A Treatment Evaluation of Successive and Simultaneous Visual Stimulus Presentation During Tact Training with Children with Autism.

The purpose of this study was to assess whether variations in visual stimulus presentation during tact training would affect efficacy, efficiency, and the emergence of listener responses. Participants included two preschool-aged children diagnosed with autism. We implemented two teaching conditions using an adapted alternating treatment design with intrasubject replications. During successive tact training, the experimenter presented one picture per trial. During simultaneous training, the experimenter pointed to the target picture in a stimulus array. For one participant, both procedures were similarly effective and efficient. For another participant, successive tact training generated fewer errors and better efficiency results. Moreover, both formats resulted in accurate listener responding. Our results suggest that both procedures are effective, and that the simultaneous format may be a viable alternative for teaching tacts.

Teaching children to identify and avoid food allergens using behavioral skills training.

Allergic reactions to allergenic foods can pose a lethal threat to children with food allergies. Previous research has demonstrated the effectiveness of using behavioral skills training (BST) plus in situ training (IST) to teach safety responses to children. However, there has not been an evaluation of using BST to teach food safety to children with food allergies. Three elementary-school children of neurotypical development with food allergies participated. We evaluated the efficacy of BST with IST in teaching participants to identify and respond to allergenic foods by (a) asking to see the food packaging, (b) scanning the food label for the allergenic food, and (c) reporting the safety threat to an adult while not consuming the food. Trials without allergenic foods were also presented to ensure discriminated responding. All participants demonstrated the three correct safety responses after BST and responded differentially across allergenic and nonallergenic foods, with two participants requiring feedback (IST).

The influence of video-based training on caregiver arrangement of infant sleeping environments.

Recent behavior analytic studies have examined behavioral skills training to teach adults to arrange safe infant sleeping environments. These studies were conducted in an analogue environment and with all training components delivered by an expert staff trainer. The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend this literature by substituting video-based training for behavioral skills training. We assessed whether expectant caregivers could arrange safe infant sleeping environments following video-based training. The results suggested that video-based training alone resulted in positive outcomes for a portion of participants, whereas a subset of participants required feedback to reach mastery criteria. The social validity data suggest that the participants found the training procedures favorable.

Using Computer-Based Instruction to Teach Implementation of Discrete Trial Instruction: A Replication and Extension.

Evidence-based procedures, such as computer-based instruction, have been used to train staff to implement behavioral technologies with high treatment integrity. The purpose of the present study was to address the gaps in Romer et al. (2021) by assessing the same computer-based instruction module to train relevant staff to implement discrete trial instruction. Results suggest computer-based instruction is effective, efficient, and a socially valid procedure to use to teach relevant staff to implement discrete trial instruction. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-022-00731-7.

Evaluating caregivers arrangement of infant sleeping environments in the home.

Sleep-related infant deaths are one of the top causes of infant mortality in the United States. A few behavior analytic studies have examined behavioral skills training to teach adults to arrange safe infant sleeping environments. These studies were conducted in an analogue environment, and no data were collected outside the training setting. The purpose of the current study was to replicate and extend the extant literature. We taught caregivers to arrange safe infant sleeping environments in a community-based organization. Thereafter, we assessed the feasibility and effectiveness of a technology-based contingency management procedure to examine caregivers' adherence with arrangement of a safe sleeping environment for their newborns across a 2-week period. As in previous studies, behavioral skills training resulted in positive outcomes, and follow-up data suggested that the technology-based contingency management procedure may be a promising approach to promoting adherence with infant sleeping environment recommendations.

A translational evaluation of component skills for the establishment of multiply controlled intraverbals.

Intraverbal behavior is a type of verbal behavior in which the response form has no point-to-point correspondence with its verbal stimulus. However, the form and occurrence of most intraverbals is under the control of multiple variables. Establishing this form of multiple control may depend on a variety of preestablished skills. The purpose of Experiment 1 was to evaluate these potential prerequisites with adult participants using a multiple probe design. The results suggest that training was not required for each putative prerequisite. In Experiment 2, probes for all skills were conducted following convergent intraverbal probes. The results showed that convergent intraverbals only emerged when proficiency of each skill was demonstrated. Finally, Experiment 3 evaluated alternating training of multiple tact and intraverbal categorization. The results showed that this procedure was effective for half of the participants.

