The monograph describes a systematic attempt to develop language behavior in a nonverbal autistic 4.5-year-old boy who was essentially unresponsive to environmental stimuli of any kind. The 45-session intervention focused on teaching him to attend, increasing his responsiveness to people, effecting discriminative responses to a variety of…

A home-based reinforcement program was instituted with three underachieving fourth graders who exhibited inappropriate behavior. Each day the children brought home a workbook assignment indicating percentage of correct responses and parents provided reinforcement for correct items and for improvement over time. Effectiveness on completion of daily…

Chronic self-injury is a psychopathology which afflicts some persons with severe mental retardation. The self-injurious acts may be carried out to avoid completion of a task, or the behavior may be intrinsically reinforcing. Professional responses have included use of restraints, psychopharmacology, placement in more restrictive settings, and…

The paper is intended as a guide to the levels curriculum for teachers of emotionally handicapped secondary students. The levels curriculum is introduced as a motivational system for behavioral improvement based on a series of steps with increasing student priveleges and responsibilities. Students develop individual goals and learn communication,…

Effects of brief time out on the biting behavior of a 21- month-old boy enrolled in a day care setting was examined. The Motivation Assessment Scale (MAS; Durand, 1983) was used to determine the function of the child's biting. A parent report survey, the MAS assesses disruptive behavior using a Likert-type scale and discriminates the function of a…

Two newsletters focus on alternatives for community living and approaches to teaching social skills to children and youth with disabilities. The first issue provides information on some family support services and community-based living arrangements that are currently available for children with severe and profound handicaps or chronic illnesses.…

A nomothetic assessment of the drive-by shooting in inter-barrio gang violence was conducted. Available data on drive-by shootings were organized using the model of behavioral assessment suggested by Kanfer and Saslow (1969). The model included seven areas of analysis: initial assessment, clarification of the problem, motivation, development,…

Recent reports indicate that a significant number of college-age women suffer from bulimarexia. To investigate the success of experiential-insight, behaviorally-oriented therapy groups in helping college students cope with eating disorders, 26 students (25 females, 1 male) participated in 1 to 10 weekly therapy sessions. The groups, which were…

The paper describes Project ADVANCE, a Behavior Management System which addressed the behavioral adjustment, academic performance, and vocational development needs of 44 emotionally disturbed students (between the ages of 14 and 20) in Salem County, New Jersey. Section I provides an introduction with information on project goals, the significance…

Elementary teachers' free response self reports of how they would respond to students' hostile aggressive behavior (as depicted in two written vignettes) were transcribed, coded, and analyzed for relationships to the teachers' grade level (K-3 vs. 4-6), school location (Lansing vs. inner-city Detroit), and rating by their principals and by…

This newsletter, focusing on literature and research on cognitive behavior modification (CBM), reviews articles and research on CBM with children. Works on retarded children, deaf children and children with learning disabilities are presented, with critical analyses. A parallel section on CBM with adults follows. Problem areas of phobias, anxiety,…

The first part of this paper is devoted to a review and criticism of B.F. Skinner's identification of moral or ethical principles with positive negative reinforcers. The second part is devoted to defending the thesis that behaviorists as scientists are not morally neutral as F.H. Kanfer claims. This paper seeks to determine which set of moral…

The phenomenon of pain is still very puzzling. It is not a purely physical phenomenon. Overwhelming research evidence suggests various psychological variables affecting the pain experience. The purpose of this paper is to present an overview of some promising cognitive-behavioral approaches to the control of pain. Anxiety clearly plays a role in…

In its attempts to apply behavior modification principles to teaching job-required behaviors to manpower trainees, the Mobilization for Youth-Experimental Manpower Laboratory (MFY-EML), has mounted a number of reinforcement-based Neighborhood Youth Corps training programs. The nature, magnitude and scheduling of reinforcers, the nature of the…