Fourth Graders as Trainers of Cafeteria Skills to Severely Handicapped Students

Abstract

The purposes of the present investigation were to design, implement, and verify a peer training program with fourth grade students, to determine if the fourth graders could be instructed to attend appropriately to severely handicapped students, and to determine if severely handicapped students acquire cafeteria skills when fourth graders are the instructional trainers. An ABAB reversal design was used to evaluate training program effectiveness. Results revealed that the training procedures were effective in teaching fourth graders to be instructional trainers. Additionally, two severely handicapped students maintained their high level of independent performance of cafeteria skills and another student continued to increase his performance. Suggestions for future training programs are discussed.