Training Staff to Teach People With Severe Disabilities: A Practical, Evidence-Based Approach for Quick Success

Dennis H. Reid, Marsha B. Parsons, and Carolyn W. Green

Sloan Publishing

AKA Training to Teach in A Day

A critical function of agencies that support people with severe disabilities is teaching meaningful skills. To provide effective teaching, agency staff who routinely work directly with clients or students with severe disabilities such as direct support staff and teacher assistants must have the skills to teach this population. This book describes a practical approach for quickly training staff to teach people with severe disabilities. The approach, training-to-teach, was developed through applied research and then evaluated with over 1,000 staff in educational, residential, and community settings. Training-to-teach is presented in step-by-step detail for equipping readers to train staff within one day how to teach, and do so in a manner that has been repeatedly demonstrated to be very well received by staff trainees.

“. . . easy to follow, provides all the necessary tools to train staff . . . systematic and time-efficient . . . a win-win for all involved, most importantly the students” . . . Marsha Yarborough, Consultant, Assistant School Principal (Retired), Summerville, SC

“precision focused training that ensures direct support staff are trained as efficiently as possible . . . the hands-on approach maintains all the components needed to ensure staff can learn to proficiently perform the critical skills of teaching” . . . Jeannia Rollyson, Human Service Agency Staff Trainer, Valdese, NC

SPECIAL HIGHLIGHTS

* based on research and wide-scale application to support training success * precise description of trainer instructions, role plays, and trainee practice activities * trains staff to teach multi-step, functional tasks to learners * repeatedly demonstrated to be effective and well received by staff trainees * ways to facilitate learner progress to reinforce staff teaching performances * how training-to-teach is amenable for distance training via telehealth * key summary points following each chapter * working handouts to use during training*

CHAPTER CONTENTS

Section I: Introduction to Training Staff to Teach

     Chapter 1: Introduction to Training Staff to Teach

     Chapter 2: Overview of the Training-to-Teach Approach

     Chapter 3: Determining the Most Meaningful Skills for Staff to Teach People With Severe Disabilities

Section II: Classroom-Based Training Procedures

     Chapter 4: Training to Use A Task Analysis

     Chapter 5: Training to Prompt Learner Responses

     Chapter 6: Training to Correct Learner Responses

     Chapter 7: Training to Reinforce Correct Learner Responses

     Chapter 8: Training to Teach in A Synthesized Manner

Section III: Promoting and Maintaining Staff Teaching Skills On The Job

     Chapter 9: On-The-Job Training

     Chapter 10: Maintaining Staff Teaching Skills

Section IV: Use of Visual Media During Training

     Chapter 11: Supplementing Training-to-Teach with Media-Based Components

Section V: Selected Readings and Appendices (Work Sheets for Trainers and Trainees)

ISBN 978-1-59738-110-9     Published 2021     169 Pages