Public transportation training: in vivo versus classroom instruction.
Classroom simulation teaches students with intellectual disability to ride the bus as well as on-the-bus training, faster and cheaper.
01Research in Context
What this study did
The team compared two ways to teach students with intellectual disability to ride the city bus.
One group learned in a classroom with toy buses, maps, and role-play. The other group practiced on real buses with a trainer.
Both groups got the same steps: instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback.
What they found
Classroom students learned the skill faster and still rode the bus correctly one year later.
Real-bus students also learned, but training took more staff hours and bus fares.
Simulation saved money and time without hurting results.
How this fits with other research
Webb et al. (1999) repeated the idea with catheter training and got the same fast gains, showing the trick works for different self-care tasks.
Berler et al. (1982) looks like a clash: their social-skills role-play stayed in the classroom and never reached the playground. The difference is that Neef et al. (1978) added real bus probes after each lesson, so students practiced the real setting too.
Bachmeyer-Lee et al. (2020) flips the cost claim: they taught feeding protocols with only in-vivo feedback and no rehearsal, beating full BST. Their caregivers needed just quick cues, not hours of rehearsal, reminding us that simpler can sometimes win.
Why it matters
You can teach community safety skills in a classroom first and still see real-world success, as long as you check the real setting soon and often. Next time you plan travel training, start with mock buses and maps, then run quick probe rides. You will cut costs, save staff hours, and keep the same strong results.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This study evaluated a classroom program to teach public transportation usage (bus-riding skills) to retarded persons. Based on a task analysis of specific skills, five retarded male students were taught each of the components of locating, signalling, boarding and riding, and exiting a bus. These skills were taught sequentially, using training procedures consisting of role playing, manipulating the actions of a doll on a simulated model, and responding to questions about slide sequences. Before, during, and after training, subjects were tested on generalization probes in the classroom and in the natural environment. Results of a multiple-baseline design across subjects indicated that up to 12 months after termination of training, each subject exhibited appropriate bus-riding skills on actual city buses. Two other subjects were trained on each skill component in vivo, on city buses, in order to compare the relative effectiveness and efficiency of classroom versus in vivo training. Both of these subjects acquired appropriate bus-riding skills; however, the in vivo training procedure was both more time consuming and expensive than classroom training. These findings further demonstrate the effectiveness and practicality of properly designed classroom training procedures for teaching community survival skills to retarded persons.
Journal of applied behavior analysis, 1978 · doi:10.1901/jaba.1978.11-331