Confecção e avaliação de um vídeo para ensinar professores a identificarem as preferências de estudantes com transtornos do espectro autista

Abstract

Identifying preferred items, which can influence motivational processes and function as reinforcers, is a critical component of educational interventions with individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). For this reason and for the intervention to be carried out by teachers, they need to know how to identify the preferences of their students with ASD. A procedure that has been used to train teachers to identify their students preferences is video modeling. One of the advantages of this procedure is that the presence of a staff trainer is not required, which reduces the costs of staff training on the implementation of procedures based on Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA). Considering the importance to extend the acess of teachers to interventions based on ABA, the purpose of the present study was to verify the effects of video modeling on the implementation of paired-stimulus preference assessment by teachers of students with ASD. Two studies were conducted. The purpose of Study 1 was to make and validate a video to teach the implementation of paired-stimulus preference assessment. The video presents a description of the critical steps of a paired-stimulus preference assessment, which is followed by a video clip of a full assessment. It was validated by six professionals of different areas who stated that the information presented in the video are adequate to its purpose. In Study 2, the effects of the video on the implementation of paired-stimulus preference assessment by four teachers of students with ASD was investigated. We used a nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants. The procedure consisted of three phases: pre-test, video modeling and post-test. All participants conducted at least 90% of the critical steps of a paired-stimulus preference assessment correctly during post-tests. The results contribute to the development of teacher training programs to implement procedures based on ABA.