Association for Behavior Analysis International

A teacher's use of praise is beneficial for students, as it provides encouragement, helps build self-esteem, builds a close student-teacher relationship, and reduces the amount of disruptive behavior in the classroom (Brophy, 1981; Alber & Heward, 1997). In the current study, praise rates of a target paraprofessional, who worked in a general education setting, in an elementary school, were measured. Concurrently, on-task and off-task behaviors of a target student were also measured. The target paraprofessional and student were chosen based on baseline measures indicating low praise rates coming from the paraprofessional, and low on-task and high off-task behaviors from the student. A reversal design was used for this study to evaluate the effects of the intervention. During intervention, a praise training was provided to the classroom staff, followed by implementing a MotivAider that was used to prompt the target paraprofessional to deliver praise to the students for engaging in on-task behaviors. Results of the intervention, barriers to implementation, and areas of future research will be discussed.

Physical activity performed by children and adolescents in school settings can have a range of positive effects on cognitive skills and attitudes, academic behaviors, and academic achievement. Physical activity including free-dance and yoga can increase on-task behavior in kindergarten students with an Autism Spectrum Disorder in a journal-writing activity. The primary, peer-reviewed literature examining the relationship between exercise/yoga/mindfulness interventions on academic skills and behaviors is limited, and there is a notable lack of studies at the preschool level. These interventions hold a great deal of promise as they are inexpensive to administer and accessible to a wide range of populations. The objective of the current study is to assess the acute effects of three levels of physical activity (no exercise/circle time, low intensity exercise/yoga and moderate to vigorous physical activity (MVPA) on time-on-task in a block building task in 3-4 year old preschool children. We tested the hypothesis that both yoga and MVPA activity would increase time on-task compared to the circle-time (CT) control condition.

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of the Self & Match System, a self-monitoring behavior package, as a group intervention system to increase socially significant behaviors (cusps) in an early intervention preschool classroom for students with disabilities. Students were taught to match their recordings of their own behavior to the teacher's recordings. The results of this study yield the conclusions that preschool students in this study were able to learn to accurately self-record and positively increase appropriate classroom behavior following the introduction of the Self & Match system. There was a reoccurring theme in the data that the Self & Match System, and/or behavioral cusps, might have been the factor that increased the three subjects' behaviors. However, the lack of experimental control made drawing functional relationships impossible. The implications of these results are discussed in terms of the influence of behavioral cusps on experimental control, as well as implications, limitations, and recommendations for further research.

Daniel is a six-year-old student who has been diagnosed with ADHD and ASD. He receives 1:1 ABA services and attends integration classes in Grade one for Literacy, Math Music, Mandarin, PE and Art class. Prior to the intervention, Daniel has exhibited over 1000 call outs (defined as using an above average loud volume in comparison to the noise level in class) of repetitive words throughout the school day. This was causing a lot of disruption in class and learning for him and his classmates were impeded. It was hypothesized that the classroom may have been paired as an aversive stimuli as he was required to sit and attend to the teacher, participate in class discussions, and completed worksheets. Although high rates of praises and generalized reinforcement was provided throughout the lessons, the amount of effort Daniel had to pay was much higher than anticipated. Intervention of reconditioning the classroom as a reinforcer was employed. Results has shown a positive effect of the intervention in which there was a significant decrease of call out behavior throughout the school day.

Effective and evidenced based instruction is a key component to making meaningful progress with regard to skill acquisition in individuals with autism or related developmental disabilities. Previous research suggests correlations between participation in programming outlined via PEAK Relational Training System with subsequent increases in participant scores on intelligence quotient testing (Dixon, Whiting, Rowsey, & Belisli, 2014) and rapid skill acquisition and mastery with as little as twenty minutes of exposure per day (McKeel, Dixon, Daar, Rowsey, & Szekely, 2015). The present investigation sought to examine the outcomes of "non-behavior analytic" special education programming as outlined by Individualized Education Programs versus programming informed by the PEAK Relational Training System. Participants enrolled in two separate summer programs for individuals with a diagnosis of autism were assessed using the modules in the PEAK Relational Training System curriculum at intake and program completion. The experimental group received instruction derived from the curricular programs of the PEAK Relational Training System; participants in the control group received instruction as usual for based on supports indicated for summer programming in their Individualized Education Programs. The results indicated notable rates of skill acquisition and mastery in the experimental group while the control group remained largely the same with the exception of a few participants that demonstrated skill regression. Implications for follow up research and practice are further discussed.

This study will look at how completing fluency building activities impacts participants' performance on state testing, specifically in History. Participants are all required to complete and pass New York state testing, either the Regents exam or the Regents Competency Test to earn their high school diploma. These tests are comprised of multiple choice questions, short answer questions and an essay. Participants in this study worked on fluency building activities for several weeks before the exam, building fluency in the areas of vocabulary, dates and general concepts. Timings are completed daily, with the material, presented in a randomized sequence. Immediate feedback is given, goals are set and data is plotted on a standard celeration chart. Once a pre-determined mastery is achieved, new material is presented. We will be looking at participants' scores on the state tests and also the effect the fluency building activities had on the participants' overall experience in completing the tests.

