The Walker-McConnell Scale of Social Competence and School Adjustment is intended for screening and identifying elementary-aged school children with social skill deficits. The instrument is divided into two components covering adaptive classroom behavior and interpersonal social skills. This paper describes the test's administration, summation of…

The study, using qualitative research methods with six families with severely or multiply disabled adopted children, found that interactions with school, medical, and other personnel were extremely stressful for all families, as were medical crises, difficulties in accessing appropriate services, and adolescents' behavior problems. Effective…

This paper argues that many social validity processes in applied behavior analysis are actually measuring consumer satisfaction and not the habilitative validity of goals, procedures, or outcomes. The term "habilitative validation" is proposed to replace social validity, and use of more objective assessment methods is encouraged.…

In this case study, music was applied noncontingently and contingently across four settings with an adolescent male with autism, to reduce aberrant, repetitive vocalizations. The intervention was associated with dramatic reductions in the primary aberrant behavior and reductions in two other aberrant behaviors. Task performance was differentially…

Contends that students who have been referred by teachers for behavioral problems, lack of social skills, or poor academic performance should be interviewed by school counselors and invited to join new group being formed to develop and practice friendship skills. Discusses how to organize such a group, and presents 15 group steps. (NB)

Behavioral techniques (positive reinforcement and nonexclusionary timeout) effectively decreased problem behaviors of noncompliance and aggression of a young adult male with severe mental retardation and Down's syndrome residing in the community. (DB)

Examines how family composition, size, and atmosphere; parental control; and the level of parental education and socioeconomic status are associated with children's problems at school. Shows that underachievers came from families with absent natural fathers, lower parental control, and negative atmosphere; overachievers came from intact families…

The case of an indigent library patron recovering a judgment against a public library is used as a backdrop for discussing patron behavior policies in the public library. Highlights include First Amendment rights, the public library as an expressive forum, government rules, policy lessons from the case, and acceptable policies. (AEF)

Concordance between mothers' and teachers' perceptions of behavior problems and competencies of 74 children (mean age 131.6 months) with nonspecific developmental delays was assessed with standardized and study-developed scales. Correlations between raters averaged .43. There were minimal differences in ratings of boys and girls, and few…

Describes one elementary school's school-wide effort to design and implement strategies for school improvement in discipline, community relations, and academic performance. Children are taught a simple three-step method for dealing with conflict. Referrals to the timeout room and discipline referrals for serious behavior infractions have been…

Describes the use of functional assessment for behavior-support planning with students having chronic behavior problems. Focus is on a functional assessment method that includes the student as an important information source. Following a definition of functional assessment, six steps for developing a comprehensive behavior support plan are…

Presents the legal requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in disciplining students with disabilities, describes IDEA's requirement that school officials address student problem behavior in the Individualized Education Program, and offers recommendations regarding the formation of school district policies and…

Results of a functional analysis indicted that the hand mouthing of a woman with profound mental retardation was maintained by multiple sources of control (sensory stimulation and access to a leisure item). Hand mouthing, though maintained by automatic reinforcement, was also susceptible to social contingencies when exposed to them during…

A case study illustrates how the ongoing data-based monitoring of timeout use by parents enhanced the treatment of an 8-year-old boy, referred because of noncompliance in the home. Maintaining the timeout record enabled rapid refinements in the timeout procedure by providing a feedback mechanism to the therapist, identification of the need for…

Explores the causal nature of the association between grade repetition and later adolescent problem behaviors for 197 retained and 204 promoted African-American sixth and seventh graders in two urban middle schools. Regression analyses imply that retention reduced rebellious behavior in school and increased attachment to school. (SLD)