Increasing the Teacher Rate of Behaviour Specific Praise and its Effect on a Child with Aggressive Behaviour Problems.

Abstract

A single-subject design was used to investigate the effectiveness of an increase in teacher behaviour- specific praise statements to address anti-social behaviours demonstrated by a student who displays aggressive behaviours. Researchers agree that praise is effective in improving problem behaviours. They also agree that training teachers to use behaviour-specific praise can increase the level of praise teachers give to students. Baseline assessment was carried out and used to examine the teacher’s use of behaviour-specific praise statements before intervention and the potential influences these statements had on the target child’s aggressive behaviour, participation and engagement. The results indicated that the teacher’s use of specific praise increased, and the child demonstrated positive changes with an increase in appropriate behaviour, and a decrease in aggressive behaviour.