What is Behavioural Skills Training?
Ever sent staff on training and seen no impact on the service? A lot of staff training is not effective as it does not follow some basic behavioural acumens. Behavioural Skills Training (BST) is a training package designed to ensure staff have gained the skill or knowledge at a mastery level. BST has four key elements (Miltenberger, 2003):
1. Instruction
2. Modelling
3. Rehearsal
4. Feedback
Instruction
The verbal instruction given must be clear and brief. You need to ensure that you operationalise your definitions. When you are writing your instructions, perform the skill and write down each step. You can then provide the learner with the written instructions to support the verbal instruction. By having the instruction written down will help with consistency and further aid learning. You want to make sure you are clearly detailing what the learner needs to do. You may also want to include visuals in your instruction to further support learning. It is always good to check in with your learners for understanding at this point. Are they happy with the instruction, do they have any questions at this stage? Can they accurately describe the target skill? If so, you can then move on to the next step which is modelling.
Modelling
Modelling is a great way to demonstrate what the skill looks like. When modelling the skill, it is important to try and tailor it to the learner’s work environment. If you are teaching a skill such as DTT (for more information, see https://www.adaptbehaviour.co.uk/post/how-can-discrete-trial-teaching-support-learning ) the way you would deliver this is going to look quite different if the staff are working with adults compared to children. In a classroom setting you can either use in-vivo modelling or video modelling. When modelling the target skill, it is always good to cover what might go wrong and try to keep it as realistic as possible. What if the client does not respond to the instruction? Has the verbal instruction given covered this? Real-world demonstrations can really help the staff to see how it will work in real life with a client. If you are using a client you will need to make sure you gain all of the relevant consent (this will vary on where you are working and policies your company has in place) and ensure that it will not cause any adverse effects to the client. If possible, you may want to use a client for the video modelling (again you will need to ensure you have all the relevant consent and permissions). Once you have demonstrated the skill, it is important to check in with your learners. Do they feel confident now to have a go at the skill themselves? Do they need to watch you demonstrate the skill again? Do they have any questions? If not then you can move on to the next section which is rehearsal.
Rehearsal
Practice makes perfect! Yes, that age old saying. Learning a new skill will not always develop instantaneously. Practicing the skill in a classroom setting will support the staff member to enhance their fluency of that skill. If your staff member is delivering a behavioural intervention that they are not fluent in and make a mistake, then this could have a detrimental impact for your client. By rehearsing in a classroom setting and using a ‘confederate’ will support the staff member to refine the new skill. Once the staff member is showing fluency in a classroom setting, you will then want to assess if the target skill can be transferred in a real-world setting.
Feedback
Feedback is ongoing throughout the rehearsal phase. The way feedback is given is crucial to its effectiveness. In a classroom setting you can give immediate corrective feedback. This type of feedback has one of the greatest success rates on improving a skill. When giving feedback you will also want to highlight what the person is doing well. Being able to deliver effective feedback is a skill in its self. If the person feels that they are just being criticised you may lose their motivation to engage and learn. Having a background in Precision teaching I always stand by “the learner is always right” Ogden Lindsey. So, if the learner is not correctly demonstrating the skill, then we as trainers need to go back to our teaching. Do we need to provide more examples, provide different or refine our instruction? Do we need to break down the skill into smaller components? As trainers we need to be able to adapt to our learners and respond to the learners needs. When delivering feedback, I like to do this in multiple ways, the first as discussed is giving it in real time verbally. I also then like to provide a written feedback sheet. Each component of the skill being taught will be listed and feedback will be given by each section. The feedback will be descriptive providing as much detail as possible to help the learner know how to improve ready for next time and what areas they performed really well. In areas performed well I will give just as much detail. Avoid just writing “performed well”. Describe why they performed well. “You did a great job at gaining the clients attention before giving instruction, you were clear in your instruction and gave the client time to process the instruction before giving an additional prompt.”
Example feedback sheet
Evidence base
BST has been around for decades with an abundant of studies showing the effectiveness of using BST to train individuals in a wide range of skills. BST has been used to train staff and parents, such as Pangborn et al., 2013 who used BST to train parents to implement feeding protocols, Barnes, Mellor & Rehfeldt, 2014 used BST to teach staff how to conduct behavioural assessments.
If you would like to know more about BST or would like staff training, please feel free to contact Adapt Behaviour to arrange a free no obligation conversation.
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