Increases in the Communicative Behaviours of Students with Cerebral Palsy as a Result of Feedback to, and the Selection of Goals by, Paraprofessionals

Abstract

The employment of untrained paraprofessionals to support children with disabilities in educational settings is not uncommon. Although urgently needed, research on effective methods of increasing the skills of these paraprofessionals is scarce. This study, which was conducted over 3 academic years, assessed the effectiveness of incorporating naturalistic prompting strategies by paraprofessionals for increasing target communicative behaviours of students with severe spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy. A concurrent multiple-baseline design replicated across 3 paraprofessionals was used to determine the effectiveness of verbal and written feedback regarding their attainment of self-selected goals for prompting target communicative behaviours. The results indicate that, after the introduction of the intervention, the prompting behaviours of all paraprofessionals increased, as did the target behaviours of all students. Increases maintained 5 months after intervention for all students observed and for 2 of the 3 paraprofessionals observed. The implications of designing a program to include specific performance feedback and active involvement by staff are discussed.

Training a Paraprofessional to Implement Video Prompting With Error Correction to Teach a Vocational Skill

“…Although this is the first study to show that focused training can enable a paraprofessional to implement video prompting with error correction, our findings align with other studies that show similar training can enable paraprofessionals to effectively implement evidence-based practices. These findings further align with paraprofessional training on other types of procedures such as discrete trial training (e.g., Leblanc, Ricciardi, & Luiselli, 2005), pivotal response training (Robinson, 2011), and prompting (e.g., Hall & Macvean, 1997). This is also only one of a handful of studies that demonstrated the maintained effects of a focused training.…”

The Characteristics and Effectiveness of Feedback Interventions Applied in Early Childhood Settings

“…As can be seen in Table 3, a combination of feedback, behavioral consequences, and goal setting was used in one study. At the beginning of the intervention condition, Hall and Macvean (1997) had paraprofessionals select the types of prompts they would use and the number of times during each observation they would prompt a child's target behavior. During the feedback meetings in the intervention condition, the paraprofessionals were provided with graphs displaying the number of intervals in which they used the selected prompt and the occurrence of the child's target behavior.…”

Feedback for improving staff training and performance in behavioral treatment programs

“…Both studies used similar feedback procedures, and both achieved positive changes in staff and client behavior, but the former showed larger and more stable gains. Hall and Macvean (1997) used self-selection of targets and supervisory feedback to increase staff prompts and students' communicative behavior. Staff self-selected the number of times they were to prompt per session, but importantly, all the selected targets, except for one, were within the speech consultant's recommendations.…”

“…Many studies have shown that without self-generated feedback staff required frequent posttraining supervisory feedback, ranging from twice a week to once every two weeks, for staff and client behavior to be maintained (e.g., Green, Reid, Perkins, & Gardner, 1991;Hall & Macvean, 1997;Harchik, Sherman, Sheldon, & Strouse, 1992;Hrydowy & Martin, 1994;Ivancic, Reid, Iwata, Faw, & Page, 1981;Methot, Williams, Cummings, & Bradshaw, 1996;Page, Iwata, & Reid, 1982). Arguably, self-generated feedback should enhance generalization of staff performance by evoking and reinforcing behavior that would otherwise not occur in the absence of supervisors.…”