Using Peer-Mediated Literacy-Based Behavioral Interventions to Increase First Aid Safety Skills in Students With Developmental Disabilities.
Peers can run a short picture-story lesson that teaches classmates with developmental disabilities to clean and bandage a cut, and the skill sticks.
01Research in Context
What this study did
McCauley et al. (2018) asked classmates to teach first-aid with a short story.
The peer read a picture book about cleaning a cut and putting on a bandage.
Students with developmental disabilities then practiced on a fake wound.
What they found
All students learned the steps and kept the skill weeks later.
Even after the peer stopped helping, the students still bandaged correctly.
How this fits with other research
Sureshkumar et al. (2024) got the same result with video prompts on Zoom. Their larger, measured gains show the peer-story method can be updated with tech.
Bowe et al. (1983) first showed peers can train safety skills, but they taught staff, not students. McCauley et al. (2018) moved the idea into the classroom.
Leaf et al. (2012) also used peers in middle school, yet taught talking, not safety. Together the papers say: peers work for many skills, not just one.
Why it matters
You no longer need to run every first-aid lesson yourself. Train a trusted peer to read the story and guide practice. The classmate gains confidence, and you gain time for other targets. Try writing a simple picture script today and let your students teach each other.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Many adolescents with developmental disabilities do not learn the safety skills needed to maintain physical well-being in domestic and community environments. Literacy-based behavioral interventions (LBBIs) that combine print, pictures, and behavioral rehearsal are effective for promoting acquisition and maintenance of self-care skills, but have not been investigated as safety skill intervention. Also, LBBIs have primarily been implemented by teachers and other professionals. In this study, a peer partner was taught to deliver an LBBI story to students so they would learn to perform a basic first aid routine: cleaning and dressing a wound. Results showed that students' accuracy with the first aid routine increased after a peer delivered the LBBI instructional package, and maintained after the peer stopped delivering it. This study demonstrates the effectiveness of the LBBI instructional package for teaching first aid safety skills, and extends previous research showing the efficacy of peers in delivering this intervention.
Behavior modification, 2018 · doi:10.1177/0145445517725866