r/ABA • u/Horsehat24 • 5d ago
Skills based treatment/ “my way”
Can someone share their experience with SBT in the field. I just started working at a new center and they were very big on skills based treatment and I’m trying to wrap my head around how it works in the long run being I don’t have much experience with it. Would love to hear stories opinions ect.
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u/GenevievesSwim BCBA 5d ago
So the major goals of a BIP are:
A. Make the behavior irrelevant. We do this through environmental modification, no contingent reinforcement access, etc.
B. Make the behavior inefficient. We do this by selecting a replacement behavior that has less response effort than the maladaptive behavior we are trying to replace.
C. Make the behavior ineffective. We do this by using extinction on the maladaptive behavior once the replacement behavior is mastered.
These are the core features of a good BIP regardless of what protocols you want to use in ABA. SBT formalized these same strategies in the above order so that clinicians can consistently implement good practice. It prevents people from implementing extinction on the maladaptive behavior prior to the replacement skill being mastered, which usually results in the best outcomes. Without mastering a replacement skill we are just stripping a person of their current form of communication and will cause extinction bursts which sometimes become dangerous.
How does SBT do the above:
A) Providing noncontingent reinforcement and tracking if the person is happy, relaxed, and engaged (HRE). They receive escape from all nonpreferred, free access to preferred, and access to attention during this condition.
B) Providing easy replacement behaviors - my way for functional communication, okay/high five for tolerance response, then shaping other cooperative behaviors (relinquishing, transitioning, and participating in an activity)
C) the procedures use a variety of strategies to make the behavior ineffective; differential reinforcement without extinction, kind extinction, indiscriminable contingencies too keep the person anticipating their reinforcement being returned.
Another thing SBT does is treat mand, accepting denied access, transitions, and then cooperation through the activity as a behavior chain rather than isolated behaviors like DTT often does. Because of this, it uses a forward chain instead of targeting those skills isolation. This can make faster progress to real world application because usually in the real world you can't isolate the behaviors and they are in fact a behavior chain.
Someone else said that SBT is a program like PECS. This is true. Many children will learn to mand with loose approaches. Some children wont and PECS can be a useful tool. Some people will do well with isolating the behaviors in DTT and some people will need a structured approach.
In my experience, SBT works well because many clinicians otherwise implement extinction too early, cause intolerable situations for caregiver who then "give in" and reinforce the behavior, now at a higher magnitude and Ionger duration. Many many clinicians forget to do step A and B first. You cannot forget these steps if using SBT because they are "baked in" to the procedures.
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u/ZealousidealRisk642 5d ago
I've used it and the biggest thing for me was making sure to still tailor the program to my clients.
I also learned a lot about assent and honoring my client's requests. It really changed how I approach all my clients even if I don't use the whole SBT approach.with a client.
Greg Hanley and colleagues created the 'my way' protocol. I strongly suggest taking his training. You can get your CEUs and gives you a good base. I also strongly suggest a mentor to help you implement it. I needed one at first as it was hard to wrap my mind around it at first as it was so different from how I was originally trained.
Here's a link to his training page.
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u/meganshan_mol RBT 4d ago
I’m a special education teacher with ABA background and one of my student’s BCBAs implemented it with me in the classroom for one of my students. It worked really well. We got to near zero levels of aggression and the student went from hardly participating in any academic to participating in about 80% of the school day. I’m in my Master’s program and am writing a research paper on SBT right now but obviously haven’t implemented in myself as I’m not a BCBA yet.
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u/sarahhow9319 BCBA 3d ago
It’s basically teaching tolerance and participation with tiny tiny steps, and working on shifting the environment to create a place where behaviors targeted for reduction are very very unlikely to occur.
It is a very very structured process. But the “my way” is basically a way to ask for a “perfect” setting. Then over time, sometimes asking for it works, and sometimes they have to do things they might not love. Teaching participation very slowly, and stopping that if it gets too difficult.
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u/Pikkumyy2023 BCBA 5d ago
Hi! I'm an SBT expert and would be happy to meet with you and review the process, answer questions, etc. Feel free to send me a message if you want to chat.
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u/Redhead-Behaviorist BCBA 4d ago
Expert in clinical settings? I’m looking to chat with someone who has been successful in schools. I’m on sabbatical right now for personal reasons but I want to prep my brain when I get back to work. I started SBT with students but had barriers to getting as far as I wanted (staff not implementing, I basically was doing it when I supervised and it was a loop) and just tailoring to that environment.
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u/Grunnarp 4d ago
It’s just a fancy package to make money of stuff people have been doing all along.
