2026/05/06 by David James Royer, Amber R. Priddy, Jennifer A. Hogg +1
Social Sciences · Psychology · #Education Discipline and Inequality #Behavioral and Psychological Studies #Early Childhood Education and Development
paper · doi:10.1080/09362835.2026.2665597
Behavior-specific praise is a low-intensity strategy that can support student academic engaged time and help reduce challenging behavior. Only three studies previously investigated the effects of behavior-specific praise on student behavior in high school settings, and only one was teacher-delivered to the whole class of students, including students with or at risk for disabilities. In this study, we tested the effects of classwide behavior-specific praise on the on-task behavior of three students at risk for emotional or behavioral disorders (EBD) using an A-B-A-B withdrawal design over seven weeks. While students did show improved on-task behavior and there was a large effect size, results were mixed in terms of establishing a functional relation when visual analysis was applied. Limitations are discussed and recommendations for future studies are provided.