Using computer-based instruction to teach implementation of behavioral skills training.

Behavioral skills training (BST) is considered one of the most effective staff training techniques to implement a wide variety of behavioral technologies; however, research has found a lack of implementation of BST across human service settings due to a shortage of organizational time and resources. The purpose of the present study was first to demonstrate the effectiveness of computer-based instruction (CBI) in teaching BST, and then to demonstrate that the CBI module was effective in training trainers to implement BST with trainees. Results of the present experiment not only demonstrate the effectiveness of CBI in teaching BST, but also demonstrate the generality of the BST to teach behavior therapists.

What's the Big IDEA? A Preliminary Analysis of Behavior Analysts' Self-Reported Training in and Knowledge of Federal Special Education Law.

Many behavior analysts currently work in school settings or with individuals who may qualify for educational services through federal special education law. However, it remains unclear what training, if any, behavior analysts receive in this law. Behavior analysts have an ethical responsibility to practice within their scope of competency and in compliance with legal regulations. Thus, it is important to determine whether behavior analysts practicing in the United States are adequately prepared and familiar with federal special education law. The current study consisted of a survey wherein respondents answered questions pertaining to the relevance of federal special education law, their familiarity with core terminology, and the alignment between the law and the Professional and Ethical Compliance Code for Behavior Analysts (Behavior Analyst Certification Board, 2016). Respondents' self-report indicates that behavior analysts hold conflicting views on how federal special education law aligns with and influences their role as service providers. As such, practitioners and agencies alike may benefit from explicit clarification of the responsibility Board Certified Behavior Analysts have to seek training in and adhere to federal special education law.

Training Staff to Create Equivalence-Based Instruction Materials in Qualtrics.

Staff training is an important line of research to ensure that clinicians in the field of applied behavior analysis provide quality services. One approach to providing training involves the use of asynchronous training materials in which the trainer and trainee do not need to be physically present at the same time. This allows for training despite limited numbers of trainers or geographic restrictions. The purpose of this study was to train participants to create equivalence-based instruction (EBI) materials in Qualtrics, a commercial survey software package. In the first phase of the study, participants experienced a training package consisting of a video model and task analysis that described how to create EBI materials. Phase 2, evaluated whether the EBI materials created in Phase 1 led to equivalence-based responding. Results indicated that the training was effective for training staff and that staff found the training socially acceptable. Results also demonstrated that the EBI materials resulted in the learning of the trained and derived relations. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40732-021-00497-4.

Training medical students to teach safe infant sleep environments using pyramidal behavioral skills training.

Medical personnel play a critical role in caregiver safe infant sleep education. However, training outcomes in the safe infant sleep training literature have been mixed. Promising approaches that warrant further investigation are the use of behavioral skills training and pyramidal training. The current study consisted of two experiments. Experiment 1 extended Carrow et al. (2020) and Vladescu et al. (2020) by teaching medical students safe infant sleep practices using behavioral skills training. Discriminated responding was examined across trained and untrained environmental arrangements using a multiple-baseline design. All participants arranged safe sleep environments following behavioral skills training. In Experiment 2, we used pyramidal behavioral skills training to train medical students to teach others safe sleep practices. Results indicated high procedural integrity scores following training and generalization of skills.

A Scoping Review of the Healthcare and Hygiene Literature for Individuals with Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities.

