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Frequently Asked Questions
What is the Ultimate Behavior Management Tool-Tranquility?
UBMT-Tranquility is an interactive tool that gives you everything you need to
understand, design and implement effective behavior management or
modification programs for individuals of any age. It is particularly
well-suited to use in elementary, middle and high schools, but can
also be of immense benefit to in-patient child, adolescent and adult
treatment settings, juvenile detention centers and other settings in
which disruptive and non-compliant behaviors occur regularly. The
tool will help you deal with problem behaviors much more quickly
than traditional methods, allowing the student to return to the
regular environment and decreasing time spent by personnel in
monitoring and dealing with common misbehaviors. The
UBMT-Tranquility was intentionally designed to steadily increase the
knowledge and capacity of professional and support staff so that
they are able to understand and respond to oppositional and
problematic behaviors in a consistent and effective manner,
providing highly individualized interventions at lower costs
overall.
What kind of problem behaviors will the UBMT-Tranquility software address?
The UBMT software packages are more than a cook-book list of specific
solutions for individual problem behaviors. Instead, anyone who
works with people in classrooms or other group settings can use the
UBMT components to address literally any problematic behavior. The
three components allow you to design individualized interventions
that really work for problems ranging from using inappropriate
language to physical aggression. As you grow more familiar with the
concepts taught by the software you will be able to apply them
easily in any setting. Specific sections in the tutorial provide
overviews and strategies for planning interventions to address
behavioral deficits resulting from a large number of common
psychological and developmental difficulties. Using the
methods and information from the UBMT-Tranquility program, you can
develop and put into use effective and specific teaching plans to
address any sort of problem behavior for any individual.
Will the UBMT-Tranquility software work with children with Asperger's Syndrome?
Yes, the techniques that
the UBMT teaches can be applied readily to children with mild to
moderate symptoms and with some modification to children at lower
levels of functioning. Primary targeted learning skills that
help children with Asperger's include taking turns, initiating
conversations, changing conversation topics and substituting
less-disruptive self-stimulation behaviors for those that cause
difficulties in the classroom or home.
If you are interested in Social Skills
interventions that really improve functioning in individuals with
Asperger's, check back for more information on our Social Skills
Training package, now in development. For more details on what
the SSK program can do for you, email at
admin@digitalsuccesstools.comWhy does the UBMT-Tranquility Chart Creation function only allow you to choose a
maximum of five goals for a chart?
The primary reason is to increase the behavior modification
intervention's practicality and efficacy. It simply becomes too
cumbersome for most adults, let alone children, to remain aware of
more than four or five target behaviors. In general, people are most
able to learn new responses when they keep their focus of attention
narrow. In clinical practice it is very rare to see much benefit
from attempting to change more than four or five behaviors at a
time. Additionally, if you have done a good job of selecting your
target behaviors you will be able to eliminate a wide range of
negative behaviors with emphasis on only a few positive behaviors.
Do you offer training and support to help us use the software?
While our ultimate goal is to sell software that requires a bare
minimum of support, we know that customers may require more
information as their knowledge base grows or they face new
challenges. We offer e-mail support for
any questions and will typically respond in less than two hours to
questions sent to us electronically. You can also call at
1-800-525-4145 between 9:00
a.m. and 7:00 p.m. CST.
Do you offer discounts for purchases of more than one software
license?
We are pleased to be able to offer considerable pricing discounts
for multiple orders. Even after you have purchased one copy for your
school, district or facility, additional orders can still qualify
for quantity discounts for up to three months from the initial
purchase. Depending on the size of your order, you can save up to
50% off the single use license. Call our order center or email for
more information on multiple order discounts. Your purchase
may also qualify for discounts if you participate in our on-going
clinical research trials.
Will the UBMT-Tranquility software work in a home-school setting?
YES! In fact, the UBMT is particularly well-suited for use in very
small educational settings, including home schools. The unique
pressures of relating to children both as a parent and a teacher at
the same time are a significant challenge. The UBMT-Tranquility actually works
to decrease some of these tensions by giving you a clear,
time-limited set of consequences that do not require notable
monitoring or interaction. You can easily tailor the consequences to
a variety of ages and developmental levels, giving you a great deal
of flexibility when you need it the most. The developers have
worked directly with many home-educators and their children to
address the typical difficulties that arise in this environment,
making both parents and children happier in the process.
Will the software interfere with any of my other computer
programs?
The UBMT-Tranquility software should not interfere in any way with programs you
currently use. It is a small but very robust program that uses
little in the way of system resources. It was developed in a windows
environment and should be compatible with most devices, systems and
operating systems, Windows 2000 and above.
Can I add my own goals to the Behavior Plan chart?
The UBMT-Tranquility package was designed with individualization in
mind, so you can add any and all goals that you need to create
effective and adaptable behavior plans. The UBMT-Tranquility contains a drop down menu on the target
goal section that contains several pre-loaded goals. These are the
goals that have been found to be used most often in clinical
practice. However, it would not be an individualized plan if you
only got to choose from our list. You can add any goals you want
simply by clicking on a goal line and typing in your target goal.
Remember to formulate it in a positive fashion--what the person can
do instead of what they can't! After you enter the target goal
behavior, hit "Enter" and you will be prompted to enter the objective
definition for the behavior. That's it! The UBMT-Tranquility will remember your
new goal forever, so you don't have to enter it again when you work
with another student who needs the same help, even years down the
road. Similarly, you can add your own rewards and incentives
for both daily and weekly accomplishments. Some people like
food treats, some like stickers or erasers, others prefer specific
activities. Particularly with developmentally delayed children
and with higher functioning adolescents, it is difficult to figure
out what incentives work best. The Functional Behavior
Assessment tools and training provided will also help you identify
possible reinforcers for difficult cases. Once added, the
reward is stored for use in the future when needed.
Can we install the Negative Consequences functions alone on some
computers in our setting?
Yes, you can. In response to customer requests, the newest
form of our software allows users to install the Negative
Consequences without loading the training and behavior plan creation
modules. Some of our customers have found it helpful to have
one or more computers set up solely to provide the Negative
Consequences functions (For example, within a middle school
After-School Detention room). Each installation does require an
individual use license, however. If you purchase an agency,
school or district license you are allowed to install the software
on as many computers as you desire, so all you need to do is
designate the machines and follow the installation directions for
each one. If you purchase the 5-pack, you will want to be sure
that you have chosen your computers carefully to make sure you can
use all the parts of the UBMT-Tranquility that you will want on each
machine.
Does the UBMT-Tranquility Software fit within Title IV (Safe &
Drug-Free Schools) programming?
As you can see by reviewing the Empirical Research Support for the
UBMT-Tranquility methods, our training package clearly provides only
empirically validated methods, supported by ample research over the
past forty years. The UBMT-Tranquility Training package could
readily be incorporated into a Title IV grant program, if the local
coalition writing and implementing the grant specifically include it
for approval. The UBMT-Tranquility programs do directly
address the requirement of such grants to increase the skills and
knowledge of the educational and support staff with regard to
recognizing and dealing with aggressive and potentially dangerous
behaviors. However, it is the responsibility of the local
application group to demonstrate the usefulness of the training
program to their individual needs.
The
next version of Tranquility, scheduled to be released in July, 2008,
will include a comprehensive knowledge evaluation component,
intended to be used to measure pre and post training levels of
understanding of the specific skills taught by the training program.
That means that any school, agency or district that uses the
UBMT-Tranquility will have an immediate and accurate way of
measuring the effectiveness of the training component for each of
their staff members.