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.

In response to the COVID-19 pandemic, many students have been forced to learn online. However, more information is needed about effective strategies for promoting active engagement in the online classroom, particularly the impact of peer modeling. This study investigated peer modeling and behavioral skills training to increase hand raising and question asking/answering behavior in six elementary school students. The study employed a multiple baseline across participants design, with data collected live during Zoom sessions by three research assistants, one acting as the teacher and two acting as peer models. Latency to speech was also coded subsequently to the live session as a shyness measure. Although minor improvements were observed in hand raising behavior in one participant and question answering in two participants, overall baseline engagement was higher than anticipated, which limited the magnitude of the observed improvements. High baseline engagement rates demonstrated that participants engaged actively in online classrooms without intervention. Future research should investigate the effectiveness of teacher prompting and peer modeling separately and target children that are not engaging on their own.

Several research studies have suggested that individuals with ID are at an increased risk of being a target of victimization (Hughes et al., 2012; Wilson et al.,1992). Therapists, caregivers, primary care providers, and school staff may also undervalue or fail to teach critical safety skills early in childhood or in the adolescent years, which increases risk of victimization in adulthood (Dembo et al., 2018). The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness, generalizability, and maintenance of the use of behavior skills training to teach stranger safety skills to young adults with intellectual disabilities. Specifically, a two-step safety response in the presence of a lure from a stranger. Overall, the current study’s results demonstrate that the intervention was effective at teaching this population stranger safety skills. Results of the current study also suggest that the target skill was generalizable across settings and maintained at a 13 week follow up. Furthermore, the intervention was rated high for social validity among most participants. Future studies should continue to explore the effectiveness, generalizability, and maintenance of these results.

Individuals who train to become behavior analysts should be able to organize, create, and display data accurately in order to make a data-based decision about the interventions being used for his or her clients. Behavior analysts most commonly use the visual analysis of the data to continuously evaluate the relationship between the intervention and the target behavior being measured. A multiple probe design across behaviors (i.e., Reversal Design, Alternating treatments and Multiple baseline design) was used to evaluate the effects of behavioral skills training (BST) with video modeling on three potential behavior analysts’ single-subject design graphing skills in Microsoft Excel™. Behavioral skills training is a training package made up of multiple components, but for the purpose of this study BST included: rehearsal, video modeling w/ instructions, and feedback. The three participants were taught remotely via Zoom how to accurately complete the steps in the graph creation process for a reversal design, alternating treatments design, and a multiple baseline design. Results indicate that BST with video modeling was an effective and efficient intervention to increase the accuracy of three potential behavior analysts’ single-subject design graphing skills on Microsoft Excel™. / Applied Behavioral Analysis

Behavior skills training is a didactic training format used to increase skill in an effective and efficient way. Video self-monitoring refers to the process of recording oneself for the purpose of self-review in order to observe and change one's behavior. The purpose of the following study was to determine if an intervention package that included Behavioral Skills Training (BST) and Video Self-Monitoring (VSM) would increase, generalize and, maintain high levels of treatment integrity of paraprofessional staff members while teaching a discrete trial training program to a student with autism. Additionally, student behavior was observed to determine if increased staff effectiveness would affect learner responding. The study found that the intervention package was effective in changing staff behavior by improving their treatment integrity. An observed change in student behavior emerged towards the end of the study when treatment integrity was high across staff members. Staff behavior generalized when the DTT program was implemented with a novel student. Additionally, maintenance of treatment integrity remained high after the intervention was withdrawn. Overall, these findings suggest that BST, followed by VSM, is an effective intervention for changing staff behavior. / Applied Behavioral Analysis

Behavioral skills training (BST) packages have been successful in increasing change agents’ correct implementation of various procedures. The current study evaluated the effects of a brief BST package to train daycare teachers to implement incidental teaching procedures with toddlers. The brief BST consisted of a set of written instructions, a two-minute video model, rehearsal, and feedback during session. Results demonstrated that teachers increased their correct implementation of incidental teaching procedures following training. In addition, two of the three toddlers increased the frequency of signs to request attention.

Direct-care staff working with individuals with developmental disabilities (DD) are frequently exposed to challenging behavior from residents and expected to respond correctly to challenging resident behavior, but often receive insufficient training due to lack of resources and high staff turnover (e.g., Collins, 2012; Collins, Higbee, & Salzberg, 2009; Haberlin, Beauchamp, Agnew, & O’Brien, 2009; Pelletier, McNamara, Braga-Kenyon, & Ahearn, 2010). Training methods such as Behavioral Skills Training (BST) are highly intrusive and require high amounts of resources (e.g., Parsens, Rollyson, & Reid, 2012). Research suggests technological based alternatives are more cost effective, decreases training time and response effort from management, and increases distance learning opportunities and dissemination capabilities. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the use of a hierarchical training model that incorporated video modeling, video modeling+assessment, and BST to train behavior management strategies for direct-care staff working with adults with developmental disabilities. Subjects were exposed to the most cost effective training approach first (i.e., video model) and sequentially moved to more intrusive methods (i.e., video model+assessment, & BST) as needed. All subjects implemented behavior management strategies with fidelity after exposure to technological based training alternatives (i.e., video model, video mdoel+assessment).

Young parents and their children are considered a high-risk population as they are more likely to lack social support networks, have limited access to opportunities to enhance parenting skills, and are often financially dependent. Young children whose mothers have poor parenting skills are more likely to have persistent problem behavior. Three young mothers living in a transitional housing facility participated in this study. The purpose of this study was to determine if these mothers could implement parenting strategies that are a part of a commercially available parenting book and DVD. This study found that: (1) mothers were able to correctly implement the parenting strategies; (2) child problem behavior decreased from baseline to follow-up; and (3) the mother's perception of child problem behavior shifted positively from baseline to follow-up phases.

The success of applied behavior analysis (ABA) interventions relies heavily on adherence to measures of social importance. One area identified by caregivers, educators, and researchers as having social importance is the area of daily living skills; particularly in populations of children with special needs. A number of studies employed the use of a task analysis to objectively measure toothbrushing, with various training procedures utilized. Behavioral Skills Training (BST) is an effective procedure used to train a variety of skills. Further, research indicates the addition of an in situ assessment promotes generalization of trained skills. The current study examined the use of a task analysis and BST with in situ assessment to systematically measure and train toothbrushing skills in children with special needs. Training procedures were adapted from a similar study by Poche, McCubbrey, & Munn (1982). Five children participated in this study; four male and one female; each having a medical diagnosis indicating special needs. Objective and subjective measures were obtained with a task analysis data sheet and a pre/post intervention parent surveys. Results indicate the intervention successfully increased correct toothbrushing responses in four of the five participants. For the other participant, the intervention had no effect. Fading assessments were conducted 1-5 weeks following intervention, and maintenance effects were variable. The efficacy of BST to train skills and a task analysis to measure responses has been extended to different populations based on the findings in this study.

Abstract This study examined the effects of response cards (RC) on student disruptive behavior, responding, and accuracy of responding during whole-class guided-reading instruction in a first-grade classroom. The authors combined two baseline conditions with an alternating treatments design and then replicated the effects across four teacher-nominated students. The first baseline condition was the teacher's typical instruction format, where one student who raised his/her hand was called upon to respond to the teacher's question. The second baseline condition (BL') was the same as the first baseline with an additional control for the number of teacher-delivered questions to the class per session. The RC condition was the same as BL' except students were expected to write their answers on the laminated card and then display upon the teacher's cue. Response cards and BL' conditions were alternated each session. The results revealed that RC implemented by a classroom teacher did reduce students' disruptive behaviors and increased their responding and accuracy during class.