Within public schools, teachers and instructors may require training to implement procedures listed in a behavior intervention plan (BIP) to support students with disabilities. It is crucial that teachers receive training that is both effective and efficient. Behavioral skills training (BST) and video modeling are two training modalities that are proven to be effective for a wide range of skills and learners. Written instructions, although they are not supported as an effective training method in the literature, can be used as task analysis for the steps that are needed to be performed for a procedure. At present, there is no standard for training teachers to implement BIP procedures and potentially effective training methods may be impacted by the amount of time training or the intensity of the training procedure. Therefore, the purpose of this study was to assess teacher preference for training modalities and to assess the feasibility of each modality in terms of training time and intensity. The participants in this study overwhelmingly selected self-assessments for both pre- and post-assessment evaluations as well as written instructions for their training modality.

Research has indicated video-based interventions are successful at teaching skills to individuals with varying types of disabilities. However, there is a gap in the literature regarding video-based intervention, such as video modeling, as an evidence-based practice for academic skills. As technology becomes more and more integrated into U.S. classrooms each year, it is important to evaluate the effectiveness of these interventions. Khan Academy videos are often used as supplemental resources by teachers to assist students with math work. The purposes of this study were to evaluate if in-class viewing of Khan Academy video models would increase math quiz performance for elementary age students with disabilities when used as a supplement to standard teacher instruction, to determine if the use of Khan Academy video models would decrease the total time required to complete a math quiz, and to evaluate the effects of behavioral skills training on math quiz scores in the event that Khan Academy was not effective. Results were evaluated using a non-concurrent multiple baseline across participants design and showed that overall, Khan Academy videos resulted in a slight increase in performance for two participants. The intervention was not effective for the other four. Overall, the duration to complete the quiz did not decrease with the implementation of Khan Academy. All 6 participants required behavioral skills training to increase their performances to mastery levels.

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.

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.

Behavioral Skills Training (BST) is an evidence-based practice used to teach a wide variety of skills to different populations (Erhard et al., 2019; Parson et al., 2012; Reed et al., 2018; Tomlinso et al., 2018). BST can be used to perform Discrete-trial teaching (DTT), which is an effective teaching procedure that simplifies teaching for children with developmental disabilities and helps to expand their repertoires (Sarokoff & Sturmey, 2004). In the past, virtual-BST, which is a cost-effective and convenient method (LeBlanc et al., 2020; Tomlinson et al., 2018), has been used to teach individuals how to implement Applied Behavior Analysis interventions (Rios et al., 2020). The purpose of the current study was to compare the effectiveness of in-person BST and virtual BST to train three caregivers and three behavior technicians to implement DTT with children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Using a multiple baseline across participants design, results of the current study indicated that, after the introduction of BST, participants in both groups (i.e., in-person BST and virtual BST) showed a high improvement in DTT implementation skills compared to baseline. Findings suggest that both modalities of BST are effective methods for training individuals on how to implement DTT.

It is unclear if staff at career centers use, or are willing to use, empirically-supported procedures like behavioral skills training (BST) when teaching interview skills to college students. The purpose of this study was to assess the extent to which the typical career center training consisted of BST, to evaluate staff-implemented BST, and to measure student performance as a result of both training. Using non-concurrent multiple baseline design, three staff were taught to use BST to teach three students to answer interview questions. First, staff used their typical training procedure, and then, they used BST to teach student interview skills; their use of BST steps was measured during training with students. Student performance was measured as percentage of appropriate answers provided during simulated interviews conducted with the experimenter after training. Results showed limited use of BST in staff’s typical training and increased use after BST training. One student improved after a typical career center training and two students showed improvement after staff-implemented BST. Social validity reports from staff showed acceptance for some steps, but not all. Limitations to this study included small selection of interview questions, time constraint, and self-reported social validity measures. Future studies can evaluate alternative methods of BST delivery including computerized BST.

College students engage in high levels of excessive drinking and certain subpopulations of college students, such as members of Greek Letter Organizations (GLOs) report higher levels of excessive alcohol consumptions. Those who report less excessive drinking also report counting their drinks and setting drink limits. However, the effectiveness of these strategies may be improved by the ability to accurately identify and pour standard servings of alcohol, an area in which college students’ knowledge is generally quite poor. Although individual behavioral skills training (BST) has been used to teach college students to accurately pour beer (Hankla et al., 2017), little is known about the effectiveness of BST when taught in a group setting, the setting most commonly used to teach college students accurate pouring, or when used with other alcohol types. Using a nonconcurrent multiple baseline across GLO design, we evaluated the effects of BST on the accuracy of college students’ (n = 10) free-pours into an 18-oz red plastic cup of standard servings of (a) beer when taught in a group setting and (b) liquor when taught in an individual setting. Results indicate that following group BST, all participants provided accurate free-pours of beer, but fewer did so with the untrained generalization cup that differs in shape. Following individual BST, participants free-pours of liquor were variable and most required at least two BST sessions. These results suggest BST can be used to teach pairs of college students to pour standard serving of beer. Future research should further examine the variability observed in individual BST for liquor and further examine generality across vessel shape.

This investigation evaluated a computerized behavioral skills training package for teaching responses to interview skills by adolescents and young adults with learning disabilities. The package consisted of instructional videos, video-modeling, rehearsal, feedback, and selection-based instruction. Experiment 1 replicated and extended recent research which has suggested that a selection-based protocol operating on a lag schedule of reinforcement is an effective and efficient method for teaching responses to interview questions (O’Neill, Blowers, Henson, & Rehfeldt, 2015; O’Neill & Rehfeldt, 2014). The purpose was to address some of the limitations of these studies while testing the limits of the selection-based protocol in promoting topography-based responses to interview questions by adolescents and young adults with learning disabilities. Experiment 2 evaluated the efficacy of the computerized behavioral skills training protocol while simultaneously comparing the basic package to an identical package plus the selection-based protocol from Experiment 1. This experiment attempted to isolate the additive effect of selection-based instruction from that of computerized behavioral skills training for teaching topography-based responses to interview questions by adolescents and young adults with learning disabilities.

This study was conducted to first evaluate the effects caregivers’ fidelity of the Cool Versus Not Cool (CNC) intervention using remote behavioral skills training (BST) and second, to evaluate subsequent treatment effects when caregivers implement intervention with their child with ASD. The components of behavioral skills training used were instruction, modeling, role-playing, and feedback. Past research has not evaluated the effects of the CNC intervention on children with ASD’s social skills when implemented by their caregivers. Thus, this research was needed to evaluate the effectiveness of remote based BST and the effectiveness of caregiver-implemented CNC intervention. Results suggested that remote-based BST is a useful training strategy to train caregivers and to support caregiver-implemented CNC to improve children with ASD’s social skills. During follow up and generalization conditions across dyads, caregiver and child skills maintained. During generalization, caregiver skills maintained when teaching new social skills for Caregiver 1 and Caregiver 2, but not entirely for Caregiver 3. / Applied Behavioral Analysis