Three severely disabled high school students were taught to independently initiate a conversation and participate in turntaking for 10 minutes in a variety of school/community settings with at least four nondisabled peers as partners. The students' high rates of inappropriate social interaction behaviors decreased as conversational skills were…

Reports two transdisciplinary interventions conducted by an Itinerant school nurse. The case studies presented involve a Prader-Willi syndrome student enrolled in a class for the trainable mentally handicapped and a student enrolled in a regular fourth grade classroom but considered at risk for placement in a behavior disorders setting. (JHZ)

Discusses ways in which early childhood educators can deal with young children's behavior or discipline problems in the classroom by guiding children to alternatives to such behavior rather than by punishing them. (BB)

Process reinforcement is proposed as a reinforcement method that is more comfortable, personal, comprehensive, and interactive than traditional behavior modification. Process reinforcement strengthens desired behaviors by engaging learners in a one-on-one examination of how they achieved correct responses and by practicing comfortable eye contact…

Positive reinforcement was used to effectively treat aggressive and noncompliant behavior of two visually impaired, multiply handicapped male students (an 18-year-old and an 11-year-old). In one case positive effects of treating aggressive behaviors generalized to a reduction in self injurious behaviors. (DB)

A systematic program for the training of broad-based social skills is necessary for some visually impaired children. Research on social skills programs has focused on the use of behavioral therapy, verbal and nonverbal social skills intervention, early intervention, and a team approach. (Author/JDD)

Taught social problem-solving skills and self-evaluation to institutionalized delinquent adolescents as part of a cognitive-behavioral therapy program. Demonstrated improvement in problem-solving on the hypothetical dilemmas, however the self-evaluation procedure had little effect on performance. Follow-up data suggest maintenance of treatment…

Investigated relation of counselor ability to articulate salient client information to continuance in weight loss program. Counselors predicted client responses to questions regarding weight loss problems more accurately for clients who later completed program than for those who dropped out. Within one completer group, greater weight loss occurred…

A program was developed for a 14-year-old learning disabled student with severe discipline and absenteeism problems who was enrolled in a rural elementary school. He successfully earned points toward rewards for appropriate behavior while working in the mainstream classes, in the resource room, with younger children, and in the office. (VW)

A 65-item questionnaire assessed teacher (N=2279) perceptions of intervention alternatives used to control classroom behavior problems. Strategies rated as most effective, easiest to use, and most frequently used by both regular and special educators included interventions that either redirected students toward appropriate behavior or involved…

Undergraduate paraprofessionals were trained to administer behavioral interventions to university counseling center clients through a cost-effective program that stressed skill acquisition and paraprofessional personal growth. (Author)

Sixteen studies were analyzed that employed single-subject designs focusing on conduct disorders in preschoolers. Results indicated that reinforcement produced most positive outcomes, followed by punishment, timeout, and differential attention. Subject characteristics such as sex, handicapping condition, and target behavior typically bore little…

Describes prescription behavioral intervention projects to help two American Indian female paraprofessional trainee dorm attendants at a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school modify behavior of six female secondary students experiencing trouble during non-school hours. Demonstrates that given proper support systems, effective behavioral…

Examined the effect of increasing verbalization of positive self-referent statements on self-esteem scores in 30 children. The experimental group received teacher praise contingent upon verbalizing positive self-referent statements and made significantly more positive self-referent statements than control students. Self-esteem scores for…

Compared relative effectiveness of two interventions in treatment of marital discord: a cognitive-behavioral intervention (teaching problem-solving skills) and an experiential intervention (focusing on emotional experiences). The effects of emotionally focused treatment were found to be superior to problem-solving treatment on marital adjustment,…