Objectives: Previous reviews highlight the similarities in teaching healthcare and hygiene routines to individuals with and without intellectual and developmental disabilities. Additionally, similar interventions are used when interfering behaviors occur. Although these routines are topographically distinct, there are enough similarities to suggest effective procedures for one routine may be used to inform another. This scooping review aims to identify effective teaching and intervention procedures for healthcare and hygiene routines specifically for individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities. We also evaluated the extent to which functional analyses were conducted; a dimension not included in previous reviews. Methods: Eligible articles targeted compliance or tolerance within the context of a defined healthcare or hygiene routine as a dependent variable and used an experimental design with a demonstration of experimental control. Articles were identified through PsycINFO, PubMed, and Academic Search Premier databases. Additionally, a hand search of five related journals was conducted. Data were collected on dependent variables, functional analyses, baseline contingencies, teaching procedures, and additional experimental components. Results: A total of 52 articles met inclusion criteria. Most experiments produced positive outcomes. The findings show all experiments involved a treatment package with multiple components. The most common teaching procedures were graduated exposure and DRA. A lack of functional analyses and social validity was noted. Conclusions: Component analyses are needed to identify the most effective and efficient procedures. Pyramidal training to teach medical professionals how to provide preventative pyramidal training should be explored. Supplementary Information: The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s41252-022-00249-7.

The influence of observations and ratings on implementation of discrete trial instruction.

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder are often taught using discrete trial instruction. Because of low trainer-to-staff ratios commonly found in human service settings, research is needed to find an efficient method to train staff to implement discrete trial instruction with little to no in-vivo training by a qualified trainer. One such technique is observing and rating the behavior of another individual. The resulting improvement in the observer's own behavior is referred to as the observer effect. The purpose of the present study was to assess the effects of conducting behavioral observations and ratings on staff implementation of discrete trial instruction. Staff trainees viewed videos of the implementation of each step, rated the accuracy of implementation, and conducted the procedure with a confederate consumer. The procedure was effective, and the effects extended to novel skills.

Effects of video modeling on abduction-prevention skills by individuals with autism spectrum disorder.

Deficits in safety skills and communication place individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) at risk of danger. Abduction prevention remains an understudied area. Video modeling has proven to be effective in some research on teaching safety skills to individuals with ASD. Existing research has yet to assess responding to lures from known people. The effects of video modeling on abduction-prevention skills were evaluated using a multiple probe across participants with an embedded adapted alternating treatments design. Using video modeling, we extended research by teaching how to respond to lures from strangers and known individuals by securing a code word. Generalization was programmed for and assessed across multiple lure types, confederates, and locations. Participants demonstrated differentiated responding across lures from strangers and known people and responding generalized to untrained community settings, people, and lures. Three of the 4 participants maintained skills at least 1 week following mastery. Procedures, goals, and outcomes were considered socially valid.

Comparing Skill Acquisition Under Different Stimulus Set Sizes With Adolescents With Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Replication.

A number of variables may influence the effectiveness and efficiency of skill acquisition. One variable that may be important is set size. The current study replicated and extended Kodak et al. (2020, "A Comparison of Stimulus Set Size on Tact Training for Children With Autism Spectrum Disorder," Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 53(1), 265-283) by evaluating the stimulus set size that led to the most efficient skill acquisition for 2 adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. More specifically, we evaluated tact acquisition in stimulus set sizes of 3, 6, and 12. The set sizes of 3 and 6 stimuli were associated with the most efficient acquisition, whereas the set size of 12 stimuli was not.

The influence of correlations between noncritical features and reinforcement on stimulus generalization.

One strategy to program for generalization is to vary noncritical features in teaching exemplars, thereby avoiding noncritical features from being highly correlated with reinforcement and thus gaining faulty stimulus control. In the current translational evaluation, 2 groups of adults of typical development were taught to respond to arbitrary stimuli with experimenter-defined critical and noncritical features in a matching-to-sample task. The teaching arrangement used for 1 group programmed for low correlation between noncritical features and reinforcement; the teaching arrangement used for the other group programmed for high correlation between noncritical features and reinforcement. Participants in the former group displayed (a) faster acquisition of matching, (b) less variability in correct responding, and (c) a decreased likelihood of faulty stimulus control developing during training. The results contribute towards advancing the study of stimulus control and developing an explicit technology of generalization to better serve consumers of the application of our science.

Safe to sleep: Community-based caregiver training.

