There is a research-to-practice gap in the identification and use of evidence-based practices in special education. One way to better understand the persistent gap between research and practice and to inform professional development efforts is through gaining an understanding of teacher and paraprofessional perceptions. We conducted a survey study…

Coaching with live observation and immediate performance feedback is an effective means to train paraprofessionals, but might not always be feasible. We used a multiple baseline across participants design with six paraprofessionals who taught elementary students with severe disabilities to test the efficacy of two innovations designed to improve…

Given that students with autism spend the majority of their days in school settings, largely supported by paraprofessionals, it is important that these paraprofessionals receive adequate training. The author investigated a training package consisting of modeling and video-based feedback as a means of enabling paraprofessionals to implement Pivotal…

The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of staff video self-monitoring (SM) training on the accuracy of delivering Discrete Trial Instruction (DTI) to students enrolled in a classroom for children with autism. Staff were trained to self-monitor a five-step DTI trial: (a) delivery of discriminative stimulus, (b) wait time for student…