Training Teachers of Children with Moderate to Severe Disabilities to Contingently Respond to Child-Initiated Socially-Desirable Behaviors During Centers

Teachers of young children with moderate to severe disabilities may have insufficient training in implementing naturalistic instructional practices based in evidence. Behavior Specific Praise (BSP) and Incidental Teaching are well researched, but limited studies exist on the use of teacher contingent responses to children with moderate to severe disabilities’ self-initiated socially-desirable behaviors during centers. I used a multiple baseline design across four special education teachers to measure the effects of a training package incorporating Behavior Skills Training (BST) and Emailed Performance Feedback (EPF) on teachers’ contingent responses to their target children with a few self-initiated socially-desirable behaviors during centers. Results indicate that systematic introduction of BST with a checklist and EPF with graphs produced increases in the four teachers’ percentage of contingent responses. Furthermore, teachers maintained their contingent responses to their target child’s self-initiated socially-desirable behaviors after removal of the EPF. Programming common stimuli during BST resulted in all teachers providing contingent responses to at least one other child in their classroom who had a few self-initiated socially-desirable behaviors. Limitations of my study and implications for future research and practice are discussed