Annually, thousands of infant deaths are classified as sudden unexpected infant deaths (SUIDs). In an effort to reduce the risk of SUIDs, the American Academy of Pediatrics has made a number of recommendations to educate caregivers, childcare providers, and healthcare professionals on safe infant sleep practices. The purpose of the current study was to extend the literature on safe infant sleep practices by teaching caregivers to arrange safe infant sleep environments using a mannequin and common infant items. We partnered with community-based agencies to evaluate the effectiveness of behavioral skills training delivered in a single training session as part of the ongoing pre- or postnatal care these agencies provided. Following training, all participants demonstrated a substantial change in responding and returned favorable social validity ratings. We discuss these outcomes in light of previous studies, limitations, and future directions.

Comparing Stimulus Equivalence-Based Instruction to a Video Lecture to Increase Religious Literacy in Middle-School Children.

Being familiar with world religions and their diverse practices is referred to as religious literacy. The present study compared the effects of stimulus equivalence-based instruction (EBI) and video lecture (VL) to increase religious literacy in middle-school students; 10 participants were assigned to either the EBI or the VL group. Participants in the EBI group were taught five 6-member equivalence classes using match-to-sample (MTS) software on a computer. Within each class of (1) Judaism, (2) Islam, (3) Christianity, (4) Hinduism, and (5) Buddhism, the visual stimulus members were (A) name of the religion, (B) major religious symbol, (C) sacred text, (D) notable religious figure, (E) name of religious service leader, and (F) notable celebrated holiday. The VL participants were given an opportunity to complete a fill-in written worksheet while viewing a video lecture about the 5 religions using the same stimuli as the EBI group. Participant responding in each group was compared across worksheet, oral, and MTS pretests and posttests. The results showed that 5 of 5 participants in the EBI group formed equivalence classes but only 1of 5 did so in the VL group. Class-consistent responding generalized to oral vignettes to a greater degree for the EBI participants than for the VL participants. In addition, at an approximately 2-week follow-up, EBI participants maintained class-consistent responding to a greater degree than VL participants did. Duration measures showed that even though EBI was more effective, EBI training did require more time than the VL did. Although not explicitly programmed for, social distance survey scores showed that participants improved equally in their ratings of the acceptability of people from other faiths following training, regardless of training type. Thus, EBI may be an effective method to teach schoolchildren about religious literacy.

Reinforcer Choice as an Antecedent Versus Consequence During Skill Acquisition.

Providing a choice of reinforcers is a commonly used strategy with children with autism spectrum disorder; however, less is known about the differential effectiveness and efficiency of providing choices before or after responding during acquisition tasks. Therefore, we evaluated reinforcer choice using untaught targets prior to and following responding. Results showed faster acquisition of targets in the consequence condition for 2 of 3 participants. These data provide preliminary support that providing choice prior to responding may not result in the most efficient acquisition for some individuals.

Infant positioning: A brief review.

The American Academy of Pediatrics (2016a) has made several recommendations regarding the safe positioning of infants by caregivers, including placing infants in a supine position for sleep and in prone for supervised periods of tummy time. However, caregivers may have difficulty adhering with these recommendations. A small, but growing, number of behavior analytic studies have examined these infant safety recommendations and strategies for increasing adherence. This review describes behavior analytic research on infant positioning and provides suggestions for future research.

A Comparison of Video Modeling and Video Prompting by Adolescents with ASD.

Video-based instruction has been effective in teaching a range of skills, including functional living skills, to individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Few studies have compared the efficacy and efficiency across video modality-specifically, comparing video modeling to video prompting. Consequently, practitioners have little empirical guidance when selecting between procedural variations of video-based instruction. Using an adaptive alternating-treatments design with a baseline, we evaluated the comparative effectiveness of point-of-view video modeling and video prompting on the percentage of meal preparation tasks completed correctly and on-task behavior with 4 adolescents with autism spectrum disorder. We found video modeling to be effective and efficient in the acquisition of meal preparation skills across 3 of the 4 participants. Across participants, video prompting resulted in more errors than video modeling did. Skills generalized to an untrained location and were maintained at a 3-week follow-up. Stakeholders reported procedures, goals, and outcomes as socially valid.