Effects of Training, Prompting, and Self-Monitoring on Staff Behavior in a Classroom for Students with Varied Exceptionalities

Staff who aid teachers in classrooms for children with special needs are not always well prepared for their jobs. Oftentimes in-service training is offered and no follow up on their behavior or improvement is noted. This lack of training can interfere with the quality of education for children in the class and with the implementation of any behavioral programs in effect for the class. The present study offered very brief in-service training to recently hired instructional assistants in a classroom for students with varied exceptionalities. Experiementers visually analyzed the results and noted that no improvement from baseline occurred. A treatment package of prompting the opportunity for a behavior to occur and self-monitoring with accuracy feedback was then introduced as a moving treatments design across behaviors. Results showed a marked improvement for two of three participants, and moderate improvement for the third. The improvements were visually significant during observation sessions although little assessment of generalized results occurred.