An important part of the Common Core Standards is the requirement of fluency in basic math facts, in the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. At the Judge Rotenberg Center, students work through a paper based curriculum, Morningside Basic Number Skills, which teaches the basic math facts through a series of fluency based timings. Curriculum is broken into small steps or slices, which each student completes timings in, until they reach a pre-determined level of mastery. Data is plotted on a standard celeration chart, allowing the education staff to make data based decisions. We will be looking at the impact of using this curriculum, potentially in the areas of math facts grade level, generalization to more complex mathematics operations, and generalization to computer based timings.

One strategy some schools are using to promote inclusion of students with disabilities is peer mentoring or peer modeling. There are various ways to implement peer-mediated strategies in the school setting. One method is to teach peers to model behaviors and act as peer tutors, which is the approach used by in the Special Olympics "Young Athletes" program. Although promising, this program was not being used widely by teachers due to their confusion about how to implement it. Therefore, I have modified this curriculum in order to make it more accessible to teachers and to better include students with diverse behavior and academic needs. I incorporated behavior analytic teaching strategies in order to support students' learning. These modifications will allow teachers to implement the "Young Athletes" program more readily, thereby promoting the inclusion of students with disabilities. Examples of the modifications based on behavior analytic principles are included, and implications of promoting peer-mediated strategies are discussed. As behavior analysts and those interested in behavior analysis, we are committed to dissemination of behavior analysis. This paper serves as a way to enter the education discussion proactively and for students with and without disabilities.

Children with Autism are often labeled as non-compliant or distracted. Too often, complex behavior intervention plans are put into place before simple strategies are ruled out. A variation of Additive Antecedent Interventions (AAI) as described by Stephenson and Hanley (2010) was implemented in this study. This study showed the impact of six antecedent variables (proximity, position, physical contact, eye contact, vocal attention, and play interruption) on compliance as assessed in five male students diagnosed with Autism aged five to eight using a multi-element design. All participants attended 6:1:3 classrooms at a private school. Two of the participants were in the same class. One of the participants received an additional antecedent (model) of the skill after it was determined that the tasks being asked of him were not in his repertoire. After all participants were exposed to the intervention, their compliance with demands increased to an average of 80% across four consecutive sessions and challenging behaviors averaged 0%-5% for all participants across four consecutive sessions. These findings support those of previous research on AAI and add to the level of confidence in their effectiveness.

A 15 year old student diagnosed with autism and a seizure disorder presented with a high number of verbal perseverations throughout the course of his school day. He attends a specialized school for students with autism and has a 1:1 instructional staff for 85% of his school day. His curriculum includes communication training, self-help, daily living, leisure and pre-vocational skills. An analogue FA was conducted and results indicated that behavior served a primary function of socially mediated positive reinforcement via access to tangible items or activities. His intervention consisted of being placed on a differential reinforcement of diminishing rates (DRD) schedule. Upon verbal perseverations, the therapist would address the topic by answering the first time and then present him with a "talk time" card and told him that they could discuss the topic during "talk time". Reactive procedures included the following: upon the display of the defined targeted behavior, a token was removed at each occurrence of the verbal perseveration, at the end of the interval if he had not exceeded the allowable amount he was able to access reinforcement. If he had exceeded the allowable amount, a neutral statement was made ( " You can try again", etc...) and another interval began. Alternative teaching included a talk time scheduled many times throughout his day, count and mand procedure, self monitoring his vocal volume and a waiting program. These procedures helped the student go from a baseline of 65 allowable perseverations per 10 minutes to 9 allowable perseverations per 10 minutes over a 6 month period.

Data collection and analysis is the cornerstone of what drives decision-making that is ultimately beneficial for students with disabilities. Not only is it mandated by law (e.g., IDEA, 2004), it also good practice for practitioners to utilize effective data collection practices. Proper data collection is necessary to make informed decisions about interventions that are meaningful for the child. However, even though preservice teachers receive coursework in assessment, they do not always collect data in systematic ways to guide instructional decisions once they complete their preparation programs (Campbell & Evans, 2000). Some perceived barriers to collecting data include the setting, lack of time, and the skill set necessary for effective data collection (Sandall, Schwartz, & Lacroix, 2004). This project developed a user-friendly training module that taught classroom teachers skills for effective data collection to monitor intervention effectiveness. Skills taught included developing an operational definition; selecting appropriate dimensions of behavior to monitor; creating a practical, reliable data collection system; graphing data; and analyzing collected data using basic visual analysis.

