Margaret T. Floress

Caffeine Consumption in Young Children

Two hundred twenty-eight surveyed parents reported that their 5 to 7 year old children drank approximately 52 mg of caffeine daily and their 8 to 12 year old children drank 109 mg daily. Caffeine consumption and hours slept were significantly negatively correlated, but caffeine consumption and enuresis were not significantly correlated. Spanish-speaking parents reported fewer bedwetting events than their English-speaking peers.

A Preliminary Investigation of Kindergarten Teachers' Use of Praise in General Education Classrooms.

It is well established that teacher praise has a positive effect on student disruptive behavior. However, there is little research suggesting how often Kindergarten teachers praise students in the classroom. This study aimed to collect praise frequency data across four general education Kindergarten classrooms. The type of praise teachers used and how teachers delivered praise were specifically analyzed. Results indicated that Kindergarten teachers praised students frequently and the rate of total praise was similar across teachers. Kindergarten teachers also used more general praise and fewer behavior-specific praises. However, Kindergarten rates of behavior-specific praise were higher in this study compared with other research. Continued research on general education teachers’ rate of praise may be useful to schoolwide behavior intervention planning and teacher consultation.

Time-Out Training Without Put-Backs, Spanks, or Restraint: A Brief Report of Deferred Time-Out

We demonstrate the effectiveness of a procedure to increase compliance in young children who are resistant to Time-out (TO). Parents of two boys, 3 and 4 years of age, were unable to enforce TO without resorting to physical guidance and restraint. With deferred TO (DTO), if a child resists TO, caregivers no longer interact with the child or provide the child with tangibles or activities that the child cannot access independently. When the child requests a preferred item or activity from the caregiver that cannot be obtained independently, the child must first serve TO. Once TO is served, the caregiver may fulfill the childs request. Data suggest that DTO reduces the latency between the parental TO command and compliance with TO without put-backs, spanks, or restraint.

General Education Teachers’ Natural Rates of Praise: A Preliminary Investigation:

Many studies have demonstrated that when teachers are trained to increase their use of praise, student misbehavior improves; however, few studies have examined teachers’ natural use of praise and no study has examined the relation between teachers’ natural use of praise and classroom behavior. The purpose of the current study was to examine general education teachers’ natural use of praise in elementary classrooms. One hundred forty direct behavioral observation hours were used to collect praise rates and student behavior across 28 general education classrooms (kindergarten to fifth grade). Across all grade levels, results suggest that teachers’ use of praise was low (grade-level mean rates ranging from 0.38 per minute in the fourth grade to 0.75 per minute in kindergarten) and teachers used general praise more frequently than behavior-specific praise (BSP). A significant, negative relation was found between off-task behavior and BSP (r = −.37, p = .05), indicating that teachers who used more BSP tended to have less off-task behavior in their classrooms. Implications for training teachers to increase their use of BSP as a universal strategy are discussed.

Praise Research Trends and Future Directions: Characteristics and Teacher Training

Teacher praise is an effective classroom management tool. Training teachers to increase their use of praise can improve student disruptive and off-task behavior. The purpose of this article is to examine different characteristics of praise and the training methods used in the literature. Training methods with positive treatment acceptability and demonstrated impact are summarized. Results indicate that most research focuses on behavior-specific, verbal, and contingent praise delivered to individual students. Most training studies used a combination of two or more methods that most commonly included a didactic, feedback, or goal setting component. Only half of the training studies measured treatment acceptability and the majority of these ratings were positive. Most studies training teachers to use praise had positive results. More research focused on infrequently studied praise characteristics (e.g., gestures, physical, and private) and training methods (e.g., in vivo, self-monitoring, and incentives) is needed. Implications for future praise research are presented.

Social and Language Skills as Predictors of Bullying Roles in Early Childhood: A Narrative Summary of the Literature

Abstract:Despite evidence that aggressive, victim, and prosocial behaviors exist among preschool children, preschool bullying has received much less attention than school-age bullying from researchers and practitioners. Preschool is an important environment for examining social behaviors because, for many children, it is the first formal context for systematic peer interaction. Though early identification and intervention has the greatest likelihood of decreasing aggression and victimization and increasing prosocial behaviors, there is little information available for school-based professionals to help identify potential predictors of bullying, victimization, and defending among preschool children. Early intervention programs can be used to target children who demonstrate early signs of these bullying roles. The goal of this review is to summarize research that links bullying roles in preschool to language and social development and offer suggestions for future research in this area.

Externalizing behaviors within general, at-risk, and special education preschool classrooms: A preliminary investigation

ABSTRACT Student problem behaviors occur across all classroom settings, but preschool children are three times more likely to be expelled than students in kindergarten through twelfth grade. Determining the extent to which preschool students exhibit problem behaviors may help promote preventative practices in early childhood settings. This study examined the natural occurrence of externalizing behaviors within general, at-risk, and special education classrooms. Direct observations were collected across six classrooms to measure student off-task and disruptive behavior. No significant off-task differences were found across the three classroom types. However, a significant difference in disruptive behavior was found between special education and general education classrooms and between special education and at-risk classrooms. Implications and directions for future study are discussed.

Social skills plus relaxation training with a child with ASD in the schools

A social skills plus relaxation training (SSRT) program was developed using direct training, relaxation training, and reinforcement principles. The aim was to examine the effectiveness of SSRT on increasing the frequency of three target behaviors for one 8-year-old, student classified with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A multiple-baseline across behaviors design was used to evaluate the effects of SSRT. During baseline, intervention, and maintenance sessions the students responses were videotaped and then subsequently viewed and coded after the session. During intervention, the students correct responses for the targeted social skills increased and were maintained 17 weeks after SSRT ended. This study adds support for the use of this SSRT program in a school setting with children who have ASD.

The Caterpillar Game: A SW-PBIS Aligned Classroom Management System

ABSTRACT The Caterpillar Game is a classroom management system that is aligned with School-wide Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports standards. A single-case, multiple-baseline design was used to evaluate the effects of the Caterpillar Game on disruptive student behavior and teacher praise. Three classrooms were included in the study (preschool, Kindergarten, and second grade). When the Caterpillar Game was implemented, student disruptive behavior decreased and teacher behavior-specific praise increased across all 3 classrooms. Disruptive behavior and teacher praise remained similar to intervention 2–4 weeks later, and teacher satisfaction with the Caterpillar Game was high. This study adds further support for the use of the Caterpillar Game as a classroom management tool.