Association for Behavior Analysis International

To manage behavior of students in regular classroom, We need to discuss about class-wide intervention in parallel with individual support plan. In this topic, "cooperative learning" have received a lot of attention in recent years. There is a report that diversity of group member promotes the cooperative learning process. But, it will become difficult for making up peer group alone to effective cooperative learning. Johnson et al. (1993) points out that (1) it is not satisfied only by making up group and prompting collaboration, (2) students must have skills for cooperation, (3) cooperative behavior need to be reinforced. In this study, I intervened afifth grade classroom consisting of 31 students. The following is the procedure, (1) teaching "rule of discussion" and posted this rule in classroom, (2) let students evaluate self performance about frequency of speech in class and cooperative skills. As a result, interaction among students increased, and category of speech in class transformed. In addition, promoted class-wide on task behavior and most students became good listener.

A golden retriever was introduced as a motivator for journaling in a 4th grade regular education classroom. Baseline samples of journal writing were collected over7 journal entries. Following this baseline, the dog was introduced to the children. The dog provided the story starter and responded to the childrens writing for 9 journal entries: The classroom teacher read the daily letter from the dog. The children were told that the comments on their journals were from the dog, and that they may write directly to the dog, if they wished. The first two authors of the paper provided the dog feedback. Following the first intervention, baseline was instated for 4 journal entries, with the classroom teacher once again providing the prompts, but this time reminding the children to use describer words. After this second baseline, the dog intervention was repeated for 5 journal entries, with the dog encouraging the children to write descriptively. The number of words, sentences, sentence fragments, and describer words used within a journal entry were collected. Results showed that, regardless of academic abilities, children significantly increased their use of descriptor words when writing to the dog. No changes were found in the number of words used or the number of sentences used. Interestingly, during the final intervention the number of sentence fragments increased, with the children adding describer words using sentence fragments. The results show that a simple intervention of using a live dog as a pen pal increases the motivation and complexity for writing in journals for late elementary school children.

The current report describes an independent group contingency that was implemented in a public special-education classroom serving four middle-school students with varying developmental disabilities. An independent group contingency is one in which reinforcement for each student in a classroom is dependent on that student meeting a criterion that is in effect for all members of the classroom (Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 2007). Three target behaviors were identified: doing work, following directions, and sitting quietly. Target behaviors were defined and visually displayed for all students using a written daily schedule divided into nine equal intervals. Each student had the opportunity to earn one check for each behavior displayed throughout each interval, for a total of three checks. Three earned checks during any given interval were awarded one raffle ticket. Raffle tickets were entered into a lottery for a drawing at the end of the day. The method described above was repeated throughout the day. Data are reported for each of the three target behaviors for each student. Average daily percentage of checks earned ranged from 76% to 100% across students. The current method represents an efficient means of improving and maintaining appropriate behavior in a middle-school special-education program.

Students with emotional and behavior (EBD) disorders tend to perform behind her same age peers on many academic tasks. Expressive writing is an academic task that many students with EBD find particularly challenging. Three middle school students with emotional and behavior disorders served as participants and learned strategy for writing called POW+TREE (POW: pick my idea, organize my notes, write and say more; TREE: topic sentence, reasonsthree or more, explain, ending). After successfully acquiring the POW+TREE writing strategy the students received an intervention called repeated writing. repeated writing had the students writing a response to a story starter each day for four consecutive days. The results show all students wrote more persuasive parts in their compositions and improved the quality of their written response. maintenance measures also indicated a positive outcome. The data are presented on standard celeration charts.

Study objectives are one component of Keller’s Personalized System of Instruction (PSI) that is relatively easy to include as part of the typical structure of a university general education course, in addition to small, manageable units of material and frequent examinations. The purpose of this study was to determine their effectiveness as a learning tool within General Psychology, an introductory course for nonmajors. Sixty-two undergraduate students across 2 sections were provided with detailed study objectives for the4 even-numbered units in the course; no study objectives were provided for the4 odd-numbered units. All units were followed by a 50-question multiple-choice exam. A dependent-measures t-test of the nonstudy objective exam average across participants (M = 34.07) versus the study objective exam average (M = 35.94) was significant (t = -4.794; p = 0.00). Data from a follow-up questionnaire also indicated that students preferred studying using specific learning objectives (82%), and felt more confident when preparing for and taking exams (82%).

Secondary to the high demand for ABA-based interventions for the ASD population, it has been suggested that economical methods of training professionals/paraprofessionals is needed (Thompson et al., 2009). Developing ways to affordably educate undergraduates about autism/ABA, alongside opportunities to work directly with individuals on the spectrum, is one way in which the suggestions of Thomson and colleagues can be realized. Over the past 3 years, several universities have partnered with the Cleveland Clinic Center for Autism (CCCA) to form an innovative internship program in ASD. The goal of the current study is to analyze outcome data from the undergraduate internship program in ASD. Specifically, data from the 2009-2011 internship programs have been collected. Preliminary data suggests that the internship program has been very successful from the perspective of the interns (n = 36), staff, and organizations involved (Table 1). The majority (88.5%) of the interns noted that the internship was an "excellent" contribution to career goals and rated the internship as excellent (84.6%). Comparison of the pre-test and post-test of autism knowledge following internship completion revealed an increase in knowledge (t =6.528, p < .01). Moreover, the majority of students are continuing to work with individuals on the spectrum in a variety of contexts with 7 of the former interns hired as full-time employees at CCCA.

