Verbal Praise Research Articles

Family discipline incidents: An analysis of parental diaries

This study focuses on day-to-day parental disciplinary techniques, what provokes their use with their preschool children, and their outcome. Two hundred and seven parental diary anecdotes of disciplinary incidents with under five-year-old children, were analysed to determine the sequence of events. Children’s disruptive/aversive behaviour was the antecedent for a parental intervention in one third of the incidents, while making a demand occurred in about a quarter of incidents. Parental verbal instruction was the most commonly used first disciplinary technique followed by verbal warning, time-out and praise. In many situations, parents used several different disciplinary techniques to accomplish a child’s compliance. Children showed the most committed compliance after positive and neutral disciplinary strategies. New Zealand parents were shown to use complex communication, positive consequences, and mild punishment as disciplinary techniques, rather than power assertive or negative methods, and these strategies were on the whole effective.

The relationship between children’s home food environment and dietary patterns in childhood and adolescence

To identify the correlates of the home food environment (parents' intake, availability and food-related parenting practices) at the age of 10 years with dietary patterns during childhood and in adolescence. Primary-school children of fifty-nine Flemish elementary schools completed a questionnaire at school in 2002. Four years later they completed a questionnaire by e-mail or mail at home. Their parents completed a questionnaire on food-related parenting practices at baseline. Longitudinal study. The analyses included 609 matched questionnaires. Multi-level regression analyses were used to identify baseline parenting practices (pressure, reward, negotiation, catering on demand, permissiveness, verbal praise, avoiding negative modelling, availability of healthy/unhealthy food items and mothers' fruit and vegetable (F&V) and excess scores) associated with children's dietary patterns (F&V and excess scores). Mother's F&V score was a significant positive independent predictor for children's F&V score at baseline and follow-up, whereas availability of unhealthy foods was significantly negatively associated with both scores. Negotiation was positively associated with children's follow-up score of F&V, while permissiveness was positively associated with children's follow-up excess score. Availability of unhealthy foods and mother's excess score were positively related to children's excess score at baseline and follow-up. Parental intake and restricting the availability of unhealthy foods not only appeared to have a consistent impact on children's and adolescents' diets, but also negotiating and less permissive food-related parenting practices may improve adolescents' diets.

Social and Emotional Learning as a Universal Level of Student Support: Evaluating the Follow-up Effect of Strong Kids on Social and Emotional Outcomes

The authors examined the initial and follow-up effect of Strong Kids, a social and emotional learning (SEL) curriculum, among a sample of 106 third- and fourth-grade students. Students were assigned to either the treatment or the wait-list condition and completed questionnaires on SEL knowledge and perceived use of SEL skills across 3 assessment periods (pretest, posttest, and follow-up). The classroom teachers also completed a social functioning questionnaire on each student at each assessment period. The classroom teachers implemented 12 weekly lessons from September to December, and 1 booster session in January. Generalization of SEL skills was promoted with verbal praise by treatment teachers to students outside of the lessons and by reminders to students to use the SEL skills they were learning. Fidelity of implementation was more than 85% and was measured by observing the number of components of the curriculum implemented. Analyses revealed that the treatment group had greater positive gains across all of the dependent measures from pre to posttest. These gains maintained at the 2-month follow-up period. The authors discuss the results in a schoolwide prevention framework and with implications for school psychologists.

Compliance Training in an Adult With Dementia of the Alzheimer’s Type and Down Syndrome

The authors describe the treatment of noncompliance and public stripping in a 53-year-old man with Down syndrome and dementia. On the basis of a review of the relevant literature and a comprehensive functional behavioral analysis, an intervention procedure utilizing contingent reinforcement of compliance is conducted. Compliance with requests to allow assistance getting dressed is reinforced with a combination of verbal praise, physical contact, and edible reinforcers. Noncompliance decreases by 85.22% at follow-up. Factors responsible for intervention success and implications for clinicians are discussed.

