Teaching Safety Skills to Preschool Children: An Evaluation of Teacher-Implemented Behavioral Skills Training

Author

Kayla Diane Brachbill, Southern Illinois University CarbondaleFollow

Date of Award

12-1-2018

Degree Name

Master of Science

Department

Behavior Analysis and Therapy

First Advisor

Jowett Hirst, Erica

Abstract

The present study evaluated the effectiveness of a teacher-implemented behavioral skills training (BST) procedure for teaching preschool students to exhibit an appropriate safety response in the presence of chemical bottles. Students’ safety responses were evaluated during baseline and teacher lessons (before and after BST) for each classroom. Prior to training, teachers were prompted to give a lesson including three safety steps (don’t touch, walk away, tell a teacher). No additional instructions were provided. Next, teachers received training from a researcher on how to implement BST in a classroom setting. Results indicated that the training procedure utilized was effective for increasing the number of BST components used by teachers. Further, teacher-implemented BST resulted in increases in preschool children’s appropriate responses to chemical bottles for two classrooms; however, the increase for one of the two classrooms was only moderate, and no increase was observed for children in a third classroom. Therefore, in-situ feedback was required for these two classrooms. In addition, the procedures resulted in generalized responding to a novel set of chemical bottles, as well as, a novel category of dangerous item (medicine bottles).