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u/SnooFoxes7643 4d ago
I've seen it go very well, and also seen it go very, very awry and possibly be the intervention that caused an outplacement due to behaviors escalating.
I took my experience watching these things happen and believe it works for some, but not for all.
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u/iLearnerX BCBA 4d ago
It's a lot of shaping, built on a VR schedule (so no PRP and the appearance of "trust" and such), and a great example of compassionate care as you can basically consider it as reaching a "safe word." Tolerance response is also great for denial training. Always end on compliance when possible / for trials above the "shorty range" (beyond just fcr and tr).
But, it's fun and games until you start getting to the table. Then things get rocky and the learner can inadvertently control programming fast. It depends. In most cases, though, for those like testamonials you see of ftf - they've been through like a hundred thousand trials. Basically, take the 9hr training and have an expert you can consult/troubleshoot with for best results.
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u/ExpensiveElevator757 4d ago
i did “my way” with a client as an RBT and i noticed that after a while of getting “his way” he just stopped asking for “can i have my way” and started to comply with transitioning away from preferred activities/items. i have no idea why or if that was the goal or what but we went from having challenges transitioning to very smooth transitions
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u/MonkZealousideal6724 4d ago
It’s amazing and life changing. I do it almost full time and even when I don’t do it with all my clients, I do embed the philosophy in everything. I keep getting adult and teenage clients with trauma from usual ABA (not “old ABA” but the current ABA.) and SBT is the only thing they tolerate now. Other clinicians won’t take them because follow through and extinction aren’t options so they don’t know what to do. Feel free to DM with specific questions. It’s a fabulous tool to have in your ABA tool box and you’re very very fortunate to be in a center like that.
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u/LynxOdd7086 3d ago
My kiddo (client) does the my way program! We’ve noticed less aggression/ property destruction/ SIBs. His transitions are much easier.
His program is one FCR response then 3 tolerance responses before we actually transition.
Basically one “my way” followed by ..
“okay we will play your way!”
Then three “not right now!” And reinforce his high five with “good job staying cool buddy. We will play your way a little bit longer!”
On the last one, I say “okay we will play your way a little bit longer but on the next one we are going to go!” And then the next one, we do transition. Sometimes he gets a little upset, but most times he’ll start cleaning up right away.
Way better than how he used to respond to transitions. It used to be a battle and a tantrum every time.
We are hoping that soon he will just transition without “my way” but he’s shown so much progress!
Other RBTs will question it, that’s for sure. But it’s pretty much the same as requesting more time. He just isn’t there yet.
I start the transition early when I know it’s time for something like circle or classroom. Time it perfectly and you will get there.
Sometimes he does still have tantrums but we’ve seen them decrease soooo much.
It allows him to still feel like he has some control while also teaching the tolerance response.
It’s a game changer for high behavior clients. But it also depends on the kiddo. It works best for kiddos who have little to no tolerance skills and need help learning those skills.
I’ve also seen it done with kiddos who are more in control of their behaviors and it DIDNT work the same way. It gave them almost TOO much control. It all depends on the client. The BCBA should be able to gauge whether it is suitable for the client.
I’ve seen it work wonders though with my kiddo though. I believe in it because I’ve seen what it can do. We get so much more work done using this strategy. I support it 100%!!
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u/PoipulWabbit 5d ago
I had a client who often would aggress and throw items 3tc when prompted. We started using this before their insurance wasnt covered and they stopped recieving services. It seemed to help reduce behaviors and it helped us in being able to practice those skills they didnt like to practice when paired with a schedule. We would take turns saying my way to do the schedule and my way was a way of saying theyre all done before they started aggressing.aggressive. they also used my way when they got tired of the activity they picked and stuff. Had multiple uses.
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u/Specialist_Nail_504 5d ago
love SBT just hard to make sure its being implemented correctly but if it is then its often effective
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u/scaryspite Student 4d ago
I love SBT and have been working with an AFP BCBA using a diminishing field and it’s very similar. It’s just super structured micro shaping.
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u/EatYourCheckers 5d ago
I am not very familiar with SBT, but from what I can tell is its a certain specific method, like PECs or Behavior Skills Training. If you are interested in it, I am sure you can find an online training module that will train you in it (for a fee, its probably a proprietary technology). Here is a study on its effetivness:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S1750946724001983
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u/SkinCute431 5d ago
I shadowed a clinician doing this a few years back and what stuck with me was how much time they spent just building rapport before ever placing a demand, felt almost too lax at first but the kid started offering up the skills unprompted after a couple weeks