One way for students with disabilities to receive instructional support from someone other than the lead classroom teacher is through paraprofessionals. Paraprofessionals who are not trained properly, however, can negatively impact student success rates. One intervention that has been explored has been the use of video modeling to train staff on various instructional and behavior management strategies. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using video training to teach paraprofessionals how to implement errorless learning strategies with students. The participants within this study were three female paraprofessionals that were of Caucasian, Latino, and Ukranian descent and had worked in a classroom for at least one year. The dependent variables within this study were evaluated by use of a single subject, multiple baseline design across participants. Results of this study revealed that video training with a focus on errorless learning was effective in increasing paraprofessional percent correct implementation of the strategy, as indicated by an increase in exhibition of the strategy throughout observation and generalization sessions. Paraprofessional implementation of errorless learning procedures increased from a mean of 12.5% accuracy during baseline to 84% accuracy during intervention sessions. Generalization probes maintained high accuracy rates as well, with a mean of 88% accuracy across all three participants. The social validity results provided to the participants at the end of the study indicated that all participants prefer video training over in person training.

Recently, Direct Behavior Ratings have been shown to be a promising new tool for observing students and classrooms in an education setting for a variety of behaviors. The traditional method of observing students and classroom behavior was through tools called Systemic Direct Observations. Currently, there are only a few studies looking at the use of a Direct Behavior Rating as a device to collect peer comparison data to estimate classwide behavior problems. This study examined the estimated percentages of on-task and disruptive behavior between a Systemic Direct Observation with momentary time sampling and three random peers, a Systemic Direct Observation with momentary time sampling using the entire class, and a Direct Behavior Rating. Multiple undergraduate classrooms were taped and divided up into twenty-five 7-minute segments. The videos were then coded on all three of the observation forms with 100% reliability ratings. Results indicated that there was a strong relationship between the Direct Behavior Rating and the SDO classwide on-task estimates with 37% of the variance in the Systemic Direct Observation classwide data consistent with the Direct Behavior Rating data. There was a moderate relationship between the on-task Direct Behavior Rating and three-peer on-task with 13% of the variance in the Systemic Direct Observation data as a portion of the Direct Behavior Rating data. Results also showed that there was a significant correlation between Direct Behavior Rating both of the Systemic Direct Observation methods with 43% for the classwide Systemic Direct Observation and 39% of the three-peers Systemic Direct Observation variance consistent with the Direct Behavior Rating data. Implications and future directions were considered. The research yielded results that indicated that Direct Behavior Ratings might be a useful tool when evaluating classwide behavior, and that further research is warranted.

The measurement of engagement, or the interaction of a person with their environment, is an integral part of assessing the quality of an intervention program for young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. Researchers and practitioners can and do measure engagement in many ways on the individual and group level. The purpose of this methodological study was to compare three commonly used recording systems: individual partial interval, group momentary time sampling, and group partial interval. These recording methods were compared across three classes of engagement: social, instructional, and non-instructional in a clinical setting with children with autism. Results indicate that group measurement systems were not sensitive to individual changes in engagement when child behaviors were variable. The results are discussed in the context of behavior analytic conceptual systems and the relative utility and future research directions for behavior analytic practice and research with young children in group settings.