The instruction, maintenance, and transfer of training of social skills of 3 seriously emotionally disturbed adolescents were accomplished by a self-management training and reinforcement package. During baseline sessions these students, who were covertly filmed in their classroom, averaged over 90% off-task or socially inappropriate behavior while their teacher was out of the room. They showed similar behaviors when walking between classes, unattended by their teacher. Treatment was introduced in the classroom and consisted of social skills and self-management training and reinforcement. Treatment procedures included instruction, modeling, and role playing of social skills, as well as self-assessment, self-recording, and self-reinforcement for correct approximations of these skills. After 5 weeks of training, all subjects demonstrated substantial improvements in the classroom during the teacher's absence and when distracted by other students; however, transfer of social skills did not occur to the between-class setting until students were given explicit instruction to initiate self-managing procedures in this setting.
An aggression replacement and self-management training package reduced the frequency of aggressive behavior among four junior high adolescents identified as seriously emotionally disturbed (SED). During baseline sessions, the students were covertly filmed as they stood unsupervised in front of the school cafeteria. The four subjects engaged in aggressive behavior during 50% of the filmed intervals. These episodes involved provocation by other students, self-initiated provocation, or continuing interaction between students once an aggressive episode had begun. Treatment procedures included instruction, modeling, and role playing of aggression replacement skills. Self-management training included self-assessment, self-recording, and self-reinforcement. Following an 8-week period, subjects demonstrated substantial improvement in prosocial skills without supervision. During reversal-to-baseline conditions, aggressive behavior increased; however, reinstating treatment conditions brought a return to prosocial behavior. Outcomes suggest that aggressive replacement skills may transfer and sustain more adequately using self-management.
A descriptive analysis of disruptive behavior was generated from filmed observations prior to and following training in self-management skills. Two junior high students with serious emotional disturbance (SED) were covertly videotaped during in-classroom and between-classroom performance in the absence of supervision. Videotapes were analyzed by descriptive analysis of conditions associated with disruptive/off-task behaviors. Descriptive analysis revealed that maladaptive behaviors were self-initiated in unsupervised settings. It also is apparent from this analysis that maladaptive behaviors were correlated with provocation by peers and with continuing disruptive interaction between students once an off-task/disruptive episode had begun. Treatment procedures were applied by way of a multiple baseline across settings design and included instruction, modeling, rehearsal, and rehearsal in the apparent absence of supervision. Self-management training features included self-assessment, self-recording, and self-reinforcement for correct approximations of on-task and socially appropriate behavior. Outcomes suggest that the descriptive analysis was predictive of the conditions correlated with problem behaviors and that on-task/socially appropriate behaviors were transferred and sustained while operating under the influence of self-management in the absence of supervision.
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