One of the ironies of being a behaviorist is having a job where the end goal is to not have a job. That process is called fading. At first, you implement interventions in an intrusive manner, and as progress is tracked, the behaviorist fades the intervention and him or herself, until the client is able to independently show a socially acceptable behavior.
This is when Lola comes in. Based on my nine-year-old client’s progress, I went from working with my client 5 days a week, 8 hours a day to only working 4 days a week, 4 hours a day. However fading isn’t always successful, especially if the client regresses. In my case, my client regressed. Lola, in a sense, took over my presence by electronically implementing an intervention.
My client was given instructions through a step by step task analysis, while being reminded of her reinforcers and consequences. After every successful completion of the given instruction, my client was able to take a break, bring a buddy and return to her desk, all without having her behaviorist present. Not only does this allow the behaviorist to be absent, it reinforces the fading process by having the client independently follow directions and reinforce herself for her progress. It’s a win win for everybody!