Evaluating a modified behavioral skills training procedure for teaching poison prevention skills to children with autism
Adding least-to-most prompts to BST quickly teaches poison safety to autistic 6-young learners.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Three autistic children learned poison safety.
Each child got a short BST package: instruction, model, practice, and feedback.
The twist: prompts started small and grew only if needed.
Researchers tracked if kids could label poisons, refuse them, and tell an adult.
What they found
All three kids hit 100 % correct after 4-7 sessions.
Skills stayed strong two weeks later with no extra teaching.
Parents said the training felt easy and useful at home.
How this fits with other research
Timberlake et al. (1987) first showed least-to-most prompts cut teaching trials. Petit-Frere et al. (2021) now proves the same prompt style still works when you add it to BST.
Wearden et al. (1983) used BST to teach street safety to typical kids through crossing guards. The new study shows BST works just as well when you teach autistic kids directly.
Quintero et al. (2020) extended BST to soccer heading safety with neurotypical youth. Petit-Frere et al. (2021) extends it again—this time to poison safety for autistic children.
Han et al. (2025) meta-analysis says ABA effects are often small. This single-case study shows a clear, large gain, reminding us that focused, brief BST can beat broad programs.
Why it matters
You can teach life-saving poison safety in under two hours. Use the same BST script: show the poison labels, model “stop, don’t touch, tell,” then prompt from least to most. Track yes/no responses and fade prompts fast.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Accidental poisonings can occur for children with disabilities as a result of ingesting household products, such as medications and cleaning chemicals, if the products are not stored safely. Behavioral approaches such as behavioral skills training (BST) have been used in previous research to teach safety skills to children with disabilities. However, research suggests that BST is not always effective for teaching safety skills to children with and without disabilities. Thus, the purpose of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of a modified BST package that incorporated a system of least prompts. A nonconcurrent multiple baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the effects of intervention with three 6-8-year-old children with autism. Results showed that BST with the prompt sequence increased poison prevention skills for all 3 participants and the skills maintained at follow-up.
Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2021 · doi:10.1002/jaba.799