5 credits
Students in this course explore proactive intervention strategies to prevent undesirable behaviors and promote goal behaviors in people with intellectual and developmental disabilities. While acknowledging reactive strategies, the course focuses on proactive strategies to manage behavior and support independence. Emphasis is placed on understanding why certain behaviors occur in order to appropriately move toward the goal behavior. Other topics include how to operationally define and measure behavior; how to identify antecedents, consequences, and functions of behavior; and how to use a person-centered approach when developing a behavior support plan. For the final project, students generate a behavior support plan based on a fictional case and consider methods for implementing, monitoring, and adapting the plan over time.