Ecological Functions of Staff Interventions in a Workday Training Program

Abstract

Previous work established a naturalistic videotape framework to measure developmental disabili-ties at a workday training site for adults. Dysfunctional stereotyped responses occurred less frequently during training for horticultural and other skills than at other times, justifying the present study of content and timing of staff verbal interventions. An overall staff emphasis on selectively attending to workers’ successful behavior was verified by a process examination of their moment to moment interventions, including evidence of efficiency and effectiveness. Even when its content, praise, implied reinforcement after one response, most interventions controlled a later, different response that was appropriate to the horticultural task. Study of these and other ecological methods that coordinate the pace and subject matter of training across individual responses can advance service delivery and also basic theory of stimulus control and reinforcement.