Early Childhood Teachers' use of Specific Praise Statements with Young Children at Risk for Behavioral Disorders

Abstract

This study investigated the effectiveness of a training designed to increase early childhood teachers' use of specific praise statements to address problem behaviors demonstrated by children at risk for emotional/behavioral disorders. A multiple-baseline across-participants design was employed to examine the teachers' use of specific praise statements before and after the training and the potential influence these statements had on the target children's compliance and engagement. In addition, generalization probes were conducted to investigate the teachers' use of specific praise statements and the children's behavioral responses in an untrained setting. The results indicate that teachers' use of specific praise statements increased following the training. In addition, all 4 children demonstrated positive changes with an increase in their appropriate behaviors and decreases in problem behaviors.