Children with developmental disabilities often show difficulty in reading, especially in Kanji (ideogram). They also have difficulties acquiring the stimulus relationship between3 types of stimuli: pictures, written words, and sounds. Previous research suggested that children with autism acquired the Kanji reading skills and constructed other stimulus relationship by using stimulus-pairing training. However, their maintenance rates were very low and this may be the lack of semantics. In the present study, we examined controlling variables on acquisition and maintenance of Kanji reading skills, picture naming skills, and comprehension skill through stimulus-pairing trainings for children with developmental disabilities. For the semantics, we prepared the stimuli that participants could name the corresponded picture but could not read Kanji, in order for participants to refer the meanings. In a trial, three types of stimuli, Kanji, sound of Kanji, and corresponded picture, were presented simultaneously and sequentially on the computer. Each of stimuli was presented for 2 seconds and3 times. With 7 participants, results indicated that they could successfully acquire the Kanji reading skills, comprehension skill, and also showed the maintenance of their learning for more than 2 weeks. The result suggested that semantics facilitate the acquisition and maintenance of equivalence relation.

Incentive and rewards programs can be an effective means to reinforce and increase the likelihood of desired behaviors. Paraprofessionals working with students with developmental disabilities must exhibit specific behaviors in order to be effective with their students. When these behaviors do not occur, an incentive and reinforcement program may offer an effective solution. A withdrawal design was used to investigate the success of an incentive program on increasing targeted staff behaviors. A menu of items was created from a survey administered to staff in which they rank ordered preferences for a variety of items. Following baseline, staff were awarded "ProPoints" when they were observed engaging in the targeted staff behaviors. These points were then exchangeable for items off of the menu. Baseline intervention and follow-up data are reported to determine efficacy of the intervention.

Under IDEA and Part C, behavioral intervention approaches are increasingly being used with focus on prevention and parental involvement in the natural setting. With the response to enactment of federal law, practitioners have put efforts toward promoting effective, meaningful, acceptable, and durable changes in child behavior and improving family quality of life. Over the past decade, researchers focused on positive behavior support (PBS) within the family context and have made significant impact on the improvement of the quality of family and the reduction of children' challenging behaviors. In positive behavior support, strategies for dealing with challenging behaviors are developed and maintained by social-ecological factors that affect children's development. It emphasizes the child's natural environment that includes parent-child relationships. This approach is heavily based on the theoretical and empirical literature on family support, which involves family ecological theory and behavioral parent training. This literature review focuses on integrating information and research findings for positive behavioral Supports for parents for children with autism spectrum disorder. Parenting training programs have (a) provided parents with the information and skills to reduce the stress that a child with autism puts on the family, and (b) promoted the child's behavioral control at home. Research showed that parents who attended to the training programs showed some gains in measures of stress and depression, and parent-child satisfaction. Prevention and early intervention strategies of young children with challenging behaviors include proactive and positive strategies. Unlike traditional behavioral interventions, proactive strategies focus on (a) preventing behavioral problems through arranging environmental stimuli, antecedent strategies, and consequent strategies, and (b) teaching replacement behaviors. In addition to teaching new behaviors, many studies focus on including parents' priorities and concerns as the service delivery is being carried out.

With educational resources limited, refinement of procedures for standard protocol interventions must occur. The purpose of the present study was to compare which method of criterion-setting, performance-based or pre-set conventional, within Check In-Check Out produced greater improvements in childrens behavior. Eight general education elementary students in three Southeastern schools served as participants in addition to their teachers. Standard Check In-Check Out procedures were implemented. Appropriate and problem behavior was assessed for participants and control peers across various dependent measures. Treatment integrity and acceptability were also evaluated. The current study serves as one of the few studies in the Check In-Check Out literature with (a) a comparison of criterion setting methods, (b) inclusion of Daily Behavior Report Card data, (c) direct observations of target students and control peers behavior, and (d) evaluation of treatment integrity for all days of CICO implementation. Results suggest that gains were made for all participants across both groups with larger gains evidenced by participants of the Pre-Set Conventional group. However, the study produced implications for expected gains, which may aid practitioners in selecting those students who may benefit most from Check In-Check Out as compared to those who may require more intensive interventions.

There is much criticism to higher education; one concerns the ineffectiveness of instructions used in this setting. Behavior analysis has been involved in the development and evaluation of several educational methods, including the use of stimulus equivalence technology to teach concepts. The purpose of the present study was to evaluate the effects of a stimulus equivalence instructional package on four undergraduates performance in conditional discrimination tasks that involved research design names, definitions, notations, and examples. Participants remained in the study only if their percentage of correct responses in Probes 1, 2, and 3 was lower than 50%. Thirty-six experimental stimuli, comprised of nine research design names, nine research design definitions, nine research design notations, and nine examples were presented in a matching to sample format during teaching and emergent relation testing sessions. Probes consisted of nine open-ended questions on the taught conditional relations and new examples. All participants learned all conditional relations, showed emergence of symmetric and transitive relations, and generalized from the selection-based tasks (teaching and emergent testing tasks) to the topography-based tasks (open-ended probes). Lessons learned from this study can help in programming effective instruction for higher education settings.

