Study objective: To evaluate the effect of behavioral consultation for parents when they attended school activities for parents of children who had school refusal and high-functioning pervasive developmental disorders (PDD). Design: A combination of a multiple baseline across subjects and a changing criterion design was used. Setting: A counseling room and playroom associated with a Japanese university. Participants: 2 elementary school students (1 boy, 1 girl) with high-functioning pervasive developmental disorders and their parents. Intervention: Token economy and changing reinforcement criteria. Measure: Involvement in daily school activities from the time the students left home until they returned from school was counted to quantify the extent of attendance at school activities. Results: Both students' percentage of attendance at school activities greatly increased; the increases were maintained after these services were concluded. Conclusion: Behavioral consultation using a token economy based on an ecological assessment of each student, the student's parents, and the school environment had a significant impacton alleviating problems in the students' daily school activities.

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Study objective: We examined experimentally effects of intertrial interval on the performance of children with intellectual disabilities in one-to-one teaching. Design: A reversal (ABAB) treatment design was used. Setting: The experimental sessions were conducted in a room at a university. Participants: The 2 participants were an 8- and a 10-year-old male with intellectual disabilities. Independent Variable: Participants were exposed to 2 different intertrial interval conditions. In the control-of-instruction-by-instructor sessions, the instructor controlled the presentation of the teaching materials and instruction for the next trial after the participant had responded. In the spontaneous-performance-by-participant sessions, the instructor presented the teaching materials and instruction for the next trial after the participant had responded. Measures: Per cent of response latencies less than 2 sec, number of trials per minute, and per cent of correct responding were measured. Results: For the 2 participants, the per cent of response latencies less than 2 sec was higher in the spontaneous-performance-by-participant condition than in the control-of-instruction-by-instructor condition. For 1 of the 2 participants, the number of trial performances per minute was higher in the spontaneous-performance-by-participant condition than in the control-of-instruction-by-instructor condition. Per cent of correct responding exhibited a similar level in the 2 conditions. Conclusion: The results suggest that presenting the teaching materials and instructions for the next trial after the completion of a participant's responding becomes an antecedent control for enhancing the responding latency in one-to-one teaching.

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Study objectives: We evaluated the effectiveness of a behavioral intervention package for improving elementary school children's sitting posture in the regular classroom. Design: ABCA design, consisting of baseline, intervention 1, intervention 2, and follow up. Generalization was examined using a multi-probe technique, Setting: 3 first-grade classrooms. Participants: 76 first-graders (38 boys, 38 girls). Intervention: An adaptation of correspondence training in a package program consisting of instruction, modeling, behavior rehearsal, reinforcement, and feedback. Measure: Appropriate sitting posture, defined as feet flat on the floor, buttocks in contact with the chair seat, back straight, and the whole body directed forward. Results: With the exception of a few students in each class, the children were able to sit with an appropriate posture and maintain it during follow up. Conclusions: The behavioral intervention was effective for most of the children. The effect transferred to other academic settings. Individualized intervention programs may be necessary for those whose posture does not improve with group training.

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Study objective: An equation that had described within-session decreases in rats' operant responses as a linear function of cumulative amount of food intake (Aoyama, 1998) was applied to within-session decreases in human eating behavior. Design: One 10-minute free-eating session. Setting: The eating session was conducted individually in a laboratory. Participants were offered meatballs (Experiment 1) or corn chowder (Experiment 2). Participants: 23 male university students in Experiment 1, and 16 male university students in Experiment 2. Measure: Amount of consumption per minute was measured for 10 minutes in afree-eating session. Results: Within-session decreases in human eating behavior were well described by the equation. Amount of consumption per minute was well described as a linear function of cumulative amount of food intake in both experiments. Conclusion: The generality of the mathematical equation suggested by Aoyama (1998) was verified.

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Study objective: We focused on the behavioral problems of a student causing disturbances in the classroom that interrupted teaching, leading to a possible change of school, from three perspectives. Design: AB design with probe. Setting: Simultaneous group situations, including class situations in a public junior high school. Participants: A student in the school participated in the present study, in which we attempted to promote adaptation to school. Also, all school personnel participated, including veteran teachers, students, parents, and school psychology consultants for changing schools. Intervention: During the intervention phase, we conducted a general school workshop, promoted the organization of the school supporting team, and conducted consultations with school participants, including homeroom teachers. We developed a common approach for the whole school, and maintained the school system. Measures: We evaluated deviating behaviors, question-asking behaviors, and changes in the class ranking of the student, and investigated the relationship between changes in homeroom teacher's supports of students and the changes in topics of consultation with parents. Results: The behavioral problems of the student were reduced, and school adaptation was promoted. The student's grades also improved. These changes were shown not only in the homeroom teacher's class, but also in other classes. Conclusions: Initiation of a school support team, as well as the cooperation and leadership of the principal and vice-principal, was followed by improvement of the student's behavior. The results of this study indicate the need to develop special support for education, as well as the need for educational administrators to initiate support programs for teachers. Future research will attemptto identify the cost-benefit of such programs.

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Uchida (2004) added important data to the previous study (Uchida, 1996): (1) data on effects of an intervention with staff self-management in a residential environment, and (2) data from a 1-year follow-up study of the organizational helping system.

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