Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) often exhibit disruptive behaviors in classroom, including out-of-seat behaviors, which have been found to negatively affect their overall academic achievement and social interactions and relationships with parents, typically developing peers and teachers, and increase the likelihood of being…

The Adaptive Behavior Scale was used to evaluate a three-level token economy designed to modify the behavior of 42 behaviorally disturbed young adults of borderline intelligence. Following treatment large improvements occurred in those areas that were logically related to target behaviors within the token economy. Gains were maintained at…

Out-of-home treatment for youth with conduct problems is increasing rapidly in this country. Most programs for these youth deliver treatment in a group format and commonly employ some version of a token economy. Despite widespread evidence of effectiveness, a substantial minority of treated youth fail to respond. Participants for this study were 3…

The purpose of the present case report was to evaluate the effects of an individual token economy with a young child with severe behavior disorders. Three behaviors were recorded; time to completion, the number of assignments completed, and the frequency of inappropriate behavior. These data were gathered for 30 minutes each morning. The overall…

Potential hazards and dangers of using the token economy approach to behavior change with head injured individuals are identified and it is suggested that the injured person's active awareness of reinforcement contingencies may sometimes be deleterious. (DB)

Implementation of a token economy system with a time-out backup consequence in a highly structured self-contained elementary classroom for children with emotional and behavior disorders demonstrated a strong functional relationship between the intervention system and improvement in the students' behavior. (Author/DB)

This practicum report describes a 12-week project to decrease truancy and improve motivation and academic performance of three students (ages 12 to 18) hospitalized with severe emotional disturbances. A visible and powerful reward system using a menu strategy was developed and implemented in which students participated daily in establishing goals…

Over the last thirty years, children's behavioral health services in the school have witnessed drastic progress. Over this time, medications for mental health problems have improved. In addition, empirically validated treatments, most of which have come from behavioral psychology, have made their way into Best Practice guidelines for the treatment…