Evaluation of Broad Skill Repertoire Changes Over 3 Months of PEAK Implementation in a Special Education Classroom
Three months of full PEAK in class gives about 11 mastered programs and 40-point assessment gains per child.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Belisle et al. (2022) ran PEAK Relational Training in a special-ed classroom for three months.
Five children with disabilities joined the class. The team tracked how many PEAK programs each child mastered and how their PEAK assessment scores changed.
What they found
Every child mastered about 11 PEAK programs and gained roughly 40 points on the PEAK assessment.
These gains happened during normal class time with the teacher already on staff.
How this fits with other research
Dixon et al. (2018) got similar results with three adults with autism. They also saw VB-MAPP gains after PEAK training. The new study shows the same system works for school-aged kids in a classroom.
Dunkel-Jackson et al. (2018) and Dixon et al. (2017) used single PEAK modules and still saw strong language gains. Belisle et al. (2022) used the full system and still saw broad growth, so you do not have to pick just one module.
Linstead et al. (2017) found that more hours and longer treatment give bigger gains. Belisle’s three-month, daily class schedule lines up with that dose advice.
Why it matters
You can bring PEAK into any special-ed classroom without extra staff. Run it during the usual day and still see clear skill jumps. Track the child’s PEAK score each month to show parents and administrators real numbers.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
The Promoting the Emergence of Advanced Knowledge (PEAK) Relational Training System provides a comprehensive language and cognition training strategy for use with children with disabilities. In the present study, we conducted PEAK within a special education classroom over the course of 3 months, and language and cognitive skills were assessed using the PEAK Comprehensive Assessment (PCA). On average, each of the five participants mastered 11.2 target programs across PEAK modules with an average of 186.4 new verbal behaviors or supporting behaviors. All participants showed an increase on the PCA following the intervention, with an average increase of 39.6 correct responses, and parents and staff reported improvements in participants’ use of language at home and at school relative to prior semesters. The online version contains supplementary material available at 10.1007/s40617-021-00657-6.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2022 · doi:10.1007/s40617-021-00657-6