Offers five reasons to stop use of positive social reinforcement, or praise, with young children. Maintains that praise manipulates children by taking advantage of their need for adult approval and exploits that dependence for adult convenience, creates "praise junkies," steals the child's pride in his or her own accomplishment, reduces interest…

Three male primary students were issued a daily report card rating their disruptive behavior. Parents were asked to praise positive reports and ignore negative reports. Results showed that the intervention was effective in reducing inappropriate behaviors while increasing assignment completion. Ratings by parents, teachers, peers, and subjects…

Ten elementary school teachers received inservice training on use of praise. Following the training, the average rate of both specific praise and "outside circle" praise rose, and remained high a year later. Changes in student behaviors included a decrease in disruptive behavior and an increase in work completion. (Author/JDD)

Functional analyses of problem behaviors were performed with three individuals with severe intellectual disabilities. Results indicated that the problem behaviors were maintained either when the behavior resulted in escape from difficult tasks or when the behavior resulted in access to preferred items. Training in functionally equivalent…

Two experiments examined the effects of rewards alone, rewards plus discussion, and self-evaluation plus rewards on peer interactions of elementary level students with emotional or behavioral disorders. Observational data on eight students showed the self-evaluation procedures to be effective in improving peer interactions when implemented in a…

This article presents strategies teachers can use to develop a pool of potential sensory reinforcers for behavior problems in students with learning disabilities, behavior disorders, mild or moderate mental retardation, or language delays. It also provides a step-by-step method for conducting ongoing reinforcer assessment, and suggests how the…

The Bama Bookworm Program, developed by a university remedial reading summer school program, encourages parents of remedial readers to listen to their children read and to ask comprehension questions four nights a week for a month. The program provides incentives (pizzas and t-shirts) and was enthusiastically received by parents and children. (DB)

Adults (n=202) with chronic mental illness received token economic reinforcement along with their medication therapy and psychotherapy. Over 18 months, the token economy resulted in positive, though marginal, gains to outcome measures of rehospitalization rate, symptomatology, social integration activities, and daily living skills, compared to a…

First Step to Success is used at the outset of a child's school career, when making changes in antisocial behavior is easiest. The short-term program provides positive reinforcement for desirable behaviors and has a home component that draws on parent support. Sidebar profiles programs that promote positive behaviors in older children: Project…

When parent-teacher conferences don't improve a problem student's behavior, a systematic change strategy is needed. Daily report cards are effective if they divide the day into segments, provide evaluations for each segment, feature increasingly demanding goals, provide parent reinforcement, use mild punishment, and accrue reinforcement rewards. A…

Examined the efficacy of an automated reinforcement device, the Attention Training System (ATS), in decreasing off-task behavior in an 11-year-old, fifth-grade student who had been diagnosed as being affected with ADHD and had been placed in Special Education Resources Room programming. Results indicated success in three subject areas. (JBJ)

There is a childhood saying about a confused dog who thinks he sees a possum in a tree. The problem is that the possum is actually in a different tree so the dog barks up the wrong tree. American education is constantly playing both dog and possum. Sometimes they are the prey, and sometimes they are just confused about what and where the prey is.…

According to Shores and Jack (1996), children and youth are identified as having behavioral disorders based on their excesses and their deficits of social behavior. They respond to available social stimuli in unpredictable ways. The teaching of social skills should be an integral part of any program for E/BD students. E/BD teachers work on…

Implicit within a perspective of positive psychology is the assumption that environments can be promoted to foster individual strengths through a preventative focus and the development of positive institutions. Given that the development of positive institutions has direct implications for school psychology, this paper begins to draw attention to…

Traditionally the identification of, and treatment for, eating disorders has been based on developmental psychopathology theory and research, thereby emphasizing risk factors and the elimination of maladaptive behaviors. This article seeks to reconceptualize the prevention of, and protective factors for, eating disordered behavior from the…