By Christine Holland, BCBA, LBA

In 2016, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children assisted law enforcement and families with approximately 20,500 cases of missing children. Many families and caregivers try to protect their children from abduction by specifically teaching them skills like understanding the concept of strangers, warning signs of distrustful behavior, and what to do if they are approached by a stranger. The characteristics of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) may make traditional teaching methods, like discussions, an ineffective strategy to teach these important safety skills.

Behavioral skills training may be able to help. It has been used effectively to teach a variety of skills to adults and children, both with and without disabilities. Several studies have shown behavioral skills training as an effective method to teach children safety skills such as fire safety, gun safety, and saying no to a stranger who is trying to get the child to go somewhere with them. (Miltenberger, et al, 2005; Johnson, et al, 2005; Houvourous, 2014) Two studies conducted by Gunby and colleagues have extended that research and used behavioral skills training to teach children with autism abduction prevention skills. (Gunby, et al 2010; Gunby, 2017)

Behavioral Skills Training Steps

These are the steps that are typically used in a behavioral skills training teaching protocol:

1. Decide the goal you are trying to reach: What do you want to teach your child? How will you know if the child has learned the skill? Decide in advance what the answers to those questions are so you know if you have reached your goal. Gundy and colleagues taught the children in their study to say “no” when asked to go somewhere by stranger, immediately leave and run to a safe area and report the event to a familiar adult. Some children may first need to work on prerequisite skills like discriminating strangers or acquaintances from trusted family or caregivers. If a child was not able to learn this just through discussion, it may be helpful to have children sort pictures of various adults based on the categories of stranger, acquaintance, or trusted family member.

2. Provide instruction: This involves providing a written and/or verbal description of the targeted skill. This can also be an opportunity to provide a rationale as to why the targeted skills are important. In the studies by Gunby, the experimenters discussed potential ways an adult might get them to leave an area and taught the children to state the appropriate steps in avoiding a lure. However, this step could easily be modified based on the needs and comprehension level of the individual child. For example, instead of verbally stating the steps, the child could sequence photos representing the appropriate actions.

3. Model the skill: The child is shown a model of the target behavior. This should be a correct model and include all components of the targeted skills. For example, the child would be shown a model of a stranger approaching another person and using a common lure or strategy to get the child to leave with them. It would also show the child saying no and immediately leaving the area. This can be done in person or in video models. Videos can be a convenient way to model the skill because it can be watched repeatedly and the behavior will be modeled correctly each time. Video modeling can also be a way to promote generalization across environments and people as multiple scenarios can be shown in video clips. You can learn more about modeling and video modeling from the Autism Focused Intervention Resources and Modules (AFIRM)

4. Provide opportunities for practice: The child should have multiple opportunities to practice the skill. Children with autism often need more time and practice to acquire new skills. The child should practice a wide range of different scenarios in multiple environments and with different people to ensure generalization of the skills.

5. Provide feedback: The adult should provide praise for the behaviors that were performed correctly and corrective feedback for the components that were performed incorrectly. It is important to provide more positive than corrective feedback. For some children, it may be helpful to incorporate additional reinforcers or rewards for correct completion of the targeted behaviors. You can also learn more about using reinforcement on the AFIRM website.

6. Repeat steps four and five as necessary: It is likely that you will need to repeat steps four and five to ensure that your child has learned the skill and can use it when needed. Repeat as necessary until you have reached the goals you set in step one.

While it is difficult to determine prevalence, children with disabilities may be at a higher risk to be victimized by predators than children without disabilities. Knowing this, it is important to use the most effective teaching strategies possible when teaching safety skills. Behavioral skills training is an effective teaching strategy that has the potential to be a powerful tool in helping keep individuals with autism safe from harm.

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References

Gunby, K.V. (2014). The use of behavioral skills training and in situ feedback to protect children with autism from abduction lures. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 47, 1-5.

Gunby, K.G., Carr, Carr, J.E., & LeBlanc, L.A. (2010). Teaching abduction-prevention skills to children with autism. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 43, 107-112.

Houvouras, A.J. & Harvey, M.T. (2014). Establishing fire safety skills using behavioral skills training. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 47, 420-424.

Johnson, B.M., Miltenberger, R.G., Egemo-Helm, K., Jostad, C.M., Flessner, C., & Gatheridge, B., (2005) Evaluation of behavioral skills training for teaching abduction-prevention skills to young children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 38, 67-78.

Miltenberger, R.G., Gatheridge, B.J., Satterlund, M., Egemo-Helm, K.R., Johnson, B.M., Jostad, C., Kelso, P., & Flessner, C.A. (2005). Teaching safety skills to children to prevent gun play: an evaluation of in situ training. Journal of applied behavior analysis, 38, 395-398.