Using multiple measures to evaluate positive behavior support: A case example

In recent years, calls to expand the criteria by which behavior support efforts are evaluated have increased. Success is now said to depend on outcomes that transcend a reduction in the occurrence of problem behaviors and include the achievement of new competencies and improvements in one's quality of life. This single-case investigation was conducted as an effort to evaluate the effects of a positive behavior support intervention with multiple measures that included experimental analyses of the participant's problem behavior, engagement, happiness, and efficiency in completing transitions, as well as adult and peer perceptions of aspects of the participant's quality of life. Multiple baseline analyses indicated that the assessment-based intervention was effective in producing durable improvements in all of the measured variables and that the procedures were socially valid. The results are discussed in the context of the growing number of empirical case studies in positive behavior support, and the need to develop more efficient strategies for evaluating the essential outcomes of intervention.