Siblings as Home Trainers: A Strategy for Teaching Domestic Skills to Children

Abstract

This article presents an evaluation of the effectiveness of a sibling training procedure designed to prepare nonhandicapped siblings to teach domestic tasks to their younger siblings with handicaps. A multiple baseline design across three sibling pairs was used to assess (a) the acquisition and generalization of the use of an increased prompt sequence and social praise by the nondisabled siblings, (b) the level of independent skill performance by the siblings with handicaps, and (c) the maintenance of skills acquired by both the nonhandicapped child and the sibling with a disability in the absence of the instructor. Results indicated that the nonhandicapped siblings learned to use the prompt sequence proficiently and consistently; the use of social praise was not as consistent. The acquired skills generalized at levels above baseline when teaching a different task and were maintained at varying levels of proficiency in the absence of the instructor. Finally, the independent skill performance of the siblings with handicaps increased as a result of the training. Implications of these results are discussed in terms of the potential use of siblings as instructional agents for individuals with moderate handicaps.