Using Behavioral Skills Training and Equivalence-Based Instruction to Teach Children Safe Responding to Dangerous Stimuli: A Proof of Concept

Over 3,000 children under 10 years old died in 2017 as a result of unintentional injuries (e.g. suffocation, drowning, firearm discharge, burns, and accidental poisonings). Some of these deaths likely occurred when children came across a dangerous item while unsupervised. In the current study two typically developing 4-year-olds were taught to engage in a safety response in the presence of a variety of dangerous stimuli. Behavioral skills training plus in-situ training was used to teach a three-step response in the presence of one dangerous stimulus. Following mastery of this response, equivalence-based instruction was used to create classes of dangerous (i.e., medicine bottle, a lighter, and a handgun) and nondangerous (i.e., container, a flash drive, and a hair dryer) stimuli. Results demonstrated that the addition of equivalence-based instruction to behavioral skills training plus in-situ training was effective at training a safety response across multiple dangerous stimuli.