During early childhood, practitioners and family members are often tasked with determining optimal approaches to support social skill development in young children with developmental disabilities in inclusive and self-contained settings. Eight different evidence based approaches are highlighted (social narratives, scripting, pivotal response…

This research review concerning intervention to improve young children's social behavior and strategies for promoting generalization and maintenance of young children's social responding focuses on taking advantage of natural communities of reinforcement, training diversely, and incorporating functional mediators. Implications for interventionists…

A cognitive, nonintrusive method of controlling head-rocking behavior in an 11-year-old blind subject involved having the boy place his hand on his cheek or chin when prompted that he was rocking his head. The subject demonstrated significant decreases in head rocking during intervention and generalization during followup. (Author/JDD)

Resolution of serious behavior problems requires individual functional assessment of the events that predict and maintain the challenging behavior and identification of contextual factors that are relevant to effective behavioral support. Functional assessment can involve review of school records, interviews, rating scales, direct observation, and…

Presents an inner city early intervention program based on a social competence conceptualization. Key elements of the school-based program and an evaluation are described. The program focuses on children's competencies and problems in assessment, intervention, and evaluation. Ratings by teachers indicated interventions improved competencies, but…

This article describes incidental teaching of social behavior, which improves the peer interactions of young children through a naturalistic teaching tactic that can be used separately or along with other social skills interventions. The article offers a rationale, examples of incidental teaching, and helpful hints for implementing the method.…

This study examined the strategies teachers use to promote social play in a mainstreamed early childhood program that included five children with special needs and five nonhandicapped peers. Results indicated that teachers can successfully facilitate peer play through initiation of play, participation in group play, elaboration of group play, and…

This book is designed to provide the basis for a teaching/learning process by which building administrators provide school-age youth with the appropriate social skills necessary for student success. Administrative intervention, an effective method for dealing with discipline problems, is comprised of a sequential set of instructional components…

The effects of a simple timeout procedure on the eye gouging and head wagging behavior of a totally blind, seven-year-old child were studied. Parent and staff reports suggested that the reduction in manneristic behaviors was associated with the emergence of more acceptable and age appropriate social behavior. (SEW)

The paper discusses approaches designed to reduce, eliminate, or replace unconventional behavior in individuals with severe disabilities. Emphasis is placed on the need to analyze the communicative functions of behavior and to facilitate the development of an individual's communication system. A case example of a four-year-old nonverbal child is…

This document discusses the culture and lifestyle appropriate social skills intervention curriculum or CLASSIC, a 15-session social skills training program that is designed to be administered in a small group format to children and adolescents. The first chapter addresses the role of CLASSIC in the history of social skills training for children…

This paper reviews what is known about social coordination in young children with disabilities, describes how social coordination develops in children with and without disabilities, discusses the role of social coordination in developing social competence, examines how available assessments of social skills address the concept of social…

This guide presents strategies for the prevention of emotional/behavioral disabilities, beginning before birth and continuing into young adulthood. It focuses on strategies that promote competent social behavior, identification of risk factors in development of antisocial behavior, and interventions to prevent the development of antisocial…

This study of 55 elementary-level general, special, and remedial education teachers found no intergroup differences in perceptions of the amount or quality of assistance available for mainstreamed students with mild handicaps, or in perceived effectiveness or overall acceptability of eight instructional strategies and 11 social behavior…

Three mentally retarded students (ages 9-12) who exhibited challenging behaviors to escape from academic demands and to receive social attention were taught alternative assistance-seeking and attention-getting phrases. Data indicated that the intervention reduced challenging behavior. The results transferred across settings, and were maintained 18…