Time delay procedures also known as Taped Problems interventions (TP) are intervention procedures that can be used in schools and across settings to assist students in building fluency as well as accuracy. A multiple probes across tasks (i.e., problem sets) alternating treatment design was used to evaluate the effects of the intervention. This design includes a baseline phase, which involves the administration of three assessments for a period of 5-7 days. During the baseline sessions all three sets of problems (A, B, and C) will be assessed in random order. Baseline sessions lasted approximately 4-5 minutes. Once the intervention phase began, each set of problems was sequentially targeted through the TP intervention for 20 schools days. The purpose of our presentation is to show that TP procedures are effective, but the ideal amount of time for delay has yet to be investigated. Specific question to be addressed include: 1) Which administration time (0 or 2 seconds) provides the most effective intervention. 2) Finding the best learning rates among these two math interventions.

Behavior analysts have provided educationally useful measures of fluency for specific academic skills (Lindsley, 1992). We applied this ABA-derived measure to examine if accuracy and fluency of computation skills differentially predict overall mathematics achievement scores for Japanese children. A total of 345 Japanese public school children (first throughsixth grade) participated in 1-minute assessments for single-digit, and multi-digit computation problems including addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. We calculated a percent correct score (accuracy measure) and the number of correct problems per minute (fluency measure). In addition, we conducted a Japanese standardized achievement test for mathematics (Kyouken-shiki Standardized Achievement Test). Results indicated that fluency of single-digit and multi-digit computation skills correlated strongly in each type of computation problems (r = .59 - .68). On the other hand, single-digit accuracy had low or no correlation with accuracy and fluency of multi-digit computation skills. In addition, hierarchical multiple regression analysis indicated that accuracy of computation skills did not predict mathematics achievement significantly, but fluency of computation skills did after controlling for grade. ABA-derived measures of fluency proved to exert differential effects on general mathematics achievement scores. Adding fluency component to academic instruction may contribute to the enhancement of overall academic achievement.

Reading fluency is a critical skill that all students must master in order to be successful in any subject in school. However, for many students with special needs who struggle to read fluently, an academic intervention focusing on reading fluency alone oftentimes is not enough to make significant progress. Many students with special needs also require the addition of a behavioral intervention in order to be successful. In this case study, a Repeated Readings with Phrase Correction intervention procedure was implemented with the addition of a Mystery Motivader, a type of positive reinforcement schedule, to improve reading fluency in an elementary student with a cognitive disability. Results indicate a significant increase in the number of correct words read per minute. Students with both reading fluency and behavior difficulties can benefit from the techniques presented. Implications, limitations and suggestions for future research will be included.

Although previous studies have demonstrated the positive effects of group contingencies on behaviors targeted for reduction (e.g., Greenwood, Hops, Delquadri, & Guild, 1974; Harris & Sherman, 1973). Fewer studies have targeted increases in positive peer interactions, such as appropriate verbal responding or social behavior. The current study evaluated a group contingency with a variation of a response cost procedure (i.e., the teacher earning points) on the appropriate and inappropriate social behavior of students in a special education classroom. Conditioned reinforcers (i.e., points) were provided to students for displaying compliment statements and points were awarded to the teacher contingent on student verbal aggressive statements. Reinforcement was provided for meeting specific behavioral criteria in a changing criterion design. The results of the study demonstrated that the group contingencies implemented in the form of the You and Me Game successfully decreased verbal aggressive statements and increased compliment statements for the randomly selected 5 target students during the school lunch period.

Curriculum modifications are a commonly used antecedent behavior management strategy utilized during academic instruction. In the current study, the effects of repeated and novel stimuli presentation on the on-task behavior and academic performance of a young child diagnosed with autism were evaluated using an Alternating Treatments Design. Conditions compared included, 1) repeated stimuli, 2) randomly arranged repeated stimuli, and 3) novel stimuli. Results of the analysis indicated that presentation of novel stimuli produced higher levels of independent on-task behavior, relative to repeated and randomly arranged repeated stimuli. The utility of this sort of curriculum modification will be discussed.

The environment that teachers provide has an impact on student learning and behavior. In this study, 16 elementary school teachers at a school in a high-poverty neighborhood were provided training and feedback on the delivery of 3 evidence-based practices. Contingent praise, clear expectations, and frequent opportunities for student responses were taught within an in-service format. Teachers were observed by trained observers and data were organized within a multiple baseline across skills design. Approximately half of the teachers implement these practices to satisfactory levels. The relationships between teacher implementation and student behavioral and academic outcomes were tested. It was determined that there was a significant relationship between the level of implementation of evidence-based practices and student discipline and academic outcomes. Students in classrooms where teachers implemented the 3 evidence-based practices to high levels were less likely to be referred to the office for disciplinary reasons and had higher reading scores. These results are presented and discussed.