High school students often encounter a range of challenges related to adolescence, future career uncertainty, family expectations, and societal pressures to succeed and excel. Addressing these issues requires targeted psychological support, particularly in enhancing academic self-efficacy (SE) and reducing pessimistic tendencies -- two constructs…

School belonging encompasses many complex psychosocial and interpersonal components in the classroom. Teacher-student relationships are the cornerstone of school belonging and can predict student success in the secondary grades. In this qualitative study, interviews with nine high school teachers provided insight into how they viewed their role in…

This dissertation is an exploration of the experiences and perceptions the behavior support plan (BSP) had on individuals placed into residential services or an independent living facility through a state waiver in Indianapolis, Indiana. Autistic high school graduates were addressed in this study to look at the various behaviors they faced when…

When a functional communication response (FCR) can be reliably occasioned, destructive behavior tends to be lower. However, the form of FCR may affect the durability of functional communication training, as missing FCR materials may promote resurgence. Experiment 1 demonstrated that resurgence of target responding was lower when a vocal FCR…

Purpose: The Check-in Check-out (CICO) program is a Tier II behavioral intervention that has received empirical support as an effective way to reduce problem behaviors (Hawken and amp; Horner, 2003; March & Horner, 2002). The purpose of this study is to use an intervention that combined CICO with social skill instruction and academic planning…

Describing demographic variables (e.g., ethnicity/race, socioeconomic status, gender/sex, age) of participants may be important for identifying relations between these variables and behavior-analytic procedures. Previous research found that demographic variables were underreported in behavior-analytic studies dealing with particular populations…

Behavior skills training (BST) has been shown to be an effective strategy for teaching new skills. Given the evidence suggesting its efficacy for use as a training package, BST should be considered as an option for training future behavior analysts to implement behavior change strategies. Further, training future practitioners to engage in…

Supporting students with emotional disturbance/behavioural disorder (EBD) in mainstream schools is complex. An alternative school-based model of provision for students with EBD, titled the Altered Provision Project (APP), was piloted in the Irish mainstream post-primary schools. The rationale behind APP was that students with EBD require…

Seating that allows movement is commonly suggested to enhance postural activation, attention, and behavior. The study examined the effects of ball chair seating on legibility, student behavior, and classroom productivity. In two consecutive years, in an ABAB design, first grade students alternated by weeks between standard seating (A phases) and…

Children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD) seemingly prefer tablets to other methods of intervention, though professionals posit that a therapist's presence is beneficial. In this experiment, two unique e-stories were created specifically for children with ASD. Ten children with low- or nonverbal ASD heard each story presented on an iPad; one…

Due to the increasing number of students in need of special education services and the shortages of licensed special education personnel, paraeducators have become a critical component in the education of students with autism in school settings. Due to this, the training of paraeducators is a critical concern for human service as well as…

Children with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) frequently engage in escape-maintained problem behavior, which can limit their access to academic instruction and lead to placement in more restrictive educational settings. While there are function-based interventions to treat escape-maintained problem behavior, these interventions…

Background: Positive Behavioural Support (PBS) has been shown to be effective in minimizing challenging behaviour and improving the lives of people with intellectual disabilities. Training in PBS is an important factor in achieving good coverage in the use of PBS. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of training managers of social care…

School-Wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports (SWPBIS) is an evidence-based framework that provides a continuum of supports for students across multiple tiers (Tiers 1, 2, and 3). The implementation of SWPBIS is associated with improvements in student behavior, academic outcomes, and school climate (Bradshaw, Koth, Bevans, Ialongo,…

Deliberate practice exercises provide trainees and students an opportunity to build competence essential rational emotive behavior therapy (REBT) skills while developing their own personal therapeutic style. These exercises present role-playing scenarios in which two trainees act as a client and a clinician, switching back and forth under the…