Howard N. Sloane

Teacher Presentation Rate and Point Delivery Rate Effects on Classroom Disruption,Performance Accuracy, and Response Rate

In a class of five disruptive students, the effects of teacher presentation rate of academic response opportunities and point delivery were assessed on classroom disruption, performance accuracy, and student response rate. Two levels of teacher presentation rate were paired with two point delivery rates resulting in four treatment conditions: high point rate/fast presentation; high point rate/slow presentation; low point rate/fast presentation; low point rate/ slow presentation. Using a multielement design, it was demonstrated that the fast presentation rate was associated with significantly less disruptive behavior than the slow presentation rate. Point delivery had little effect. For some subjects the slow presentation rate was associated with higher student performance accuracy, although the fast presentation rate produced high overall rates of correct performance.

Reducing Child Tantrums through Self-instructional Parent Training Materials

Parents used self-instructional booklets to decrease their childrens (aged 3-8) tantrums. In each of the ten families, a multiple-baseline design across three problems, tantrums and two others, was used. Parent data indicate a mean improvement of 14 percent of the maximum possible from baseline means, with six of ten children showing improvement based on mean performance for baseline and treatment. If improvement is measured from the last part of treatment only, all subjects but one show improvement. All parent final consumer ratings were positive. All interobserver reliabilities exceeded 80 percent agreement weighted for occurrence and nonoccurrence. Two sets of correlations between parent recall data and observer data produced median correlations of .69 and .48. Percentage agreement between observer and parent interval data produced a coefficient of 87 percent. Results suggested that parents, using self-instructional materials alone, could reduce childrens tantrums.

Decreasing Children's Fighting through Self-instructional Parent Taining Materials

Parents used self-instructional booklets to decrease childrens (age 3-8) fighting. In each of 16 families a multiple-baseline design across three programs, fighting and two others, was used. Parent data indicate improvement in 12 of 16 families, with median improvement of 48 percent; during treatment aggressive behaviour averaged approximately half its baseline rate. All final consumer ratings of program effectiveness were positive. Due to variability, parent daily record graphs supported clear improvement in only five children and possible improvement in two. All interobserver reliabilities exceeded 70 percent agreement weighted for occurrence and non-occurrence. Percent agreements between parent and observer interval data for 1-hour sessions averaged 70 percent. However, the independence of some of these observer and parent recordings is in question. On reliability days parents also made independent post-session estimates of the frequency of fighting. The observer-parent within-family correlations across visits averaged r = 0. 70. Observer reliability was taken in all 16 families and parent-observer reliability with nine.

Salicylate Consumption and Hyperactive Behavior

Two boys labelled hyperactive who had followed a salicylate-free diet for over a year consumed specially prepared cookies daily for 6-7 weeks. With subject 1 (age 6), salicylates were presented in the cookies on two occasions; on other days the cookies were salicylate-free. On two occasions subject 1 violated his diet and consumed salicylates from other sources. With subject 2 (age 12), salicylates were presented five times. Observers collected daily data on out-of-seat, off-task and physically aggressive behavior in the classroom. Visual inspection of the data suggested that behavior changes were associated with salicylate ingestion for subject 1, although there was some variability, but not for subject 2. A randomization test indicated that for subject 1 differences associated with planned salicylate ingestion were significant at the 0.05 level. No significant differences were noted for subject 2.