Autism is primarily a social disorder and deficits in social?orienting may be responsible for the failure of children with autism to initiate critical social behaviors. The purpose of this research was to improve the quality of social interactions of children with autism by implementing naturalistic behavior strategies intervention utilizing a multiple baseline design across four participants. Naturalistic behavior strategies comprised a comprehensive package of integrated components including: (a) intervention in the child’s natural environment; (b) child-initiated play activities ; (c) prompts to emit language; (d) shaping for all vocal approximations and (e) delivery of natural reinforcement with embedded social interactions to maintain learned behavior. In addition to intervention, generalization of child behaviors was assessed across untrained parents and/or caregivers in the same environment. Results indicated the effectiveness of naturalistic teaching strategies package in increasing (a) the frequency of vocal mands for all children, (b) the number of times that children initiated social engagement during manding, and (c) intervals of nonverbal dyadic orienting. These skills generalized across two untrained caregivers in the same clinical setting without any training from the interventionist. Two parents required training during the generalization phase in order for their child’s behaviors to maintain at levels demonstrated during the intervention phase. Implications for future research and clinical practice are discussed.

Higher education instructors experience many uncivil behavior challenges among students in the classroom that affect learning. The purpose of this qualitative study was to investigate the effect of higher education classroom management behavior strategies on learning. Guided by Bandura's social learning theory and Piaget's cognitive theory, the research questions were designed to explore the perceptions of instructors and students about classroom management behavior strategies used in college settings and how student classroom incivility affects learning. The study included a panel of experts to aid in determining the feasibility of the project study protocol, testing the adequacy of research instruments, and identifying weaknesses in a study. There were 19 prewritten open-ended interview questions used to gather in-depth feelings, attitudes, and perceptions of 5 instructors' and 5 students' experiences toward classroom incivility from a 2-year college in Texas. Participant interviews were transcribed using open, axial, and selective coding to identify common themes. Discipline referral reports and researcher observation notes were gathered to triangulate the data. The findings indicated the instructors needed training on how to better manage uncivil classroom behaviors among students. The findings were used to develop a professional development training called "Classroom Incivility: Address it Now, Later, or Never." This project resulting from the study could have a direct effect on positive social change by equipping instructors with better tools to effectively manage uncivil behavior among students in their classrooms.

The evidence clearly indicates that, not only is the learning process affected by many factors including students’ mental health and social-emotional learning (SEL), but also zero tolerance methods of managing students’ problem behaviors are largely ineffective. This dissertation introduces a suggested model for supporting educators’ efforts in the implementation and sustainability of SEL programs using a response-to-intervention (RTI) model for educators. Additionally, the current study examined the effects of conjoint behavioral consultation (CBC) on (a) the role of teachers’ classroom practices, (b) the home-school partnership, and (c) the relationship these two factors have on young children’s challenging behaviors. Participants in this study were four triads, each consisting of one pre-k teacher, one preschool student with challenging behaviors, and one set of preschool students’ parents from a suburban county in the southeast. Three dependent variables were measured in this study: (1) teachers’ target behaviors were measured using direct observation; (2) students’ target behaviors were measured using direct observation (i.e., daily by teachers and parents) and ratings on the Social Skills Improvement System Rating Scale (SSIS-RS; Elliott & Gresham, 2008); and (3) the impact of the intervention on the home-school relationship was measured both pre- and post-intervention using the Parent-Teacher Relationship Scale - II (PTRS-II; Vickers & Minke, 1995). The independent variable was a multi-component intervention package that incorporated the four stages of CBC (Sheridan & Kratochwill, 2010) with a social skills intervention plan. A relationship was established between the intervention and teachers’ use of select positive behavior support (PBS) strategies. Furthermore, results indicated that the intervention package was effective in improving all students’ challenging behaviors in the school setting and for three of the four students challenging behaviors in the home setting. Finally, results from the PTRS-II indicated that parents and teachers’ perceptions of the home-school relationship actually declined. However, this outcome was unexpected because the anecdotal reactions from the participants throughout this study were very positive. Ratings on the social validity of the intervention as measured by the Treatment Evaluation Inventory – Short Form (TEI-SF; Kelley, Heffer, Gresham, & Elliott, 1989) were high.

The active place avoidance task represents one of the methods of the study of animal cognition. In this task, a subject is put on a rotating circular arena and avoids invisible sector that is stable with respect to the room. Rotation of the arena means that the subject's avoidance must be active, otherwise the subject would be moved in the punished sector by the rotation of the arena and a slight electric shock would be administered. The experiment described in the present work explored the effect of variable arena rotation speed on the ability to avoid the punished sector. Rats in a group with a variable arena rotation speed learned to avoid the punished sector with the same speed and attained the same ability to avoid the sector as rats in a group with a stable arena rotation speed. The only difference between the two groups was found in a preferred position within the room. No difference was found between the two groups in the dark phase, where the rats could not use orientation cues in the room. Only one rat was able to learn the avoidance of the punished sector in this phase. The results of the experiment suggest that idiothetic orientation and interval timing are not crucial for learning of the avoidance of the punished sector. However, idiothetic orientation is sufficient for the avoidance of the...

Intervention Strategies to Decrease Discipline Issues in an Urban pre-K-8 Public School by Wendy A. Mason MEd, Walden University, 2005 BA, Kean University, 1979 Doctoral Study Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Walden University October 2015 The educational problem addressed in this study was the lack of empirically grounded evidence of the intervention strategies an urban school in the northeast region of the United States used to decrease school discipline problems. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to identify, explore, and understand the strategies used by school personnel to decrease discipline problems. The conceptual framework was anchored in social learning and communities of practice theories. The research questions focused on identifying the types of student discipline problems, the strategies developed and deployed to decrease the discipline problems, and the outcomes of the strategies. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 12 participants: 1 administrator, 10 teachers, and 1 counselor. Archival documents such as incident reports, discipline referral forms, the school's year-end report, and district suspensions reports were also examined for discipline patterns. Data analysis strategies included transcribing interview data, identifying patterns, and data triangulation. Results indicated that disrespect, noncompliant behavior, willful disobedience, fighting, and bullying were major discipline problems at the school. A multiplicity of strategies such as in-school and out-of-school suspension and character education effectively decreased discipline issues. Recommendations include a regular review of prevention strategies to determine which strategies are effective at reducing discipline. Positive social change implications include implementing invention strategies that create safe learning environments for students and staff in which all students can achieve academic success that leads to timely graduation and productive and responsible citizenship in the communities in which students live.