A need exists for intervention strategies that are both effective in reducing challenging behaviors and practical for use by typical practitioners of early childhood care and education. In this article, we describe a model, "Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for Young Children," which is based on extensive research and includes features designed…

This article describes the efforts funded by the state of Colorado to address unacceptably high rates of expulsion from child care. Based on the results of a 2006 survey, the state of Colorado launched two complementary policy initiatives in 2009 to impact expulsion rates and to improve the use of evidence-based practices related to challenging…

Findings from 2 studies of the relationship between response-contingent child behavior and child, caregiver-child, and caregiver behavior not directly associated with child contingency learning are described. The participants were 19 children with significant developmental delays and their mothers in 1 study and 22 children with significant…

Though behavioral parent training has been demonstrated to be an effective intervention for child behavior problems, it continues to suffer from high attrition rates. Few variables have been found to predict or decrease high attrition rates from parent training classes. The present study found 43-52% increases in attendance rates for parents whose…

Children from low-income families benefit remarkably from exposure to compensatory education that began with Head Start in 1965 and aimed to improve school readiness skills by design. While empirical evidence has supported more instructional time in elementary and secondary schools for low-income students, little is known that whether increasing…

Early childhood programs are growing increasingly concerned about the number of preschoolers exhibiting challenging behavior. This case study describes how educators at the Visiting Nurses Association Child Care and Family Resource Center program addressed this concern by implementing the systems, data, and practices of Program-Wide Positive…

This study investigated the effectiveness of implementing Differential Reinforcement of Other behavior (DRO) at the classwide level to decrease the disruptive behavior of seven typically developing preschool-aged children in a child care setting. After baseline data were collected, a whole interval DRO reinforcement schedule using edible rewards…

Some research suggests a rise in challenging behaviors among children in early care and education. Among the findings are a high rate of removal from preschool classrooms for behavior problems, a possible link between early non-maternal care and aggressive behaviors in preschool, and concerns from teachers that too many children arrive at school…

The perceptions and experiences of hard-to-manage behaviours were explored among 32 staff working in a variety of local authority and private nurseries and playgroups. Semi-structured interviews were conducted to ascertain what behaviours in children staff find most challenging, how they were managed and concerns communicated to parents. Results…