EABA-VP Competence checklist
The EABA-VP competence checklist should be considered basic standards of academic training for professionals who supervise, develop and/or deliver direct behaviour analytic services, irrespective of the area of practice (e.g., education/schools, intellectual disabilities, autism, community work, social care, organisations) and irrespective of the age group of service users (e.g., children, youth, or adults) or their ethnicity, religious, or cultural background. The knowledge, skills, and responsibility and autonomy learning outcomes provide a basis for the recognition of the profession of “Behaviour Analysts” within Europe, thereby promoting mobility between countries, consumer protection, and basic pre-requisite for ethical and professional conduct among practitioners and researchers.
It is important to note that the EABA-VP competence checklist does not represent a stand-alone professional certification, credentialing, or accreditation. It provides core content guidelines for postgraduate training programs in behaviour analysis in the European context, embedded within the EQF. They also are to be used to support those who aim to achieve professional credentialing in their own country.
A postgraduate university programme must include the following content to be verified as meeting the EuroBA postgraduate level standards for coursework.
Behaviour analysis and philosophical foundations
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The history and philosophical underpinnings of behaviour analysis (e.g., mentalism; prediction and control; methodological and radical behaviourism; selectionism; determinism; empiricism; parsimony; pragmatism; contextualism). |
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The scientific foundations of the experimental analysis of behaviour. |
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The seven dimensions of applied behaviour analysis. |
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Science, pseudoscience, anti-science; evidence-based interventions, non-evidence based interventions. |
Behaviour analytic concepts and principles
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Response and response class. |
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Stimulus and stimulus class. |
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Respondent conditioning. |
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Operant conditioning. |
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Stimulus control. |
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Positive and negative reinforcement. |
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Schedules of reinforcement. |
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Matching law. |
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Positive and negative punishment. |
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Unconditioned, conditioned, and generalised reinforcers and punishers. |
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Extinction. |
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Motivating operations and setting events. |
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Generalisation and maintenance. |
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Behavioural cusps and pivotal behaviours. |
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Behaviour momentum. |
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Rule-governed and contingency-shaped behaviour. |
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Verbal operants. |
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Derived stimulus relations. |
Measurement
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Operational definitions of behaviour. |
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Occurrence, topography, strength, and temporal dimensions of behaviour. |
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Recording/graphing data to facilitate communication with colleagues and stakeholders. |
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Data-based decision making based on visual analysis of data. |
Experimental design
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Essential characteristics of SCEDs. |
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Dependent and independent variables. |
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Internal and external validity. |
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Experimental control. |
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SCEDs, case studies, and group designs. |
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The different types of SCEDs (e.g., reversal, multiple baseline, alternating treatment, changing criterion). |
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Parametric, comparative, and component analysis. |
Ethics and professionalism
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Client dignity and well-being. |
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Ethical dilemmas and decision making. |
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Planning, implementing, and systematically evaluating ethical actions. |
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Monitoring and evaluating intervention outcomes. |
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Staff training and supervision within a behaviour-analytic framework. |
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Diversity of service users and stakeholders. |
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Partnerships with service users and stakeholders. |
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Behavioural concepts and non-technical language. |
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Assessing conflicts of interest. |
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Personal scope of competence, including identifying own limitations and strengths and accessing continuous professional development. |
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Conditions under which behaviour analytic services or supports should be discontinued and steps to be taken in transition process. |
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Safety and emergency protocols that should be in place to protect all stakeholders. |
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Promoting evidence-based practice when collaborating with other professionals. |
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The performance of personnel according to organisational behaviour management principles. |
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Discriminatory practices and do no harm. |
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Accurate dissemination of information about behaviour analysis and potential sources of misrepresentation (e.g., social media, legal, and policy contexts). |
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Applicable legal and regulatory requirements for confidentiality, including data management and documentation. |
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Applicable educational, health, employment, and service users' rights laws that pertain to behavioural services. |
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Cultural responsiveness in relationship to diversity, equity, and inclusion as it relates to the provision of behaviour analytic services. |
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Clinical sensitivity in relation to people who have experienced trauma and how these factors might impact the provision of behaviour analytic services. |
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Professional and ethical codes of practice for behaviour analysts including relevant national guidelines. |
Assessment
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Service user consent/assent. |
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Reviewing records and available data to determine and identify the need for behaviour analytic services. |
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Designing and implementing assessments (i.e., descriptive assessment, functional assessment including functional analysis, strength-based assessment, preference assessment). |
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Assessing treatment integrity and progress. |
Application/Intervention
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User preferences, supporting environments, risks, and social validity. |
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Antecedent interventions. |
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Consequence-based interventions. |
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Task analysis and chaining |
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Shaping |
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Prompting and fading procedures |
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Behaviour skills training |
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Modelling and imitation training |
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Contingency contracts |
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Token economies |
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Premack principle |
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Fluency building |
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Direct Instruction |
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Verbal rules |
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Equivalence-based instruction |
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Personalised System of Instruction |
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Self-management |
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Discrete trial teaching and incidental teaching |
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Differential reinforcement |
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Functional communication training |
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Group contingencies |
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Transferring control from contrived to natural schedules of reinforcement. |
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Individualising teaching procedures based on the service users changing needs within a life-span perspective (e.g., social competence, leisure, and vocational skills). |
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Social validity: socially significant goals, socially acceptable procedures and socially important outcomes of behavioural interventions. |