Comparison of Types of Behavioral Skills Training to Train Psychology Interns

Abstract

The Behavioral Skills Training is used in the training of professionals, parents or other caregivers and college students to teach skills in learners with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). It comprises: 1) instructions regarding principles of Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) to teach repertoires; 2) modeling (demonstration of behaviors, which must be emitted during teaching); 3) behavioral rehearsal with a confederate; 4) performance feedback. The goal was to compare the administration of two types of BST (one with a in live/presential modeling component and, the other, with a modeling component with videos) as to their efficiency on the training of six Psychology interns. Each case was defined to improve the accuracy of teaching two pairs of repertoires to a confederate, who pretended to act like a learner with ASD. The difference between the two types of BST was solely related to the modeling component. They both produced improvement in teaching accuracy by the interns, and they were efficient in a similar manner, demanding few meetings to finish training. The data were discussed considering the relevance of an appropriate training for professionals who may collaborate, in the future, by advising parents, and other caregivers, on behavior management of their relatives with ASD, either presential or remotely (which is important during the pandemic of COVID-19).