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The social behavior of students who are seriously emotionally disturbed sets them apart from their normative classroom peers. This article provides a quantitative analysis of intervention studies dealing with the social behavior of seriously emotionally disturbed students. Social behavior was broadly defined as including social skills deficits, behavior under inadequate stimulus control, and inappropriate behavior in the classroom. Of the 28 studies located, 11 dealt with some aspect of social skills and 17 with inappropriate classroom behavior. Each study was analyzed with respect to (a) the age, gender, and classification of the subjects; (b) the setting, referral source, and therapist; (c) the dependent and independent variables; (d) type of evaluation design used; (e) reliability of the dependent and independent variable; (f) social validation; (g) programmed generalization, maintenance, and follow-up; (h) measurement of collateral behaviors; (i) functional analysis of the target behavior; and (j) efficacy rating of the results on a 3-point scale. The results are presented and discussed in terms of current status and implications for future research.

ABSTRACT. Stereotypy is one of the most common behaviours demonstrated by persons with mental handicaps. As such, it has generated a number of theories concerning its origin or maintenance. One of these theories, the homeostatic one, suggests that some persons engage in stereotypies and other motor behaviours in order to maintain a relatively constant level of responding. If this was indeed true, the fact would have important implications for treatment, i.e. those persons who varied rates of both stereotypy and other movements but retained an overall level of motoric responding would seem to be those for whom procedures like the differential reinforcement of incompatible behaviour would be highly appropriate. The purpose of this paper was to determine whether some people do engage in constant levels of responding, and it did so by collecting data on stereotypy and other motor movements of 12 persons with retardation. Collected throughout the sehool day for 5 consecutive days on micro‐computers, the data showed (1) that the stereotypic responding of four subjects was extraordinarily consistent, with the most deviant day's total being only 15 or 16% from the mean of the 5 days, (2) that other motor movements were inconsistent for all but one subject, but (3) that total movement (i.e. stereotypy plus other motor movements) was very high and was consistent for most subjects. The data were discussed in terms of assessing baselines for subjects for whom reinforcing adaptive motor movements would seem an appropriate means for reducing stereotypic responding.

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ABSTRACT. The effects of activities and task demands on the rale of stereotvpie and adaptive behaviour were analysed within the conceptual framework of setting events. Data on 12 menially retarded subjects were collected in real time using portable microcomputers during six activities: leisure, pre‐vocational training, gym, academic instruction, home living, and lunch. Results showed that stereotypic and adaptive responses occurred in all settings, with the two behaviours occurring simultaneously across both subjects and activities some of the time. Micro‐level analysis showed that teacher covert task demand provided the setting evenl for most of the stereotypic and adaptive responding during each activity. The importance of ecobehavioural analysis in understanding the nature of stereotypy and adaptive behaviour, anil the contribution of such an analysis to appropriate and effective intervention were highlighted.