Token Economy Spotted In The Wild!

SAT., AUG 29, 2009 - 10:14 AM

'Behavior bucks' bloom into garden at school entrance

By GAYLE WORLAND
608-252-6188

gworland@madison.com

When students at Lindbergh Elementary enter their building Tuesday for the first day of school, they’ll pass by new flowering plants and prairie grasses that, in a way, they grew with their own generosity.

It all started with “behavior bucks,” small green slips of paper that serve as currency at the North Side school.

Invented last year by Lindbergh staff, the bucks were designed to curb discipline problems. And the program worked. For a gesture of kindness, children earned a buck on the spot. Perpetual rule-breakers won a buck for obeying the rules. Some made a buck simply by paying attention in a class they normally disrupted ....

Now, I don't know if its a perfect implementation, although the ability to donate 'bucks' to charity is a neat idea. In any case, (apparent) effective use of structured motivational systems by non-behavior analysts deserves support (such as letters to the editor of the State Journal or encouraging emails to the school, hint, hint).
--mjw

ARTICLE URL: http://www.madison.com/wsj/mad/top/463770

Children With Disabilities Spanked More Often

As a behavior analyst, how would you talk about this with coworkers, parents, or teachers?

Disabled Students Are Spanked More
By SAM DILLON
Published: August 11, 2009
More than 200,000 schoolchildren are subjected to physical punishment each year, and disabled students get a disproportionate share, according to a new study.

Applied behavior analysis and evidence-based practice

Facing Autism in New Brunswick often posts commentary regarding autism treatment from a parent's perspective, and is a strong proponent of applied behavior analysis as an evidence-based treatment. The current post examines the difference between evidence-based treatments and those lacking evidence -- and the attraction of the latter.

Readers may find Facing Autism thought provoking. The posts are generous in their openness -- please, check it out. (The blog also presents strong opinions on issues like vaccinations and autism and neurodiversity advocates; WisABA does not currently have a position on these issues.)

Behavioral Parenting How-To's

Alan Kazdin, Ph.D., wrote a fine book on single-subject research design and is a past president of the American Psychological Association. More importantly, he writes well and knows what he's talking about.

Slate (the online magazine) is running a series of articles on parenting and problem behaviors written by Kazdin for the general reader (these are not research articles, which is great). Two of the articles are "The Messy Room Dilemma" and "Tiny Tyrants". Please, check them out!

Autism research blog

As most folks reading this are probably aware, autism is an active area for behavior analysis -- for both research and clinical work. I subscribe to the Autism Research Blog: Translating Autism partially because new behavioral research is likely to pop up from time to time. The latest post concerns research into using "cognitive-behavioral therapy" for children diagnosed with autism and anxiety (note that the participants were labelled "high-functioning", suggesting that children without the verbal skills thought necessary for CBT were not involved in the study).

Click here to read about it.

Precision Teaching

For those who keep hearing the term and want more info: http://precisionteaching.pbwiki.com/

So, precision teaching folks out there -- is this a good resource or not? Go ahead and comment.

Welcome to the WisABA Blog

WisABA (Wisconsin Association for Behavior Analysis) has grown greatly in the last year. We have more members, an annual conference that was extremely well received, and are busily working on the 2009 conference, holding regular meetings to plan next year's activities, and will be sponsoring a series of WisABA Socials where members and interested parties can share their interest in Behavior Analysis. 

Parents, educators, clinical psychologists, business managers--anyone dealing with behavior, and that's all of us--have a stake in the ability of behavioral scientists to deal with the challenges that our culture confronts. Just a few of the many that Behavior Analysis has already addressed include:

*Autism--a devastating problem that Behavior Analysis has addressed more successfully than any other approach.

*Education--effective instructional practices are known and stand ready for use.

*Medicine--many of today's health problems are behavioral (e.g., weight control, smoking, exercise, etc.) 

*Basic research--we now know more about the causes of problematic behavior than ever before. 

*Parenting--effective parenting is within reach. Families needn't struggle with many of the problems that cause discord.

In short, we have positive, effective techniques for dealing with many of the problems that seem intractable.

WisABA wants you to join us in advancing humane, effective methods for improving our quality of life. 

Roger Bass, PhD

Past President, WisABA