Purpose: Intervention provided to school-age children with developmental language disorder often relies on the provision of performance feedback, yet it is unclear whether children with this disorder benefit from feedback-based learning. The study evaluates the effect of performance feedback on learning in children with developmental language…

We examined the effects of a negative reinforcement-based treatment on the self-feeding of 1 child with food selectivity by type and texture. Self-feeding increased when the child could choose to either self-feed 1 bite of a target food or be fed 1 bite of the target food and 5 bites of another food. Possible mechanisms that underlie the…

In the context of instructional demands, compliance and problem behavior can be considered concurrent operants. Of applied interest is increasing one response (i.e., compliance) while decreasing the other (i.e., problem behavior). Strategic arrangement of reinforcement can alter response allocation accordingly. Such schedules can also influence…

This quasi-longitudinal descriptive case study evaluated problem behavior for an adolescent boy with developmental disabilities via repeated functional behavioral analysis (FBA) probes during a blinded cross-over from the atypical neuroleptic Risperdal (Risperidone) to Seroquel (Quetiapine). The repeated FBA probes showed no medication differences…

After finding that self-injurious behavior in two young males with developmental disabilities was negatively reinforced by escape from instructional activities, an intervention provided noncontingent escape on a fixed schedule and differential negative reinforcement of other behavior. Provision of escape, even when noncontingent, resulted in…

Functional communication training (FCT) is an intervention frequently used for students with developmental disabilities to reduce problematic behaviors and to increase prosocial behaviors. This intervention appears to be very effective when the communication responses trained are matched to the function of the student's problematic behaviors. In…

This study of the treatment of self-injurious behavior (SIB), involving three individuals with developmental disabilities, found that an extinction condition in which SIB no longer produced escape reduced SIB to the criterion in fewer sessions than did extinction plus fading, in which instruction frequency was initially reduced to zero and then…