Coping with challenging behaviours of children with autism: effectiveness of brief training workshop for frontline staff in special education settings

Abstract

In spite of the limited effectiveness of a one-session staff training workshop, continued staff training is still necessary for the improvement of service quality. Further exploration on how to change emotion response of staff is important.

Supporting the education of pupils with profound intellectual and multiple disabilities: the views of teaching assistants regarding their own learning and development needs

“…When considering the training on the management of challenging behaviour, the data from the study illustrated that it lacked breadth and depth, with too strong a focus on behavioural interventions, rather than educating staff on the broader considerations involved, such as the causes of challenging behaviour, individuals' beliefs about challenging behaviour, and the emotional needs of staff; this finding was in line with published research undertaken at other special schools (Hastings, 2005;Ling & Mak, 2012). This research specifically explored the training provided for staff who work with individuals with PIMD, and it would be of interest in future research to explore the type of training provided to staff in mainstream schools who work with students with learning disabilities, given that many of the references to behaviour management in government literature (DfE, 2011(DfE, , 2010 concentrate on 'misbehaviour' rather than on behaviours that can occur as a result of problems with expressive skills and/or difficulties with receptive communication.…”

“…However, while certain aspects of the training need to be done during non-contact time, there are elements of the training that could be provided by trainers working alongside teaching assistants and teachers on a regular basis to educate staff within the school day, and within their working environment (Ling & Mak, 2012). While recent research illustrates the benefits of this comprehensive training approach, there are difficulties for educational establishments providing such extensive training within an already busy school calendar.…”

“…While there is a wealth of research on communication, such as the effectiveness of communication aids and techniques (Firth, Elford, Leeming et al, 2008;Lancioni, O'Reilly, Cuvo et al, 2007) and communication training as part of teacher education (Anderson, 2011;Nind, Kellett & Hopkins, 2001), the paucity of information concerning the impact of teaching assistants' knowledge of the development of communication proficiency in pupils with PIMD is striking. Similarly, much of the disability research on training in the management of challenging behaviours was undertaken in care settings (Van Oorsouw, Embregts, Bosman et al, 2010;Williams, Dagnan, Rodgers et al, 2012), with seemingly fewer studies that specifically assessed the impact of such training in educational settings (Hastings, 2005;Ling & Mak, 2012).…”

“…While recent research illustrates the benefits of this comprehensive training approach, there are difficulties for educational establishments providing such extensive training within an already busy school calendar. However, while certain aspects of the training need to be done during non-contact time, there are elements of the training that could be provided by trainers working alongside teaching assistants and teachers on a regular basis to educate staff within the school day, and within their working environment (Ling & Mak, 2012).…”

Reduce, manage or cope: a review of strategies for training school staff to address challenging behaviours displayed by students with intellectual/developmental disabilities

“…For the Reduce training content category, several studies reported effect sizes and percent change in the frequency of the challenging behaviour (see Figure a). As can be seen in Figure b, in functional assessment training studies, double the number of studies reported percent reductions (range: 24–94%) in the frequency of challenging behaviours (Ellingson, Miltenberger and Stricker et al., ; Erbas, Yucesoy and Turan et al., ; Grey and McClean, ; Machalicek, O'Reilly and Rispoli et al., ; McClean, Dench and Grey et al., ) than reported effect sizes (range: .05–.20) (Grey and McClean, ; Ling and Mak, ). Of the three ABA training studies, two reported large percent change in behaviour of the students and/or the teachers (>80% in all cases) (Frea and Hepburn, ; Grey, Honan and McClean et al., ).…”