Fla. Admin. Code Ann. R. 65G-4.001 - Definitions for Behavior Services: Practice and Procedure
(1) Area Behavior Analyst means a behavior
analyst employed by, or under contract with an area office of the Agency who
holds a doctorate from an accredited university program with behavior analysis
as a primary focus, is a board certified behavior analyst, has completed a
dissertation that had behavior analysis as its central focus and has at least
one year of experience in the provision of behavior analysis services for
persons with developmental disabilities. However, if no one with these
qualifications is available, then the individual must be a certified behavior
analyst with at least the education and experience requirements for taking the
board's behavior analyst examination.
(2) Behavior analysis refers to the use of
scientific methods to produce socially significant improvements in behavior.
This process entails gathering information to analyze or describe the link
between behavior and environment. It includes assessment of the environment and
consequences that are maintaining the behavior targeted for change. It also
encompasses changing the situations in the environment that trigger problem
behavior and arranging situations that will provide the opportunity for
desirable behaviors to occur. Behavior Analysis interventions teach or increase
occurrence of skills to replace the behavior targeted for change and arrange
delivery of consequences for desirable and undesirable behavior. A behavior
analytic intervention also includes strategies and approaches to maintain the
gains of the intervention over time and in varied settings. Behavior change
interventions are based on the principles and laws of behavior. Behavior
analytic interventions require monitoring and evaluation for effectiveness
through direct observation and quantification of the behavior targeted for
change. Caregivers and family members are actively involved in the behavior
analysis process and are taught how to implement specific techniques or changes
in the environment. Behavior analysis does not rely on cognitive therapies and
expressly excludes psychological testing, neuropsychology, psychotherapy, sex
therapy, physchoanalysis, hypnotherapy and long term counseling as treatment
modalities.
(3) Behavior analysis
services - The use of behavior analysis to assist a person or persons to learn
new behavior, to increase existing behavior, to reduce existing behavior, and
to emit behavior under precise environmental conditions. The term "behavior
analysis services" includes the terms "behavior analysis service plan, "
"behavioral programming, " "behavioral supports, " "behavior modification
programs, " "behavior intervention plans, " "behavior plans, " and "behavioral
programs, " as well as those interventions designed to ameliorate dangerous
behavior as described in subsection
65G-4.010(3),
F.A.C., below. These services are supported in documentation showing that they
are applied, behavioral, analytic, technological, conceptually systematic, and
effective relative to the definitions of these terms found in "Some Current
Dimensions of Applied Behavior Analysis" by D. M. Baer, M. M. Wolf, and T. R.
Risley and available in the Journal of Applied Behavior
Analysis, Volume 1, 1968. This article is incorporated by reference
and may be found online at
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1310980/pdf/jaba00083-0089.pdf.
(4) Certification Body - A nonprofit
corporation whose standards for certification of behavior analysts and
assistant behavior analysts adheres to the national standards of boards that
determine professional credentials to meet the needs of behavior analysts,
state governments and consumers of behavior analysis services. The
certification procedure of the nonprofit corporation must undergo regular
psychometric review and validation pursuant to a job analysis survey of the
profession and standards established by content experts in the field.
(5) Certified Behavior Analyst - A behavior
analyst certified by a certification body, including a Board Certified Behavior
Analyst - Doctoral level, a Board Certified Behavior Analyst, a Board Certified
Assistant Behavior Analyst and a Florida Certified Behavior Analyst.
(6) Consultation - Monthly contacts between a
Board Certified Assistant Behavior Analyst (BCaBA) and a consulting Board
Certified Behavior Analyst (BCBA), during which the behavior analysis services
provided by the BCaBA are evaluated. At the time consultation is provided, the
consulting BCBA shall not be the BCaBA's subordinate, employee, spouse or
family member. The consulting BCBA shall not be considered an employee of the
BCaBA if the only compensation received by the consulting BCBA consists of
payment for consultation. Monthly contacts may include the BCaBA's presentation
of behavior analysis services designed by the BCaBA, with a focus on graphic
displays of data, at local review committee meetings, established in Rule
65G-4.008, F.A.C.
(7) Contingent exercise - Bodily exertion or
effort that is not topographically related to the misbehavior, involving a
repeated series of physical movements required as a consequence for
inappropriate behavior.
(8)
Desensitization - A method for teaching an individual to exhibit calm or
incompatible behavior during the gradual and systematic presentation of
increasing levels of an aversive or feared stimulus resulting in the ability to
tolerate the formerly feared stimulus.
(9) Dietary manipulations - Procedures
involving the alteration of dietary variables including the quantity or type of
food eaten and liquids consumed, the caloric density of the diet, the oral
stimulation involved in eating, and the temporal distribution of the daily
diet.
(10) Extinction - A procedure
in which reinforcement of a previously reinforced behavior is
discontinued.
(11) Facility - Can
be a publicly or privately established residential operation serving
individuals with behavioral service needs.
(12) Functional Communication Training (FCT)
- a procedure in which a functional form of communication is taught and
reinforcement is provided contingent upon communication, while withholding
reinforcement for other behavior.
(13) Positive practice overcorrection -
Activities that involve repeated performance of a desirable alternative
behavior related to a targeted inappropriate behavior.
(14) Provider - An enrolled professional
authorized to provide behavior analysis services. Only individuals who are
board certified behavior analysts - doctoral level, board certified behavior
analysts (BCBA), board certified assistant behavior analysts (BCaBA), Florida
certified behavior analysts or persons licensed in accordance with Chapter 490
or 491, F.S., on active status, and demonstrating supervision as required, may
be providers of behavior analysis services. Only those providers holding a
certificate on active status from a recognized certification organization for
behavior analysis shall use the title, "certified behavior analyst."
Individuals performing behavior analysis services shall limit their practice to
areas of documented expertise and in accordance with their education, training,
and certification or licensure, unless otherwise demonstrating evidence of
supervision by an individual meeting the requisite education, training, and
certification.
(15) Regular
psychometric review and validation - A certification process which complies
with recognized national standards in the testing and certification industry to
ensure the certification examinations are fair, valid and reliable and in
conformance with recognized standards such as those of the International
Organization for Standardization (ISO) or the National Commission for
Certifying Agencies (NCCA).
(16)
Response blocking - The use of physical intervention upon occurrence of an
undesirable behavior in such a way as to interrupt the normal form of
responding.
(17) Response cost - A
procedure in which a specified amount of available reinforcers are removed from
the individual's reserve upon occurrence of a specified behavior.
(18) Restitutional overcorrection -
Activities that involve correcting the effects of a specified behavior to a
better condition than present prior to the occurrence of the specified
behavior.
(19) Time-out - These
procedures include the withdrawal of the opportunity to earn positive
reinforcement or the loss of access to positive reinforcers for a specified
period of time.
(20) Token Economy
- A behavior change system in which identified behaviors are reinforced by a
symbolic medium of exchange, or token, which is later used by a participant in
the "purchase" of backup reinforcers, including objects or
activities.
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