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Evaluating Group BST with Peer Feedback to Improve Staff Teaching Practices and Training Efficiency
Leslie, Stacha
Leslie, Stacha
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Abstract
Several studies have demonstrated the efficacy of behavioral skills training (BST) to teach direct support professionals (DSPs) how to use specific prompting procedures for teaching skills to consumers (Ducharme & Feldman, 1992; Harchik et al., 1992; Parsons et al., 1996; Reid et al., 2005); however, in congregate care settings like community-based adult service environments, several resource constraints exist (e.g., limited time, lack of training resources; Lerman et al., 2015) that necessitate more efficient staff training methods. In the current study, we evaluated the effects of group BST with peer feedback to train eight staff to implement least-to-most prompting procedures (Tell-Show-Help) to deliver effective instructions across pre- and post-training evaluations during contrived scenarios and during in situ observations within the context of day services. Overall, results suggest that BST with peer feedback alone was ineffective for increasing staff performance, and the addition of experimenter feedback was required for performance improvement at or near mastery criterion levels during contrived scenarios. When we evaluated generalization of Tell-Show-Help procedures across three categories of tasks (i.e., transitions, self-help tasks, and skill-based activities), we observed increased levels of performance during post-training generalization sessions as compared to pre-training generalization sessions for all staff. For the five staff in which pre- and post-training in situ observations were conducted, results showed increased occurrence in delivering instructions for all staff during post-training observations as compared to pre-training observations. Additionally, implementation of Tell-Show-Help occurred at relatively high levels for all staff during the first observation, and at high to moderate levels for most staff during the second observation. Further, we evaluated the potential relation between accurate data recording and accurate peer feedback during group roleplays and the degree to which both aspects affected subsequent staff performance during post-training evaluations. Results from group BST role-play analyses showed that even with training on data recording and peer feedback prior to group role-plays, data recording and feedback delivery was of low quality and low integrity for most staff, which may have influenced the need for experimenter feedback for all staff to reach mastery or near mastery criterion levels. Finally, results from the social validity survey suggest staff found the group training procedures to be acceptable and experimenter feedback to be helpful for improving their implementation of Tell-Show-Help .
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2025-08-31
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University of Kansas
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Keywords
Behavioral psychology, Adult Services, Direct Support Professionals, Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities, Least-to-Most prompting, Teaching