Teaching safety skills to children to prevent gun play.

Eight preschoolers learned a four-step safety rule: Stop, Don’t Touch, Leave, Tell.

First the kids got standard BST: the trainer explained, modeled, let them rehearse, and gave feedback.

Next the trainer watched each child during real free play. Five kids still made errors, so the trainer added quick in-situ practice until all eight passed the test.

After BST alone, only three kids used the rule perfectly when they saw a real toy gun.

One short round of in-situ practice fixed the rest; all eight passed the next day.

Two to eight weeks later every child still followed the rule with new adults and new toys.

Davenport et al. (2019) used the same BST script with teachers and hit a large share fidelity right away. Kids need more reps than adults, so the extra in-situ step makes sense.

Denegri et al. (2025) also had to add a second package (ACT) after BST to reach mastery with RBTs. Together the three studies show: rehearsal plus feedback is great, but many learners still need a real-world booster.

Tanguay et al. (1982) taught preschoolers self-instruction for seat-work and saw generalization without extra practice. Safety skills are different; one mistake is fatal, so the tighter mastery criterion justifies the added in-situ layer.

If you run BST for safety, plan one short in-situ check the same day. Half of typical preschoolers will need it, and it only takes five minutes. Build this step into your lesson plan so you don’t discover gaps weeks later.