I conducted a descriptive study consisting of 30 preschool participants with and without disabilities to examine the relation between the 3 bidirectional operants. The bidirectional operants were speaker-as-own-listener cusps, which included bidirectional verbal operants between people, bidirectional self-talk conversational units, and…

This proof-of-concept study assessed the feasibility of implementing Prevent-Teach-Reinforce-for-Young-Children (PTR-YC) program to address challenging behaviors in children with autism within the context of public, specialized early intensive behavioral intervention (EIBI) services offered in community settings. Following a 2-day training and…

It has been demonstrated that the Simon effect may be increased or reversed due to proportion congruency manipulation, suggesting that learned spatial irrelevant stimulus-response (S-R) associations are used to guide responses. In this study, we tested the hypothesis that learning spatial irrelevant S-R associations by rewards may show a similar…

In the current study, the researchers qualitatively explored the life significance of a university summer outdoor education (OE) course. The data included 15 in-depth interviews with alumni who had participated in one of the university's summer OE courses over 20 years ago. The researchers interpretively analyzed the interview transcripts and…

Identification of reinforcers is critical to the effectiveness of behavioral interventions. Stimulus preference assessments (SPA) are a frequently used method to identify putative reinforcers. Given the fluctuating nature of individual preferences, there is need for efficient training of providers that may regularly implement SPAs. The present…

Children with disabilities often have deficits in imitation skills, particularly in imitating peers. Imitation is considered a behavioral cusp--which, once learned, allows a child to access additional and previously unavailable learning opportunities. In the current study, researchers examined the efficacy of contingent reinforcement delivered…

Children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) often emit errors during the establishment of conditional discriminations. These children may not respond to more traditional error-correction procedures, such as least-to-most prompting. In this study, we compared two other types of error-correction procedures, namely embedding an identity-matching…

We observed three children with autism spectrum disorder during structured play dates in which play partners displayed interest or disinterest in the toys with which they were playing. We then taught subjects to identify play partners' preferences and to make appropriate toy offers using a multiple-exemplar training package consisting of rules,…

The resurgence of destructive behavior can occur during functional communication training (FCT) if the alternative response contacts a challenge (e.g., extinction). Behavioral momentum theory (BMT) suggests that refinements to FCT could mitigate resurgence of destructive behavior during periods of extinction. Following a functional analysis and…

The efficacy and efficiency of telehealth and in-person training were compared while teaching seven undergraduate students to implement components of discrete trial training. A multiple-baseline design across skills with elements of multiple probe and delayed multiple baseline combined with an alternating-treatments design was used to evaluate the…

Children with autism spectrum disorder and other developmental disabilities often exhibit invariant responding (i.e., restricted behavioral repertoires), deficits in communication, and challenging behavior. Approaches demonstrated in the basic and applied literature to increase response variability include extinction, lag schedules of…

Behavior-specific praise (BSP) is a low-intensity strategy that can be used to reinforce appropriate responding in the classroom. BSP occurs when a teacher observes particular student behavior and compliments the student for the appropriate response with the intent that students will continue to engage in the appropriate behavior. In this article,…

We developed this special issue, "Effective Low-Intensity Strategies to Enhance School Success: What Every Educator Needs to Know," for "Beyond Behavior" as a resource for educators and parents. Each article provides easy-to-access resources for readers to learn about effective, efficient, low-intensity strategies to support…

Differential reinforcement procedures may promote unprompted correct responding, resulting in a quicker transfer of stimulus control than nondifferential reinforcement. Recent studies that have compared reinforcement arrangements have found that the most effective arrangement may differ across participants. The current study conducted an…

The purpose of this article was to describe 2 studies that examined the relation between descriptive praise and generalized diversity of forms and colors used during art activities in young children. Study I used a true reversal design to examine the relation between descriptive praise and diversity during art activities. All 4 children had small…