Robert E. O'Neill

Toward a Technology of "Nonaversive" Behavioral Support.

Nonaversive behavior management is an approach to supporting people with undesirable behaviors that integrates technology and values. Although this approach has attracted numerous proponents, more adequate definition and empirical documentation are still needed. This article presents an introduction to the nonaversive approach. Important definitions are suggested, and three fundamental elements are presented: (a) an emerging set of procedures for supporting people with severe challenging behavior; (b) social validation criteria emphasizing personal dignity; and (c) a recommendation for prohibition or restriction of certain strategies. These elements are defined in hopes of stimulating further discussion and empirical analyses of positive behavioral support.

A Longitudinal Assessment of the Development of Antisocial Behavior in Boys: Rationale, Methodology, and First-Year Results

The long-term consequences of antisocial behavior in children are well documented. Yet little is known about the pattern of development and sequence of antisocial behaviors in home and school settings. This article describes the rationale, methodology, and measures of a 5-year longitudinal research study of the development of antisocial behaviors in a high-risk population of boys in school settings. Subjects for this longitudinal study are 80 fifth-grade boys divided into two separate cohorts. These subjects were a subset of a sample of 200 boys included in an extensive study of the role of family variables in the development of antisocial behavior. Results from the first year of the study regarding 35 boys of Cohort I are presented in this paper. Multiple assessment methods were used including direct observations of social interactions in free-play activities and academic engaged time in classroom activities, teacher ratings of social skills, and examination of student records. Results indicated that subjects in the group more at risk for engaging in antisocial behavior were significantly different from subjects in the control group in their amounts of academic engaged time, frequencies of negative interactions with peers in playground situations, frequency of discipline contacts, and in teacher ratings of their social skills. Implications for identifying patterns and sequences of antisocial behavior are discussed

The Effectiveness of Teaching 10th-Grade Students STOP, AIMS, and DARE for Planning and Drafting Persuasive Text:

Explicitly and systematically teaching strategies for planning and drafting specific types of text has improved the writing of elementary and middle school students with disabilities in previous studies. In this investigation, we examined the effect of teaching a planning and drafting strategy for persuasive writing to high school students with disabilities who were also struggling writers. Six 10th-grade students (4 boys, 2 girls) were taught how to plan and write persuasive essays using the Self-Regulated Strategy Development model. A multiple baseline design, with multiple probes during baseline, treatment, and postinstruction, was used to evaluate the effectiveness of instruction. During and following instruction, all students spent a greater amount of time planning and writing their papers. Their compositions became longer, more complete, and qualitatively better. Students, teachers, and parents were also positive about the treatment and its effects.

An Investigation of the Impact of Function of Problem Behavior on Effectiveness of the Behavior Education Program (BEP).

The Behavior Education Program (BEP) is a check-in, check-out intervention implemented with students who are at-risk for engaging in more severe problem behavior. Previous research with middle and elementary school students found that the BEP was more effective with students who had adult attention maintained problem behavior. The purposes of this study were to (a) replicate previous research on the effectiveness of the BEP in reducing problem behavior in elementary schools and (b) investigate the relationship between function of problem behavior and effectiveness of the BEP. Results indicated that the BEP was implemented with high fidelity, lead to decreases in office discipline referrals for the majority of students who received the intervention, and received high social validity ratings. Results also indicated that the BEP was more effective for students who had peer versus adult attention maintained problem behavior. The BEP was also effective for a student whose problem behavior was maintained by access to tangibles and of the two students who had escape maintained problem behavior, one student demonstrated reductions in referrals following implementation. Limitations of the current study are discussed along with implications for future research and school practice.

Searching for Effectiveness and Efficiency in Conducting Functional Assessments: A Review and Proposed Process for Teachers and Other Practitioners

There has been a tremendous increase in interest in and information about functional assessment and analysis strategies. However, teachers and other practitioners continue to struggle with choices about the most effective and efficient strategies for use in school and community settings. This article provides a review of current literature on the comparative validity of different assessment and analysis approaches. Based in part on this information, a process that can be followed by persons responsible for conducting assessments and developing and implementing behavior support plans is proposed.

