Elementary school teachers transition their students from recess to the classroom multiple times a day. When students do not line up quickly or are disruptive in line, teachers can spend valuable instructional time trying to manage students' inappropriate behaviors. The result is a loss of instructional time that could lead to a decrease in…

Training parents of children with autism spectrum disorder can be a challenge due to limited resources, time, and money. Interactive computerized training (ICT)--a self-paced program that incorporates instructions, videos, and interactive questions--is one method professionals can use to disseminate trainings to broader populations. This study…

Efficient and effective training strategies for paraprofessionals in special education settings face many challenges. Interactive computerized training (ICT)--a self-paced program that incorporates audio narration, video models, interactive activities, and competency checks--is one potential solution. ICT has been successful in training college…

Background: Children with a developmental disability often engage in challenging behaviour, which may require that parents implement behavioural assessments and interventions. The purpose of our pilot study was to examine the effects of an interactive web training (IWT) to teach behavioural function identification and intervention selection to…

Discrete-trial instruction (DTI) is a teaching strategy that is often incorporated into early intensive behavioral interventions for children with autism. Researchers have investigated time- and cost-effective methods to train staff to implement DTI, including self-instruction manuals, video modeling, and interactive computer training (ICT). ICT…

Children with autism often demonstrate less variable behavior than their typically developing peers and those with other cognitive disabilities. A possible reason for lack of response variability emitted by children with autism is that they do not have a variety of response forms in their repertoire. Multiple-exemplar training through the use of…

Clinicians are particularly challenged by the development of interventions for behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement because reinforcers that maintain the responses often cannot be directly observed or manipulated. Researchers have conducted either preference assessments or competing items assessments when developing effective treatments…

We trained 3 mothers of children with autism to create, implement, and systematically fade scripts to promote vocal initiations during play. All 3 children's scripted and unscripted initiations increased after the introduction and fading of scripts, and unscripted initiations were maintained at the 2-week follow-up. The results indicate that…

Few studies have explored the effects of fixed-time (FT) reinforcement on escape-maintained behavior of students in a classroom setting. We measured the effects of an FT schedule on the disruptive and appropriate academic behaviors of 2 junior high students in a public school setting. Results demonstrated that FT escape from tasks resulted in a…

The present case study investigated whether the tub-standing of a typically-developing toddler could be reduced by a noncontingent reinforcement procedure. The results of a brief functional analysis suggested that tub-standing was maintained by automatic reinforcement. Noncontingent reinforcement, consisting of presentation of bath toys on a…

This study evaluated use of the interpolation of reinforcement effect, which combines intermittent (INT) and continuous reinforcement (CRF) schedules, with four young children with autism using a free-operant preparation. Results suggest that responding may be less resistant to extinction following interpolated CRF reinforcement than following INT…

Brief multiple-stimulus-without-replacement (MSWO) preference assessments were conducted with 3 adolescent boys with emotional-behavioral disorders in the context of their public school educational program. The reinforcing effects of stimuli identified as high, medium, and low preference were then evaluated using an alternating treatments design…

We conducted functional analyses of disruptive behavior in a classroom setting for two students of typical intelligence with emotional/behavioral disorders (E/BD) using the classroom teacher to implement functional analysis conditions. The functional analyses suggested that both participants' disruptive behavior was maintained by escape from task…