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.

Every year children are unintentionally injured or killed due to finding an unattended firearm. Although research evaluating various approaches to teach safety skills shows that behavioral skills training and in situ training are effective, limited research exists evaluating small-scale simulation training in teaching safety skills to children. Furthermore, there is no research evaluating this approach with children with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). This study evaluated the effectiveness of small-scale simulation training in teaching firearm safety to 5- to 6-year-old children with ASD. Simulation training was effective for one participant and in situ training was necessary for one participant. However, in situ training was not effective for the third participant.

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.

This study evaluated a parent implemented in-situ pedestrian safety skills intervention for three individuals with autism. Specifically, this study examined the utility of using a behavioral skills training (BST) to help parents implement the most-to-least prompting procedures in training their children with autism pedestrian safety skills in community settings. A multiple baseline design across participants was used to assess parent implementation of in-situ pedestrian training as well as child participants' independently performed correct skills. Results indicated that parents implemented most-to-least prompting procedures with high levels of accuracy across streets during intervention and fading of BST. All child participants improved their safety skills significantly during intervention. For one child, the acquired skills maintained during follow- up. The percentages of their independent correct use of pedestrian safety skills were similar to those in baseline during generalization probes.

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.