Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a developmental disorder known for deficits in language and social skills. It is often associated with maladaptive behaviors. Studies have indicated that these behaviors in children lead to increased stress, anxiety and depression in mothers. This study examines the effects of parent-implemented Positive Behavior Support (PBS) and behavioral activation (BA) on reducing problem behaviors and increasing maternal wellness. The single subject study was conducted with three mothers (between the ages of 30 and 45) and their three children (between the ages of 5 and 7) with autism spectrum disorder. The results of this study demonstrate that while PBS implementation does reduce problem behaviors, it does not significantly impact maternal well-being. Results indicated that two of the three mothers were able to implement PBS interventions and their children demonstrated significant behavioral improvements. These mothers also engaged in high levels of valued activities both at baseline and during intervention and showed few depression symptoms. The third mother was not able to implement the interventions and her child demonstrated little behavioral progress. This mother showed signs of depression and did not make gains in this area. Further research may want to examine the relationship between behavioral activation and respite care, as well as the role of socioeconomic status.

Challenging behavior in preschool is a serious concern for teachers. In recent years, positive behavior support (PBS) has been shown to be effective in reducing such behaviors. Class-Wide Function-related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) is a specific program for implementing PBS principles in classroom settings. CW-FIT is a group contingency that utilizes social skills training, teacher praise, and positive reinforcement to improve student behavior. Students are taught specific social skills and then work in teams to earn a group reward based on the use of these skills. CW-FIT has been shown to be effective in elementary classrooms but has not yet been evaluated with other age groups. The present study examined the effects of CW-FIT implementation on teacher praise rates and student engagement in four preschool classrooms with 55 total students. A single-subject, multiple-baseline design with embedded reversals was used to evaluate impact. Results indicate that CW-FIT increased teacher praise rates and student engagement while reducing student disruptive behavior. Both teachers and students found CW-FIT to be socially valid. The present study indicates promising results for the implementation of CW-FIT in a preschool setting.

Challenging and disruptive student behavior is a major concern for all teachers, including those who teach art. Unfortunately, there is a lack of research and resources available for art teachers to manage student behavior. School-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) is a framework that has been shown to improve student behavior. Class-wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) is an intervention that utilizes SWPBS principles including group contingency, social skills instruction, teacher praise, and positive reinforcement and has been shown to be effective in general education classrooms. This is the first study of CW-FIT in elementary art classrooms and examined the effects of the intervention on teacher praise-to-reprimand rates and student on-task behavior in three classrooms. The first classroom utilized an AB design while the other two used a reversal (ABAB) design to evaluate impact. The results indicated the teacher was able to implement CW-FIT with fidelity, increase praise-to-reprimand ratios, and increase group on-task behavior. Finally, both the teacher and students found it to be socially valid. Limitations and implications of this study for researchers and practitioners are discussed.

Parents who have children with challenging behavior may feel stressed, overwhelmed and at a loss for solutions. Challenging behavior can cause problems with children’s relationships with others and their school success. There are many resources for schools and children with special needs; however, resources for parents for young children (ages 3 to 5) with challenging behavior are limited. This study examined the impact of a 6-week intervention to coach parents to use strategies that encouraged children to develop skills that helped them to express frustration and solve problems in positive ways. Parents were better able to understand what the children were communicating with their behaviors, and what supports they needed in order to get their needs met in an appropriate way. Challenging behavior decreased for the children who participated. They also were better able to communicate their needs and handle disappointment.

Being a teacher is not an easy job. There is an increased emphasis on evidence-based methods. Teacher praise is an effective classroom management tool. Behavior specific praise statements is a low intensity teacher delivered strategy where teachers say or write the precise behavior exhibited and how it met an expectation or affected academic/social achievement. This study aimed to increase Behavior Specific Praise Statements among three teachers in Mathematic, English and Social subject studies on student’s social behavior as a group. An intervention consisting of an hour of counseling, post-it notes, and self-registration was given. The teachers decided their own pre-set criteria. Two teachers sat a criterion of three and one teacher sat a criterion of six. The results showed that the intervention had an effect on the teachers use of BSPS. However, one teacher did not reach the pre-set criteria. Practical implications are discussed.

Urban middle school teachers have experienced the severe challenges of discipline problems, which have contributed to writing more principal's office discipline referrals. The effective behavior support (EBS) program has been found to promote positive behavior in the classroom and change students negative behavior into positive behavior. Guided by the Problem-Behavior Theory (PBT), the purpose of this quantitative nonexperimental study was to examine the relationship between the teachers' effective behavior support and office discipline referrals of urban middle school students. Years of teaching experience was the mediating variable. The researcher used archival data collected from teachers who used the effective behavior support program located at an urban middle school in the Southeast United States, the female and male teachers ranged between the ages of 23 to 66+. For the research question, a simple regression was employed as a means of analyzing the archival data. Results suggested that positive teachers' support was not associated with the frequency of office discipline referrals. However, years of teaching experience was associated with fewer discipline referrals. The results of this study can be used to promote educational professionals to utilize positive teacher support to decrease office referrals, leading to more student contributions in the classroom and more long term success for students.

