Intended for direct care workers at institutions for severely and profoundly retarded persons, the curriculum focuses on behavior modification skill instruction. Eight lesson plans are presented, with information on topic, content, and teaching methods. Topics include the following (sample subtopics in parentheses): 1) introduction; 2) observing behavior (behavioral components, factors influencing behavior); 3) reinforcement techniques; reinforcement intervention (positive and negative intervention); 4) techniques of negative reinforcement intervention (punishment, extinction/ignoring, time-out); 5) reinforcement scheduling (fixed ratio, fixed interval, variable interval); and 6) creating new behavior (modeling, prompting, backward chaining, and shaping). Appended materials include sample certificates of achievements, quizzes, diagrams, and answer keys. (CL)