Performance Improvement of Care Providers in a Child Services Setting: Effects of an Incentive-Based Negative Reinforcement Intervention on Data Recording

Abstract

This study evaluated an incentive-based negative reinforcement intervention to improve data recording of three educational care providers at a residential school for children and youth with intellectual and developmental disabilities. Based on a preference assessment, intervention temporarily relieved the care providers of case management tasks contingent on achieving data recording performance criteria. Within a multiple baseline across participants design, data recording increased from baseline levels of 1.8–36.6% to 83.3–100% during intervention. The study demonstrates a practical intervention using reduced performance demands to reinforce critical competencies of care providers within human services settings.

Keywords:

• Data recording
• intellectual and developmental disabilities
• negative reinforcement
• organizational behavior management
• performance improvement
• response effort