Two students with severe disabilities were alternately presented with interspersed high-compliance requests and social comments as antecedents to low-compliance requests. Analysis found similar positive effects on compliance for interspersed requests and social comments. The effectiveness of social comments was related to the time interval between…

The study evaluated the effects of a time-efficient reinforcer assessment package with three preschoolers with autism. Systematic assessment of children's reinforcers for correct responding virtually eliminated nontargeted maladaptive behaviors, and yielded expected improvements in accuracy. (Author/DB)

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…

A multicomponent intervention to change problem behavior, which prevented community integration of three adolescents with autism, was evaluated. The intervention (implemented in a supermarket setting) included choice making, embedding, functional communication training, building tolerance for delay of reinforcement, and presenting discriminative…

Three severely retarded persons displaying self-injury, stereotypy, or aggression were trained to emit a communicative response that solicited reinforcement. Results showed that consequence procedures were required in addition to reinforcement. Treating aberrant behavior through use of functional analysis to identify maintaining contingencies and…

A brief training manual was developed to teach child-care workers to contingency contract with delinquent youths living in residential care facilities. Results from analogue training simulations and generalization tests indicated that workers became more proficient in contract negotiation and writing behaviors and were able to apply the skills.…

This review of behavioral research on teaching individuals with profound multiple handicaps found that behavior change has resulted from contingency management interventions, but the behavior changes cannot be described as beneficially affecting the individuals' quality of life. Explanations for this are offered, and suggestions for future…