Lattimore, L.P., Parsons, M.B., & Reid, D.H. (2006). Enhancing job-site training of supported workers with autism: A reemphasis on simulation.  JABA, 39, 91-102. 

• Best practice - supported, community employment
• severe disabilities - have not had the benefits of supported employment
  • many end up in sheltered workshops
  • we need better supports than what is out there
  • very little research on how to train individuals with severe disabilities for supported employment
• most instruction on the job
  • movement - adults should be in the natural environment as opposed to a segregated environment
  • train and place often fails - when training prior to immersion in the natural environment
    • generalization often an issue
  • is on the job training the best way to go about intervention?
    • placements short - not enough time to train
• some evidence that simulations can work
  • work in the 70s and 80s that simulations can teach survival skills
  • generalization was probed in the community
• simulations - often used for individuals with severe disabilities
  • not as much for suppored employment
  • Parsons, Reid, Green & Browning, 2001
  • might be a good way to supplement on the job training?
    • more time
    • more trials to practice
• current study - on the job training + simulation used
• this is an interesting design - one that I might adopt
• Methods
  • small publishing company
  • 4 participants - did clerical and cleaning tasks
  • simulation - adult education building for residential program
    • classroom
    • training carried out by job coach - 9 years of experience
  • all participants had autism and severe/profound MR
  • 29-40 years old
    • one was Deaf
  • little verbal skills
  • all had challenging behavior
• tasks
  • prepare envelopes for mailing
  • emptying trash cans
  • prepare packing paper
• each step was task analyzed - dependent % steps independent
• 10s in baseline and treatment - that long????
  • used a reposition probe for baseline - repositioning was done out of the person's sight
  • if the worker made a mistake - interrupted and repositioned
  • 2 probes per day
• IOA adequate
• Baselines
  • 1.5 hour workday
  • job-site training sessions - conducted by same job coach - 15 minutes for training on new tasks
• training
  • each session - 3 trials
    • most-to-least physical prompting
    • verbal and gestural prompting
  • praise was used as a reinforcer
  • shadowing was faded as workers were more proficient
  • considered mastered when 80% of task analysis was correct
  • job site plus simulation training
    • exemplars were identical to the ones used at the job site whenever possible
  • once met 80% criterion - workers did the job as a routine
• design - multiple probe across workers and tasks
  • also a multielement design across workers
  • 2 workers were counterbalanced for two tasks (job site only and job site + simulation) - in pairs
• results
  • 3/4 comparisions - higher task performance or more rapid progress to criterion
  • trash was not as effective - could have been the exemplars?
  • baseline also seemed quite variable
  • improvements immediate when seen
• discussion
  • tends to be quicker with supplementiation as opposed to just on-the-job training
  • more evident for the workers with the shorter work schedule
  • the workers who worked 2x/week were a little less successful
  • should not be interpreted as a way to resurrect train and place - more of a supplement
  • could have just been the number of trials to criterion
  • when jobs are not completed by the worker
    • they are left undone
    • they are done by the job coach
      • both undesirable outcomes
    • training with simulation allows the mistakes to be lower-stakes