Evaluating parent-implemented behavioral skills training for teaching firearm safety skills

Research shows that behavioral skills training (BST) and in situ training (IST) are effective interventions for teaching safety skills to children. In addition, the efficiency of these interventions can be increased when parents, teachers, or peers are taught to implement them. The purpose of this study was to replicate Novotny et al. (2020) and evaluate a web-based program for teaching parents to conduct BST to teach safety skills to prevent gunplay. We randomly assigned 18 children to the parent-conducted BST group or a control group and evaluated the intervention in a posttest only control group design. Children in the control group or treatment group who did not score a three in the in situ assessment (do not touch, get away, and tell an adult) received IST from their parents and were assessed again. Results showed that safety skill scores were statistically significantly higher in the treatment group than in the control group. Furthermore, there was a statistically significant increase in safety skills scores following IST for children who received it.     

Peer tutoring to prevent firearm play acquisition, generalization, and long-term maintenance of safety skills

Hundreds of accidental injuries and deaths to children occur annually in the United States as a result of firearm play. Behavioral skills training (BST) and in situ training have been found to be effective in teaching children the skills to use if they find a firearm, but training requires substantial time and effort. The current study examined the use of peers as tutors as a potential way to decrease the time and resources needed to teach these safety skills to youngsters. Peer trainers conducted BST and in situ training with other children. Children taught by the peer trainers acquired the safety skills and demonstrated them in naturalistic situations in which the skills were needed. Furthermore, all of the peer trainers acquired and maintained the skills. These results support the use of peer tutoring for teaching safety skills to other children.     

The role of visual monitoring in observational learning of action patterns: making the unobservable observable

The present experiment tested the hypothesis that concurrent visual feedback enhances observational learning of a novel action pattern that normally would be unobservable. Subjects repeatedly enacted a modeled action pattern with visual monitoring of their reproductions throughout enactments, during only early or late phases of enactment, or not at all. At periodic intervals the adequacy of their conception of the modeled pattern was also measured. Visual feedback during ongoing performance enhanced accurate reproduction of the modeled pattern; the facilitative effect was most pronounced for reproduction of complex response components. The superiority of subjects who had enacted these difficult response components with visual feedback was maintained even when both the model and feedback were withdrawn. Visual feedback did not facilitate accurate enactment of the modeled pattern before development of an adequate cognitive representation of it. The results support the social learning view that observationally-learned behaviors are cognitively represented and that visual monitoring serves to decrease discrepancies between conception and action.     

TEACHING ABDUCTION‐PREVENTION SKILLS TO CHILDREN WITH AUTISM

Three children with autism were taught abduction‐prevention skills using behavioral skills training with in situ feedback. All children acquired the skills, which were maintained at a 1‐month follow‐up assessment. In addition, 1 of the children demonstrated the skills during a stimulus generalization probe in a community setting.     

First-grade boys' responses to a new task following noncontingent feedback

Sixty-four first-grade boys trained on a two-choice discrimination task received positive feedback either contingent upon their correct responses or in the same amount but noncontingently. Each child was then asked to choose between two alternate ways of accumulating pennies. He could solve problems and earn pennies for correct responses to a contingent task, or he could collect pennies at the same rate by remaining passive. The purpose of this research was to determine if the usual effects of noncontingent feedback would transfer from a simple training procedure to a different contingent task. It was found that the total amount of time spent at the passive alternative did not differ between training conditions. However, a significantly greater number of noncontingently trained children did choose the passive alternative early during testing; these children either gave all of their time to the passive alternative or, very shortly after attempting the task, switched to the passive response. When the noncontingently trained children did choose to work actively during testing, their performance reflected ineffective problem-solving strategies. These results suggest that even when conditions change, experience with prior noncontingent feedback disrupts the ability to utilize contingent information.     

The influence of stimulus array on training of a speeded response

We conducted two experiments to study the training of speeded responses to stimuli in a clock face array. Participants were trained on one clock face and later tested on either the same or a different clock face. The clock faces varied along 3 dimensions of change (left-right flip, up-down flip, and 180 degrees rotation). Skill acquisition was reflected in decreases in overall, initiation, and movement response times in the training and test phases except that movement time reached an asymptote during training and did not decrease further during test. Test performance was best when training and test used the same clock face and worst when the training to test change involved an up-down flip. The transition to different clock faces was consistent with an interpretation based on the violation of expectations about target positions acquired during training. Consistent trial-by-trial feedback led to better initiation time but not movement time during training than periodic feedback, but this effect did not persist into the test phase.     

