UC Riverside

Children with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are at a greater risk for negative social, academic, and post-school outcomes than students with other disabilities These children with EBD often develop behavior problems early on which escalate and place them on a trajectory that is hard to alter once their behaviors become more severe, frequent, and chronic. Results of behavior specific praise (BSP) interventions for students with EBD have shown reductions in some of these maladaptive behaviors such as aggression, off-task behavior, and disruptive behavior. The present study will use a multiple baseline design to examine the effects of a BSP intervention for Kindergartners at-risk of developing EBD. Using performance feedback on rates of BSP, teachers will be trained to give BSP at a 3:1, praise to behavior-correction, ratio. Positive (BSP & general praise) and negative (reprimands & pre-corrections) teacher interactions will be recorded during direct observation to calculate this ratio. Student variables that will be examined in this study include student disruptive and aggressive behavior.