The Effect of Behavioral Skills Training on the Accuracy of Discrete-Trial Teaching Implementation for Parents of Children with Developmental Disabilities

Shin et al. (2021) tested a short parent-training package. The package had four parts: written steps, a demo, practice, and quick feedback.

Three parents of children with developmental delays joined. Each parent learned to run short DTT trials at home. The team used a multiple-baseline design to track parent accuracy.

All parents jumped to high DTT accuracy after the feedback round. Two parents hit mastery right away. Their good scores stayed high when the team checked later.

Cruz et al. (2023) extends these results upward. They gave BCBAs the same BST package. Better BCBA supervision then lifted therapist DTT scores, showing the model works at every level.

de Souza et al. (2023) offers a conceptual replication in Brazil. One part of BST — brief role-play — was enough to keep staff DTT fidelity high while teaching PEAK lessons. The pattern matches Shin, but shows you can trim the package and still win.

Ampuero et al. (2025) shifts the skill set sideways. One BST session got preservice teachers to 90 % fidelity on an icon-exchange program. The quick, large gain mirrors Shin’s parent data, proving BST power is not tied to one procedure.

You can hand parents a one-page script, show a demo, run two practice trials, give feedback, and walk out confident they will teach correctly later. Use the same four-step loop when you train staff or teachers. The literature chain says: keep it short, keep it BST, and fidelity follows.