Taxonomy of Behavioral Objectives and Social Readiness Program
Note: In July of 2020 all copyrights for this work were legally transferred to Ron Talarico by Portland Habilitation Center Inc (now Relay Resources), Portland, Oregon, USA
I. GENERAL CONTENT INFORMATION
The Taxonomy The Taxonomy of Behavioral Objectives is a classification of measurable performance goals intended for use in helping people with disabilities and others progress in the pursuit of their maximum individual potentials for independence, regardless of age or classifying label. It is a resource manual for planning, writing, implementing, and monitoring individualized skill training programs. It is for teachers, professional specialists, students in credentialing programs, administrators, and curriculum designers.
With 1100 precisely written and sequenced task analyses, the Taxonomy is without a doubt still one of the most substantial, comprehensive, invaluable, and motivating models for the art of writing task analyses.
One of the most truly effective and efficient ways to impact positively on a person’s growth in the acquisition of skills of daily living is through specificity in training – clearly defining exactly what it is the person needs to do. Belief in the indispensability of these “functional specifics,” and commitment to their development, is certainly one of the most striking features of the Taxonomy. In addition, much effort during writing was placed on ease and flexibility of use, data-based accountability, originality, comprehensiveness, clear and concise use of language, provisions for detailed individualization, and extensive internal cross-referencing.
The nine training programs developed in this work are intended to affect the quality of an individual’s life far beyond the mere fact of skill acquisition. Learning new skills means more than success in physical or mental mechanics. Learning new skills can have a truly positive and powerful impact on many aspects of a person’s overall development. It can increase options. Increased options expand freedom of choice. The freedom to choose inevitably increases responsibility. Self-concept grows stronger. Learning to do what others can do creates common ground, provokes acceptance, and ultimately invites increased participation.
The Social Readiness Program The Social Readiness Program is intended to be a daily-used instrument designed as a systematic method to monitor, train, and establish maintenance of acceptable social behaviors. Though originally designed for use with people with disabilities, this program is for use with anyone in need of behavior training regardless of age or classifying label.
The sixty-four behaviors incorporated into the Social Readiness Program are observable, common-sense behaviors the mainstream of society expects from all its members as minimum requirements for the broadest social acceptance. They are “readiness” behaviors; that is to say, assumed prior conditions to almost any work performance task and basic social interaction.
This program is designed to effect positive, desirable changes in behavior by improving the specificity and objectivity of behavioral observations, by offering a thought-provoking original model for recording, processing, analyzing, and monitoring daily observational data, and by promoting consistency in behavioral management practices. The program, as a behavior training instrument, is intended to be used in conjunction and simultaneously with the Taxonomy or whatever other skill training program an instructor may be using.
The behaviors in the Social Readiness Program bear a direct and daily relationship to the whole of a person’s life. They have direct application to an almost limitless variety of daily happenings – in contrast with most other types of learning whose application is more limited and infrequent. As such, the program should rank among top priorities in the development of each individual’s comprehensive habilitation plan.
II. CONTENT MORE SPECIFICALLY
The Taxonomy
is a 600+ page 8-1/2 x 11″ collection of nine skill training programs designed originally to prepare people with disabilities for living and working in the community, but is applicable to individuals regardless of age or classifying labels.
is organized into nine conceptual domains or programs including Basic Adaptive Skills | Home Environment Skills | Health and Sensory Motor Skills | Pre-Academic Mental Skills | Communication Skills | Community Skills | Recreation and Leisure Time Skills | Math Skills | Vocational Skills.
is for use where gross skill assessment procedures end and individual program planning (IPP) and “hands on” training begin. Supports requirements of individualized education programs (IEPs) and individual habilitation plans (IHPs).
is developed into general long-term goals (e.g. Basic Adaptive Skills), specific long-term goals (e.g. Hygiene), general short-term goals or skills (e.g. Face Washing), and specific short-term goals or tasks (e.g. Applies appropriate amount of soap to hands or washcloth).
develops 1,100 skills (task analyses or lesson plans) and 26,700 component tasks (measurable behavioral objectives). In effect, these 1,100 skills serve as 1,100 models for writing any new skills that may need to be added to a curriculum or for modifying existing skills.
is a deliberate effort to assist instructional staff in more precise formulation of objectives, in keener awareness of subtleties often overlooked in the task analysis process, and in improved sequencing of objectives. By providing ready-made, concisely written task analyses, with innumerable built-in options, the Taxonomy increases the probability that the same training objectives and progress will carry over for the student or client from teacher to teacher in cases where high turnover of staff and subsequent frequent reinventing of the wheel can be frustrating and counterproductive to learning.
phrases tasks deliberately in affirmative language to underscore what the learner needs to do (e.g. buttons all buttons rather than doesn’t forget any buttons; trims nails safely rather than doesn’t cut self; controls salivation rather than doesn’t drool; remains standing rather than doesn’t fall).
promotes efficient time management. The laborious and often frustrating process of task composition (writing lesson plans) becomes for the most part one of task selection. Instructional staff should experience a significant increase in the time they have for long-range planning, development of instructional materials, methods, and reinforcement techniques.
