We evaluated the effects of the preschool life skills program (PLS; Hanley, Heal, Tiger, & Ingvarsson, 2007) on the acquisition and maintenance of functional communication and self-control skills, as well as its effect on problem behavior, of small groups of preschoolers at risk for school failure. Six children were taught to request teacher…

Three children with autism were taught abduction-prevention skills using behavioral skills training with in situ feedback. All children acquired the skills, which were maintained at a 1-month follow-up assessment. In addition, 1 of the children demonstrated the skills during a stimulus generalization probe in a community setting. (Contains 1…

Bullying behaviors are a growing concern in U.S. schools. We present here a behavioral approach to bully prevention utilizing a schoolwide intervention. Bully prevention in positive behavior support (BP-PBS) teaches students to withhold the social rewards hypothesized to maintain bullying. A single-subject multiple baseline design across 6…

Hundreds of accidental injuries and deaths to children occur annually in the United States as a result of firearm play. Behavioral skills training (BST) and in situ training have been found to be effective in teaching children the skills to use if they find a firearm, but training requires substantial time and effort. The current study examined…

Automobile crashes are the leading cause of death for those aged 3 to 33, with 43,005 (118 per day) Americans killed in 2002 alone. Seat belt use reduces the risk of serious injury in an accident, and refraining from using a cell phone while driving reduces the risk of an accident. Cell phone use while driving increases accident rates, and leads…

Exposure and response prevention (ERP) was evaluated as treatment for three repetitive behaviors in an 11-year-old boy using a multiple baseline across behaviors design. The repetitive behaviors and associated self-reported distress were eliminated. At 3-month follow-up, the frequency for two of the three behaviors returned to baseline levels.…

Four young mothers with one-year-old infants were successfully taught to reduce their children's potential for injury in the home through interventions which included increasing positive interactions with the infant, child-proofing the home, using playpen time-out for potentially dangerous behaviors, and giving positive attention for safe…

Kindergarten and first-grade children (N=74) were assigned to four experimental conditions designed to evaluate methods of teaching self-protection. A videotape training program accompanied by behavior rehearsal proved highly effective in teaching safe responses to potential abductors. Three-fourths of those who received no training immediately…

A commercially available sexual abuse and abduction training program did not produce changes in personal safety knowledge or skills in two groups of preschoolers (N=24), whether or not added instructions were given. Subsequent behavioral skills training (instructions, rehearsal, modeling, praise, feedback) produced criterion performance in all…

This study assessed the effectiveness of posting signs for reducing graffiti in three men's restrooms on a college campus. Immediately following the intervention, no marks were made, and results were maintained at three-month follow-up. A possible explanation for the results is that the signs specified an altruistic contingency. (Author/DB)

Specific points of question and concern are presented in response to Stephen Fawcett's paper on community research and action values (EC 602 711). These include who decides on community intervention priorities? who should be the target of preventive interventions? and what about problems that cannot be solved with local resources? (JDD)

A socially valid behavior-change intervention is broadly defined to be directed to a problem of verifiable importance, be accepted and used appropriately by target groups, and reduce substantially the probability of the problem's occurrence in target populations. The definition is applied to a family-based program to prevent human immunodeficiency…