Developing a Caring Ethic for Middle School Mathematics Classrooms

Angiline (first author) remembers her first day teaching middle school mathematics. She recalls feeling academically prepared, however, she was not ready for what was to come. She remembers being excited and enthusiastic about her first year of teaching, but she was not prepared emotionally for the 130 eighth graders she taught every day. They had so many needs. They wanted her to sign forms to go on field trips and to excuse their absences. They needed pencils, paper, and books. Mostly they wanted her attention, but Angiline had no idea how to meet the emotional needs of these young adolescents. A colleague gave Angiline a book about how to make the most of her mathematics class time. Out of desperation and exhaustion, she tried some of the suggestions to make the beginning of class a valuable time for her and her students. She began to start classes with a critical thinking exercise. Initially, Angiline did this warm-up activity to help keep the students busy while she managed administrative tasks such as taking roll, returning homework, and attending to announcements on the public address system. But as Angiline got better at designing these starting tasks, her students came to enjoy the challenging exercises, and a caring classroom community began to form. A call to care Like Angiline, teachers assigned to entry-level or low track math classes are entrusted with the students who need them the most. These students may be academically disengaged and, perhaps, do not see how education, especially mathematics, relates to their lives. Students in these classes have many labels, including at-risk, English language learners (ELL), and urban students. Students of color, especially African Americans and Latinos, are likely to be enrolled in these entry-level classes in higher proportions (Oakes, 1995). Mathematics educators are called to engage and educate every one of their students, including these disenfranchised students. Based on recommendations in the literature and their experiences in the classroom, the authors believe that for every student to be successful, teachers must foster a caring ethic (Ladson-Billings, 2006). The authors, Angiline and Al, are university teacher educators who share similar experiences building community in middle grades mathematics classrooms. In this article, they describe what a caring ethic looks like in a middle grades mathematics class, and they suggest specific practices drawn from their experiences that teachers can implement to make their classrooms more caring and engaging places. Caring community of learners As eighth grade mathematics teachers, the authors began the year building relationships with their students and encouraging communication to establish a caring ethic. In their mathematics classes, a caring community attitude was everything, and, as in any community, communication and relationships were paramount. Following Noddings (2002), an ethic of caring in the classroom has four key components. Teachers must model acting as caregivers and people who care for others in the classroom. Teachers and their students must engage in dialogue about caring as they seek to arrive at common understandings of the concept. Students must have opportunities to practice caring for other members of the classroom community. Finally, teachers must offer confirmation of the struggles and accomplishments of their students as they care for one another. Caldwell and Sholtis (2008) provided further insight into developing an ethic of care in the classroom. They identified five characteristics of student-oriented teachers who care for their students: 1. They treat all students with respect by using their names and model how to show respect for other students and other teachers. 2. Student-oriented teachers encourage positive discourse in the classroom, which they demonstrate by giving constructive written encouragement on assignments and frequent verbal praise (Caldwell, 1999). …

Compliance Training in an Adult With Dementia of the Alzheimer’s Type and Down Syndrome

The authors describe the treatment of noncompliance and public stripping in a 53-year-old man with Down syndrome and dementia. Based on a review of the relevant literature and a comprehensive functional behavioral analysis, an intervention procedure utilizing contingent reinforcement of compliance was conducted. Compliance with requests to allow assistance getting dressed was reinforced with a combination of verbal praise, physical contact, and edible reinforcers. Noncompliance had decreased by 85.22% at follow-up. Factors responsible for intervention success and implications for clinicians are discussed.

Study To Assess Factors Contributing To Compliance Of Aerosol Therapy In Bronchial Asthma.

