QASP-S Coursework Topic Guidelines

These guidelines are suggestions for areas of instruction related to the field of ABA, autism and the QABA credentialing competency standard areas. QASP-S professionals are expected to use information in an applied manner on exams in addition to defining and identifying concepts. The credentialing standards can be found on our website: qababoard.com/credentials/QASP-S competency standards. These topic guidelines are not intended to be inclusive of the field and subject matter or to replace the competency standards.  Coursework and training should be designed by a credentialed or licensed professional in their area of expertise.  Note: QABA requires a minimum of 3 hours of ethics and 5 hours of autism core knowledge in coursework.

Autism Core Knowledge

    • Define Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and common characteristics and deficits.
    • Identify historical definitions of ASD, such as PDD-NOS or Asperger’s Syndrome.
    • Identify the triad of primary impairments.
    • Identify the ‘red flags’ to early diagnosis.
    • Identify deficits associated with ASD, such as social-emotional reciprocity, nonverbal communication, stereotyped motor movements, and restrictive or ritualized behaviors, pragmatic language, etc.
    • Identify risk factors to ASD.
    • Identify current (2018) CDC statistics and rates for the prevalence of ASD.
    • Identify serial vs. parallel processing related to learning style of individuals with ASD.
    • Identify common co-morbid diagnosis.
    • Identify terminology related to assessment and differential diagnosis, such as pragmatic language, receptive language, expressive language, sensory-motor skills, social skills, joint attention, restrictive or receptive behaviors, learning disabilities and processing disorders.
    • Identify methods of diagnosis.
    • Identify typical and atypical milestones.

Legal, Ethical, and Professional Considerations

    • Demonstrate an understanding of the role and scope of practice of a QASP-S and responsibility to professional standards, evidence-based practices and knowledge of updates on a new diagnostic, assessment, and intervention strategies.
    • Demonstrate a thorough understanding of the QABA policies, procedures, and Code of Ethics.
    • Define and understand the use, benefits, and limitations of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA).
    • Identify Guidelines for management of records, such as retention, storage, transportation, security, etc.
    • Summarize the legal and ethical requirements regarding client confidentiality and its exceptions.
    • Define privileged information.
    • Demonstrate an understanding of unethical relationships and how those relationships may occur, including dual relationships.
    •  Identify duty to warn vs. duty to protect.
    • Identify the steps in mandated reporting.
    • Define and identify the use of IDEA, LRE, IEP, ADA, 504 plan, and the Rehabilitation Act.
    • Identify the purpose and components of effective positive behavior supports (PBS).
    • Identify the purpose, key elements, and fundamentals of person centered planning (PCP).
    • Identify the need for a risk and benefits analysis to determine treatment, such as punishment. aggressions, SIB, etc. Demonstrate a thorough understanding of ensuring safety in extinction procedures, especially related to dangerous and self-injurious behavior.
    • Identify the need for collaboration in treatment planning and implementation, such as behavior contracts, referral methods, multi-team communication and assessment, treatment adherence, etc.
    • Identify ethical and legal responsibility in reduction and termination of services.
    • Define advocacy.
    • Define Best Practice.
    • Define evidence-based treatment.

Core Principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

    • Define 3 levels of scientific understanding as description, prediction, and control.
    • Define 7 dimensions of ABA.
    • Define 6 attitudes of science.
    • Define motivation operation (MO) and how it is used in skill acquisition and behavior reduction intervention.
    • Describe the relationship between motivating operations, antecedent, behavior, and consequence (four-term contingency).
    • Identify the goals of ABA.
    • Identify and describe all components of Applied Verbal Behavior (AVB).
    • Define and demonstrate examples of pairing.
    • Define operant and classical conditioning.
    • Identify respondent vs. operant behavior.
    • Define stimulus, response, stimulus class, response class, stimulus control.
    • Define matching law.
    • Identify types of reinforcers, such as tangible, edible, sensory, social, etc.
    • Identify principles of reinforcement: rate, value, magnitude.
    • Define satiation and deprivation and conditions under which they occur.
    • Differentiate between negative and positive reinforcement and punishment.
    • Define natural reinforcement.
    • Identify conditioned and unconditioned reinforcement.
    • Identify primary and secondary reinforcement.
    • Identify contingent reinforcement and punishment.
    • Identify differential reinforcement and punishment.
    • Identify schedules of reinforcement.
    • Define extinction, deprivation and satiation, and the effects of each on behavior.
    • Define extinction, extinction burst, and spontaneous recovery.
    • Define discriminative stimulus, stimulus control, stimulus delta, SD-p.
    • Define behavioral momentum and how it is used in skill acquisition and behavior reduction intervention.
    • Define the ‘dead man’s test’.
    • Identify the components of a contingency.

