Format

Individual Presentation

Format

Individual Presentation

First Presenter's Institution

University of Georgia

First Presenter’s Email Address

tclees@uga.edu

First Presenter's Brief Biography

Dr Clees graduated from the University of Wisconsin in Behavioral Disorders/Special Education, and teaches at the University of Georgia in special education, preparing undergraduate and graduate students to teach in schools, clinics and homes. His research areas are self-management, social skills and applied behavior analysis.

Submitter

I am submitting this proposal as one of the presenter(s)

Location

Sloane

Strand #1

Head: Academic Achievement & Leadership

Strand #2

Heart: Social & Emotional Skills

Relevance

The presentation describes specific, pragmatic examples of non-aversive strategies (positive behavior supports) to address the behavioral and academic challenges of students with challenging behaviors in school, clinic and/or home settings. Differential reinforcement strategies, alone or in combination with other strategies, can increase prosocial skills and support academic and career achievement. Pragmatic, evidence-based "how to" strategies will be presented, including novel strategies.

Brief Program Description

Differential reinforcement procedures (DR) will be the focus of this presentation, including differential reinforcement of appropriate behavior that is alternative to (DRA), or incompatible with (DRI), targeted challenging behavior, and differential reinforcement of the absence of challenging behavior for specified intervals (DRO). In addition, combined strategies (DR with changing criteria and/or social skills instruction) will be presented. Novel applications will also be highlighted.

Summary

Youth with challenging behavior in social and academic contexts are at-risk for escalating cycles of academic and social failure, increased severity of challenging behaviors, and additional failures that may culminate in suspension, expulsion, and mental health challenges (Green, Drysdale, & Boelema, 2013; Gresham, 2016; Kauffman, 2018). The successful application of evidence-based strategies (www.whatworksclearinghouse.org) that address these challenges has been reported, including differential reinforcement strategies (Alberto and Troutman, 2022; Cooper, Heron and Heward, 2020) and social skills instruction (Clees and Greene, 2014). These strategies are considered as positive behavior supports in that they teach or change behavior in the absence of the presentation of aversive stimuli or conditions. Differential reinforcement procedures (DR) will be the focus of this presentation, including differential reinforcement of appropriate behavior that is alternative to (DRA), or incompatible with (DRI), targeted challenging behavior, and differential reinforcement of the absence of challenging behavior for specified intervals (DRO). In addition, combined strategies (DR with changing criteria and/or social skills instruction) will be presented. Specific evidence-based examples will be presented, with emphasis on strategies that can be evaluated for efficacy while still being pragmatic (i.e., have high usability). Novel applications of differential reinforcement will also be presented, including a contingent-praise strategy and a reinforcement monitoring system to increase the frequency of teacher/clinician delivered reinforcement.

Evidence

Differential reinforcement procedures (DR) will be the focus of this presentation, including differential reinforcement of appropriate behavior that is alternative to (DRA), or incompatible with (DRI), targeted challenging behavior, and differential reinforcement of the absence of challenging behavior for specified intervals (DRO). Differential reinforcement strategies are evidence-based strategies (Alberto and Troutman, 2022; Cooper, Heron and Heward, 2020; whatworksclearinghouse.org, Department of Education,US, 2023) that have improved the academic (Kauffman, 2018, Clees and Greene, 2014) social/behavioral (Green, Drysdale, & Boelema, 2013; Gresham, 2016; Kauffman, 2018) of youth with or at-risk for behavioral and school/post school failures. Social skills instruction is also an evidence-based intervention for youth with such challenges (Gresham, 2016; Kauffman, 2018;Cooper et al., 2020).

Learning Objective 1

Attendees will be able to describe non-aversive, evidence-based differential reinforcement strategies for social and academic challenges

Learning Objective 2

Attendees will be able to develop pragmatic teacher/clician reinforcement strategies to increase prosocial and academic survival skills

Learning Objective 3

Attendees will be able to describe efficacy evaluation of thenstrategies presented

Keyword Descriptors

differential reinforcement, social and academic skills, non-aversive positive supports, challenging behaviors

Presentation Year

2025

Start Date

3-4-2025 10:15 AM

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Mar 4th, 10:15 AM

Non-Aversive Social and Academic Interventions for Youth with Challenging Behavior

Sloane

Differential reinforcement procedures (DR) will be the focus of this presentation, including differential reinforcement of appropriate behavior that is alternative to (DRA), or incompatible with (DRI), targeted challenging behavior, and differential reinforcement of the absence of challenging behavior for specified intervals (DRO). In addition, combined strategies (DR with changing criteria and/or social skills instruction) will be presented. Novel applications will also be highlighted.