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The Effects of Bug-in-Ear Coaching on Pre-Service Behavior Analysts’ Use of Functional Communication Training

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Abstract

Behavior analysts play an important role in supporting the behavior and learning of young children with disabilities in natural settings. However, there is very little research related specifically to developing the skills and competencies needed by pre-service behavior analysts. This study examined the effects of “bug-in-ear” (BIE) coaching on pre-service behavior analysts’ implementation of functional communication training with pre-school children with autism in their classrooms. BIE coaching was associated with increases in the rate of functional communication training trials each intern initiated per session and in the fidelity with which interns implemented functional communication training. Adults created more intentional opportunities for children to communicate, and adults provided more systematic instruction around those opportunities.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Education, University of Washington, Box 353600, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA

    Kathleen Artman-Meeker, Nancy Rosenberg, Natalie Badgett & Xueyan Yang

  2. University of Washington Autism Center, Seattle, WA, 98195, USA

    Ashley Penney

Authors
  1. Kathleen Artman-Meeker
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  2. Nancy Rosenberg
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  3. Natalie Badgett
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  4. Xueyan Yang
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  5. Ashley Penney
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Kathleen Artman-Meeker.

Ethics declarations

This research was supported by internal startup funds provided to the lead researcher by the lead researcher’s institution. This research received no direct grants or funding.

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.

Ethical Approval

All procedures performed in studies involving human participants were in accordance with the ethical standards of the institutional and/or national research committee and with the 1964 Helsinki Declaration and its later amendments or comparable ethical standards.

Informed Consent

Informed consent was obtained from all individual participants included in the study.

Appendices

Appendix 1

Fig. 4
figure 4

BIE coaching decision tree

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Appendix 2

Table 4 BIE coaching protocol
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Artman-Meeker, K., Rosenberg, N., Badgett, N. et al. The Effects of Bug-in-Ear Coaching on Pre-Service Behavior Analysts’ Use of Functional Communication Training. Behav Analysis Practice 10, 228–241 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-016-0166-4

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s40617-016-0166-4

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