Bullying begins in the preschool years and presents a public health concern for children of all ages with negative outcomes observed for victims, perpetrators, and bystanders. With an eye on intervention, research suggests that reading and discussing books may help to encourage perspective taking and compassion for others, even at an early age.…

Abstract: Punishment is any stimulus change following a response that decreases the probability of that response occurring in similar situations in the future. Punishment-based techniques (i.e., techniques developed based upon the functional definition of punishment) are effective at decreasing undesired behavior. Despite the documented…

Background: School-based sleep education programmes can promote the importance of sleep health and may improve adolescent sleep. To date, only limited research has examined the feasibility of integrating sleep programmes into the school curriculum. Objectives: This study evaluated the feasibility, acceptability and preliminary efficacy of the…

This study compared the effects of high-tech (e.g., clickers) and low-tech (e.g., response cards) active responding strategies during whole-group English language arts in two first-grade classrooms serving students with and without disabilities. The authors combined an ABAB reversal design with an alternating treatments design to compare the…

Behavioural problems are commonly experienced in schools. This contributes to poor academic results and general disciplinary problems, among other things. It is argued that punitive disciplinary methods are aggravating unacceptable behaviours. This paper presents information about the use of punishment, how children react to these measures, and…

The use of systems of rewards and sanctions within behaviour policies has now been adopted formally in UK schools. Such systems potentially represent competing theoretical ideas when considered alongside current approaches to teaching and learning. There is also opportunity for inconsistent use of rewards and sanctions resulting from the absence…

In addressing positive general education teaching practices for use with students with or at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD), the chapter emphasizes teacher behavior change research that has been informed by applied behavior analytic (ABA) principles. Its central theme is that general education teachers can access research…

The acquisition of new skills may be hindered when teaching procedures vary from previously validated approaches or contain errors. In the present study, we compared the acquisition and maintenance of response chains taught using a perfectly implemented system of least prompts and a multiple verbal prompts procedure (i.e., addition of multiple…

Students in six sections of a large undergraduate class were asked to record their class comments on notecards in all course units. Additionally, in some units, they received points toward their course grade based on their reported comments in class discussion. The study was conducted over a two-semester period, with slight variation in both the…

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of using a video iPod as a prompting device for teaching three job-related tasks to a young man with developmental disabilities in a community-based employment setting. The effectiveness of the prompting device was evaluated using a multiple probe across behaviors design. Results…

Tested a response cost procedure, compared with Ritalin treatment, on hyperactive elementary school children to determine effectiveness in reducing hyperactive behavior and in increasing academic performance. The cost program alone and combined with medication were effective in reducing off-task behavior and in increasing academic performance.…

Social competency deficits are a core feature of autism spectrum disorders (ASDs). During the past several decades, a number of social skill interventions for students with ASD have emerged. However, over the past five years, three converging issues have brought increased attention to the need for social competence programming: (1) increased ASD…

This article reviews the literature and examines the effect of increased opportunities to respond (OTR) to academic requests on academic and behavioral outcomes of students with emotional/behavioral disorders. Findings indicate increased rates of OTR result in higher task engagement and academic achievement rates and low rates of inappropriate…

Background: Embedded instruction and discrete-trial training are both recommended for teaching children with autism, but there is little research available comparing the two. The present study compared embedded instruction with discrete-trial training for a 12-year-old boy with autism. Method: An initial functional analysis indicated that the…

Researchers used four token reinforcement systems--tokens only, descriptive praise, self-reinforcement, and a combination of all three--and observed the effect on the problem solving performance of fourth-grade reading students. Only students using the combination reward system maintained their progress after tokens were withdrawn. (Authors/PP)