Teachers of young children with moderate to significant support needs may have insufficient training to implement naturalistic instructional practices such as contingent responding. Naturalistic instructional practices are well researched, but limited studies exist on training teachers to use contingent responses to support children increasing…

The present study sought to evaluate the efficacy of an interdependent group contingency program on increasing homework completion and accuracy rates in fourth grade students in an elementary school. In addition, the present study attempted to determine whether randomized reinforcement was more effective than constant reinforcement. Overall, the…

Alternative reinforcement strategies on a differential reinforcement of low rates of behavior schedule resulted in significant reduction of self-stimulatory behavior of 9- and 11-year-old autistic boys. Efforts were made to match the sensory consequences derived from the reinforcement to those presumed to be maintaining the self-stimulatory…

The eye poking behavior of a six-year-old blind child was significantly reduced during orientation and mobility training through the use of a differential reinforcement for the omission of behavior program. The program was significant in terms of magnitude of behavior change, practical applicability, and adherence to least restrictive strategies.…

In a study of visual discrimination tasks with three autistic children (ages five-six), multiple sensory reinforcers maintained responding over more trials than did multiple edible reinforcers. Single sensory reinforcers and single edibles however, resulted in nearly equal numbers of trials to satiation. Sensory reinforcers produced higher…

Investigated were the effects of differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO) and response cost (RC) on the attending behavior of a learning disabled (LD) 7-year-old and a behavior disordered 10-year-old. The differential effects of the DRO contingency in the two case studies were attributed to differences in the reinforcement schedules.…

The article presents the case study of an autistic 12-year-old boy who was taught to increase the quality and decrease the size of his written letters. (PHR)

Procedures and reinforcements for four games (Punctuation Game, Phrasing and Expression Game, Check and Double-Check Self Correcting Game, and Syllabication Game) are described. (JW)

The study investigated the effects of training two learning and behavior disordered elementary students to ignore the inappropriate behavior and to reinforce the appropriate behavior of three peers who were also learning and behavior disordered. Results indicated the students were able to utilize extinction and reinforcement procedures…

A study conducted functional analyses of the elopement of three children (ages 4-11) with developmental disabilities. The results identified a maintaining reinforcer for the elopement of one child and reinforcer assessments clarified the reinforcers for the other two. Results of the assessments were then used to develop successful treatments.…

Examined the effects of daily report cards designed to increase the completion and accuracy of in-class assignments in two youngsters described as having a behavioral history of difficulty in completing seat work. Use of the procedure produced immediate significant changes in rates of both completion and accuracy. (Author)

A study examined the effectiveness of the Power Card Strategy in teaching sportsmanship skills to a 10-year-old girl with autism. The strategy incorporates special interests to teach and reinforce academic, behavior, and social skills. The strategy was effective in teaching sportsmanship skills and the behavioral generalized across multiple…

The effects of three different environmental conditions on the frequency of self-injurious and self-stimulation behavior in 10 brain damaged, profoundly retarded children (under 12 years old) were examined employing a time-sampled behavioral observation. The environmental conditions were social interaction, high demand, and stimulus deprivation…

This study used a data-based assessment to identify reinforcers and punishers for successful treatment of two children with severe destructive behaviors. Results suggested that empirically derived consequences may be useful in decreasing destructive behavior when a functional assessment is inconclusive or suggests that internal stimuli are…

In terms of the criterion measure, the social reinforcement group differed significantly from the teacher expectation and the control group. Differences in mean response gains between Premack and social reinforcement groups approached significance with the greatest changes in client behavior favoring the social reinforcement group. (Author)