Objectives of the studyTo study the compliance of aerosol therapy in asthmatics.To know the factors contributing to noncompliance. Methodology:A total of 100 patients were studied. Once included in the study, patient’s follow up was done for one to three months. Percentage compliance on aerosol therapy was calculated. Results: 100 patients of bronchial asthma who were started on aerosol therapy over duration of one year were included in the study. At the end of 3 months it was observed that among 100 patients, only 31 patients (31%) had regular compliance and 69 patients (69%) were non-compliant to aerosol therapy for bronchial asthma. Level of learning status of the individual had an important role for non-compliance, four times daily or multiple drugs, dislike of medication and distant pharmacies. Non-Drug factors include fears about side effects, anger about condition or its treatment, forgetfulness or complacency and attitudes toward ill health. To improve the compliance, whenever there were defaults various strategies were employed, through the patient’s educational techniques, which included verbal praise, interactive communication skills tailoring the medications to the patient’s routine and answering to the family’s worry. This was done by a psychologist. After employing the various strategies of patient’s education, the compliance increased in 23 patients (34.3%) among the earlier defaulted patients, while the remaining 44 patients (65.7%) were found to be noncompliant even after various educational techniques.

Reducing attention‐maintained behavior through the use of positive punishment, differential reinforcement of low rates, and response marking

AbstractA differential reinforcement of low (DRL) rates procedure was implemented as a changing criterion design with positive punishment and response marking to reduce attention‐maintained behavior of screaming, profanity, and disruptive behaviors of three adolescent males. One participant was diagnosed with static encephalopathy and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and severe mental retardation, the other two were diagnosed with Down syndrome, one with moderate mental retardation, and the other with severe mental retardation. Through response marking, a verbal warning was delivered immediately following the initial occurrence of a target behavior. A special token (positive punishment) was immediately delivered with a verbal cue and placed on a behavior board following the next occurrence of that behavior. Appropriate requests (hand‐raising) for attention was acknowledged and reinforced with verbal praise. The DRL procedure, combined with positive punishment and response marking, was successful in decreasing the frequency of targeted behaviors amongst all participants. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Turkish mothers’ self‐efficacy beliefs and styles of interactions with their children with language delays

Turkish mothers’ self‐efficacy beliefs and their interactional behaviors with their children with language delays are described and explored. Participants included 19 mother–child dyads. Mothers’ interaction with their children with language delays was videotaped for 30 minutes in a free‐play context. Regarding mothers’ interactional behaviors, results indicate that most mothers were sensitive to the behaviors of their children, responsive and effective during interactions even though they occasionally expressed warmth through brief touches and vocal tone and showed little affective quality in body language, voice quality and facial expression. The very low use of verbal praise and very limited ways of interacting with the toys and materials provided were observed. It was also observed that encouragement of sensorimotor and cognitive development of their children was an essential issue for most mothers. Moreover, most were found directive during interactions. Results also indicated mothers had significantly high level of self‐efficacy beliefs and there were strong relationships between mothers’ self‐efficacy scores and their some interactional behaviors (achievement‐oriented behaviors and the use of verbal praise). The results are discussed extensively.

An evaluation of the overjustification effect across multiple contingency arrangements

AbstractThe overjustification effect suggests that external rewards may decrease intrinsically reinforced behaviors; however, this conclusion is often drawn from pre‐ and post‐assessment data. The majority of studies published in this area do not take repeated measures of behavior. In addition, previous research has not distinguished between the use of rewards and reinforcers by demonstrating a reinforcement effect; hence, it is possible that the occurrence of the overjustification effect varies depending on the nature of the stimuli that are used. This study extended previous research by evaluating whether the overjustification effect was relevant to the use of non‐reinforcing stimuli, reinforcers, or both. The effects of verbal praise were also evaluated in relation to the overjustification effect. Results indicated that behavior did not decrease below baseline levels following the contingent delivery of non‐reinforcing stimuli, reinforcers, or verbal praise. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

P02-217 The role of mother communication styles in treatment of stuttering in children

