Generalization and Sustainability in Positive Behavior Support

Katherine’s story includes a number of different types of measures that were used to assess the effectiveness of the plan. The types of measures needed to understand how well a plan is implemented varies. More measures were used in Katherine’s story since it was considered research study. However, the measures in this study are all important. The types of measures that can be used to evaluate a plan include:

• Positive social behaviors
• Challenging behaviors
• Ratings of how well a plan fits the values, skills, and resources of family members
• Changes in quality of life
• Assessing whether people believe the plan has value and is worth implementing (contextual fit)

Measures Included in Katherine’s Plan

• Fidelity of intervention implementation scores
• Rate of problem behavior
• How long (latency in minutes) it took to complete a routine
• Frequency of parent-reported challenging behaviors
• Child activity patterns (using a lifestyle inventory to assess quality of life)
• Average parent rating of social validity of PBS (how parents viewed the plan)
• Average parent rating of contextual fit of PBS (how well the plan fit the values, skills, and resources of parents)
• Average parent rating of social validity of research procedures (how the parents viewed participating in the study)