Teaching safety skills to children to prevent gun play

Research has shown that children often engage in gun play when they find a firearm and that this behavior is often involved in unintentional firearm injuries. Previous research has shown existing programs to be ineffective for teaching children safety skills to reduce gun play. This study examined the effectiveness of a behavioral skills training (BST) program supplemented with in situ training for teaching children safety skills to use when they find a gun (i.e., don't touch, leave the area, tell an adult). Eight 4- to 5-year-old children were trained and assessed in a naturalistic setting and in a generalized setting in a multiple baseline across subjects design. Results showed that 3 of the children performed the skills after receiving BST, whereas 5 of the children required supplemental in situ training. All children in the study learned to perform the skills when assessed in a naturalistic setting and when assessed in a generalization setting. Performance was maintained at 2- to 8-week follow-up assessments.     

Teaching safety skills to children to prevent gun play: an evaluation of in situ training

This study evaluated behavioral skills training with added in situ training for teaching safety skills to prevent gun play. Following baseline, each child received two sessions of behavioral skills training and one in situ training session. Additional in situ training sessions were conducted until the child exhibited the safety skills (don't touch the gun, get away, and tell an adult). All children acquired and maintained the safety skills at a 3-month follow-up. In addition, of the 7 children assessed in a dyad situation, all exhibited the correct skills in the presence of another child.     

Sharing in preschool children: Facilitation, stimulus generalization, response generalization, and maintenance

Three approaches to facilitating verbal and physical sharing and of the generalizability and durability of the behaviors that were trained were investigated. During a free play period, groups of preschool children were taught to share verbally, to share physically, or to share verbally and physically; another group was not trained. Immediately following free play, the children were observed in a different setting. Follow-up was conducted 4 weeks after training ended. Physical sharing that was durable and generalizable resulted only when children were taught to share verbally. Increases in physical sharing produced by training children to share only physically were not durable and did not generalize. Training both verbal and physical sharing produced results with a magnitude slightly greater than teaching just verbal sharing. Despite a lack of special programming, some of the treatment effects generalized to another setting and were maintained during the Follow-up. There was response generalization of the effects of training verbal sharing to physical sharing but not vice versa. Problems with the concept of response class, a methodological suggestion for studying response generalization, and possibilities concerning why generalization and maintenance occurred without specific programming are discussed.     

SOCIAL SKILLS TRAINING WITH CHILDREN: PROCEED WITH CAUTION

Three learning disabled children, selected on the basis of peer sociometric ratings and teacher referral, received social skills training. A group training procedure consisting of coaching, modeling, behavior rehearsal, and feedback was used to teach children the target behaviors of eye contact and appropriate verbal responses. A multiple baseline analysis across target behaviors was used to demonstrate treatment effectiveness on role-play scenes trained during treatment sessions. Duration of speech was measured as an untrained, corollary measure. The following measures were also obtained during baseline, posttreatment, and 1-mo follow-up for the experimental subjects and three control subjects: (a) performance on role-play scenes not trained during treatment sessions; (b) behavioral observations in a free play setting, and (c) sociometric ratings. In addition, the trained and untrained role-play scenes were administered by novel experimenters following treatment. The results indicated that socially unskilled, learning disabled children can be taught to respond appropriately to role-play situations. However, improved performance did not generalize to the natural school setting and treatment did not effect ratings of peer acceptance. The implications of these findings for future social skills training with children are discussed.     

PARENT EDUCATION PROJECT II. INCREASING STIMULATING INTERACTIONS OF DEVELOP MENTALLY HANDICAPPED MOTHERS

Two studies are reported on the assessment and training of parent-child interactional skills in developmentally handicapped mothers. Study 1 compared the interactions of eight developmentally handicapped versus eight nonhandicapped mothers during play with their young (6–25 months) children. Results showed that the former group generally interacted much less with their children and that they were less likely to praise appropriate child behavior and imitate child vocalizations. Study 2 attempted to remediate these deficits, using a training package consisting of discussion, modeling, feedback, social reinforcement, and self-recording. Results showed, first, that the training did increase the targeted skills to well within the range found for the nonhandicapped mothers. Second, training effects generalized from the group instructional setting to the mothers' own homes. Third, newly acquired skills were generally maintained at or above levels found for the nonhandicapped mothers over a 5- to 10-month follow-up period. Finally, all seven children showed increases in vocalizations concomitant with parent training. The results suggest that developmentally handicapped mothers can be taught to provide more effective and stimulating interactions to their young children.     

