Association for Behavior Analysis International

The academic demands coupled with low levels of social skills may indicate the onset of psychological conditions such as stress. The social skills limited repertoire can enhance the environmental stressful variables effect. This study aimed to investigate the relationship between stress levels and social skills of Brazilian undergraduate students. For this purpose it was applied the Brazilian version of the Stress Symptom Inventory by Lipp, a questionnaire on specific academic context stressors and Social Skills Inventory. Participated in this study 25 students of the Universidade Federal do Recencavo da Bahia psychology course. The results indicated that over 80% of the participants presented stress. Furthermore, over 80% of participants had high scores on social skills. The questionnaire data showed that the items mentioned as most stressful were related to classes' hour amount and schedules besides evaluation activities schedules, aspects not directly related to students' social skills. Additionally, items related to interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers when appointed as stressful were mild or moderate intensity. These data suggest that high levels of stress may be related to high levels of social skills when the most stressful factors relate to changes that do not depend on the undergraduate students' social skills individually.

Mathematics learning difficulties may appear in the first years of schooling. In behavior analysis, the number of studies on the teaching of mathematics is still small, but there are contributions that indicate relevant variables to the formation of the number concept and arithmetic skills. The present study aimed to draw up a program of assessment and teaching addition and subtraction skills. The participants were nine children in the second to fifth year of elementary school. Initially, a battery of tasks assessed the pre-arithmetic skills and the results showed that tasks involving estimative and ordering of sets produced less correct responses. The program for assessment and teaching of addition and subtraction skills was divided into three units. In unit 1, we used values from zero to ten; unit 2 involved values from ten to twenty; and unit 3, values from twenty to fifty. All tasks were conducted in computerized MTS and CRMTS formats. The program made it possible to map the participants' arithmetic skills, as well as complementing gaps in the repertoire. Teaching intermediate responses to solving arithmetic algorithms proved necessary to improve the participants' skills.

Some properties of the additive problem may cause difficulties to solve it, like: problems' presentation form, semantic structure and position of the unknown. Two experiments were conducted to investigate if the formation of sets of equivalence classes between different problems' presentation forms could reduce difficulties of students, from the 2nd to the 5th year of elementary school, with low percentages of correct responses in pretest. Eight students participated in Experiment 1. After the equivalence class formation between different forms of presentation of addition problems (numeral-problem, word-problem, collection-problem and balance-problem), there was an increase in the percentage of accuracy for all types of problems in Post-test 1. It was also assessed, in different sessions, the effects of teaching addition and subtraction algorithms for solving additive problems, followed by Post-tests 2 and 3 and generalization test. Four participants showed an increase in the percentage of correct responses at Post-test 2 and six at Post-test 3. Participants achieved 100% correct responses at generalization test. In Experiment 2, three forms of presentation (numeral-problem, word-problem and balance-problem) were used. It was produced the formation of two sets of equivalence classes (addition and subtraction). Two sessions were designed to teach participants about balance-problems operation. Eight students participated. After the formation of classes, participants increased the percentage of correct answers in Post-test 1. It was then assessed whether a practice in solving balance-problems could further improve this performance, which was confirmed. In Generalization Test 1, participants reached percentages above 75%. Then, we performed a single session for teaching addition and subtraction algorithms, which was followed by Post-test 3; there was an increase in correct responses. The generalization test was reapplied; all participants achieved 100% accuracy. The teaching procedures adopted could reduce learning difficulties in problem solving.

Many universities fail to integrate didactic teaching of new technologies of information and communication, in the curriculum proposals based on the development of generic and professional skills, it requires that teachers and students have the skills that allow them to meet the demands of society. Therefore, the purpose of the study is to evaluate the effect of a program of digital skills of two English professors about their academic, communication, digital and English teaching skills. These skills were evaluated by 26 students using a scale. A experimental design with two groups randomized subjects with pre-and post-assessments (Ary, et al 2006), was implemented. Teachers and students were randomly assigned to one of the two groups: experimental and control. The results and statistical analysis show that the professor and the students of the experimental group had higher scores on academic skills than the control participants.

We studied the effect of antecedent manipulation on aberrant behavior within a competitive game, aiming to create an opportunity to practice, rather than avoid, challenging situations. Four versions of the "Are You Square" game (Eldar, Morris, Da Costa, & Wolf, 2006, Eldar, 2008) were played for 16 weeks by 16 male high-school students. The dependent variable, aberrant behavior, was defined as: Rule violations; Passivity; Physical violence; and Verbal violence. A Multielement Design presented the aberrant behaviors emitted under the various conditions. Overall, misbehaviors were differentially affected by the different versions of the game. The highest levels of aberrant behaviors, mainly in the form of rule violations, occurred when the Intensity of the game was increased. Data from this study will be presented, followed by data revealed from similar studies, demonstrating a relation between the manipulation of game conditions and the change in participants’ behavior. An educational procedure for diagnosing and treating aberrant behavior, based on these findings, will be suggested.

In Mexico, establishing of competences in relation to health is formally initiated by Secretariat of Public Education in Preschool Education Program (PEP) 2004-2011. The study designs a Program of Health Promotion in Preschool level (PHPP), to establish and assess competencies related to health in PEP (2011). The independent variable was Program of Health Promotion in Preschool level, approach based on competencies of Tobon (2006); the dependent variable was level of achievement in the execution of competences in preschool children in second grade, obtained in the Matrix of Competencies founded in PEP (2011). The hypothesis was, if level of achievement in the execution of competencies in health promotion for children in second grade preschool, exposed to PHPP would be higher, in comparison to achievement in children who not receive PHPP. The PHPP used an experimental design of Pre and Post-test with two randomized groups: control and experimental group with 8 children of second grade from preschool, both groups chosen at random from a kindergarten in Xalapa city, Ver. Results showed in graphical analysis the difference between groups. Two-Sample t-Test for Correlated Samples reported p<0.001, proving the hypothesis of the study.

Reading and numeracy teaching programs in natural environments rarely apply the concept of equivalence paradigm and matching to sample procedures to teach basic skills in these two areas. The present study presents an individualized behavioral teaching program with a 7 years old boy with atypical development at his own home, four days a week. The objective of the program was teaching gradually basic skills in reading and numeracy that were not present in the repertoire of the child. Baseline data showed systematic errors and random performance in reading, as well as in counting and identifying numbers. The procedure included trial type learning with matching to sample, through computer presentation. Eleven words were taught in three months, in the following relations: 1) match the oral name of words (spoken by the teacher), with its written names (AC relation); 2) match oral name of words with its picture (AB relation); 3) match pictures of written words with the correspondent written words (BC relation); 4) match written words with its correspondent pictures (CB relation); 5) say the name of written words loud (CD relation); 6) construct anagram of the name of written words (CE relation); 7) match oral name of pictures with pictures (relation BD). A token system for reinforcement of correct responses (FR5) was applied. Results of the first month on reading show an average of 85% of correct independent responses in four relations (AB, BD, AC, CD) and difficulties in BC, CB and CE relations (around 20% of correct responses); in the second month, the good scores were maintained and the low ones changed to 60% of correct responses; in the third month all the scores reached an average of 90% of correct responses. For numeracy program an even quicker progress was obtained. It is concluded for the efficiency of both programs and a process of learning set emerged in child’s reading behavior.