Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may have challenges with communication, changes in routine, and processing social information and communication that can affect their ability to learn and respond successfully to safety threats. When given behavioral skills training (BST), children with and without ASD have demonstrated gains in safety responding skills. Although the prevalence of ASD has risen, few studies exist on the acquisition of fire safety skills for children with ASD. This study built on current literature by utilizing a multiple probe design across participants to teach a precursor fire safety evacuation procedure using BST. Additionally, it evaluated if the behaviors gained generalize to another environment and maintain over time, as generalization and maintenance are critical for real-world application of the safety skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate if an intervention using BST for teaching a precursor fire alarm evacuation procedure was effective for children with ASD in acquiring, maintaining, and generalizing the procedure. The study showed that the BST procedure for teaching precursor fire safety skills was effective for three of four participants. Only 50% of participants demonstrated generalization of skills learned to an alternate location and fire alarm sound, and 75% of participants maintained skills after 4 weeks. According to the What Works Clearinghouse (WWC) single-case design standards, the study met standards without reservations and demonstrated moderate evidence of a causal relation.

Accidental poisonings are one of the leading safety threats for young children, so it is important to teach children to avoid ingesting poisonous substances. Research has shown that behavioral skills training (BST) and in situ training (IST) are effective in teaching children safety skills to prevent gun play, abduction, and poison ingestion. However, little research on safety skills has been conducted with children with autism. Video modeling has been shown to be effective in teaching abduction prevention skills to children diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of video modeling to teach four children diagnosed with ASD to avoid poison hazards. Results showed that video modeling was not effective for any of the participants, but that IST was effective for three participants while the fourth participant required an additional incentive. Three of the four participants maintained the safety skills for 1-, 3-, and 5-week follow up assessments. Keywords: children, safety threats, safety skills, poison, and behavioral skills training, in-situ training, video modeling

Child abduction is a serious problem in the U.S.; therefore, it is essential that researchers evaluate the efficacy of currently available abduction prevention programs. This study evaluated the efficacy of a commercially-available abduction prevention program, The Safe Side. The participants included six 6-8-year old children with no prior abduction prevention training. A non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants design was used to evaluate the effects of the training. The participants' safety responses were assessed using in situ assessments within two different situations (responding to a knock on the door of the participant's home and interaction by a stranger in public) and scored numerically. Any participant who failed to perform the appropriate safety skills following the post video training assessment received in situ training implemented by the parent. Additional assessments were subsequently conducted until each participant demonstrated the desired safety skills to criterion (three consecutive correct scores). In situ training was continually conducted as necessary.

There are a number of different safety threats that children face in their lives. One infrequent, but highly dangerous situation a child can face is finding a firearm. Hundreds of children are injured or killed by firearms each year. Fortunately, behavioral skills training (BST) and in situ training (IST) are effective approaches for teaching a number of different skills, including safety skills. The purpose of this study was to evaluate a teaching package for preschool teachers to learn to conduct BST to teach safety skills. A multiple baseline across subjects design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of this teaching package implemented by the teacher with seven preschoolers. Five children demonstrated the skills following in situ training and additional reinforcement or time out. Two children did not complete the study.

The purpose of this study was to assess if Behavioral Skills Training (BST) can be used to train a sticker to function as a discriminative stimulus (Sᴰ) for engaging in household poison safety skills and assess whether this skill generalized to untrained household chemicals that bear the Sᴰ in the form of a sticker. Three typically developing children ages 3 and 5 and their parents participated in this study which took place in their homes. BST effectively taught children to engage in household poison safety skills when they come into contact with the trained household poison(s) labeled with the sticker Sᴰ and this skill generalized to novel household poisons that were also labeled with the sticker Sᴰ; however, some additional BST was required in two cases.

Although household product, such as pharmaceuticals and cleaning chemicals, are part of a child’s everyday life, accidental poisonings can occur as a result of ingestion. Children diagnosed with developmental disabilities are even more susceptible to being injured when they come into contact with these poisonous agents. Behavioral approaches have been used extensively to teach safety skills to children with disabilities. However, those that targeted poison prevention skills required additional methods that were more intrusive for the child to acquire the skills. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a modified behavioral skills training package that incorporates a system of least prompts. Results showed that BST and system of least prompts increased poison prevention skills for all three participants and the skills maintained at follow-up.

Abduction prevention skills are crucial for any child to have. Unfortunately there has been a lack of research on teaching children with autism and aspergers these skills. Video modeling has been shown to be an effective method to teach children with autism various skills. Video modeling has also been shown to be cost efficient and easily implemented across various people and settings. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effectiveness of the video modeling technique for teaching children with autism and aspergers abduction prevention skills. The second purpose of the present study was to investigate the effectiveness of BST and IST for teaching children with autism and aspergers abduction prevention skills if video modeling was not effective. The results showed that the utilization of video modeling was effective in teaching all four participants abduction prevention skills.

Behavioral skills training (BST) and in situ training (IST) have been evaluated as methods to teach different safety skills to individuals with developmental disabilities. Research on BST has examined topics such as gun safety, abduction prevention, poison avoidance, and sexual abuse prevention. A large safety issue that is missing from the literature is drowning prevention and water safety skills. Drowning is one of the most prevalent issues facing facing children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD), particularly those who elope from their homes or caregivers. The current study aimed the effectiveness of using BST+IST to teach three water safety skills to three children with ASD. The intial form of intervention was BST with total task presentation of the skill, using verbal instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. If this intervention did not result in an increase in performance, the skill was broken down into individual component presentation, in which each component of the skill was taught using the same procedures. Results from the current study showed that BST+IST was effective in teaching all skills to all participants.

There is limited research using small-scale simulation in applied behavior analysis. We used small-scale simulation to train firearm safety skills to 3 to 5-years-old children and assessed whether the skills generalized to the natural environment through in situ assessment. Three participants completed the training and all participants learned the safety skills from simulation training. Two of the participants acquired the safety skills after the first simulation training and the third participant required one booster training before demonstrating the safety skills in the natural environment.

Concussion rates and head injuries for football players have been on the rise and there is a need for further research in football to increase skills and decrease injuries. Behavioral skills training has been proven to be effective in teaching a wide variety of skills but has yet to be studied in the sports setting. We evaluated behavioral skills training to teach safer tackling techniques among six participants from a local Pop Warner football team. Results show safer tackling techniques increased substantially during practice and generalized to games among all six participants.