Since each skill is used to build the next skill, this ensures that maintenance of previously acquired skills continues throughout the child’s program. Individualized behaviors reduction plans and skill-building lessons are designed to meet the following criteria:

• Child-centered, strengths-specific, family-focused, community-based, and culturally-competent
• Clearly define specific target problem behaviors and replacement skills
• Use of objective measures to record baseline levels
• Establish quantifiable criteria for progress
• Describe intervention techniques appropriate to the target skill, reinforcers selected, and strategies for generalization and maintenance of learned skills
• Document the plan for transition through the continuum of interventions, services, and settings, as well as fade-out criteria