Date of Award

6-2020

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy

Department

Psychology

First Advisor

Dr. Richard W. Malott

Second Advisor

Dr. Kelly Kohler

Third Advisor

Dr. Stephanie Peterson

Fourth Advisor

Dr. Carmen Jonaitis

Keywords

Telehealth, behavioral skills training, remote training, applied behavior analysis, discrete- trial, behavioral procedures

Abstract

The current study sought to internationally expand the use of applied behavior analysis services by applying discrete trial training (DTT) to preschool students with autism, in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA). At a university setting in the United States, the trainer provided the training to three teachers at the KSA Qodrah Center, a center for special education, by using a remote communication technique. I, as the trainer, used the behavioral-skills training (BST) model to train the teachers; this involved instructions, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback. The training was three hours a day, three days per week. The teachers learned to use three different procedures: implementing a preference assessment, teaching matching to sample, and teaching physical imitation. I trained them on one procedure at a time and moved on to the next procedure when the previous one had been mastered. Each teacher experienced four phases that included baseline, BST, performance/maintenance probes, and generalization probes (probes with actual students). All the teachers mastered the application of all three procedures during the remote BST phase. Also, all teachers maintained their performance at or above the mastery criterion during performance/maintenance probes and during generalization probes. The remote BST package was effective in teaching the three teachers in the KSA to conduct three different procedures. This suggests that the remote technology for training could be a promising solution for increasing the quality of services and number of trained professionals in underserved areas.

Access Setting

Dissertation-Open Access

Included in

Psychology Commons

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