Association for Behavior Analysis International

Unintentional injury is a leading cause of death for infants and children. Although the specific causes of these deaths vary, a subset is the result of contact with dangerous stimuli. Along these lines, effort has been made to evaluate ways to teach children to engage in a safety response when a dangerous stimulus is encountered. Following a discussion of the need for safety skills and how safety skills are assessed, the presentation will review recent research on teaching individuals to demonstrate safety skills. Strategies for establishing a discriminated safety response, promoting a generalized safety response, and increasing the efficiency of safety response training will be presented. Recent research will be used to support recommended practices.

Target Audience: Practitioners working with children

Learning Objectives: At the conclusion of the presentation, participants will be able to: (1) describe the safety response children should demonstrate when they encounter a dangerous stimulus; (2) describe how to incorporate discrimination training when teaching safety responses; (3) describe ways to program for generalization when conducting safety response training.