Behavioral Consultation

Description of the Strategy

Behavioral consultation evolved out of the need for professionals with expertise in behavior modification to efficiently address the individual concerns of their clients across a variety of treatment settings. Over the last two decades, behavioral consultation has become increasingly researched, and advances in the definitions, standardization, psychometric criteria, training, generalizability of consultation research, methodology, and outcomes for this type of consultation are now documented. Although many models of behavioral consultation have been developed, most models include components that strive to accurately analyze the presenting problem in behavioral terms (i.e., using a functional analysis of behavior), creating a behavioral intervention that will correct the problem, and evaluating the efficacy of the intervention developed.

In a broader sense, the behavioral consultation model may be conceptualized as a problem-solving process involving a triadic relationship comprised of the client (i.e., a child), the consultee (i.e., teacher or parent), and the consultant (i.e., social worker or psychologist). Throughout this relationship, the consultant concentrates on targeting specific behavioral objectives in the client's environment and providing the necessary skills to the consultee in order to maintain the behavioral objectives or modifications established for the client. The ultimate goal of this model is to produce a behavior change in the client, which may be accomplished via a five-phase process that includes (1) gathering information and baseline data about the client, (2) selecting intervention objectives for the client, (3) designing a behavior plan for the client, (4) teaching specific management skills to the consultee, and (5) conducting a progress evaluation and/or follow-up sessions.

The first phase of the behavioral consultation process is to collect data on the problem behaviors of interest. Assessment of behavior is both an initial step and ongoing process in which specific problem behaviors are identified, a history of the client's behavior is gathered, rates of target behaviors are estimated or observed, previous attempts to ameliorate those problem behaviors are documented, and base-line rates of behaviors are gathered. To identify specific problem behaviors, consultants may interview consultees and clients, use behavior rating scales, and/or conduct a functional analysis in which the relationships of antecedents and consequences to the problem behavior are identified. Many methods exist for measurement of specific problem behaviors, including activity occurrence (determining if the target behavior occurred within a certain period of time), spot checks (randomly checking to observe whether or not the client is engaging in the target behavior), and frequency (recording each occurrence of the target behavior). To gain a history of problem behaviors, consultants may also use interview questions focusing on the age at which the problem behavior began, how long the problem behavior has been present, and changes in the rate and severity of the problem behavior over time. Next, the current rate of the problem behavior may be estimated through direct questioning of the consultee. This allows the consultant to quickly gain basic information about the severity and frequency of the problem behaviors, although this estimation is [Page 712]likely to be somewhat inaccurate. Gathering history about previously attempted strategies allows the consultant to understand what was both previously effective and ineffective for the client and what modifications may be made to previously ineffective strategies, in order to improve their efficacy.

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