Betty Fry Williams

Behavioral training for teachers in special education: the Gonzaga University program

The Gonzaga Universitys behaviorally based Department of Special Education offers an undergraduate major in special education for the completion of a Bachelor of Education degree, as well as a Master of Education in Special Education. The basic behavioral, data-based model, philosophy, and courses are outlined at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Outcome data gathered from the programs consumers indicated high levels of student and employer satisfaction with the program, the faculty, and the curricular content. The manner in which the program is viewed as compatible with state and national accrediting bodies is discussed. Copyright

Children Exposed to Cocaine: Characteristics and Implications for Research and Intervention.

The 1990 Presidents National Drug Controi Strategy Report estimated that 100,000 babies who have been prenatally exposed to cocaine are born each year. Medical research has established risks for both cocaine-using pregnant women and their unborn children. Infants prenatally exposed to cocaine may experience a marked failure to adapt to the neonatal environment, a lack of appropriate interaction with caregivers, and language, cognitive and motor abnormalities that clearly place them at risk. Initial results of follow-up on these infants have suggested that some will suffer long-term educational and behavioral handicaps. Little has been empirically documented concerning the characteristics of children 18 months and older who were exposed to cocaine prenatally. There is an urgent need for study of this group to determine what, if any, long-term effects children prenatally exposed to cocaine may later exhibit. Such information could be vital to a wide range of professionals in health, education, social service, and childcare. Such research must proceed with caution, however, for other interacting explanations of any identified long-term effects must also be considered.

Suggested behavioral interventions in the classroom to assist students prenatally exposed to drugs

The population of children exposed prenatally to alcohol, cocaine, methamphetamine, and other legal or illegal substances has been rapidly growing in America. The known characteristics of this group include deficits in rule-governed behavior, impulsivity, attention to task, language, sleep attachment, learning, social competence, coordination, hypersensitivity to environmental stimuli, and conduct problems. The purpose of this paper was to describe the characteristics of this population and match known, empirically demonstrated, data-based strategies, such as teacher attention and praise, token reinforcement programs, daily report cards, contingency contracting, self-instructional training, self-management, peer tutoring, Direct Instruction, and combining behavior therapy with stimulant medication therapy, to specific academic and social deficits in children with parental histories of substance abuse.

Classroom procedures for remediating behavior disorders

Numerous effective interventions for the control of behavior problems in the classroom have been developed. These have included relatively simple strategies such as providing contingent attention for appropriate behaviors and social reprimands or timeout for inappropriate behavior. Behavior control procedures have grown in sophistication to involve more complex systems such as token economies, skill straining strategies, peer interventions, and self-control procedures. Each technique has proved effective in improving classroom behavior, however, the combination of multiple techniques has had the most powerful effects on students. The ultimate goal of remediating complex behavior disorders such that appropriate behavior generalizes across new settings and events will require more comprehensive programs and continued analysis of new and promising practices.

The NCATE Process and Behaviorally-Based Special Education

The National Council for Accreditation of Teacher Education (NCATE) has long sought to identify effective programs for teacher preparation in this country. Recently, the Council has revised its standards to be more rigorous and demanding. This revision presents new and challenging standards for the accreditation of programs preparing educators. The most problematic but most important of these new standards is the requirement of a well-articulated knowledge base supporting a programs content and processes. Development of the knowledge base statement involves the articulation of the programs philosophy, theme, model, goals, objectives, primary research base, wisdom of practice, and evaluation procedures. A behavioral model serves well in meeting these requirements, particularly since behavioral applications in education are well researched and the approach is compatible with the emphasis on specific goals and objectives and evaluation of effectiveness. Effective educational methods are available and are mostly behavioral. The articulation of the NCATE knowledge base encourages education faculty, traditionally nonbehavioral, to examine the effectiveness of their programs and to demonstrate research and professional support for content and instructional methods. A behavioral knowledge base statement appropriate for NCATE is demonstrated through examples drawn from Gonzaga Universitys knowledge base for special education.

Treatment of behavior disorders by parents and in the home

Childrens behavior disorders are particularly stressful on families. Such behavior disorders may result from coercive family interactions and at the same time contribute to family dysfunction. This unfortunate cycle often results in child abuse, later delinquency, and continued use of aggression and violence in later life. Training parents to use effective behavior control procedures can prevent future and more serious behavior problems. Behavioral procedures that have been effectively applied by parents in the home include differential attention, timeout, token economies, daily report card systems, and contingency contracting. Siblings have also been effective in treating behavior disorders as have the behavior disordered children themselves. A variety of parent training programs have been implemented with individuals and groups. Parent training appears to be most effective when provided early in the childs life, when follow-up assistance is provided and gradually reduced, and when parents use self-management procedures to plan, rearrange, and monitor their own parenting environment.