Self-management is a procedure in which people are taught to discriminate their own target behavior and record the occurrence or absence of that target behavior. Self-management assists individuals with autism spectrum disorders to achieve greater levels of independence in vocational, social, academic and recreational activities. Advocates of self-management state that learning self-management techniques helps individuals to become more self-directed and less dependent on continuous supervision. Instead of teaching situation specific behaviors, self-management teaches a general skill that can be used in many environments.
Five general steps have been used to teach self-management which include the following:
Preoperationally define the target behavior: First it is essential that the target behavior(s) be described so that the individual who is learning to self-monitor as well as all who support him/her can identify and agree upon the occurrence or non-occurrence of a behavior.
Identify functional reinforcers: Reinforcers increase the behaviors they follow. What is reinforcing varies across people. The best way to select a meaningful reinforcer is to let the individual select it.
Design or choose a self-management method or device: The purpose of the self-management method or device is to provide the individual with a clear means to record the occurrence of behavior. This could entail making check marks on paper, placing stickers in a notebook, using a tape recorder with pre-recorded signals at preset intervals, or using a wrist counter.
Teach the individual to use the self-management device: In this step the individual is taught (generally through modeling by a facilitator) to accurately recognize and record the occurrence or non-occurrence of target behaviors and receive reinforcement for accurate recording.
Teach self-management independence: This is the stage at which the facilitator fades himself out of the picture and allows the individual to self-monitor and self-reinforce.
