Training behavioral technicians mainly focuses on teaching accurate implementation of structured behavioral intervention programs. Often behavioral technicians are unable to adequately promote their clients' learning in less structured environments, which can limit opportunities for generalization of the clients' skills to the natural environment. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using behavioral skills training to coach behavioral technicians on the implementation of naturalistic behavioral interventions. Naturalistic behavioral interventions take advantage of naturally occurring situations to teach new skills and practice mastered skills in natural settings, thus promoting generalization across environments and in the presence of natural contingencies. Five behavioral technicians were trained to implement a novel protocol based on play therapy. Specifically, they were coached to engage in well-defined positive behaviors during their interactions with clients (e.g., labeled praise). All participants reached mastery criteria, maintained skills at follow-up, and demonstrated generalization of skills with novel clients. KEYWORDS behavioral skills training, early intervention, incidental teaching, naturalistic behavioral interventions, staff training The authors have no conflict of interest to report. This study was conducted in compliance with ethical guidelines of the Institutional Review Board of Florida Institute of Technology under approval #17-208.

Slaton and Hanley (2016) compared the effects of multiple and chained schedules on stereotypy and item engagement for 2 individuals who exhibited automatically maintained motor stereotypy. Contingent access to motor stereotypy (i.e., chained schedules) was more effective than time‐based access (i.e., multiple schedules) at reducing motor stereotypy, increasing item engagement, and establishing stimulus control for both participants. We systematically replicated Slaton and Hanley with 2 participants by a) targeting vocal stereotypy, b) including response interruption and redirection as a treatment component across conditions, c) conducting sessions in the natural environment with teaching assistants as change agents, and d) conducting an analysis of the effective treatment component(s). Chained schedules were more effective for 1 participant, whereas both treatments were effective for the other participant. The component analysis showed that different components were necessary for effective treatment for each participant.

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Individuals’ preferences for environmental stimuli bear significantly on their responses to behavioral assessment and intervention. In this study, we assessed the relationship between participants’ history of access to preferred stimuli and changes in preference for those stimuli over time. For three participants, we conducted preference assessments in multiple formats to identify similarly (moderately) preferred stimuli. We then randomly assigned these stimuli to one of the following conditions: (a) free access, (b) denied access (i.e., items were routinely presented and then taken away), or (c) hidden (i.e., out of view). Following extended exposure to these conditions (60–75 days), we repeated preference assessments using the same formats and stimuli. All three participants demonstrated an increased preference for stimuli with a history of denied access. For one participant, a progressive ratio reinforcer assessment indicated similar shifts in reinforcing efficacy across conditions. We discuss the implications of these findings in relation to prominent cognitive and behavioral explanations, respectively.

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