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.

Rulemaking Authority 393.13(4)(g)3., 393.17 FS. Law Implemented 393.13, 393.17 FS. History–New 9-23-96, Formerly 10F-4.023, 65B-4.023, Amended 4-4-12.