Association for Behavior Analysis International

Behavior skills training is an evidence-based training package for increasing the accuracy with which staff and caregivers implement behavioral interventions and teaching procedures. Behavior skills training packages typically include instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback components. The purpose of the current symposium is to further evaluate the effectiveness of behavior skills training to increase the fidelity with which staff or caregivers implement a variety of behavior-analytic interventions and teaching procedures. The first study evaluated the effectiveness of self-monitoring following behavior skills training to increase the fidelity with which caregivers implemented three-step prompting. The second study combined group-based behavior skills training with in-situ training to teach participants to implement incidental teaching. The third study used behavior skills training and multiple exemplar training to teach participants to implement mand training. The fourth study combined behavior skills training and coaching to train teachers to arrange incidental teaching opportunities to teach verbal operants. All four studies evaluated the maintenance or generalization of skills trained during behavior skills training.

The target audience for this symposium is BCBAs or behavior analysts responsible for overseeing, training, and supervising staff or caregivers of behavior services.

This study extends the literature on caregiver training methods by assessing self-monitoring as a method for increasing caregivers' procedural integrity when implementing three-step prompting with a family member. Experimenters used a behavior skills training package and procedural integrity training to train two caregivers how to implement a three-step prompting procedure and evaluate procedural integrity. Following training, caregivers implemented the procedures with their family member and monitored their own implementation of the procedures. For one caregiver, self-monitoring was effective at increasing overall procedural integrity above mastery levels and effects maintained when self-monitoring was removed and the procedures where implemented with new instructions. The caregiver who did not master the procedures when self-evaluation was the only form of feedback received performance feedback, additional behavioral skills training, and post-session performance feedback. Results obtained from this study provide useful information about the effectiveness of self-monitoring as a method of performance feedback for caregivers and demonstrates that the way procedural integrity is evaluated may influence the perceived effectiveness of an intervention.

Active engagement broadly refers to the delivery of reinforcers and use of incidental teaching to promote skill acquisition and language development. In school settings, incidental teaching is vital to promoting learning and positive behavioral outcomes. However, training staff to actively engage with children can be difficult and resource intensive. We used a multiple-baseline across-participants design to evaluate the use of group-based behavior skills training and in-situ training with seven trainees to increase their implementation of incidental teaching procedures to preschool children with developmental disabilities within an integrated classroom. The group-based behavior skills training consisted of the trainer delivering a presentation describing procedures, modeling the skills, and providing feedback after role-plays. During in-situ teaching, the trainer delivered feedback as participants implemented incidental teaching. The group-based behavior skills training increased incidental teaching with six participants; however, only one participant met mastery levels. In-situ training was necessary to increase levels of incidental teaching to mastery with six participants. Incidental teaching skills maintained for 1 to 20 weeks.

Children with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities typically have delays in their communication skills. It is important for teachers and other school personnel to have an understanding of the different verbal operants and how to use incidental teaching to teach children to emit mands, tacts, and intraverbal responses. The purpose of the study was to use a multiple-baseline across-participants design to evaluate behavior skills training with classroom coaching to train school personnel to use incidental teaching to teach verbal behavior. Six females who were currently enrolled in a practicum to become bachelor's level or Master's level Special Education teachers participated. Trainees were provided with instructions on each verbal operant and observed the experimenter modeling how to use incidental teaching to arrange opportunities to teach a child with autism spectrum disorder the targeted verbal operant (mand, tact, or intraverbal). Following the model, the trainee worked with the child while the experimenter provided coaching in the form of in-situ feedback and feedback following each session. Behavior skills training and coaching was effective to increase participants' use of incidental teaching to teach mands, tacts, and intraverbals.