Date of Award
5-1-2014
Degree Name
Master of Science
Department
Behavior Analysis and Therapy
First Advisor
Baker, Jonathan
Abstract
Alzheimer's Disease (AD) is more prevalent than any other disease under the umbrella of dementia (Alzheimer's Association, 2013). Certified Nursing Assistants (CNAs) are the typical front-line care staff who care for individuals in aging care (Sengupta, Harris-Kojetin, & Ejaz, 2010). The present study investigated the use of a pyramidal training model to teach aging facility staff to be able to conduct trainings and to teach direct care staff antecedent strategies shown to be effective when communicating with individuals with AD. Pyramidal training resulted in two tiers of staff successfully implementing training for subsequent tiers of staff and subsequent staff demonstrated mastery of the trained material. However, during maintenance observations, some decreases were observed both with regard to training integrity as well as implementation of the trained material.
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