When, despite their best efforts, teachers feel defeated by a disruptive student, it seems they're fighting a losing battle. These students often have trouble regulating their emotions, become inflexible and have outbursts, and leave teachers feeling exhausted and incompetent. Through their collaboration, the authors have developed an approach…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEIA 2004) continues to mandate that behavior interventions and behavior supports be monitored for proper implementation, and data gathered to prove implementation fidelity and student outcomes. The current implementation of behavior support plans (BSPs) is another type of…

"Milieu teaching" is a practice that involves manipulating or arranging stimuli in a preschool child's natural environment to create a setting that encourages them to engage in a targeted behavior. For example, a teacher might place a desirable toy in a setting to encourage a student to request that toy (where requesting a toy is the…

Maintaining a positive classroom environment that will encourage learning is a challenge, particularly in classes that require frequent interventions due to students' disruptive behaviors. Punitive disciplinary reactions are generally ineffective when responding to students who are frequently disruptive. More importantly, negative teacher…

Students with intellectual disabilities can exhibit a wide array of challenging behaviors in the classroom that pose disruptions to the learning milieu and management problems for those involved in their education. Self-modeling, a behavioral intervention that involves viewing edited videotapes of oneself depicting exemplary behavior, has had…

The authors report 1-year outcomes for 11 children (3-7 years) with autism who attended an "Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) classroom" educational intervention in a mainstream school setting. The children learned new skills by the end of 1 year and learned additional skills during a 2nd year. Group analysis of standardized test outcomes (IQ and…

In this paper, we examine the link between evidence-based practice and social validity by describing five examples from our own research where social validity measures resulted in data that were essential to both a clinical and research agenda on evidence-based practice. Social validity data are reviewed in the context of behavioral skill training…

Background: Repeated self-harm in adolescents is common and associated with elevated psychopathology, risk of suicide, and demand for clinical services. Despite recent advances in the understanding and treatment of self-harm there have been few systematic reviews of the topic. Aims: The main aim of this article is to review randomised controlled…

A considerable research base underscores the importance of family functioning in the risk for and treatment of adolescent suicidal thoughts and behaviors. This paper reviews the extant empirical literature documenting associations between features of the family context and adolescent suicidal thoughts and behaviors. A case example is provided to…

Although, reviews and outcome research supports empirical evidence for Early Intensive Behavior Intervention in pre-scholars, intensive behavioral service provision for school-aged children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) are less subject to research studies. In order to provide effective behavioral interventions for school-aged children it…

This article presents a case study of an adult with severe, multiple disabilities and discusses issues affecting meaningful life participation. Emphasis is placed on the role of functional mobility skills to increase active engagement in age-appropriate activities and opportunities to make informed choices. MOVE for Adults (Mobility Opportunities…

Commonly used in clinical and medical settings, no-suicide contracts (NSCs) solicit commitment from suicidal individuals not to attempt suicide. The prevalence of community and school-based Mental Health Professionals' (MHPs) use of NSCs with suicidal youth (SY) is unknown. Additionally, minimal feedback is available regarding MHPs' current…

Packing is a problematic mealtime behavior that is characterized by pocketing or holding solids or liquids in the mouth without swallowing. In the current study, we examined the effects of a chaser, a liquid or solid consistently accepted and swallowed by the child, to decrease packing of solid foods in 3 children with feeding disorders. During…

Research has shown that variability may be an operant dimension of behavior. One method of reinforcing response variability is to use a lag schedule of reinforcement (Page & Neuringer, 1985). Several studies have shown that a Lag 1 schedule is effective in increasing variable responding with human participants (e.g., Esch, Esch, & Love, 2009; Lee,…

Supporting the full range of students with behavioral challenges requires that schools build the capacity to implement evidence-based behavioral interventions. Fortunately, a substantive body of research documents behavioral interventions are available to both decrease problem behavior and enhance prosocial skills. To date, however, this…