Stuttering is decribed as a disorder of fluency and characterized by part-word, whole-word and phrase repetitions; interjections; pauses; and prolonged. Studies done about communication patterns of parent and child generally focus on the negative of positive nature of the statements, such as verbal aggression, silents, and interruptions more excessively than the parents of non stutters; and at the same time, parents became a part of the therapy proccesses of stuttering.The communication patterns used between Albanian mothers and her stuttering child and her normally fluent child were investigated. A total of 20 mother-stuttering child pairs and 20 mother-nonstuttering child pairs participated in the preswent study. All mother child pairs were administered a structured game to facilitate spontaneous speech. Comments, questions, critical statement, no response and interruptions were studied as negative statements. Verbal praise and verbal acknowledgments were accepted as a possitive statement.Interaction times and total amount of words were also measured.A significant different was found between both mother and child groups only in the total words used. No significant differences were found for any other communication styles.These findings suggest that the communication behaviour of mother of stuttering children is not different from that of the mothers of nonstutters.

Evaluating the Addition of Positive Reinforcement for Learning a Frightening Task: A Pilot Study With Horses

Horse training often relies upon negative reinforcement (NR). This study tested the hypothesis that adding positive reinforcement (PR) to NR would enhance learning in horses (n = 34) being taught to walk over a tarp (novel/typically frightening task). Subjects were Arabians, and the same person handled all of them. This person handled half “traditionally” (NR only)—that is, halter/lead were pulled; when horse stepped forward, pressure was released; process repeated until criterion met (horse crossed the tarp with little/no obvious anxiety). The same person handled the other half traditionally—but with addition of PR < food + verbal praise > (NR + PR). Subjects “failed” the task if they refused to walk onto the tarp after 10 min. Nine horses failed; 6 of 9 failures were from NR only—no significant difference detected (p = .41). The study detected no difference in time to first crossing of the tarp (p = .30) or total time to achieve calmness criterion (p = .67). Overall, adding PR did not significantly enhance learning this task. However, there were practical implications—adding PR made the task safer/less fatiguing for the handler.

South Asian Parents' Constructions of Praising Their Children

While praise is considered an important element in moulding children's behaviour and is central to parent-training advice in the UK today, the literature from nonwestern cultures suggests that some communities do not view praise as positive. There is currently a dearth of systematic knowledge about how minority ethnic parents in Britain view praise. This qualitative study used thematic analysis to explore the childrearing beliefs of immigrant parents from South Asian backgrounds living in inner-city London, with a focus on their constructions of praising their preschool children. The emerging themes suggest that participants see young children's behaviour as instinctual and view instruction as the main parenting strategy required. Demonstrations of physical warmth and tangible rewards were widely used. While verbal praise was used to encourage compliance, these parents advised caution, saying that praising children risked the development of psychological attributes that were culturally judged as dysfunctional. There was relatively little emphasis on the individual child's ability but more on its effect on others in the hierarchy. These themes have some fundamental implications for the practice of clinical psychology in multicultural communities.

Leadership development training transfer: a case study of post‐training determinants

PurposeThe purpose of this paper is to understand what contributes to transfer of soft‐skill, leadership training.Design/methodology/approachThe paper presents a literature review resulted in five broad factors that may influence transfer of leadership training. These were used to guide a qualitative, exploratory study. Interviews were conducted with 18 participants of an extensive, soft skill oriented leadership development program, along with peer observers. Where possible, quantitative analyses are used to test and confirm qualitative findings.FindingsThe results showed substantial transfer of training and suggest that actual utilization of newly learned skills is influenced differently than judgments about the value of the training. The greatest inhibitor to transfer appeared to be fear of breaking cultural norms and the most important remedy, the number of other managers who receive the training. In particular, having one's boss take the same training was strongly associated with post‐training utilization. Some kinds of social support, like encouragement and verbal praise, were associated with positive judgments of the training but not with utilization. Instead, observing others use the skills and being able to coach one another was the kind of “support” that effected utilization, which depended on colleagues and bosses also receiving the training.Research limitations/implicationsAs an exploratory case study, the study lacks a large sample and the kind of methodology that could prove the validity of the findings.Practical implicationsA number of implications for training managers wanting to ensure their leadership development programs have real impact are discussed. In particular, the study points to a need to plan for rapid diffusion of the training and for cultural change processes in parallel with leadership development courses.Originality/valueThe paper meets a need for empirical investigation of factors associated with transfer of soft skills into the workplace, as called for by researchers like Cheng and Ho. It identifies differences in what impacts judgments of value versus what actually impacts transfer. It also identifies how changing leadership behavior is as much a cultural intervention as a change in skill sets.

