Analysis of diagnostic questionnaires completed by Japanese parents of 141 autistic children below the age of 12 found that the Japanese peak of abnormal social behavior, including autistic symptoms as reported by parents, was from the ages of 3 to 9 years as compared with the U.S. and European peak of 3 to 6 years. (Author/DB)

Family counseling helped parents, who had spent an extraordinary amount of time trying to determine appropriate interventions for their autistic son (amid conflicting recommendations from professionals) to better deal with other family problems, and their nonhandicapped daughter's behavioral problems, feelings of sadness and ineffectiveness in…

A systematic method for effective consultations between school psychologists or counselors and teachers of children with behavior problems is offered. The approach, consisting of problem definition, observation, review with the teacher, and follow-up activities, serves to help organize and focus the consultation process and ensure follow-through…

A teacher recounts his work to help a troubled child (who was causing classroom disturbances) learn to make friends and gain peer acceptance. (CB)

A variety of group oriented behavior management strategies to modify classroom behavior problems is suggested. Advantages, disadvantages, and implementation guidelines for the group response cost system, the good behavior game, the group timeout ribbon, hero method, peer-mediated extinction, and peer confrontation. (DB)

Statistical analyses of the Behavior Manageability and Behavioral Contagion Scales completed by 44 regular education teachers and 44 teachers of the learning disabled found that no significant group differences existed, that withdrawn behavior was most difficult to manage, and that acting-out behaviors were most disruptive to other students.…

Relations among hormone levels, emotional dispositions, and aggressive attributes were examined in 56 boys and 52 girls, aged 9 to 14 years. (PCB)

Nurses in long-term care facilities indicated that about 30 percent of residents presented noise-making behavior. From descriptions, typology of noise-making was identified: purposeless and perseverative noise-making, noise-making in response to environment, noise-making to elicit response from environment, "chatterbox" noise-making,…

Describes the United Kingdom Health Advisory Service's recommendation to provide access to psychiatric services to adolescents with sensory handicaps. Presents implications for this based on a case description of a deaf boy on an adolescent unit, discussing general and in-group behavior, behavior changes, and the responses of the other adolescents…

A mediated punishment procedure that involved recreating a behavioral sequence by guiding the subject through the behavior in the situation in which it occurred was used to suppress several severe behavior problems in two severely handicapped children (ages 4 and 17). (Author/DB)

The study evaluated the effectiveness of superimposition and subsequent removal of a schedule of continuous reinforcement (CRF) as a rate-decreasing procedure in efforts to eliminate unwanted behaviors. Examination of lever-pressing patterns of eight male rats showed responding was substantially reduced during the superimposition of CRF but…

Crossbreak analysis showed that, when teachers consider students with high levels of problem behavior for special education referral, male teachers are much more likely than female teachers to decide not to refer. (Author/DB)

Interviews were conducted with 25 landlords who had rented apartments/rooms to mentally retarded individuals. Although 22 landlords would rent to retarded individuals again, a significant number had experienced some problems because of poor independent living skills, extreme dependence on the landlord, or deviant behavior exhibited by the retarded…

Comparison of developmentally disabled adolescents presenting conduct disorder (N=56) with those exhibiting other types of psychopathology (N=57) found significant differences in the conduct disordered group including: more severe retardation, fewer pubertal changes, fewer persons with epilepsy, more normal electroencephalographs, and more…

A contingency management procedure using both positive and negative reinforcement was used to strengthen cooperative behavior in five children (ages 3-6) during a series of restorative dental treatment sessions lasting from 15-60 minutes. Baseline levels of disruptive behavior as high as 90 percent were reduced to less than 15 percent. (JW)