Remote training of educators in Taiwan to disseminate discrete trial training for students with developmental disabilities

Abstract

Educators in many areas of the world lack the necessary resources and training to serve students with developmental disabilities effectively. Telehealth technologies and a train-the-trainer approach may help disseminate evidence-based instructional strategies to teachers in underserved areas. In this study, experimenters combined synchronous and asynchronous remote training to prepare six teachers in Taiwan to implement discrete trial training (DTT) with students. First, the experimenter taught three teachers from a private school to implement DTT with their students. Then, they trained these participants to teach another educator at their school. Finally, the three teachers trained those additional educators. Results indicated that the training was effective for all participants and that the DTT skills of the three trainers maintained over time and transferred to their in-classroom instruction. These findings replicate and extend the current literature suggesting that the use of telehealth and a train-the-trainer model is a promising and socially valid method for disseminating ABA to countries with limited resources.