Functional analysis was used to determine the possible function of inappropriate spitting behavior of an adult woman who had been diagnosed with profound mental retardation. Results of an initial descriptive assessment indicated a possible attention function and led to an attention-based intervention, which was deemed ineffective at reducing the…

Responding to serious behaviour problems requires new practice answers and emphases. Best practice principles and a developmental perspective indicate that the family should be the focus of preventative work. The Incredible Years parent training series is described as an important example of an empirically-supported programme that is presently…

Guidelines are offered for dealing with noncompliant behavior in severely handicapped students. Eight steps in developing interventions for such behaviors are listed, and three are dealt with in detail: defining noncompliance, establishing causes for non compliance, and providing a number of interventions for each cause. Noncompliance is viewed…

Acceptability of classroom interventions for behavior problems was assessed by having 180 preservice and student teachers read case studies involving intervention and then judged the intervention's acceptability by completing the Intervention Rating Profile, an assessment instrument designed to evaluate acceptability of an intervention in terms of…

Methods for dealing with classroom behavior problems of handicapped students in mainstream classes should follow the principle of least intensive intervention. Specific strategies for reducing undesirable behavior (planned ignoring, stating expectations, signaling) and increasing desirable behaviors (modeling, structuring the situation, positive…

The article provides a step-by-step approach to ensure safe and nonabusive physical interventions with physically aggressive students. Illustrations depict the proper body positioning. (CL)

Effective treatment procedures for a nine-year-old boy with elective mutism and selective inactivity included increasing the frequency of situations in which he could already speak and decreasing the frequency of those in which he seldom spoke (specifically coercive situations). (CL)

Craig Alternative Middle/High School in Milwaukee is an academic/therapeutic multicategorical program for 85 high risk students who, because of their atypical behaviors, have not been successful in a less restrictive educational environment. The staff, consisting of teachers, paraprofessionals, psychologists, social workers, probation officers and…

Recent research on the Lesch-Nyhan syndrome, a disorder of metabolism, in terms of etiology and characteristics, biomedical treatment options, behavior modifications, daily management concerns, and educational intervention. Specific attention is given to alternatives for dealing with self-injurious behavior in those individuals affected by the…

In this study, both the semantic and systematic desensitization methods were found to be significantly more effective than the implosive therapy and the control treatments in the modification of phobic behavior among the college student population. (Author)

Contingency management programs for modifying aggression in children are strong methods of short-term behavior change in treatment settings but are less than successful when transferred to other settings. Future research should compare cognitive with noncognitive behavioral programs and test the effectiveness of cognitive and noncognitive…

Compared to 44 nontrained child aides, 19 trained aides had significantly higher postprogram scale scores on opinions and beliefs about acting out children, changes in feeling about working with them, and actual observed changes in their playroom behaviors. (Author)

Foster children's most common problems are falling behind academically, failing to do homework, disrupting class, failing courses, being picked on, cheating and lying, fearing school, and engaging in truancy. Teachers and other school staff members can help by developing reasonable expectations, becoming advocates, involving foster families, and…

This study documented the occurrence of stereotypical behaviors in young children with various handicapping conditions by rating such behaviors in 351 young children with handicaps by caregivers in early intervention programs. Most of the children exhibited at least one stereotypical behavior, and some stereotypical behaviors were differentially…

Author responds to comments (EC 232 033-037) on his paper (EC 232 032) concerning use of aversive therapy or punishment with mentally retarded persons. Paper notes ideological connotations often implied in the term "punishment" and the lack of response to the distinction made in his paper between this and the functional relations…