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This study examined relations among parents' perceptions of their childhood, attitudes about life, expectations for child behavior, attitudes about their child's behavior, and the child-rearing environment parents provide. Eighty mothers of 1- to 5-year-olds were interviewed about perceptions of receiving harsh parenting as children, current attitudes about life, developmental expectations, and views of intentionality and severity of their child's misbehavior. The home environment was measured using the Home Observation for Measurement of the Environment (R. H. Bradley & B. Caldwell, 1979) scale. Mothers who reported harsh parenting as children, negative attitudes about life, and unrealistic developmental expectations had negative attitudes about their own child. These attitudes were related to provision of lower quality home environments. Results support a constructivist approach to understanding parental social cognitions and behavior.

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The validity of using rapidly alternating multiple schedules (RAMS) as a method for assessing and treating aggression and disruptive behavior was demonstrated by using the naturally occurring reinforces identified in the RAMS to develop treatments that were experimentally tested. The RAMS consists of a series of 2-minute components in which a naturally occurring consequence is applied contingent on the target's behavior, alternated with components in which the consequence is not applied, with no break between components. The aggressive and disruptive behaviors of four 2- to 11-year-old children were analyzed and treated in school and home settings. The RAMS analyses yielded clear results about the reinforcing function of naturally occurring consequences in all cases, and the treatments using the reinforcers identified in the RAMS were all effective. The possible uses of the RAMS as an efficient, ecologically and experimentally valid tool for clinical assessment are discussed.

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Social skills priming was used to increase the spontaneous social initiations of 2 socially withdrawn preschoolers, 1 of whom had been diagnosed with autism. During priming sessions, the teacher prompted and reinforced social behaviors (e.g., smiling, verbal initiations). We varied the rate of reinforcement during priming sessions and measured the effects of this manipulation on the rate of spontaneous social initiations during the subsequent classroom activity. Spontaneous initiations were more frequent after high rates of reinforcement than after low rates of reinforcement.

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We examined the contribution of physiologic and environmental variables to the process of weaning a child with chronic respiratory failure from mechanical ventilation support. Surveillance measures, e.g., blood oxygenation, were obtained from a 6-year-old child with multiple medical and developmental disorders who received three different rates (24, 22, and 20 tidal volumes per minute) of intermittent mechanical ventilation. Direct observations were used to calculate rates of aberrant behavior, e.g., aggression toward self, for task versus play settings within the intermittent mechanical ventilation rates. Rates of aberrant behavior and adult responses were tabulated from videotaped observations for task, attention, and no attention settings. The greatest rate of aberrant behavior occurred during tasks compared with play activities, regardless of whether attention was provided while playing. Adults also responded more often to aberrant behaviors during task versus play conditions. Clinical implications are discussed concerning the inclusion of developmental and behavioral variables during weaning from mechanical ventilation.

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Children with autism rarely initiate social interactions with their peers. Currently available interventions have not increased autistic children' spontaneous initiations in natural settings without extensive teacher involvement. A "priming" strategy consisting of a low demand, high reinforcement session prior to the regular school activity was used to increase the spontaneous social initiations of 2 preschool age autistic boys to typically developing peers in a regular preschool classroom. Peers were also trained to independently respond to initiations. Implications for developing practical ways to improve autistic children's social functioning in regular school settings are discussed.

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We report the effects of extinction and positive reinforcement on the number of untrained topographies emitted by children with toys. Baseline showed no appropriate toy play. Participants were then trained individually on one topography for each toy. Previously reinforced topographies of toy play were placed on extinction, resulting in the induction of untrained topographies.

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This study examined the percentage time estimates of momentary time sampling against the real time obtained with handheld computers in a natural setting. Twenty-two concurrent observations were conducted in elementary schools by one observer who used 15-s momentary time sampling and a second who used a handheld computer. Results for the six behaviors showed a close correspondence between the momentary time sampling percentage observation intervals and the real time percentage observation time, although 15-s momentary time sampling tended not to sample low-frequency short-duration behaviors. The results confirmed laboratory findings that short-interval momentary time sampling estimates percentage time accurately for a wide range of behavior frequencies and durations, and suggested that observers using momentary time sampling in a natural setting are able to obtain accurate data.