Scientifically validated methods of reducing tension and alleviating tension disorders are reported in the papers presented at this convention. Treatment for the physical manifestations of anxiety such as sleeplessness, speech difficulties, and forgetfulness is described in several papers. The effectiveness of hypnosis and coordination of the…

TO STUDY THE EFFECTS OF OVERTRAINING ON REVERSAL AND NONREVERSAL SHIFTS OF CUES, 96 NORMAL (MEAN AGE = 117 MONTHS, MEAN IQ = 109.8) AND 96 RETARDED CHILDREN (MEAN AGE = 119 MONTHS, MEAN IQ = 70.1) WERE TESTED ON A SIMULTANEOUS 2-CHOICE DISCRIMINATION TASK. SUBJECTS WERE TRAINED ON TWO LEVELS (CRITERION AND OVERTRAINING). FOLLOWING TRAINING ON THE…

Research on learning and conditioning suggests that verbal response modification does not occur in the absence of the subject's ability to define verbally (1) the response-reinforcement relationships and (2) his intention to change his behavior in the direction of reinforcement. This seems to be true for operant conditioning of verbal behavior,…

A base rate of deviant behavior was obtained for the eight most disruptive children in a third grade adjustment class. In a token reinforcement program, the children received teacher's ratings, which were exchangeable for reinforcers such as candy and trinkets. With the introduction of the token reinforcement program, an abrupt reduction in…

Children with infantile autism display characteristics and behaviors that severely limit their growth and functioning on many levels. Research is reviewed in which principles of operant conditioning are implemented in procedures designed to investigate and/or modify the autistic child's behavior in the following areas: (a) social interaction, (b)…

The teacher's guide presents some of the basic considerations necessary for classroom implementation of a public school program for autistic and seriously emotionally disturbed (ED) children. Included are descriptive infomration about typical ED student's behavior and management techniques for use in the classroom. Also given are basic ideas…

The purpose of this study was to investigate the efficacy of a behavior modification method for remediation of reading skills with ten primary grade students enrolled in a sixteen week program. Ten elementary school teachers enrolled in a graduate diagnostic and remedial reading course received eight hours of instruction, including the collection…

Intended for clinicians working individually with children (in grades k-3) who have mild to moderate articulatory disorders, the guide provides information on an articulation based program to establish the target phoneme in structured speech in the therapy room. Material is divided into three sections according to the phoneme being focused on.…

Investigated with a 26-year-old male graduate student were the immediate and long-term effects of social reinforcement and feedback on the incidence of stuttering. The S's speech dysfluencies were recorded under baseline and intervention conditions in three settings: two classes the S taught and a weekly hour-long conversation period with peers.…

Contingent social reinforcement was applied differentially to aid the behavioral and educational development of a 9-year-old severely retarded nonverbal female with quadriplegic spastic cerebral palsy. Four behaviors prerequisite and collateral to beginning language development were defined and measured: eye contact, head control, initiative…

Presented are six case studies demonstrating the application of operant conditioning principles to teaching self-care skills and modifying deviant behavior in six moderately to profoundly retarded children 5- to 15-years-old in Japan. Included in the case histories, such as that of a moderately retarded 12-year-old who was toilet trained, are…