The Effects of Graphic Feedback, Goal Setting, and Manager Praise on Customer Service Behaviors

The current study used a multiple baseline design to investigate the effects of graphic feedback, goal setting, and manager praise on customer service behaviors in a large retail setting. Direct observation of customer greeting, eye contact, and smiling was used to collect data. After baseline data were collected feedback graphs were posted twice each week in the employee break room. A second intervention phase included goal setting and manager praise. Goals were developed based on employees' prior performance and were posted on the graphs. Managers then delivered immediate, verbal praise to employees. Graphic feedback produced slight increases in the customer interaction variables in the front of stores 1 and 2. Another small increase in performance was seen in the back of store 1 and the front and back of store 2 with the implementation of the interventions.

French and European American child–mother play: Culture and gender considerations

Research on French and European American mothers' childrearing practices, and potential effects of these differences on children's behavioral development, is scarce. This study compared 33 French and 39 European American 20-month-old children and their mothers on exploratory, symbolic, and social play and interaction. French children engaged in more exploratory play, whereas US children engaged in more symbolic play. French and US mothers engaged in similar amounts of exploratory and symbolic play, and equally frequently solicited exploratory play. French mothers less frequently solicited symbolic play and offered less verbal praise than US mothers. Developmental play levels and activities also varied according to children's sex. Boys engaged in more exploratory play; girls engaged in more symbolic play. Girls received more physical affection from their mothers; boys received more verbal praise. These results suggest the coexistence of universal and culturally variable aspects of mother–child interactions and children's developmental processes.

Modifying the Affective Behavior of Preschoolers with Autism Using In-Vivo or Video Modeling and Reinforcement Contingencies

The purpose of this study was to modify the affective behavior of three preschoolers with autism in home settings and in the context of play activities, and to compare the effects of video modeling to the effects of in-vivo modeling in teaching these children contextually appropriate affective responses. A multiple-baseline design across subjects, with a return to baseline condition, was used to assess the effects of treatment that consisted of reinforcement, video modeling, in-vivo modeling, and prompting. During training trials, reinforcement in the form of verbal praise and tokens was delivered contingent upon appropriate affective responding. Error correction procedures differed for each treatment condition. In the in-vivo modeling condition, the therapist used modeling and verbal prompting. In the video modeling condition, video segments of a peer modeling the correct response and verbal prompting by the therapist were used as corrective procedures. Participants received treatment in three categories of affective behavior--sympathy, appreciation, and disapproval--and were presented with a total of 140 different scenarios. The study demonstrated that both treatments--video modeling and in-vivo modeling--systematically increased appropriate affective responding in all response categories for the three participants. Additionally, treatment effects generalized across responses to untrained scenarios, the child's mother, new therapists, and time.

Training Teachers to Give Effective Commands: Effects on Student Compliance and Academic Behaviors

This study examined the effects of effective command training with teachers on students' compliance rates and academic engagement. Three target students were selected who were exhibiting compliance rates substantially below peers. The students' teachers were taught how to provide effective commands. Results indicated that students' rates of compliance increased with increased use of effective commands. When verbal praise was added contingent on compliance, students' rates of compliance increased even more. In addition, academic engagement was shown to increase as student compliance increased and disruptive competing behaviors decreased. Implications for consultation and intervention in the classroom to increase student compliance and academic behaviors are discussed.

