Association for Behavior Analysis International

This symposium includes three presentations on recent advances in behavior analytic approaches to training. The first presentation evaluated the effectiveness of using video-based instruction to train parents to implement guided compliance and a token economy. The results indicated that all parents learned the guided compliance protocol and correctly implemented a token economy following the introduction of training. The second presentation sought to train teachers to implement behavioral interventions for students with autism spectrum disorder within a modular intervention framework. The results indicated that the modular approach was feasible and preliminarily efficacious. The third presentation evaluated the effectiveness of a training package to teach individuals to arrange safe sleep environments for infants—an important consideration that may reduce sudden infant death syndrome. The results indicated that all participants made unsafe errors during baseline, arranged correct environments following training, and demonstrated generalized responding.

The target audience is behavior analysts and school psychologists.

Noncompliance can be a concern for some children with autism and can affect their interactions with their parents. A token economy may be an effective and easily transportable strategy for parents to provide reinforcement to their children for compliance with directions. The results of this study (a) systematically replicated Spiegel, Kisamore, Vladescu, and Karsten (2016) by training parents of children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to implement guided compliance and (b) evaluated the effects of video-based instruction to train parents of children with autism to implement a token economy to reinforce compliance and to decrease the need for the presence of a trainer by incorporating a self-scoring checklist. Participants learned to correctly implement a token economy and evaluated their own performance via video recordings. These results provide clinicians with a means of teaching parents of children with ASD to implement a token economy and decrease the need for the presence of a trainer by incorporating a self-scoring checklist. Interobserver agreement data were collected data for 35% of all sessions and mean agreement was above 97% for all participants.

Educators are under intense pressure to meet the needs of students with autism spectrum disorder in public schools. Meeting this need is a challenge due to many factors including the varied ways that students with ASD may present, a lack of resources such as trained staff and/or access to quality training, and poor contextual fit between evidence-informed interventions and the context of schools. For example, many interventions for children with ASD are evaluated in tightly controlled settings with highly trained implementers working 1:1 with a child. In contrast, educators rarely have intensive training in interventions, frequently are not working 1:1 with students, and have minimal control over myriad environmental variables. We developed MAAPS (Modular Approach to Autism Programming in Schools) to address these challenges. MAAPS is a framework for delivering and supporting implementation of evidence-informed interventions in schools. An iterative process is used to enhance contextual fit of interventions and on-going coaching in implementation increases buy-in and fidelity. We engaged in a 4-year process to develop MAAPS, assess its feasibility, and conduct a preliminary evaluation of efficacy. We assessed feasibility using the RE-AIM framework with teachers, administrators, and parents across several schools in three different states in the United States. We then conducted a randomized controlled trial across 28 students with a diagnosis of ASD and their teachers in schools from three states in the United States. MAAPS was found to be both feasibly and preliminarily efficacious.