Fifth grade school adjustment and later arrest rate: A longitudinal study of middle school antisocial boys

This study investigated the efficacy of three different regression models in predicting arrest rate over the fifth to seventh grade range for a sample of antisocial and at risk control middle school boys (N=76). These boys were selected from a larger sample of approximately 200 boys and their families for inclusion in a long term longitudinal study beginning in the fourth grade. Subjects in the present study were identified when they were in the fifth grade and school measures of adjustment were recorded annually for them on two occasions (fall, spring) through the ninth grade. Predictors were derived from the following variables: (a) teacher ratings of social skills; (b) direct observations of academic engagement in classroom settings; (c) direct observations of the playground social behavior of target subjects and peers; and (d) discipline contacts with the principals office as extracted from archival school records. These predictor variables appeared to assess respectively teacher related and peer related forms of school adjustment. The regression models investigated yielded R-Squares of approximately 30 between arrest rate and two to three predictor variables in each analysis. However, following the deletion of two subject cases that represented extreme instances of underprediction (i.e., subjects who were arrested [i.e., seven arrests each] but whose fifth grade behavioral profiles suggested they would not be), the obtained R-Squares increased to approximately .55. Implications of the findings for the early screening and identification of at risk students are discussed.

Middle school behavioral profiles of antisocial and at‐risk control boys: Descriptive and predictive outcomes

Abstract In this investigation we report two studies of the school behavior adjustment status of two groups of middle school‐age boys—an antisocial group (N = 39) and an at‐risk control group (N = 41). In study one, we compared the two groups on a series of behavioral measures across grades five, six, and seven that included (1) teacher ratings of social skills, (2) classroom observations, (3) playground observations, and (4) school archival records. Results indicated extremely problematic behavioral profiles for the antisocial subjects and much more favorable profiles for the at‐risk control students. The behavioral profiles for the two groups appeared to be quite consistent and stable across the middle school years with the exception that several variables (social skills ratings, attendance, math achievement, and school discipline contacts) tended to show gradually increasing negative trends for the antisocial subjects. In the second study, we used a series of selected fifth‐grade variables, derived fro...

Including Students with Severe Disabilities in All Levels of School-Wide Positive Behavior Support.

Throughout its evolution, school-wide positive behavior support (SWPBS) has explicitly promoted the perspective that it should involve all students in a given school setting. However, the literature on SWPBS has not always fully and clearly addressed the involvement of students with severe disabilities. This article will (a) briefly review the literature of SWPBS as it addresses the involvement of students with severe disabilities, particularly those exhibiting severe problem behaviors; (b) discuss the involvement of students with severe disabilities in all three typical levels of SWPBS; and (c) provide recommendations for increasing the involvement of students with severe disabilities at all three levels of SWPBS.

Establishing verbal repertoires: Toward the application of general case analysis and programming

A great deal of clinical and experimental work in past decades has focused on establishing functional verbal repertoires that are used across various settings and situations by persons with moderate and severe disabilities. Such work has not always involved a careful analysis and programming approach for structuring training to achieve the desired range of stimulus control relationships. General case analysis and programming procedures, which are based on behavior analytic and Direct Instruction principles and techniques, have proven effective in recent years for teaching a variety of community-based skills to learners with moderate and severe disabilities. This paper outlines the general case process and discusses its application to establish verbal repertoires.

School behavioral profiles of arrested versus nonarrested adolescents

Abstract In this study, we investigated fifth‐grade social behavioral profiles of arrested versus nonarrested adolescent boys. We assessed the ability of discrete measures of social‐behavioral adjustment (teacher ratings of social skills, direct observations of negative‐aggressive social behavior) to classify correctly the arrest status of 75 boys over a 3‐year period (grades 5 to 7). Using a discriminant function analysis procedure, we correctly classified 75% of the subsequently arrested subjects based on selected measures of their fifth‐grade adjustment. Twenty‐four of the 75 boys were arrested during the Grade 5 to 7 period, as determined by police contacts and court records. We profiled boys receiving extreme discriminant scores representing four predicted groups on all the fifth‐grade measures recorded: (a) boys who the procedure predicted would be arrested and who were arrested, (b) boys who the procedure predicted would not be arrested and who were not, (c) boys who the procedure predicted would b...