Todd R. Risley

American parenting of language-learning children: Persisting differences in family-child interactions observed in natural home environments.

Forty families were selected to represent the range of typical American families in size, race, and socioeconomic status. In data from 2 1/2 years of once-monthly, hour-long observations of unstructured parent-child interactions in the home, parenting was examined over 27 months, including the time before, during, and after all the children learned to talk

Establishing functional speech in echolalic children

Abstract This paper is a summary of research by the authors in the development of speech in echolalic children. The procedures are based on operant behavior-modification techniques such as: (1) shaping and imitation training for the development of speech ; (2) fading in of new stimuli and fading out of verbal prompts to transfer the speech from imitative control to control by appropriate stimulus conditions; and (3) extinction and time-out from reinforcement for the reduction of inappropriate behavior in conjunction with the differential reinforcement of appropriate responses which are incompatible with the inappropriate behavior.

Application of operant conditioning procedures to the behavior problems of an autistic child: a follow-up and extension.

Abstract The modification of an autistic boys behavior in a nursery school setting is described. The procedures used to deal with his problem behavior such as tantrums, pinching and toilet training are discussed.

Out of the laboratory and into the community. 26 years of applied behavior analysis at the Juniper Gardens Children's Project.

Application of Skinners principles to socially significant human behavior had been well articulated by 1968 (Baer, Wolf, & Risley, 1968). Applications of these principles by Baer, Wolf, Risley, Hall, Hart, Christophersen, and their colleagues were in evidence as early as 1964 in the homes, schools, and clinics of inner-city Kansas City, Kansas, at the Juniper Gardens Housing Project. The work continues relatively uninterrupted, having contributed extensively to the literature of applied behavior analysis and the lives of community residents. This article describes the project and illustrates how applied behavioral research was initiated and extended, how the work addressed general concerns in psychology, and how it continues to address contemporary concerns within the community.

Promoting Change in Mental Retardation Facilities

Residential institutions have served for years as the major providers of care and habilitation for retarded individuals. In recent years, these facilities have come under critical scrutiny. Many critics have focused on the discrepancy between what should be occurring for clients and the services they actually receive. Concern and alarm have been voiced about the health care, humaneness of the living conditions, habilitation, and protection of the civil rights of residents of these facilities.

Behavioral-Ecological Consultation to Day Care Centers

Day care centers serve many functions beyond providing supervision, care, and opportunities for normal development. They are remedial learning environments for disadvantaged children, havens for the abused and neglected, and placements for children with behavioral, physical, and mental handicaps (Guralnick, 1978; Zigler & Valentine, 1979). Sometimes it is assumed that children with special problems will benefit if they can simply participate in play and preacademic activities and interact with teachers and children. Most of them, however, clearly demand individual programs and more than the usual amount of adult attention. Some may even require placement in centers that are specifically designed for children with severe disorders.

Police research technology: Functional relations between juvenile citations and criminal offenses

In a multiple-reversal time-series design, additional plainclothes youth guidance officers were assigned to patrol and to issue juvenile warning citations in one of two target areas during school hours on weekdays. The presence and activity of these officers resulted in modest but consistent reductions in the number of criminal incidents reported in the target area. An untreated control area showed no consistent changes in the rates of criminal incidents. Issuance of juvenile citations appears to be a modestly effective crime control technology which may be implemented in a cost-efficient manner.

Balancing Clients’ Rights

In the last two decades, society has witnessed a dramatic increase in the amount of litigation concerning incarcerated mentally ill and developmentally disabled persons. These lawsuits reflect a heightened concern with the conditions and practices to which these people have been exposed. Of prime importance in many of those cases have been alleged harmful practices, including such things as physical and mental abuse, un-sanitary living conditions, and exposure to aversive treatment procedures, such as electric shock, psychosurgery, physical restraints, and seclusion (Halderman and the United States v. Pennhurst, 1977; Kaimowitz v. Department of Mental Health, 1973; New York State Association for Retarded Children and Parisi v. Carey, 1975; Wyatt v. Stickney, 1972). Evidence from the cases indicated that individuals in residential programs could also be exposed to harmful conditions because of an absence of appropriate treatment; without appropriate treatment, many individuals can regress or deteriorate in their functioning (Walker &Peabody, 1979). A number of important conclusions have resulted from these lawsuits. Two of the most important are: (1) the right of residential clients to be free from abusive and harmful procedures and conditions and (2) the right of clients to receive treatment appropriate to their needs.