This case study of a 7-year-old general education student with behavior problems illustrates how school personnel can implement high quality consultative services. Evaluation of a behavioral intervention (contingency contracting) indicated a significant decrease in disruptive behavior from baseline. Positive treatment effects were maintained at…

Two experiments, one involving two elementary-aged girls with autism and one involving three boys with serious behavior disorders, found that the use of contingent access to free time and play materials increased the rate of correct math problems completed and decreased the error rates. (Author/JDD)

In this case study, a six-year-old, multihandicapped child was treated for self-injurious arm-biting using two response contingent deceleration procedures and two forms of sensory extinction. Only the sensory extinction procedure with protective cuffs reduced arm-biting to manageable levels. (Author/DB)

This review defines contingency contracting and describes its theoretical basis, examines empirical studies using contingency contracts to improve various school-related behaviors, discusses potential advantages and problems, provides recommendations to assist school personnel in effectively using contingency contracts, and suggests areas in need…

Experimental studies are reviewed in which stuttering and speech disfluency were subjected to response contingent stimuli (RCS). Research issues are discussed, including response-stimulus contiguity, subject awareness, behavior definitions, stimulus control of responses, subject variability, effects of RCS on nonstuttered speech parameters,…

This study of the treatment of self-injurious behavior (SIB), involving three individuals with developmental disabilities, found that an extinction condition in which SIB no longer produced escape reduced SIB to the criterion in fewer sessions than did extinction plus fading, in which instruction frequency was initially reduced to zero and then…

Seven infants and toddlers with severe/profound and multiple learning difficulties were presented with a contingency situation which they could control. Increased responses and positive emotional effects, which were reversed when their control was eliminated, suggested that infants with mental ages as young as two months can detect cause and…

Speech language pathologists providing early intervention services for stuttering are urged to evaluate conceptual and practical aspects of various intervention procedures. After a review of three treatment methods (environment manipulation, prolonged speech, and response-contingent stimulation), the article concludes that response-contingent…

The effects of social interaction skill interventions on the social behavior of four preschool children with behavioral handicaps were evaluated. Findings indicated unique effects for social skills training and contingency management intervention. Results are discussed in relation to the role of reciprocal interaction and behavioral trapping for…

Positive behavior management has been recommended as a more acceptable form of classroom management than traditional behavioral modification. This paper discusses the application of stimulus and contingency control methods (positive behavior management) to elicit more socially and academically acceptable behavior from elementary school children.…

This study examined methods for determining how extinction should be applied to different functions of self-injurious behavior, specifically head-banging of three children with developmental disabilities. Since each subject's head-banging was maintained by different reinforcement contingencies, behavioral treatment techniques, although all based…

Two functional communication training (FCT) conditions were compared to treat behavior problems of a child with mental retardation. The child was taught to emit a single FCT response to obtain one of six items or multiple FCT responses that specified the exact item. Only the FCT-multiple conditions reduced problem behavior. (Contains four…

Observational reinforcement was studied in 5- to 13-month-old infants in a contingency learning task where brief light-sound stimulation followed touches on a canister. The task was preceded by differing preexperiences for each of four study groups. Overall, results demonstrated that vicarious reinforcement in the preexperiences probably did not…

A brief functional analysis indicated that the object mouthing of a young girl diagnosed with autism was maintained independent of social consequences. Separate and combined effects of response blocking and non-contingent reinforcement were then evaluated as treatments. Although both interventions were unsuccessful when implemented separately,…

An observing procedure was used to investigate the effects of alterations in response-conditioned-reinforcer relations on observing. Pigeons responded to produce schedule-correlated stimuli paired with the availability of food or extinction. The contingency between observing responses and conditioned reinforcement was altered in three experiments.…