The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

Consistent and precise delivery of instruction is critical for effective learning in children and adults with autism. Typical staff training methods (e.g., didactic instruction) are often ineffective because skills acquired in a lecture do not readily translate into effective instruction. This session will briefly review the research literature on effective methods of training staff. Then we will outline a training model and demonstrate methods of delivering the appropriate type of training and support to staff that produce effective instruction. Employing effective staff training methods that ensure consistency, accuracy and generalization of trained skills across students and curriculum types is an important variable in student skill acquisition. Behavior analysts have devoted considerable time and effort into developing and validating effective staff training procedures.  The research literature has shown that some skills, such as answering questions about teaching procedures, are readily acquired during didactic or lecture-based instruction.  However, some skills, such as accurately deliver response prompts, do not readily emerge following this type of training and more intensive training is necessary.  Several studies have suggested that a hierarchy of training methods progressing from didactic training alone to didactic teaching with a simulated role-play to in vivo evaluation and instruction while working with students, when combined with observations of the target teaching performance in the natural teaching environment is the best general strategy for ensuring adequately training teachers.
This session will outline and discuss the component pieces of a comprehensive training package designed to promote generalization of learned skills as well as the maintenance of teacher performance long-term. There are four primary components to this package that will be discussed and several supplemental procedures (e.g., video self-monitoring and periodic quizzes on teaching procedures) that enhance the acquisition of the targeted teaching skills will also be presented.  The primary components of the instruction are didactic or lecture-based training, role playing, in-vivo training, and competency observations.  The critical importance of positively framed feedback will be discussed and modeled with each of these techniques.
The most important aspect of the didactic training component involves identifying the specific teaching procedures and the critical aspects of accurately implementing these procedures.  For example, time-delayed instruction is often used during teaching with person with autism to promote independent performance.  It will be shown how learning can still occur when delay intervals are slightly inconsistent but how learning is stymied by procedural errors at the initial step of training (i.e., when the skill is first modeled for the student).  In addition, various forms of role playing such as practicing the teaching procedures with experienced instructors, with cooperative and engaged students, and following videos of the target performance will be discussed.  Some skills, such as implementing teaching procedures for communicating wants and needs or behavioral programming for problem behavior/fostering appropriate replacement behavior are best taught in vivo or in the natural environment.  In vivo training and its challenges will be discussed as well as the importance of positively-framed feedback for teachers while or after implementing these procedures.  
The in vivo training component focuses on increasing staff competency in a structured environment that more closely resembles the target environment to enhance the likelihood of success in the natural environment.  With the type of training the role of the trainer is to provide both positive and corrective feedback until the established competency criteria have been satisfied.  The last major component of this training model is to evaluate whether the targeted skill is occurring across students and curriculum types.  Competency-based evaluations of teacher performance of target skills are critical for some skills and almost always necessary for the long-term maintenance of accurate implementation of teaching procedures.  Therefore, at the conclusion of any training, staff must then perform the target skill.   For such evaluation, an observation instrument is developed and the trainer sets a passing criterion.  Once the trainee meets the stated criterion then regular observations are conducted to ensure maintenance of the trained skill.  Supplementary procedures can sometimes foster skill building during training.  Two techniques, video self-monitoring and periodic teaching procedure quizzes, will be demonstrated and discussed.  Video self-monitoring involves training teacher to evaluate target teaching skills by training them to evaluate accurate implementation of these procedures and them providing them opportunities to evaluate their own performance.  Delivering periodic quizzes of particularly difficult aspects of implementing education and clinical programming will also be demonstrated and discussed. The component pieces of this model of teacher training can be applied to all topics in which you wish to train staff.

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