2018 Volume 56 Issue 1 Pages 21-31
The present study, which was conducted at a special needs junior high school for students with intellectual disabilities, aimed to demonstrate effects of schoolwide positive behavior support. Participants (N＝30) were given social skills training in a class on independent activities. In the students' regular classes, the teachers verbally praised students who independently greeted them, and used visual prompts if a student did not. In the independent activity class, students were given training in greeting their teacher appropriately, using accuracy and fluency training and peer tutoring. Accuracy and fluency training were also conducted in the morning classes by the regular class teachers. The dependent variable was the occurrence of students independently greeting their teacher. The baseline measurement indicated that 9 of the 30 students independently greeted their teacher. After instruction in the regular class and the independent activity class, 26 of the 30 students independently said greetings both to teachers who had given them training and to other teachers, and 23 of those students were found to have maintained this skill at a follow-up measurement 8 months later. A social validity survey of the teachers found that they reported that it had been necessary and effective to choose common objectives and use common instruction methods. The discussion points out the diffıculty in developing and implementing a system that reduces teachers' burdens without increasing the number of instruction methods that teachers have to use.