Special education teachers are required to establish collaborative relationships with parents and other professionals in schools. To this end, teacher education programs are required to teach and demonstrate candidates' mastery of communications skills that foster collaboration as part of accreditation. Behavioral Skills Training (BST), which includes presentation of explicit information about the skill, expert modeling, practice with expert feedback, and participant self-assessment has been shown to be an effective method of changing teacher behaviors (Parsons, Rollyson, & Reid, 2013). The current study examined the use of BST to teach a previously validated communication strategy, LAFF Don't CRY. Participants included 40 undergraduate special education teacher candidates in their first practicum course for the major. Using a multiple probe across groups design, researchers randomly assigned participants to groups, delivered explicit instruction including individualized feedback, and then participants self-assessed their strategy usage while receiving emailed instructor feedback across probes that consisted of simulated parent-teacher or teacher-teacher conferences. The dependent variable was percent of strategy steps completed during the probe. Data showed that groups went from achieving a mean of 15% (range 11-23%) of strategy steps in baseline to a mean of 91% (range 81-96%) of strategy steps after training.

Catalyst is an electronic data collection and management platform that allows users to collect real-time data through the use of an app on a portable electronic tablet. It also allows users to create and manage skill acquisition and behavior reduction programs through their online (desktop) portal. With Catalyst, users can collect the same range of data that have traditionally been collected using pencil and paper (e.g., frequency, duration, interval) but removes the redundancy of entering paper data into an online graphing program (e.g., Microsoft Excel). Catalyst automatically analyzes and graphs the data making it readily accessible via the app or online portal. The purpose of this study is to determine the effectiveness of a data collection platform, Catalyst, in decreasing the duration of data entry for ABA teachers at a small school for children with autism and related disabilities. Five teachers collected baseline data on the duration of daily skill acquisition and behavior reduction data entry, including transferring data from clipboards and binders into their existing data collection platform (Microsoft Excel) and updating graphs. A multiple baseline across participants (teachers) was used. Duration data will be collected after the implementation of Catalyst to determine its effects on data entry duration.

Teachers are increasingly required to meet the needs of students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Students with ASD often present with a range of challenging behaviors and skill deficits that interfere with learning. Teachers often lack adequate training to effectively work with students who have ASD. There are several existing studies that have documented the effectiveness of in situ direct training via a bug-in-ear for increasing teachers' capacity to use effective classroom management techniques. Although direct training is often found to be an effective teacher training method, it can be time and resource intensive especially in under-resourced schools. This study sought to increase the feasibility of teacher training by using technology to provide in situ training from a remote location. Specifically, this study used a non-concurrent multiple baseline design with a Koehler Levin randomization procedure to (a) evaluate the effectiveness of direct training via a bug-in-ear device (BIE; i.e., Bluetooth earpiece and webcam) provided remotely from an off-site location, and (b) evaluate the effect of behavior specific praise (BSP) for improving compliance and decreasing disruptive classroom behaviors in students with ASD. Data for four participants will be presented.

A two-phase review examined 180 studies on safety skills training published in 30 behaviorally-orientated journals from 1968 to 2014. First, a systematic review organized the literature according to: publication trends, participant demographics, experimental characteristics, and distribution safety skill types and training contingencies (e.g., positive, negative reinforcement, punishment of unsafe skills, etc.). Second, a preliminary meta-analysis of the single-case studies yielded treatment effect sizes across training contingencies. Results and discussions underscore the need to advance applied technology pertaining to this socially important repertoire.

Excess psychological control affects children's performance in cognitive tasks of problem solving, school performance, socioemotional adaptation (O'Connor, 2002) and mathematical performance (Aunola and Nurmi, 2004). By contrast, parental children have higher language skills (Hudson, et al., 2015) and higher self-regulated learning (Pino and Whitebread, 2010). However, maternal sensitivity has generally been assessed using self-assessment scales which, because of their global nature, do not capture the moment-to-moment dynamics of interactive processes (Cerezo, et al., 2011). Therefore, the objective of the present research was to describe the behavioral variables related to maternal sensitivity in two samples of children with high (7 dyads) and low academic performance (10 dyads), from the city of Tijuana from the second to second behavioral records video sessions of 30 minutes divided into two conditions: playful and academic activity (average Kappa = .87). The results indicate that mothers of underachieving children are more coercive and less interactive, whereas mothers with well performing children outweigh social and approval attenuations, whereas children with low academic performance are more indifferent to aversive behaviors of their mothers.

Much research exists to address compliance for children and adults. Several reviews of the literature pertaining to compliance exist, however, none of the reviews has investigated the functions of noncompliance nor the effectiveness of the interventions based on function. Therefore, the purpose of the current literature review was to examine the functions of noncompliance, and analyze which function-based interventions were the most effective. Past studies which conducted a functional analysis or functional assessment on compliance or noncompliance were collected and organized. Results of this review suggest that the functions of noncompliance include attention, escape, access to tangibles, or combinations of the three. The percentage of effectiveness was calculated for each function-based intervention. The results of the review along with recommendations for future research are discussed.