Antecedent Interventions

    • Identify the purpose, function and benefits of commonly used supports, such as visual supports, visual schedules, social stories, choice boards, video modeling, functional communication training (FCT), PECS, TEACHH, skill-streaming priming, and utilizing environmental modifications.
    • Demonstrate uses of functional communication training/MAND training in skill development, and behavior management.
    • Identify non-contingent reinforcement interventions.
    • Identify interventions utilizing MO.
    • Identify setting events.

Skill Acquisition Programming

    • Define target behavior and mastery criteria.
    • Identify the key elements of goals and objectives that are clear, observable and measurable.
    • Identify effective components and benefits of task analysis.
    • Define shaping.
    • Identify forward and backward chaining.
    • Define and identify effective uses for types of prompts.
    • Define and identify prompt dependence, prompt fading, demand and demand fading, stimulus fading.
    • Identify DTT and its benefits.
    • Identify terminology and types of trials associated with DTT, such as mass trials, block trials, random rotation, etc.
    • Identify treatment plan protocol, such as goal writing, mastery criteria measures, targets, maintenance, generalization, skill acquisition domains, etc.
    • Define different types of prompts: modeling, most-to-least, least-to-most, and components in their hierarchy.
    • Identify priming.
    • Define discrimination training.
    • Identify errorless learning and correction procedures.
    • Identify natural and contrived discriminate stimulus.
    • Define natural environment teaching (NET).
    • Identify Pivotal Response Training (PRT), its key components and when/how it is used.
    • Define generalization and maintenance and strategies for each in instruction.
    • Identify socially significant behaviors that increase quality of life and improve independence and it as a goal to ABA and goal development.
    • Define skill acquisition domains, such as language, social, motor, adaptive, cognitive, and play.
    • Identify potential and appropriate interventions based on assessment results.
    • Identify appropriate interventions goals based on social validity and environmental factors.
    • Compare and contrast the 5 ABA instructional and educational methodologies.

Behavior Reduction Interventions

    • Define a Behavior Intervention Plan (BIP).
    • Identify the functions of behavior.
    • Define and identify a functionally equivalent behavior.
    • Define Functional Analysis and interpret conditions.
    • Identify types of Functional Behavior Assessments (FBA) and efficacy of each type.
    • Identify functionally equivalent behaviors.
    • Identify the components of a token economy, such as back up reinforcers, generalized reinforcers, ratio strain, etc.
    • Define exclusionary and non-exclusionary time-out.
    • Define response cost.
    • Define overcorrection.
    • Define positive practice.
    • Identify extinction procedures, such as block and ignore.
    • Define the premack principle.
    • Define precursor behavior.
    • Define types of differential reinforcement, such as DRA DRO, DRI, DRL, DRH.
    • Identify behavior contrast.
    • Identify components of contingency contracts.
    • Identify 3 types of group contingencies.

Data Collection Analysis

    • Define operation definition.
    • Define reliability and validity.
    • Define observable and measurable and the importance of defining an onset and offset of a behavior in reliability.
    • Identify measurement procedures, such as frequency count/event recording, duration, time sampling, interval, latency.
    • Define continuous and discontinuous methods of measurement.
    • Identify types of graphs, such as line, bar, cumulative, scatterplots, and single subject design.
    • Identify types of visual analysis such as trends, level, stability, and variability.
    • Define inter-rater reliability and possible threats.
    • Identify types of inter-observer agreement (IOA)/Inter-rater reliability, such as trial by trial or total count.

Assessment

    • Identify types of assessments and when/how they are used, such as preference, direct vs. indirect, standardized, functional behavior, ABC, environmental evaluation, self-monitoring, functional skills assessment, FAST, ABLS, RAISD.
    • Identify functional operational definition and topographical operational definitions of behaviors.
    • Analyze data results for various assessments.
    • Identify types of observation preference assessments: free operant, paired stimulus, single stimulus, multiple stimulus with and without replacement.
    • Identify elements of treatment design, such as baseline, treatment phase, phase line, etc.

Training and Supervision

    • Identify the elements to Behavior Skills Training (BST)
    • Identify systems for monitor treatment and program integrity.
    • Identify systems for evaluating staff performance.
    • Identify effective strategies for providing support for staff and family.
    • Identify methods to mitigate observer drift and reactivity.
    • Identify effective feedback that is clear, concise, and timely.
    • Identify elements of poor supervision.
    • Identify the need for cultural values awareness.