Visual activity schedules (VASs) are an effective, efficient intervention designed to promote positive language and behavioral development for elementary students with and at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). However, VAS design and implementation varies widely in the extant research, prohibiting the ease of implementation in…

Providing support to students with challenging behaviors is a critical focus of classroom teachers' success. Finding ways to prevent and mediate academic and behavioral difficulties is a high priority area for both research and practice. The focus of this study is on the effects of implementation of Orton-Gillingham Reading intervention strategies…

Background: Tobacco smoke exposure (TSE), defined as secondhand smoke (SHS) and third-hand smoke (THS), is associated with negative health consequences. This study's objective was to assess the associations between home TSE status and school engagement, school success, and afterschool activity participation among school-aged children. Methods: We…

Children living in disenfranchised communities are at risk for growing up without developing the literacy skills they need to succeed and thrive later in life. The ability to read proficiently is a prerequisite for engagement in a myriad of meaningful occupations, financial success, and optimal health management. This set of practice guidelines…

Background: The dropout rate of Chinese elementary school students after 2007 rose again. Little research to date has identified individual differences in pathways of academic engagement to discern those at risk of disengagement and dropout from schools, as well as the longitudinal linkages between cognitive beliefs with academic engagement. Aims:…

Struggling readers are likely to face life-long challenges in achieving success in school and life as a result of their struggles with reading (Armbruster et al., 2001; Arnold, 2010; Hernandez, 2011). Third-grade students with reading disabilities are an exceptionally critical group who may experience enhanced risk during the year that the focus…

This study explored the use of targeted interventions as a means for addressing chronic absenteeism at one elementary school in a suburb of the northern United States. Despite the impacts of a global pandemic, the case study members navigated the parameters under which the school system was placed and remained focused in their approach. Based on…

In this paper we explore how participation in a constructivist-oriented, classroom aligned mathematics intervention program advanced the learning and positive dispositions of Grade 1 students who were failing to thrive when learning mathematics. Intervention programs are an approach to differentiated instruction that some schools adopt, but there…

Students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) often receive low rates of teacher praise and high rates of teacher reprimands, though they may respond more positively to praise and more negatively to reprimands than their typically developing peers. Teacher praise-to-reprimand ratios (PRRs) are associated with increased student engagement,…

In this study we examine the effectiveness of a technology-based vocabulary intervention compared to an extended vocabulary intervention that has been validated in previous studies. At-risk first grade students learned new words through each condition in a within-subjects design. Comparisons of target word knowledge between the two conditions were…

Many teachers resort to using reprimands in attempts to stop disruptive student behavior, particularly by students with emotional or behavioral problems, although this may not be effective. This study examined short-term longitudinal data on teacher reprimands of 149 teachers in 19 different elementary schools across three states, as well as…

Between half and two-thirds of all school-aged children experience trauma, and 26% of children will witness or experience trauma before the age of four. Early indicators of trauma's impact on children is observable in the likelihood that they are 2 1/2 times more likely to fail a grade than their unaffected peers; they score lower on standardized…

According to Connell and Wellborn's Self-System Model of Motivational Development (SSMMD; Self processes and development, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Hillsdale, pp 43-77, 1991), school engagement is fostered by students' perception that their needs for competence, autonomy, and relatedness are fulfilled. The universal claim of this model has…

In the United States, many teachers feel underprepared to manage student classroom behavior positively. Such management is crucial for students to learn effectively, especially those with or at risk of emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD). Although increasing teacher praise and decreasing teacher reprimands may be research-based practices,…

Motivation and engagement in mathematics are important for academic success and are sometimes compromised in students with disabilities who have experienced a history of frustration and failure. This article explains how general and special education teachers can implement three research-supported strategies for boosting motivation and engagement…