Physical aggression among institutionalized mentally retarded persons arouses great social concern. To examine the effectiveness of four-point mechanical restraints and a positive adaptive symbol program in the reduction of high frequency, high intensity aggression, three institutionalized severely mentally retarded adolescents (2 females, 1 male)…

A cognitive, nonintrusive method of controlling head-rocking behavior in an 11-year-old blind subject involved having the boy place his hand on his cheek or chin when prompted that he was rocking his head. The subject demonstrated significant decreases in head rocking during intervention and generalization during followup. (Author/JDD)

Four major theoretical approaches to increasing classroom work involvement (Behavior modification, understanding individual causal dynamics, influence interventions, and ecology of behavior) are examined. The ecology of behavior approach, felt to be the most potentially useful, examines factors in the classroom environment enabling high work…

Research on environmental strategies to increase positive peer interactions has been conducted on a wide range of children, including 2- to 5-year-old typically developing children and children with a variety of developmental and social disabilities. Intervention efforts have been successful with both typically developing children and children…

Research suggests that the use of positive social skills with peers early on can lead to the development of positive peer relationships, acceptance, and friendships. Although many children develop these positive social skills naturally, some children do not. Children who are withdrawn as well as young children with mental retardation, autism,…

The paper discusses approaches designed to reduce, eliminate, or replace unconventional behavior in individuals with severe disabilities. Emphasis is placed on the need to analyze the communicative functions of behavior and to facilitate the development of an individual's communication system. A case example of a four-year-old nonverbal child is…

When two nonhandicapped peers of an autistic five-year old were trained to initiate social interaction, social interaction increased and then dramatically decreased in a reversal phase, and no decrease in the autistic child's disruptive behaviors was observed. When the autistic child was trained to initiate interaction, social interaction…

This document discusses the culture and lifestyle appropriate social skills intervention curriculum or CLASSIC, a 15-session social skills training program that is designed to be administered in a small group format to children and adolescents. The first chapter addresses the role of CLASSIC in the history of social skills training for children…

Studies that show the effectiveness of self-management have been conducted with young children who have behavior problems, children with developmental delays, children at-risk, and children with identified disabilities. This "What Works Brief" presents strategies for teaching young children to manage their own behavior. It uses a simple format…

A review of nine studies on the efficacy of metacognitive interpersonal problem-solving training with students who have learning and behavior problems found demonstrated cognitive gains but less success in demonstrating that such gains were subsequently applied to actual behavior or generalized to other social behavior. (DB)

Reports on a 3-year study of 855 adults who quantified reasons for choosing 1 conflicting behavior with another. Finds that, when the reasons to do something are roughly equal to the reasons against doing it, extraneous effects from the participants "life-world" often interfere as moral temptations. (CFR)

Three mentally retarded students (ages 9-12) who exhibited challenging behaviors to escape from academic demands and to receive social attention were taught alternative assistance-seeking and attention-getting phrases. Data indicated that the intervention reduced challenging behavior. The results transferred across settings, and were maintained 18…

This manual and the accompanying videotape are designed to provide a practical way to teach social skills to all students in grades K-8, including students with disabilities, in the classroom and across other school settings. The strategy's collaborative approach was designed for general and special education teachers who are working with other…

Research has indicated a strong relationship between low peer status in childhood of children with and without and later problems in adolescence and adulthood and children with social deficits often show similar patterns of behavior. They may be withdrawn and hesitant to interact with peers, socially aloof and "unaware" of their peers, or they may…

Discusses a previous study of the operational and sociomoral reasoning of 70 congenitally deaf children. Reports that, although the results indicated no differences between the hearing and nonhearing students on the development of sociomoral reasoning, the researchers still advocated intervention programs. (CFR)