BCBA › Target configuration

Breadcrumb: BCBA › Target configuration

Tether targets together

Link a Planned target to another target in the same plan, so it becomes Active on its own when the other target reaches a status you choose.

Applies toBCBAOrg Owner

Skills often build on each other: once a learner masters requesting items, you want to start teaching color names. A tether does this for you. You link a Planned target to a source target and pick a trigger status: Generalization, Maintenance or Mastered. When the source target reaches that status, the tethered target becomes Active automatically, and aides see it in their next session.

Before you start

  • The target to activate must be Planned and in the same treatment plan as the source target.
  • You manage tethers in the web app. The mobile app has no tether settings.
  • Org owners can manage tethers the same way.

Add a tether

Open the tethers of the source target, the one whose progress should trigger the activation. There are two ways:

  • On the plan's Goals tab, select the link icon on the source target's row (its tooltip is Tethered Targets).
  • On the source target's page, select Manage tethers in the Tethers section.

The Tethered Targets window lists the tethers the target already has.

  1. Open Select a target and pick the target to activate. The list shows only the plan's Planned targets, as goal › target with the status.
  2. Open Select a status and pick Generalization, Maintenance or Mastered.
  3. Select Add tether. The tether is added to the list in the window.
  4. Add more tethers the same way, then select Save.

The message Tethered targets updated appears and the window closes.

The Tethered Targets window in the web app with a Planned target and the Mastered trigger chosen, and the new tether added to the list
Pick the target to activate and when.

Each target can be tethered only once to the same source: after you add it, it leaves the Select a target list.

Remove a tether

  1. In the Tethered Targets window, select the bin in the Remove column of the tether.
  2. Confirm Remove this tether? with Yes.
  3. Select Save.

Nothing is saved until you select Save. Cancel throws away your changes, and the window starts from the saved tethers each time you open it. If saving fails, the window stays open with your changes and an error message.

See a target's tethers

The Tethers section of the target's page lists each tethered target with its trigger status, or No tethered targets configured.

The Tethers section of a target page in the web app, listing a tethered target with its Mastered trigger and the Manage tethers button
The tethers on the target's page.

In the Tethered Targets window, each tether also shows Current status. A tethered target that is no longer Planned shows This target is already Active — tether will have no effect unless it returns to Planned., with its actual status.

What happens next

  • When the source target reaches the trigger status, by any route (a status change you make, an approved suggestion or an automatic transition), each tethered target that is still Planned becomes Active. Its status history records the automatic activation.
  • A tethered target in any other status is skipped, and so is a Planned target whose goal you put on hold. The tether does not fire again later.
  • Activations do not chain: a target activated by a tether does not set off its own tethers, because Active is not a trigger status.
  • Other parts of the plan page can show old statuses until you reload it.
  • The link icon and Manage tethers also show on a plan that is On Hold or Completed.

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