Behavioral skills training (BST) is effective for teaching safety skills but often requires a behavior analyst to conduct the training, which can make it costly and inaccessible for most parents or teachers. Parent-conducted BST may allow for children to receive training without the need for a trained behavior analyst. However, providing parents with training can often be difficult. Manualized training from a website could allow parents access to needed material at a low or no cost. This study evaluated a web-based manualized intervention implemented by parents for teaching firearm safety skills using BST. First, BST experts and parents validated the web-based manual. Next, we used a multiple-probe across participants design to assess the effectiveness of parent-conducted BST. Results indicate that three children acquired the safety skills after parent-conducted BST alone, and the other three children required experimenter-conducted IST. The advantages of parent-conducted BST, limitations, and areas for future research are discussed.

Family and Adolescent Balanced Education and Leisure Occupations (FABELO) is a training program designed for occupational therapy practitioners (OTP) who work with learning-disabled adolescents in school and community settings. BACKGROUND: Adolescents with a learning disability are often missing opportunities to engage in play and leisure as essential occupations. The results can be detrimental to sense of freedom, independence, autonomy, self-confidence, meaning, ability to socialize, response to stress, and perceived quality of life. Parents and caregivers may lack awareness of how to address this occupational deficiency. The author’s aim in this project is to pilot-test a prototype program designed to train OTPs to incorporate therapeutic group intervention (TGI) into service provision with clients. OBJECTIVES: By participating in the author’s project, OTPs will learn to incorporate TGI inter-family transactional techniques into their practice that will empower adolescent clients and their parents or caregivers to embrace expanded leisure and recreational possibilities, thus leading to achievement of goals in areas of mental health, well-being, and life satisfaction. METHOD: Evaluation of this single group pilot program with 6–8 carefully selected OTPs is non-experimental. Program delivery will take place through a secured online platform with teleconferencing capabilities. Instruction over 6 weeks will incorporate a training manual, demonstration videos, prompted role-playing exercises, and discussions. Quantitative data will be collected via Likert-style survey questions and performance rating. Short answer survey questions and focus group discussion will yield qualitative information. ANTICIPATED FINDINGS: Findings based on quantitative data will yield a preliminary indication that desired changes have occurred in OTPs knowledge, performance of TGI skills, and in self-perceived rating of competence, confidence, preparedness, and enjoyment. Qualitative analysis will provide information on likes, dislikes, satisfaction, and recommendations. Implications: In the long-term, the author would like to see progress toward filling gaps in OTP service provision for adolescents with LD who have insufficient experiences with play and leisure occupations. Limitations. Program development and program evaluation research are in the initial stages and have not yet been implemented in any practice setting.