The Social Readiness Program
is a 70+ page behavior management system designed for daily use as a systematic method to monitor, train, and establish maintenance of 64 “readiness” behaviors – behaviors that are usually assumed prior conditions to work performance tasks and basic social interactions.
comes complete with detailed instructions for use, including illustrations
is recommended for use in conjunction and simultaneously with whatever other skill training an individual is receiving, including the Taxonomy.
emphasizes behaviors the mainstream of society expects from all its members – people with disabilities no less – as minimum requirements for the broadest acceptance.
provides each of the 64 behaviors with a definition that serves as a behavioral objective and states what the student or client needs to do in order to be considered as appropriately displaying the behavior. Each definition is followed by a list of examples that indicate how to know when the individual is not appropriately displaying the behavior.
deals with behaviors (e.g. eye contact, responding when addressed) that have direct and frequent application to an almost limitless variety of daily happenings. This is in contrast with other types of learning (e.g. face washing, washing laundry) whose application is much more limited and infrequent. As such, it is recommended the program rank among top priorities in the development of each individual’s comprehensive education/habilitation plan.
promotes consistency in behavioral management practices by stressing consensus within a facility on defining and categorizing behavior problems, by recommending implementation of the program in all the student’s or client’s training areas, and by focusing on only observable behavior.
removes guesswork from determining the specific types and actual frequencies of occurrence of problem behaviors. This is particularly important at program planning time when asked to justify specific recommendations for behavior training.
provides highly visual (color-coded) and effective data recording, progress feedback, and program monitoring components. Offers accountability and program effectiveness evaluation to program managers and funding agencies.
leaves the freedom and responsibility for the development of actual behavior modification techniques to each facility and individual client’s needs, where they belong.
is an instrument designed to adapt to a variety of needs. Provides for inclusion of additional behaviors, and accommodates more than one method of use.
the nine major behavior areas into which the 64 behaviors are categorized are: Initial Contact (e.g. arrives at the appointed time) | General Performance (e.g. follows directions) | Inter-Personal (e.g. uses appropriate eye contact) | Grooming (e.g. teeth appear clean and in reasonably healthy condition) | Safety (e.g. reports dangerous situations) | Health (e.g. health does not interfere with performance) | Body Functions (e.g. does not have bowel or bladder accidents) | Talking (e.g. verbal and non-verbal communications are intelligible) | Intra-Personal (e.g. uses reasonably good posture).
Whether or not the system offered by the Social Readiness Program is used as is, the program remains an excellent example of a comprehensive, well articulated model and starting place when considering how to deal effectively with behavior management.
III. HISTORY IN BRIEF
Reimagined thanks to a grant from UCLA in 1979; published and marketed in 1983; converted to 3-ring binder format in 1993; and re-issued in 2020: the Taxonomy of Behavioral Objectives and its companion volume Social Readiness Program may well be still the most comprehensive, life spanning, internally consistent, logically laid out, imaginative, thought provoking, challenging instrument on the market today for the training of practical skills of daily living. This work’s level of specificity is renowned if not legendary. Good principles endure.
Below are images of the 1983 original edition which many readers may recognize even now.
Three thousand plus copies were sold throughout the U.S., Canada, and in other countries. The image on the right shows an award to Portland Habilitation Center in 1983 by the Center for Management Systems as part of an international competition in the category of original agency publication. In addition, the 1983 Educator of the Year award was presented by the Association for Retarded Citizens of Oregon (now The Arc of Oregon) as evidence of respect for and appreciation of the authors’ work in advancing the field of training people with disabilities. Note: The phrase “for Habilitation of Mentally Handicapped Persons” was dropped from the titles of the present work because of the work’s applicability to individuals regardless of their specific abilities, and because our society’s language has become more sensitive in its description of people with disabilities. In the 1970’s and early 1980’s it was common and considered appropriate to refer to people with disabilities as “handicapped persons” or “the handicapped”; now the focus is consciously on the person first, specific abilities after, as it should be. The dated language the reader will encounter in the work regarding references to people with disabilities is not entirely harmless, but is forgivable, it is hoped, considering the standard of the times.
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V. THE BOOKS IN PDF FORMAT
The books are offered here in sections to make it more convenient for users to deal with the large volume of material. However, at the very end of the table that follows, the entire Taxonomy and Social Readiness Program is available in a single 453MB Zip file containing all of the individual PDFs – also free, and with virtually unrestricted permissions.
All of the files above can be downloaded as a single, compressed Zip file. Download the file, double click it and it will open as a folder with all of the above PDFs. Entire Taxonomy and Social Readiness Program (453MB Zip file)
