Students with behavioral and emotional disabilities spend less time on academic instruction due to their behavioral disruptions, contributing to the academic difficulties these students face. Classroom management strategies, in the form of positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS), incorporate principles of applied behavior analysis to…

Functional analytic psychotherapy (FAP) provides a behavioral analysis of the psychotherapy relationship that directly applies basic research findings to outpatient psychotherapy settings. Specifically, FAP suggests that a therapist's in vivo (i.e., in-session) contingent responding to targeted client behaviors, particularly positive reinforcement…

In addressing positive general education teaching practices for use with students with or at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), the chapter emphasizes teacher behavior change research that has been informed by applied behavior analytic (ABA) principles. Its central theme is that general education teachers can access research…

Recent mandates related to the implementation of evidence-based practices for individuals with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) require that autism professionals both understand and are able to implement practices based on the science of applied behavior analysis (ABA). The use of the term "applied behavior analysis" and its related concepts…

In the past two decades, positive behavior support (PBS) has emerged from applied behavior analysis (ABA) as a newly fashioned approach to problems of behavioral adaptation. ABA was established in the 1960s as a science in which learning principles are systematically applied to produce socially important changes in behavior, whereas PBS was…

The articles in this special Practitioner's Edition of "Psychology in the Schools" share the application of sound educational and behavioral practices in real school and classroom contexts. Given this emphasis in these articles on the applied use of behavioral practices, the purpose of this brief commentary is to highlight and comment on some of…

The technique of behavioral contracting is recommended as a highly effective, readily applied technique for use in efforts to strengthen the control of family and school over the behavior of delinquents. A behavioral contract is a means of scheduling the exchange of positive reinforcements among two or more persons. The use of behavioral contracts…

This article describes the use of the precise feedback and negative reinforcement to ameliorate problems at a community health center. Both procedures were successful in improving the performance (returning toys to their appropriate places) of undergraduate paraprofessionals involved in an educational program for disadvantaged children. The study…

This paper describes research activities of the Positive Teaching Project, focusing on the nature of classroom behavior problems viewed by teachers as particularly troublesome, teachers' typical responses to classroom behavior, classroom behavior management strategies based on manipulation of antecedents and natural consequences, and training…