Intentions to implement: predicting the use of pivotal response training (PRT) in public school autistic support classrooms

Michelle Marie Nutini

doi:10.17918/n6ar-p088

Within the last two decades, increased attention has been placed on the identification and implementation of evidence-based practices for students with autism in school settings consistent with federal legislation, regulatory guidance, case law, and the impetus to improve outcomes for such individuals. However, even with an increasing wealth of studies investigating the extensive research-to-practice gap as related to community and public school settings, there remains an additional gap in understanding what elements inspire teachers to implement interventions in their classrooms. The purpose of this mixed method phenomenological research study was to explore autism support teachers' intentions to use and their use of pivotal response training (PRT), a naturalistic evidence-based practice rooted in the principles of applied behavioral analysis. Applying Fishbein and Ajzen's (2010) reasoned action approach (RAA) as a guiding theoretical framework, this research examined how the determinants of intentions (attitudes, social norms, and behavioral control) predicted autism support teachers' intentions and use of this practice with students in their K-5 autistic support classrooms. Employing a QUANTITATIVE-phenomenology (QUAN phen) sequential explanatory approach, this three-phase research study first collected quantitative data to develop and test the associations between constructs, later expanding upon these findings through follow-up phenomenological interviews with a subset of participants to surface factors impacting teachers' ability to act on their intentions and add an additional layer of depth and explanation to the results. The RAA was successful in predicting autism support teachers' intentions to run one-on-one PRT, finding that behavioral control had the statistically strongest relationship with intentions and was a significant predictor of them. The relationship between intentions and use was not found to be statistically significant, suggesting additional factors impacted autism support teachers' use of PRT. Qualitative findings revealed the themes were related and distinctive to autism support teachers' strength of intentions and use of PRT. The findings from this mixed methods study suggest that improving autism support teachers' behavioral control over PRT would increase the strength of their intentions and use of PRT and includes recommendations for practice and future research.

Intentions to implement: predicting the use of pivotal response training (PRT) in public school autistic support classrooms

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Intentions to implement: predicting the use of pivotal response training (PRT) in public school autistic support classrooms

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