The impact of behavioural skills training on the knowledge, skills and well-being of front line staff in the intellectual disability sector: a clustered randomised control trial.
One day of BST plus coaching gives residential staff clear knowledge gains and real use of key ABA skills.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Gormley and colleagues ran a cluster-randomized trial in Irish and U.K. adult services.
They gave 54 front-line staff a one-day BST workshop plus on-the-job coaching.
Fifty similar staff served as controls. The package covered reinforcement, prompting, FCT and task analysis.
What they found
Staff who got BST scored much higher on knowledge tests.
They also used the skills more often with the adults they served.
Well-being did not change, but learning and on-the-job action did.
How this fits with other research
Bhaumik et al. (2008) did a smaller quasi-test in Hong Kong homes and saw the same kind of gains. Their six sessions match Gormley’s one-day plus coaching model, showing the recipe still works 11 years later.
Harper et al. (2023) moved the same BST steps to a new task—meeting prep—and hit near-perfect staff scores. This tells you the method travels across job duties.
Matson et al. (2009) swapped outside coaches for peer trainers and still lifted staff interactions. The results line up, giving you two trainer options: outside expert or in-house champion.
Why it matters
You can lift staff knowledge and real-world use with a short, low-cost BST bundle. Run a one-day workshop, add brief coaching visits, and watch reinforcement, prompting, FCT and task analysis show up on the floor. No extra wellness data is promised, but better practice is.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
BACKGROUND Staff with varying backgrounds and educational qualifications can be effectively trained to implement procedures in line with evidence-based practice. Behavioural skills training (BST) is a competency-based training model used to effectively educate a broad selection of professionals, including front line staff, in a range of work-related skills. However, BST has yet to be evaluated in a large group-based experiment. METHODS This study involved a parallel cluster randomised control trial. Six service sites, with a total of 54 participants, were randomised to the intervention condition using the 'coin toss' method. The intervention condition used BST to coach intellectual disability staff in reinforcement, systematic prompting, functional communication training and task analysis. Six service sites, with a total of 50 participants, were also randomised to a control condition in which generalised training in behavioural interventions was restricted. Recruited service sites were randomly assigned to the intervention condition (N = 6, n = 54) or the control condition (N = 6, n = 50) at one point in time, immediately after recruitment and before baseline testing took place. Allocations were stratified by service type (residential or day) and geographical region. One member of the research team allocated service sites using the 'coin toss' method, and another member, blind to the allocations, decided which experimental arm would receive the intervention and which would be designated as control. It was not possible to mask the intervention from participants, but they were recruited prior to randomisation. RESULTS Participants in the intervention condition demonstrated statistically significant improvements in their knowledge scores over the study period. Participants in the control condition showed no change or a statistically significant decrease in their knowledge scores. No statistically significant changes to well-being were observed for either group. There was clear evidence of knowledge maintenance, as well as skill acquisition and subsequent generalisation to the workplace environment, among participants in the intervention condition. Participants also evaluated the BST intervention positively. CONCLUSIONS Results support BST as a method for disseminating evidence-based practice to front line staff working with adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Journal of intellectual disability research : JIDR, 2019 · doi:10.1111/jir.12630