"Educator or Bully?" offers a comprehensive approach to classroom management for both novice and veteran teachers who are interested in examining their current classroom management performance, especially with respect to how it reflects the characteristics of the 21st century classroom. Practices presented are based on sound educational theory.…

Research has shown that functional analysis results are beneficial for treatment selection because they identify reinforcers for severe behavior that can then be used to reinforce replacement behaviors either differentially or noncontingently. Theoretically then, if a reinforcer is identified in a functional analysis erroneously, a well researched…

Two experiments with four autistic children (ages 5-13) demonstrated that reinforcement of appropriate toy play was an effective means of reducing disruptive behaviors of autistic children in unsupervised settings. (Author/DB)

Two students with severe disabilities were alternately presented with interspersed high-compliance requests and social comments as antecedents to low-compliance requests. Analysis found similar positive effects on compliance for interspersed requests and social comments. The effectiveness of social comments was related to the time interval between…

The review and synthesis of the literature on self-injurious behavior examines characteristics, causes, and both psychological and behavioral management strategies. Six suggestions for educators are offered. (DB)

A mediated punishment procedure that involved recreating a behavioral sequence by guiding the subject through the behavior in the situation in which it occurred was used to suppress several severe behavior problems in two severely handicapped children (ages 4 and 17). (Author/DB)

Two components of a gradually faded awakening procedure for treating bedwetting were tested with six children aged 4-11. Thorough awakening was more effective than partial awakening. A second experiment on advancing awakening time produced similar results between a stringent 6 consecutive dry night criterion and a more lenient 6 dry night…

This article reviews 49 studies describing the use of differential reinforcement procedures to reduce maladaptive responding of persons with severe or profound mental retardation. Reviewed were the differential reinforcement of (1) alternative behavior; (2) low rates of responding; (3) other behavior; and (4) incompatible behavior. Findings were…

This paper reviews the rationale and behavioral interventions commonly used for teaching compliance to individuals with mental retardation and the role of ethics in the use of such interventions. The paper examines issues in deciding whether compliance is an appropriate objective for an individual and whether interventions designed to achieve…

This study compared types of differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO), namely, reward DRO (reward for omission of problem behavior), escape DRO (termination of instruction contingent on omission of problem behavior), and combined DRO. The combined DRO approach was most effective in reducing behavior problems of three adolescents with…

Ratings on the acceptability, intrusiveness, restrictiveness, and efficacy of 18 commonly used interventions for decelerating behaviors were obtained from 58 special educators of severely handicapped students. Results suggested a lack of confidence in intervention efficacy and a lack of discriminant validity for the constructs of restrictiveness…

Two functional communication training (FCT) conditions were compared to treat behavior problems of a child with mental retardation. The child was taught to emit a single FCT response to obtain one of six items or multiple FCT responses that specified the exact item. Only the FCT-multiple conditions reduced problem behavior. (Contains four…

This study examined effects of restitution on object throwing behavior of an adolescent male with severe mental retardation. Restitution was shown to maintain throwing behavior. When the subject was not forced to pick up what he threw (no restitution), throwing dropped to zero and was maintained at a very low rate. (Author/PB)

The article reviewed research on professionals', consumers', and others' judgments of the restrictiveness, social acceptability, and estimated frequency of use of procedures to decrease problem behaviors of disabled persons. Most respondents agreed that more restrictive procedures should be used as a last resort and that less restrictive…

Fourteen students, aged 7-24, with severe developmental disabilities who exhibited frequent aggression, self-injury, and/or tantrums were assessed to engage in problem behavior maintained by social attention or by escape from unpleasant situations. The differential effectiveness of praise and time-out was measured, indicating the importance of…