The Use of Behavior Modification to Control the Classroom Behavior of Socially Maladjusted Junior High School Students

A base rate of disruptive and inappropriate classroom behavior was obtained for 40 junior high school children from a program for the socially maladjusted. Teachers involved with these subjects were given a six week in-service training program reviewing the basic techniques of operant conditioning. Parents of 12 subjects were trained in operant conditioning and were asked to use these techniques to control inappropriate behaviors of the subjects at home. When a social and token reinforcement program was introduced in the classroom for all 40 subjects, the frequency of disruptive and inappropriate behavior declined in all subjects. Withdrawal of the social and token reinforcement program from the classroom increased disruptive and inappropriate behavior of all 40 subjects, but the 12 subjects who were receiving operant conditioning at home had a lower rate and a much more gradual increase of disruptive and inappropriate behaviors than the 28 subjects who received reinforcement only in the classroom situation. When the social and token reinforcement program was again introduced in the classroom, the frequency of disruptive and inappropriate behavior declined in both groups of subjects. Pre-modification and post-modification baseline data indicated that operant techniques used simultaneously by teachers in the classroom and parents in the home will reduce disruptive and inappropriate classroom behavior