Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2019, Educational Studies

This study examined the effects of using Behavioral Skills Training (BST) to train peer models on the percent of intervals engaged in interactive play by students with moderate to severe disabilities in the classroom. The percent of intervals engaged in interactive play was measured by direct observation using partial interval recording. The percent of procedural steps implemented correctly by peer models after receiving BST was measured via a checklist data sheet which aligned with the peer models' task analysis. The participants of this study consisted of four students with multiple disabilities (target students) and four typically developing students (peer models). The target students were between the ages of six and eight. The peer models were all age twelve. Two separate multiple-baseline across participants designs were used to evaluate the effectiveness of BST on the peer models' implementation of the procedural steps over time and the target students' percent of intervals engaged in interactive play. Findings indicated that BST was an effective method for teaching all four peer models to implement procedural steps for interactive play to mastery and that mastery was maintained over time. Findings also indicated that using BST with the peer models resulted in an increased percentage of intervals engaged in interactive play for all four target students. Three out of four target students maintained increased engagement in interactive play over time. Both the target students and the peer models were able to generalize their skills to novel activities and play partners.

Committee: Sheila Alber-Morgan Dr. (Advisor); Moira Konrad Dr. (Committee Member) Subjects: Education