Association for Behavior Analysis International

Behavior analysts are commonly tasked with training a variety of stakeholders and non-behavioral professionals to implement behavior-change procedures. Given the integral role of technology in our everyday lives, the field of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) has begun to integrate advanced technology into practice, specifically in the area of staff, caregiver, and educator training. The presenters will review recent advancements in training using multimedia technology. Presenters will expand upon the use of virtual reality (VR), artificial intelligence (AI), video-based training (VBT), and behavioral skills training (BST) to train a variety of behavior change procedures. Across these studies, participants included caregivers, novice volunteers, experienced professionals, and university psychology students. Across studies, participants were taught to implement Functional Communication Training (FCT), Free Operant Stimulus Preference Assessments, and a Feeding Protocol. The researchers will examine the value, efficacy, and accessibility of innovative training modalities across skills. We will discuss the implications of new and existing technology advances and the implications for research and practice.

Functional communication training (FCT) is an effective approach to treating challenging behaviors in students with disabilities. Staff involved in behavior intervention often lack access to training in FCT, however. We evaluated behavior skills training (BST) in FCT featuring artificial intelligence (AI) and virtual reality (VR). BST consisted of prerecorded lectures and models followed by AI-delivered systematic prompting and feedback within a VR simulation. Five doctoral-level students in psychology and education participated. Lessons involved behavior maintained by escape from demands (Studies 1 & 2) and access to tangibles (Study 2). Results across studies suggest correspondence between AI-assessment of movement and speech and human observation was high, but varied based on the condition and student facility with English. For Study 1, Weighted baseline corrected Tau (WTaubc) was consistent with a large effect (.81). For Study 2, WTaubc was consistent with a large effect (.67). Participants reported learning the procedure and found the training acceptable.

We trained 6 novice adults without prior experience implementing behavior-analytic procedures to conduct a free operant stimulus preference assessment using multimedia content with embedded instructions and modeling. We modified previously published training content to be presented at the seventh-grade level. Also, we translated the training content so people could be recruited and participate in Spanish. We used a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across-participants design to evaluate acquisition and demonstrate experimental control. We scored participants' performance before and after training. After training, participants responded to a social acceptability questionnaire and provided information about the quality of their training experience. The training procedure resulted in robust and immediate improvements in performance, regardless of the language the content was presented in. In addition, participants expressed high satisfaction with the multimedia content and the overall training experience. We discuss the importance of creating training content that is more accessible regardless of education level and directions for future inquiry.

A potential symptom exhibited by individuals diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is an inability to acquire functional communication skills at a pace comparable to that of typically developing peers of the same age (American Psychiatric Association, 2013). As such, children with ASD may engage in challenging behavior of varying topography and function. Individualized behavior analytic interventions and treatment programs address such challenging behaviors, and a potentially crucial component to ensuring lasting treatment effects is the training of caregivers familiar to the individual of focus. Parents have been successfully trained to implement a variety of behavior reduction and acquisition procedures. The current study seeks to evaluate the effectiveness of Virtual Reality Behavioral Skills Training (VR BST) by conducting FCT training within a VR BST modality. Caregivers were exposed to an immersive virtual reality (VR) simulation in which they were tasked with conducting FCT with a simulated child. After successfully completing training by meeting the predetermined mastery criterion, parents/caregivers were tasked with conducting in-vivo FCT with their own children. We will review and discuss the results obtained and the implications for future research regarding the effectiveness and validity of VR BST in parent/caregiver training of behavioral intervention implementation.