A sustainable model for training teachers to use pivotal response training.
One in-house coach can train several teachers to 90 % PRT fidelity in days, and the skill sticks.
01Research in Context
What this study did
One staff member learned to coach PRT. She then trained four teachers in an autism classroom.
The coach used short demos, practice, and feedback. Fidelity was checked with a 12-step checklist.
Training kept going until each teacher hit 90 % correct steps. A follow-up probe came six weeks later.
What they found
Every teacher reached 89–100 % fidelity after only four coach visits.
Skills stayed high at follow-up. The coach herself scored 98 % on her own checklist.
One trainer was enough to lift the whole team to mastery level.
How this fits with other research
Slane et al. (2021) looked at 20 studies and found BST always lifts teacher fidelity. Suhrheinrich (2015) is one more brick in that wall.
Agiovlasitis et al. (2025) moved PRT to high-school students and still saw big gains. The train-the-trainer model works across age groups.
Sleiman et al. (2023) got 100 % fidelity with only “teach-back,” no props. Their simpler twist could save even more prep time.
Neely et al. (2022) did the same idea on Zoom with BCBAs. Remote coaching keeps the high-fidelity result, so distance is no barrier.
Why it matters
You don’t need outside experts on site. One trained coach can lift a whole team to 90 % PRT fidelity in under two weeks. Pick a staff member, give her a BST script, and let her run. Check fidelity twice, then fade. Your students get more learning trials on Monday.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The increase in the rate of autism diagnoses has created a growing demand for teachers who are trained to use effective interventions. The train-the-trainer model, which involves training supervisors to train others, may be ideal for providing cost-effective training and ongoing support to teachers. Although research supports interventions, such as pivotal response training, as evidence-based, dissemination to school environments has been problematic. This study assessed the benefits of using the train-the-trainer model to disseminate pivotal response training to school settings. A multiple-baseline design was conducted across three training groups, each consisting of one school staff member (trainer), three special education teachers, and six students. Trainers conducted the teacher-training workshop with high adherence to training protocol and met mastery criteria in their ability to implement pivotal response training, assess implementation of pivotal response training, and provide feedback to teachers. Six of the nine teachers mastered all components of pivotal response training. The remaining three teachers implemented 89% of the pivotal response training components correctly. The majority of trainers and teachers maintained their abilities at follow-up. These results support the use of the train-the-trainer model as an effective method of disseminating evidence-based practices in school settings.
Autism : the international journal of research and practice, 2015 · doi:10.1177/1362361314552200