The Autism Society Event and Education Recordings Archive

This presentation will discuss the staff training procedures implemented at the Easter Seals of North Texas Autism Treatment Program. Staff training is a critical element in a treatment program as staff skills are directly reflected in child skills. Training enhances the quality of services provided to the families and children served. Two studies that assessed the fidelity of the staff training package will be presented. In order to evaluate the efficacy of the training package, skill acquisition, social fidelity and time spent in training were assessed. In addition, the presentation will describe the graduated sequence procedures, array of skills taught within the training curriculum and impact of the training procedures. Although the impact of training procedures on staff will be discussed, it is also important to assess child measures to ensure the benefits of staff training are of direct benefit to the child. Therefore, child skills are of particular interest. Understanding how staff training benefits children will ensure the skills taught within the staff training curriculum will be of direct benefit to the child. In combination, these studies will be presented as an evaluation of a comprehensive staff training package implemented at the Easter Seals of North Texas Autism Treatment Program. It should also be noted that these studies were part of an ongoing project required by the program’s funding agency to evaluate staff training procedures within center-based services.