The Impact of Behavioral Skills Training Across Multiple Intervention Contexts

Maria Ferrera

Co-Presenters: Individual Presentation

College: College of Education

Major: MA.SPED/ABA/ASD

Faculty Research Mentor: Sarokoff, Randi  

Abstract:

The Impact of Behavioral Skills Training Across Multiple Intervention ContextsAbstractBehavioral Skills Training (BST) is an evidence-based instructional package commonly used in applied behavior analysis to teach intervention procedures to practitioners, educators, and caregivers. Although numerous studies have demonstrated the effectiveness of BST for teaching specific skills in particular contexts, less is known about how broadly it generalizes across different service settings and types of intervention. The purpose of this study is to examine the extent to which BST is used across school, clinic, home, and community settings and to evaluate practitioners’ perceptions of this procedure’s effectiveness. A survey will be employed to collect data from behavior analysts, educators, and caregivers with experience implementing applied behavior analysis (ABA) based interventions. The survey assesses the use of BST to teach a range of procedures, including discrete trial teaching, functional communication training, behavior intervention plan implementation, academic interventions, and parent-implemented strategies. The study will present the percentage of participants who use BST across various contexts and identify the intervention areas in which BST is most implemented. Participants who report using BST will rate the perceived effectiveness of the training using a Likert-type scale. These data will be presented as a percentage of perceived effectiveness. Findings may inform future research and guide training practices in applied settings.