The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) on reducing unsafe playground behavior of young children at school and subsequently, if necessary, the additive effects of a brief time-out. The DRO procedure was effective in eliminating unsafe behavior for one of four participants. The…

Children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder are at high risk of being bullied, but research on teaching children with autism self-protection skills for bullying situations is scant. We taught five children self-protection skills for two types of bullying (threats and unkind remarks) and consecutive bullying occurrences. We first evaluated…

In synchronous-reinforcement schedules, the duration of behavior directly controls the duration of reinforcement on a moment-to-moment basis. We replicated and extended Diaz de Villegas et al. (2020) by comparing the effects of synchronous reinforcement with two accumulated-reinforcement schedules for increasing on-task behavior for seven…

We conducted a scoping review on the consecutive controlled case series (CCCS) methodology (Hagopian, 2020). The CCCS is an approach to studying functional relations across a series of consecutive cases that share common features. We identified and reviewed 76 studies that used CCCS methodology. Most of these (a) were retrospective CCCS studies…

Among the developmental milestones related to language and communication in early childhood, one that has been the subject of considerable research is response to name (RTN). Delayed or absent RTN in early childhood is a diagnostic marker for autism spectrum disorder and a target behavior in many early intervention curricula. This article…

Young children break rules (i.e., transgress) and then lie about those transgressions. By adolescence, lying is associated with decreased trust, communication, and quality of relationships, and with befriending antisocial peers. To decrease lies, we replicated differentially reinforcing honest reports about transgressions for one 6-year-old…

Behavior analysts and educators often recommend using praise, particularly descriptive praise, despite mixed empirical findings to support this recommendation. We evaluated the effectiveness of praise as a reinforcer during a reinforcer assessment using known tasks with preschoolers in Experiment 1. Praise functioned as a reinforcer for 2 of 6…

SARS-CoV-2 is the virus causing COVID-19 and is spread through close person-to-person contact. The use of face masks has been described as an important strategy to slow its transmission. We evaluated the effects of coaching caregivers via telehealth technologies to teach face mask wearing to children with autism spectrum disorder. Six participants…

Young children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder often require systematic teaching to learn new skills, and caregivers can teach their children by embedding learning opportunities in a play-based context. However, researchers have not evaluated procedures to train caregivers how to implement a combination of strategies designed to establish…

Law enforcement agencies stress that public reporting of terror-related crime is the predominant means for disrupting these actions. However, schools may be unprepared because the majority of the populace may not understand the threat of suspicious materials or what to do when they are found on school grounds. The purpose of this study was to…

We compared the effects of Lag 0 and Lag 1 schedules of reinforcement on children's responses naming category items in a group context and subsequent responses emitted during individual testing in which the schedule of reinforcement remained Lag 0. Specifically, we measured response variability and novel responses to categories for 3 children who…

We evaluated the emergence of untaught second-language skills following directly taught listener and intraverbal responses. Three preschool children were taught first-language (English) listener responses (e.g., "Point to the horse") and second-language (Welsh) intraverbal responses (e.g., "What is horse in Welsh?" [ceffyl]).…

A multiple baseline design across participants was used to demonstrate the effects of a script-training procedure on the peer-to-peer communication of 3 children with autism spectrum disorder during group play with peers. Both scripted and unscripted initiations as well as responses to peers increased for all 3 participants. Stimulus…

We compared the effects of escape extinction (EE) plus noncontingent reinforcement (NCR) with sensory integration therapy as treatment for the feeding problems of 2 children. Results indicated that EE plus NCR was more effective in increasing acceptance, decreasing inappropriate behavior, and increasing amount consumed relative to sensory…

Children with autism often demonstrate less variable behavior than their typically developing peers and those with other cognitive disabilities. A possible reason for lack of response variability emitted by children with autism is that they do not have a variety of response forms in their repertoire. Multiple-exemplar training through the use of…