Teacher Training in a Proactive Classroom Management Approach for Students with Autism Spectrum Disorders

As the prevalence of Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) increases, more children with ASD present for services in public school classrooms. Due to the unique social and communication difficulties that characterize this population, these children often exhibit challenging behaviours such as non-compliance, verbal and physical aggression and high levels of off-task responses. Compounding these concerns, teachers and classroom support staff are typically inadequately trained in evidence-based behavioural intervention strategies for such children, particularly those suited for class-wide intervention that are easy to implement and fit within a school setting.The current study addressed these concerns by examining the effectiveness of Errorless Classroom Management (ECM), a proactive classroom management teacher training package, in three self-contained classrooms and a total of 7 students ranging from Grade 1 to Grade 8. In a multiple baseline across classrooms design, teachers and classroom support staff were taught a range of proactive skills that included use of moderating support strategies, reinforcement of prosocial student behaviours, and systematic fading of supports and reinforcement. Teachers and classroom support staff were also trained in how to use these classroom management strategies to build four core student skills: compliance, acquiescence, on-task behaviour, and communication skills. After training, classroom staff showed increased use of proactive classroom management strategies and reduction in use of reactive disciplinary strategies. Results also indicated moderate improvements in student compliance, on-task skills and prosocial behaviours, as well as covariant reductions in challenging behaviours. Improvements in staff and student behaviour were maintained at the 5 month follow-up. Most staff members indicated satisfaction with the training and showed an overall moderate reduction in stress levels related to classroom management. The outcomes of the current study are encouraging and suggest that ECM is suitable as a proactive classroom management approach for self-contained ASD special education classrooms and may fit well as a curriculum within a school wide positive behaviour support framework. The in-service training was completely non-aversive, inexpensive, and brief, making it a positive and cost-efficient approach to classroom management. Teacher training in ECM could potentially decrease the number of students with ASD who require intensive supports in the school system.Ph.D