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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Educ.
Sec. Special Educational Needs
Volume 9 - 2024 | doi: 10.3389/feduc.2024.1445523
This article is part of the Research Topic Behavior-specific praise in preK-12 settings: Expanding the knowledge base View all articles

Behavior-Specific Praise: A Strategy for All

Provisionally accepted
Nicholas A. Newton Nicholas A. Newton *David J. Royer David J. Royer Jennifer A. Hogg Jennifer A. Hogg Amber Priddy Amber Priddy
  • University of Louisville, Louisville, United States

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Behavior-specific praise (BSP) is a low-intensity strategy used to reinforce positive student behaviors in school settings. BSP is currently a potentially evidence-based practice, with more studies with three or more participants needed to contribute to the literature base. This study investigated the impact of teacher-delivered BSP on student on-task behavior in an inclusive second grade classroom taught by a general and special education coteacher dyad in a rural Southeast school. Using an A-B-A-B withdrawal design, we observed the on-task behavior of four students with emotional and/or behavioral disorders (EBD) when the coteaching pair increased their rates of BSP after a brief training. All four students increased on-task behavior during BSP intervention conditions. Social validity questionnaires identified a positive impression from three out of four students and both teachers about the implementation of BSP in the classroom. Limitations and future directions are discussed.

    Keywords: Behavior-specific praise, general praise, on-task behavior, coteaching, withdrawal design

    Received: 07 Jun 2024; Accepted: 23 Sep 2024.

    Copyright: © 2024 Newton, Royer, Hogg and Priddy. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Nicholas A. Newton, University of Louisville, Louisville, United States

    Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.