Most school based initiatives are not implemented long-term and do not reach sustainability (McDermott, 2000; Mirel, 1994; Rice & Malen, 2003). Schools are implementing School-Wide Positive Behavior Support (SWPBS) as an initiative to target social emotional development and behavior. Schools that have implemented SWPBS have experienced decreases in rate of Office Discipline Referrals (ODR), In-School Suspension (ISS) and Out-of-School Suspension (OSS) (e.g. Bohanon et al., 2006; Childs et al., 2009; Lassen et al., 2006). Research has also shown that schools that implement with a higher degree of fidelity have better outcomes (Childs et al., 2009; Florida's Positive Behavior Support Project, 2009). However, it is not known what mediating factor(s) assist with schools with implementation of Tier 1 PBS at a higher degree of fidelity. This study examined action plans that schools developed during their initial training of Tier 1 PBS, to determine if the action plans are one of the possible mediating factor(s). There are differences between the quality of action plans developed by schools implementing with a higher degree of fidelity compared to schools implementing with a lower degree of fidelity. Based on a path analysis, the action plans are not a mediating factor between fidelity of implementation and student outcomes (i.e. office discipline referrals, In-School Suspension, and Out-of-School Suspension).

This study examined the effectiveness of a school-based intervention process known as Prevent-Teach-Reinforce for children with a combination of externalizing and internalizing behaviors compared to children with only externalizing behaviors. The dependent variables examined were social skills, problem behaviors, and academic engaged time. Data for the current study were taken from archival data collected by the Florida Mental Health Institute that included students in kindergarten through 8th grade. A series of repeated-measures analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to identify differences in improvement on the dependent variables for the two groups of students. Research questions focused on the main effects as well as interaction effects between the type(s) of behavioral problems displayed (i.e., externalizing only, combination of externalizing and internalizing). Behavior problem classification was determined by calculating students' individual subscale scores on the Social Skills Rating Scale. The current study found support for the use of the Prevent-Teach-Reinforce intervention for children with varying behavioral profiles. Significant improvements were found in social skills, behavioral problems, and academic engaged time for students. Additionally, results of this study indicate that internalizing behaviors did not serve as a moderator to treatment effectiveness for students with externalizing behavior problems who received the PTR intervention. That is, improvements were similar for both groups, demonstrating that PTR is a process that can be used in an equally-effective way for both populations.

This study was designed to evaluate a parent training curriculum: Helping Our Toddlers Developing Our Children's Skills (HOT DOCS© ) using archival data collected between August 2006 and April 2007. The evaluation studied the impact of specific components of the parent training program on both participants' knowledge and attitudes and their perceptions of targeted children's behavior. One-hundred-forty-six caregivers of children between the ages of 14 months and ten years of age participated in the parent training program and were included in the analyses. Measures included a pre/post knowledge test, rating scales of child problem behavior, weekly progress monitoring forms for caregiver behavior at home, and a program evaluation survey. Results indicated significant increases in caregiver knowledge following participation in the program. Prior to participation, caregivers' perceptions of the severity of child problem behaviors and deficits in adaptive behaviors were significantly different from a normative sample. Following participation in the program, results showed significant decreases in caregiver perceptions of the severity of child problem behaviors, but no significant differences in child adaptive behaviors. Caregiver feedback indicated high levels of satisfaction with the program.

Decisions to refer students for disciplinary consequences (Hyman & Perone, 1998), eligibility for special services referrals (Smart, Wilton, & Keeling, 1980), and even suspension or expulsion (Brooks, Schiraldi, & Zeidenberg, 2000), are all likely to be driven by teacher perceptions of student behavior. Yet though there is a wealth of research investigating the mechanisms and consequences of teacher perceptions of student behavior, the accuracy of these perceptions has not been addressed in the literature. This study contrasted staff responses on questionnaires about student behavior by infraction category, school locations, and times with the actual referral counts from each setting to achieve a measure of perceptive accuracy for each participant. The results presented in this study extend the research literature on teacher perceptions by providing strong support for data sharing as a perception-changing mechanism among participants working in schools implementing school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS). Participants assigned to conditions in which school-wide discipline data were shared had accuracy scores which were statistically higher than those in non-data sharing conditions. However, asking participants to report their perceptions more than once did not increase the accuracy of their responses in a statistically significant way. The application of an experimental research design and the use of appropriate statistical significance tests draw attention to effects which are statistically real. Additionally, the random assignment of participants within schools to one of four conditions provides us with confidence that the intervention, and not some factor, caused the change in accuracy scores among participants.