When a student or client is receiving treatment for dangerous behavior, their team will want to prioritize safety, dignity, and a positive quality of life—not just during formal treatment sessions, but in every moment of every day. This is the purpose of the Universal Protocols.
What are Universal Protocols?
Universal Protocols are procedures for all caregivers and support staff to follow outside of formal Skill-Based Treatment (SBT) sessions. They center on creating an environment where dangerous behavior is unnecessary, because the student or client has their wants and needs met already. They are based on an understanding of the events and interactions that often lead to episodes of problem behavior, and they are personalized as the team learns about the client’s preferences, skills, and challenges.
Components of the Universal Protocols
These are some of the general components of the Universal Protocols.
- Environmental Enrichment and Proactive Access
This step ensures the individual’s needs are met before a challenging situation arises.
- High-Quality Context: The environment is structured to be rich with preferred activities, items, and social interaction.
- Noncontingent Access: Preferred items, activities, and attention are delivered freely and frequently, not just as a reward for compliance. This helps to promote a Happy, Relaxed, and Engaged (HRE) state for the learner.
- Minimizing Non-Essential Demands
Limiting tasks and demands to only those that are truly essential reduces the chances of an aversive interaction that would evoke problem behavior.
- Minimizing Demands: Demands or non-preferred tasks are reduced to essential, manageable levels. When a necessary demand must be delivered, care is taken to do it in a way that is preferred by the learner, with thought given to how to make the task easier and less aversive.
- Inviting to Scheduled Activities: The daily schedule is treated as a guide rather than a requirement. The individual is invited to participate but, should they decline, staff accept this decision.
- Deescalating Problem Behavior
Should problem behavior occur despite proactive measures, the response is to immediately deliver all possible reinforcers. Delivering reinforcers stops the behavior in the moment, and this is important for maintaining everyone’s safety. When reinforcers are delivered following the first sign of escalation, this teaches the individual that they do not need to engage in severe behavior to control their environment.
The Universal Protocols are usually a temporary approach to minimizing dangerous behavior and ensuring safety outside of treatment sessions, while skills are being built within Skill-Based Treatment sessions. Once those skills are developed and generalized across the day, the avoidance measures featured in Universal Protocols will no longer be needed. The individual will have learned the skills to succeed with challenging tasks and interactions, and these skills will make problem behavior unnecessary.
