Effective Ways to Increase Treatment Fidelity in Educational Settings

​Treatment integrity refers to the degree to which treatments are implemented as planned, designed, or intended, and is concerned with the accuracy and consistency with which interventions are implemented. The appropriate implementation of treatments within the school setting can greatly impact student outcomes and progress over time. Educational and behavioral consultants work closely with school teams to ensure they have the support and training they need in order to provide effective evidenced based treatments for their students. Below you will find 3 ways in which school teams can increase their ability to implement treatment plans and guarantee success for their students over time: 

1. Create and review treatment fidelity checklists at the onset of treatment: Providing and reviewing a treatment fidelity checklist with the behavior support implementer prior to implementation of a behavior treatment plan assists school teams in their understanding of the rationale for the behavior support recommendations, provides them with clear expectations of when treatment fidelity will be monitored, and outlines their role in behavioral treatment implementation.
2. Use detailed and direct training methods: The provision of in vivo training and modeling of a behavioral treatment has been proven to be an effective method in increasing treatment fidelity within the school setting. Staff are far more likely to be successful with an intervention when they can see it alongside the trainer, while the trainer explains and models, and they can practice alongside the trainer, while the trainer provides feedback on their performance.
3. Provide frequent performance feedback: Performance feedback in the form of praise or recognition for appropriate behavior treatment implementation and constructive feedback that reviews any missteps in the delivery of the treatment has been identified as a powerful tool when seeking to improve the fidelity of a behavior treatment plan. Praise and recognition for completing treatments appropriately tends to ensure consistent implementation over time and constructive feedback with performance goals attached assists teams in identifying steps for improving performance, which in turn assists with the fidelity of treatment implementation.

 
Fiske, K. E. (2008). Treatment Integrity of School-Based Behavior Analytic Interventions: A Review of the Research. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 1(2), 19–25. http://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391724
Lee McIntyre, L., Gresham, F. M., DiGennaro, F. D., & Reed, D. D. (2007). Treatment Integrity of School-Based Interventions with Children in the Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis 1991-2005. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 40(4), 659–672. http://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2007.659-672
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