This study explores changes in children's social skills after a cognitive-social skills model intervention. The intervention was conducted over a period of 12 weeks within a regular preschool setting. Sixteen children including four considered to have low social skills participated in the study. Data analysis revealed that the four children with…

Results indicated that the auditory stimuli intervention was effective in reducing vocal stereotypes of one autistic S across all activities and for the second subject, in two activities. Social validity measures confirmed the effects of the intervention, the importance of decreasing the behavior, and that the intervention itself was not…

Social skills training was used to alter the socially inappropriate and ineffectual behavior of a 17-year old homosexual male. Six training and six generalization role-played interpersonal scenes were used. Results indicated significant improvement on trained social skills components with generalization to nontrained scenes as well. (Author)

Behavior modification programs with a profoundly retarded 7-year-old boy developed a self-feeding operant, taught him to respond appropriately to a verbal command, and greatly increased his ability to stand without support. (Author/KW)

This article presents two case examples to demonstrate how teachers can use functional behavioral assessment (FBA) to design behavior support plans. FBA helps a second grade "class clown" to learn new ways to get attention and a first grade "class lawyer" to learn to stop arguing and stay on task (with the help of an electronic record keeping…

This study effectively eliminated face-slapping behavior in a 10-year-old boy with severe developmental disability and autistic characteristics. The subject wore wrist weights for up to 30 minutes each day. Face slapping did not occur during a follow-up check conducted five months after study completion. (Author/DB)

This manual, written in workbook form, presents a self-management program for individuals with severe disabilities. The program is designed to facilitate treatment gains in multiple settings and in the absence of a treatment provider. The steps in the program include: (1) getting ready (define behaviors, measure behaviors, choose a reward, and…

This examination of the use of aversive techniques as a form of "therapy" for people with mental handicaps includes 12 articles by specialists who argue that the use of aversive procedures is socially, ethically, legally, and scientifically untenable as well as 3 ancedotal case studies by a patient advocate and 2 personal accounts by…

A self-management training package used in conjunction with a changing performance criterion was effective in increasing the number of steps a profoundly retarded student in a community employment setting was able to perform independently. A four-step model for teaching the severely disabled to manage their own behavior is suggested. (Author/DB)

When two nonhandicapped peers of an autistic five-year old were trained to initiate social interaction, social interaction increased and then dramatically decreased in a reversal phase, and no decrease in the autistic child's disruptive behaviors was observed. When the autistic child was trained to initiate interaction, social interaction…

An operant procedure which is potentially useful for testing auditory deficits was used with a 26-month-old nonverbal retarded female. (Author)

Prior to treatment, a nonverbal, 8-year-old severly retarded child was confined in an enclosed crib 17 hours a day to prevent hazardous voluntary falling. (Author)