Parents have the major responsibility for teaching their children values, communication skills, and social skills, and for providing an environment conducive to their children's emotional growth. This article presents techniques, abstracted from "You and Your Child" (Bill Wagonseller and Richard L. McDowell), which are designed to be used for…

Examines educational practice implications of the current prevailing theory that self esteem is the critical variable for intellectual development. Contrasts this with the earlier assumption that standards--and criticism of performance that does not meet them--are essential to the learning process, and that a child's self esteem can withstand…

The case study illustrates the use of access to computers as a positive reinforcer to increase appropriate social behaviors in a group of five secondary-level disabled students. The advantages of computers as reinforcers are discussed. (Author/CL)

The effects of token reinforcement on accuracy of math performance and generalization to social behavior with an adolescent underachiever were examined. Results indicated an increase in accuracy on math assignments during the token reinforcement condition. The procedures also decreased inappropriate verbalizations when consequences were provided…

Treatment of 35 children (between 1 and 5 years of age) with sleep disorders was focused on helping the child stay in bed quietly if awake and to settle into sleep without parental attention. Improvement occurred in 77 percent. Results illustrate effects of treatment sample selection and indicate dangers of generalizing findings. (Author/RH)

The recalcitrant spitting of a blind, deaf, and retarded adolescent was eliminated with a behavioral intervention consisting of positive reinforcement for not spitting and facial screening for spitting. The social and academic implications of modifying such behaviors are discussed. (Author/CMG)

When positive reinforcement was presented via teacher verbalizations in a noncontingent fixed-time schedule, two autistic children (six and nine years old) increased their percentage of correct responding on difficult and easy tasks. (Author/CL)

Policymakers and educators are taking a new look at incentives as they work to improve accountability systems. This ERIC Digest examines the role of rewards and sanctions in school reform and identifies key issues in implementing incentive systems. The new accountability is based on five components: carefully designed standards, assessments…

This research was concerned with an externally supplied motivational approach to reducing the attrition rate in correspondence study courses at the University of Iowa. (Authors)

Initial experiment demonstrated operant acquisition of an instrumental hand-pulling response in 4-8-month-old infants; the effect achieved with contingent, noncontingent, delayed reinforcement, and the suppression, recovery, and facilitation effects of noncontingent stimulation are discussed. (Author)

On a simple motor task the performance of 32 4-year-old children of each sex increased under both adult praise and adult presence with the effects being additive. (WY)

The author examines the two sets of conditions associated with human motivation: internal conditions and the outer demands. These demands are then discussed according to interrelationships among them along with some notions about how motives change. (Author)