Violence in South African schools has various negative effects on learners. These effects include loss of concentration, poor academic performance, playing truant, and depression. School violence also affects the psychological well-being of learners, leading to absenteeism and difficulty in paying attention in class. Furthermore, school violence…

Social Stories (also known as social narratives) help individuals participate in and understand social situations. This scoping review identifies and synthesizes social narrative research targeting behavior change in individuals with ASD. Using the following questions as a guide: (a) What is the scope of social narrative interventions used for…

The Teaching Personal and Social Responsibility (TPSR) model has been widely utilized in school-based and out-of-school sports and physical activity settings to promote children's meaningful and transferable life skills. The purpose of this systematic literature review was to identify the process elements and the product outcomes of TPSR-based…

The purpose of this quantitative synthesis was to evaluate the effectiveness and related outcomes of the cross-age tutoring model when students with or at risk for emotional-behavioral disorders (EBD) serve as tutors. Research questions were posed to identify the shared and unique components (e.g., dosage, tutor training) of the cross-age tutoring…

Communicating with peers often poses challenges for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD); these social interactions, however, can be especially difficult during the teenage years. For many adolescents with ASD, peer interaction is often limited or nonexistent, even for those taught in general education settings. The purpose of this…

Social narratives (e.g., Social Stories™) are common antecedent-based interventions promoted for the purposes of improving prosocial behaviors and reducing challenging behavior for children with and without disabilities. Although they are commonly prescribed and used, their effectiveness has almost exclusively been assessed for children with…

Students with significant behavioral and social problems experience some of the poorest outcomes in school and beyond. It is imperative, therefore, that educational researchers and school-based professionals address the needs of students who exhibit maladaptive behavior to alter their poor outcome trajectory. Social problem-solving (SPS)…

Social stories are a commonly empirically evaluated and implemented procedure to increase pro-social behaviors and decrease aberrant behaviors for individuals diagnosed with an autism spectrum disorder. Despite their widespread use there have been questions raised to the soundness of the research methodology and the results which have been…

This paper synthesizes the findings of social skills interventions conducted with 3- to 5-year-old children with disabilities between 1975 and 1999. Provided are study purposes, procedures, measures, and findings as well as analysis of effect size outcomes. Positive outcomes were associated with a range of interventions, including modeling,…

The authors review research on techniques to change social behavior, ranging from relatively simple manipulations of antecedent and consequent conditions to complex instructional "packages" involving didactic, modeling, rehearsal, and feedback procedures and examine issues involved in generalization of social skills training as well as ethical…

This article reviews the components of social validation and how they apply to social skills assessment for people with disabilities. Components include the social importance of the intervention outcomes, the social significance of the goals, the appropriateness of the procedures, and determination of the optimal levels for target behaviors.…

This article surveys the past 35 years of social interaction research relating to autism. Ways in which understanding social deficits in autism has influenced attempts to analyze and ameliorate problem behaviors are discussed, and emerging concepts relating to social interaction are examined, including the importance of maintaining social…

This article explores the purposes, methods, and future directions of social-skill training research from the perspective of a cognitive-social learning explanation of behavior change. Research findings are reviewed with respect to important or promising variables, their hypothesized function in behavior change, and their effects on children's…

Reviews the literature on the use of music therapy with visually impaired and socially isolated children. Describes ways that music therapy can help the child explore his environment, modify blindisms (stereotypic, autistic-like behaviors), and encourage social awareness and interaction with other children. (DB)

The article reviews the recent literature dealing with teaching autistic children acceptable behaviors using behavior modification techniques. (DLS)