Structured teaching for special school staff: A comparison of two trainingpackages

As part of a special school training programme,16 staff (eight teachers, ei ght non-teaching assistants) were given two behavioural training packages: EDY and ACT. Staff selected 16 children aged 4-19 with challenging behaviou rs for the training and results were compared 6 months after completion wit h other similar and different children for maintenance and generalisation o f skills learnt A crossover design was employed to test for differences in the order of presenting the two training packages. The staff's and children 's behaviours were video-recorded and half of the staff were filmed prior t o the start of training to control for effects of repeated filming and untr ained improvement Coded behaviours included rewards, recording and promptin g by the teachers and correct and incorrect task responses by children. Mos t behaviours showed clear improvements as a result of training, and staff's skills were maintained and generalised to other children at follow-up. The re were no major differences between the two packages and no effects of ord er of presentation. Teachers and non-teaching assistants benefited equally from training.