Behavioural Skills Training (BST) is an evidence-based training method that has been shown to be effective in teaching people many different types of skills. Some of these things are very simple, such as brushing your teeth to using complex machinery. BCBAs often use BST when teaching RBTs but it can be used with almost anybody.
There are four steps to Behavioral Skills Training
- Provide the learner with instructions: The instructor should deliver clear and concise directions to the learner about how to carry out the target behaviour.
- Provide the learner with a model: The instructor then models the target skills for the learner.
- Provide the learner with an opportunity to practice the skill: This can be in a real-life scenario or through roleplay
- Provide the learner with feedback: The instructor provides the learner with feedback on their performance, highlighting what the learner did right and/or wrong.
BST continues until the learner demonstrates mastery of the skill.
With BST, the instructions and modelling constitute the antecedent. When the learner attempts the skill, that is the behaviour. The feedback constitutes the consequence. Positive feedback is likely to be reinforcing for the learner and result in the correct form of the behaviour happening more often in the future.
For example:
Karen is teaching Alan some basic fire safety skills.
- Instructions: Karen starts by telling Alan that if his clothes ever catch fire, he should (1) stop where he is; (2) drop to the ground with his legs out straight while covering his eyes and mouth; (3) roll over and over and back and forth until the flames go out
- Model: Karen then models these three steps
- Practice: After this Alan attempts to imitate Karen?s model
- Feedback: Karen provides feedback to Alan on his performance ? letting him know if he did it right and providing corrections for any steps he carried out incorrectly.
Teaching Interaction Procedure
A very similar approach to BST is the Teaching Interaction Procedure (TIP). The TIP is a 6-step process in which the trainer introduces the skill, provides a rationale for doing the skill, describes the steps involved in doing it correctly, models the skill, has the students practice the skill in role play, and provides feedback and reinforcement.
Step 1- Introduce the Skill: As with BST, you start by describing the skill giving the learner opportunities to demonstrate that they understand what you are saying.
Step 2 ? Rationale and Cue: While providing a rationale for a skill is sometimes a feature of BST, it is a specific step within TIP. Here, you describe the natural consequences of using the skill. That is you explain why it is important for that learner. You also explain the cues that let you know when it is appropriate to use the skill.
Step 3 ? Break Down Steps: This is where you break the skill down into a small number of steps. At this point you would also ask them to describe these steps.
Step 4 ? Model: Like BST, when using TIP, you model the target skill. Unlike BST, you might also model incorrect forms of the skill so that the learner can identify both examples and non-examples of it. Sometimes, trainers begin by modelling the incorrect version. They might ask the learner to state which steps they did not carry out or carried out incorrectly. Then they would model the correct form of the target skill.
adult, a confederate peer, one of the students, or sometimes (depending on the skill) by yourself.
Step 5 ? Role Play: At this point, the learner is given the opportunity to role play the skill. Within the role play, you demonstrate the cue for the skill so that the learner knows to demonstrate it.
Step 6 ? Feedback and Reinforcement: Throughout TIP, the learner should receive reinforcement for correct responses and corrective feedback for errors. If the learner is making mistakes during role-play, prompting should be increased and then faded out until they are performing the skill independently.