Willis, Levy, & Bailey, 1978), and memos (Patterson, Griffin, & Panyan, 1976).…”

Peer Training of Safety‐related Skills to Institutional Staff: Benefits for Trainers and Trainees

“…A foundation for developing such methods exists in the research on training and managing other areas of institutional staff performance (for reviews, see Gardner, 1973;Prue, Frederiksen, & Bacon, 1978;Miller & Lewin, 1980;Whitman, Scibak, & Reid, 1983). Although this research has documented a variety of effective behavior change techniques, it has been criticized for its lack of attention to maintenance effects of various interventions (Ivancic, Reid, Iwata, Faw, & Page, 1981;Whitman et al, 1983 One potential method for teaching and maintaining safety-related skills is a peer training system in which staff train other staff. Credence for a peer training approach stems from previous research with classroom teachers (Jones, Fremouw, & Carples, 1977 (Iwata, Bailey, Brown, Foshee, & Alpern, 1976;Montegar, Reid, Madsen, & Ewell, 1977;Page, Iwata, & Reid, 1982 (Wolf, 1978) as to the utility of the program in this respect were conducted through staff reports collected when staff had been on the job over one and a half years after participating in the program.…”