How do Turkish mothers discipline children? An analysis from a behavioural perspective

A descriptive study was conducted to assess the disciplinary practices of Turkish mothers for increasing appropriate and decreasing inappropriate behaviours of their children. The participants were 50 mothers of 4- to 6-year-old children receiving preschool education. The data were collected via a questionnaire consisting of open-ended questions. The results revealed that the most frequently used disciplinary technique for strengthening desirable behaviours of children was presenting verbal praise, followed by presenting activity, edible, and social reinforcers whereas the favourite disciplinary technique for overcoming behaviour problems was providing verbal explanations. These findings show that the participants seem to be benefiting from a variety of behavioural techniques for supporting their children's appropriate behaviours. However, they look less competent when it comes to discouraging inappropriate behaviours. These findings are expected to (a) offer an alternative data collection model for assessing parental disciplinary practices, and (b) contribute to designing parent training and family-focused early intervention programmes.

Compliance with daily living routines: A case study.

The outcome of an intervention grounded in operant conditioning for a child with multiple medical diagnoses and mild mental retardation was examined. David, an 8-year-old African American male, showed resistance to performing routine self-help activities that he was able to perform independently. An improvement was noted between baseline and intervention data. Such anecdotal data may have implications for the generalization of compliance to other medical settings for children. Key words: operant conditioning, compliance, medical settings, self-help, mental retardation ********** was an 8-year-old African-American male who was admitted to a residential home for children with medical complications at age 2 years and 11 months with a medical diagnosis of a gastrostomy, tracheotomy cranial nerve dysfunction, post encephalitis, and brain stem and cord dysfunction with central hypoventilation. His mother reported that her pregnancy and the delivery were normal. At approximately 7 months of age, David was hospitalized for episodes of nausea and vomiting. He was diagnosed with myocarditis and viral myoencephalitis and he required ventilator support. Subsequently, David received a tracheostomy and efforts to wean him from vent support were unsuccessful. Therefore, he was unable to return home due to extensive medical needs. At the time of this intervention, David's medical diagnosis included: History of encephalitis meningitis, Status post viral myocarditis/myoencephalitis, Paralyzed diaphragm bilaterally, Sleep apnea secondary to brain stem injury, Tracheostomy, Gastrostomy, Bilateral typanostomy with tubes, Questionable seizure, Significant esophageal stricture with dilatation. David also had a diagnosis of mild mental retardation and psychological testing indicated that he functioned at a 4 to 5 year age level, regarding cognitive, social and emotional functioning. David was ambulatory and verbalized his wants and needs. Due to his tracheostomy, he was often difficult for unfamiliar listeners to understand. He had no functional swallowing skills, and received all his nourishment via a gastrostomy. David also had a tracheostomy and was ventilator dependent during sleep due to episodes of central sleep apnea. His fine and gross motor skills were adequately developed for participation in activities of daily living. He was able to follow complex directions. David loved action figures, superheroes (especially Batman), and Power Rangers. He enjoyed drawing these characters and had many of his pictures taped to his closet door. David was also gaining an understanding of money and he enjoyed shopping. The primary presenting problem reported by the staff included David's noncompliance when asked to perform simple daily routines such as making his bed and independently doing his g-tube and trach care. Although he was capable of doing many of the activities independently, he either refused to complete the activity or insisted on needing assistance from staff the majority of the time. Since David was eight years old at that time, increasing his independence would not only benefit the staff but also David. ASSESSMENT Following the initial concern filed by the staff, staff interviews and observations were conducted. From this, twelve main requests frequently asked of David were discovered. These main requests included making his bed, brushing his teeth, getting dressed, picking out clothes, tying shoes, picking up toys, using saline bullets, washing his hands, wearing a nosey, bathing himself, and his trach and g-tube care. Observations indicated that when David did not comply he typically got out of doing the task or received assistance. When David complied or performed the activity independently he occasionally received unenthusiastic verbal praise. Baseline data was collected to gain a current percentage of compliance and an idea about tasks that were more difficult for David. …