Spontaneously hypertensive, Wistar Kyoto and Sprague-Dawley rats differ in their use of place and response strategies in the water radial arm maze

This study further characterises the use of mnemonic systems in the spontaneously hypertensive rat (SHR), which is frequently used as a rodent model of attention deficit hyperactivity disorder. The objective of this study was to assess the preference of male SHR, Wistar-Kyoto (WKY) and Sprague-Dawley (SD) rats for a place or response strategy when trained on an ambiguous T-maze task, and also to examine whether all strains acquired information about both strategies during ambiguous training, regardless of their preferred strategy. In the first experiment, SHR and WKY showed a preference for a response strategy on the ambiguous T-maze task; in contrast, SD displayed a preference for a place strategy. In the second experiment, all strains demonstrated that they learned information about both the response and place strategies during ambiguous training. However, on a conditioned place preference test SHR did not display as strong a preference for the place arm as WKY and SD. This finding supports previous research in a conditioned cue preference test, in which SHR did not display a preference for the cue associated with the platform. These observations that the strains differ with respect to behavioural strategy in a learning task suggest that they differ in the underlying neural circuitry that serves goal-directed behaviour, and are consistent with SHR having deficits associated with the nucleus accumbens.     

Effects of outcome performance feedback on maintenance of client and staff behavior in a residential setting

This study examined effects of outcome performance feedback on maintenance of client and direct care staff behavior in a group home for four clients with severe/profound intellectual disability. Following baseline observations, 8 staff were instructed to prompt and praise interclient interactions and game activity during leisure sessions. Staff training comprised written instructions, in situ modeling and rehearsal, and performance feedback. This was followed by a 17-week maintenance period, during which staff received outcome performance feedback based on independent and self-recorded observations. Results showed that client gains were maintained, but did not stabilize. It was concluded that process feedback should have accompanied outcome feedback until staff behavior levels suitable for durable maintenance were obtained. In addition, successful use of performance feedback as a maintenance tool is highly dependent on which outcome behaviors are selected, and whether these are eventually naturally reinforced.     

Using modeling and rehearsal to teach fire safety to children with autism

We evaluated the efficacy of an instructional procedure to teach young children with autism to evacuate settings and notify an adult during a fire alarm. A multiple baseline design across children showed that an intervention that included modeling, rehearsal, and praise was effective in teaching fire safety skills. Safety skills generalized to novel settings and maintained during a 5‐week follow‐up in both training and generalization settings.     

Cognitive Bias Modification: The Critical Role of Active Training in Modifying Emotional Responses

Training participants to select threat or nonthreat interpretations of emotionally ambiguous stimuli or passively exposing them to valenced scenarios can modify later interpretation of ambiguity. However, only when encouraged to actively select meanings do congruent changes in emotional response occur during training itself (Mathews & Mackintosh, 2000). The present study assessed the more critical question of whether active training is also necessary for modifying subsequent emotional responses to images of new ambiguous scenarios presented after training. As predicted, active training did lead participants to rate their images of emotionally ambiguous scenarios as being more unpleasant after training as compared to a matched passive condition. This finding supports the view that active generation of meaning during interpretive training is critical for the modification of later emotional responses.     

Teaching preschoolers with disabilities to seek adult assistance in response to simulated injuries

Four preschool-aged children with disabilities received training to seek adult assistance in response to simulated injuries. The children first watched while the instructor modeled and verbalized a first-aid procedure for obtaining adult assistance when injured, and then they practiced the skill with instructor praise or correction. Following this practice with feedback, the children demonstrated their skill without instructor feedback. Generalization probes were conducted before and after training on the school playground and at the children's homes. A multiple baseline design across children was used to evaluate the effects of the program. Rapid increases in the children 's performances of this skill was demonstrated. Further, the posttraining generalization data indicated that the children's performance had generalized across the two settings (school playground and children's homes). More importantly, this skill maintained at 100% at a 1-month follow-up generalization probe.     

Reception training effects on the production of modeled language constructions

Several previous studies have reported that first-grade-age children increase their usage of prepositional phrases when exposed to novel (inverted) prepositional constructions. The hypothesis was tested that such anomalous increases could be eliminated by discrimination training on the two prepositional forms. One group of first-grade subjects (age 72 months) was trained to respond differentially to sentences containing either familiar or novel prepositional constructions, while a control group received only exposure to the same sentences. As predicted, when later exposed to the modeling of novel constructions, children in the pretrained group did not increase their frequency of familiar prepositional phrases, while those in the control group did.     

Coaching Paraprofessionals to Promote Engagement and Social Interactions During Small Group Activities

Paraprofessionals need adequate training and supports to assist young children with autism spectrum disorders to engage in appropriate social interactions during small group activities with their peers. In this study, we used in situ coaching and brief post-session feedback to improve the use of environmental arrangement, prompting, and praise by three paraprofessionals working in inclusive classrooms. Results suggested the brief coaching intervention was effective for improving target behaviors. In addition, generalized use of behaviors and child outcomes were positive. In situ feedback is a promising practice for improving use of evidence-based practices by non-certified personnel in early childhood settings.