Teaching Safety Skills to Children to Prevent Gun Play: An Evaluation of in Situ Training

Author: Miltenberger, Raymond C. / Gatheridge, Brian J. / Saterlund, Melisa / Egemo-Helm, Kristin R. / Johnson, Brigitte M. / Jostad, Candice / Kelso, Pamela / Flessner, Christopher
Publication: Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis
Link to Published Abstract
Topics: Age Group Education/Counseling Prevention
Keywords: Accidents Children PREVENTION Safety skills TRAINING
Bibliographic information +

This study evaluated the effectiveness of training 4 and 5 year olds not to touch or play with firearms that they encounter. Children were taught that guns are dangerous, and were instructed to: (1) stop, don’t touch; (2) leave the area; and (3) tell an adult, if they found a gun. In the training, the instructor and child role played these recommended actions. Following the brief training, programmers planted guns for each of the 10 child participants to come across. If a child did not carry out the three recommended behavior, an adult intervened and reinforced what the child should have done. This was repeated as many times as it took for the child to perform the three recommended behaviors; it took at least 10, but up to 16 times for some children to do it right. Three months later, a gun was planted for the child to find. All of the children performed the recommended behaviors at follow-up.