Special education teachers have one of the most challenging and stressful jobs in public education, which often leads to increased burnout. High levels of burnout have, in turn, been related to lower levels of fidelity of implementation in delivery of evidence-based behavior interventions. The purpose of this position paper is to (a) propose…

Progress monitoring is an essential element of effectively implementing individualized behavior support. Behavioral progress monitoring allows student support teams to evaluate both the effectiveness of interventions and the fidelity of plan implementation. The purpose of this discussion article is to provide recommendations and guiding questions…

Inappropriate behavior on school buses is a safety issue that concerns students, parents, and educators. There is potential for traffic-related injury, and the limited adult supervision on school buses often facilitates bullying and other infractions. This review identified peer-reviewed articles and dissertations evaluating behavioral…

Function-based support is a widely researched and highly effective form of intervention for students with persistent problem behavior. However, individualized behavior support practices for students continue to be implemented inconsistently in school settings, and educators often use valuable resources adopting interventions that are not likely to…

Challenging behaviors involving food are common for individuals with Prader-Willi syndrome (PWS) and often lead to obesity and other chronic health conditions. Efforts to decrease these behaviors, such as isolation during meals and strict monitoring of food consumption, can be stigmatizing. To decrease the food stealing of a 7 year-old girl with…

Deficits in executive functions can lead to many difficulties for students with disabilities. Research has shown a strong correlation between deficits in executive functions and deficits in academic performance and social-emotional functioning. With state testing requirements, response to intervention (RTI), and positive behavior interventions and…

Across Delaware, many schools use the Positive Behavior Support (PBS) as the prime apparatus for creating safe and effective learning environments. PBS is an inexpensive framework, based upon behavioral science and extrinsic motivation, to teach and reinforce desired student behaviors. Conversely, Responsive Classroom is a researched-based…

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) is a common neurodevelopmental disorder affecting approximately 1 in 59 children (Baio et al. "MMWR Surveillance Summaries," "67"(6), 1, 2018). A commonly experienced psychiatric comorbidity in ASD is anxiety. Although this is known, little research has been done on the specific issues concerning…

This study examined whether style or intensity of child-focused intervention had a secondary effect on parental sense of efficacy and whether these effects varied by baseline level of parent stress. We randomized 87 children with autism, age 13-30 months, into one of four conditions: 15 versus 25 intervention hours crossed with 12 months of Early…

This study evaluates the implementation of Safewards on an assessment and treatment unit (ATU) for people with an intellectual disability. There are no previous studies evaluating this model in this context and previous research has focused largely on acute mental health services. The 'Patient-Staff Conflict Shift Report' was used at baseline for…

Check in-check out (CICO) is a widely used and studied behavioural intervention. Although CICO is an effective way to support pupils' behaviour in a school context, not all pupils benefit from basic CICO. A single-case experimental study was designed to evaluate the effects of CICO Plus support (CICO Plus) for participants whose behaviour was…

Objective: In this systematic review and meta-analysis, we aimed to quantify the effects of text messaging interventions to reduce depressive symptoms and identify variables that might influence the effectiveness of the intervention. Design: Electronic databases including EMBASE, CENTRAL, MEDLINE, CINAHL, PsycINFO and SCOPUS, as well as…

As the adults battle the COVID-19 pandemic's effects, children are also dealing with its fallout. In addition to the health effects, since March 2020, the pandemic has caused long-term school closure, which forced school-aged youth to deal with the stress of social isolation; moreover, since youth have returned to school, there has been an uptick…

School belonging encompasses many complex psychosocial and interpersonal components in the classroom. Teacher-student relationships are the cornerstone of school belonging and can predict student success in the secondary grades. In this qualitative study, interviews with nine high school teachers provided insight into how they viewed their role in…

Teachers continue to struggle with challenging behaviour, and because of this, many leave the field shortly after being hired. In order to respond appropriately to such challenges, teachers must understand why students misbehave. This case study analysed what four high school teachers considered challenging behaviours in their classrooms. The most…