Christopher H. Skinner

• Ph.D. School Psychology - Lehigh, 1989
• Professor at University of Tennessee at Knoxville

Adapted alternating treatment designs were used to evaluate and compare two computer-based phrase-reading interventions in four postsecondary students with an intellectual or developmental disability. Each intervention targeted eight unknown words from each student’s elective college class. For each word, interventions included three stimulus-respo...

This study was designed to extend research on the additive interspersal procedure. College students worked on four parallel math assignments, each containing 15 standard three-digit by two-digit computation problems. The independent variable was the number of additional brief one-digit by one-digit problems added and interspersed among the standard...

An experimental design was used to evaluate the effects of a classroom‐based purchasing skills intervention designed to teach postsecondary students with intellectual and developmental disabilities the one‐dollar‐more purchasing strategy. The experimental group students ( n = 12) completed the intervention first,and the control group participants (...

Multiple‐baseline‐across‐word‐sets designs were used to determine whether a computer‐based intervention would enhance accurate word signing with four participants. Each participant was a hearing college student with reading disorders. Learning trials included 3 s to observe printed words on the screen and a video model performing the sign twice (i....

A longitudinal randomized design was used with a sample of 57 third-grade students to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of three variations of cover, copy, and compare (CCC; traditional CCC, CCC-answer only, and CCC-paired responding) on multiplication fluency in third-grade students. Traditional CCC requires students to write the problem and...

The effects of a computer-based reading intervention on whole word reading in three post-secondary students with intellectual and/or developmental disability were evaluated using a multiple baseline across tasks (i.e., word sets) design. Words were selected from each student’s elective undergraduate social science course materials. During this stim...

Students are less likely to hear and understand teacher-delivered directions or instructions when they are attending to other activities (e.g., a classmate, a previously assigned task). A classroom management system known as the Color Wheel System includes rules and transition procedures designed to increase the probability that students stop their...

We extended research on social skills training to determine if the activities first‐grade students were engaged in while Tootling would influence their performance of two recently trained social skills: complimenting and encouraging peers. After receiving social skills training, students engaged in two experimental small‐group activities, a coopera...

Measures of learning speed (i.e., the amount of learning/cumulative time learner spends engaged in an intervention) are rarely included in research designed to evaluate and compare academic interventions. We build a case that includes analyses of learning speed metrics in academic intervention research can provide more useful information for preven...

While social skills training allows students to acquire social skills, often it does not enhance their performance of those skills outside the social skills training context. A withdrawal design was used to determine if a modified Tootling intervention could enhance at-risk, first-grade students’ performance of two recently trained social skills (c...

School psychologists have been involved with developing and installing individual contingencies designed to remedy individual students' academic deficits. Group‐oriented contingencies can be applied to broader efforts designed to prevent learning problems class‐wide. Independent group‐oriented rewards are frequently used in school settings to enhan...

The present study was designed to extend research on supplementing social skills training (SST) with a Tootling intervention to enhance student performance of social skills in authentic social contexts. The Tootling intervention included an interdependent group contingency with randomly selected criteria, which involved the after-school class recei...

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate and describe why alternating treatments design (ATD) researchers should consider employing a no-treatment series during the alternating treatments phase. To identify limitations associated with excluding this design element, we obtained examples of ATD studies published in five school psychology journals...

Teachers focused on prevention of academic problems should apply procedures that enhance learning speed, or learning as a function of the time that the learner spends engaged in the intervention(s). Although few researchers evaluate or compare academic interventions using precise measures of learning speed, several strategies for modifying interven...

A withdrawal design was used to evaluate the effects of a tootling intervention targeting a specific, recently trained social skill, providing compliments, displayed by first-grade students while they engaged in a regularly scheduled, small-group math activity. The tootling intervention, called the Catching Compliments Game, included publicly poste...

Working with a post-secondary student with intellectual disability, an adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare sight-word acquisition across three computer-delivered learning trial interventions: one with fixed 5-s response intervals, another with fixed 1-s response intervals, and a third with self-determined intervals. Visual ana...

Class-wide academic performance can be increased by overlaying existing instructional and classroom management procedures with supplemental interdependent group-oriented bonus rewards. The bonus reward strategies may be particularly effective for under-motivated, low-performing students. When applying supplemental interdependent group-oriented bonu...

Peer-mediated group supports are distinguished from peer-mediated behavioral interventions due to their potential to affect the behavior of a large number of students in an efficient manner. As such, this chapter introduces School-Wide Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports, classroom management strategies, and group contingencies, discussing...

This volume includes a variety of intervention strategies utilizing peers as change agents in school-based interventions. The book presents an updated conceptualization of peer-mediated interventions (PMIs), including peer-mediated academic interventions, peer-mediated behavioral interventions, and peer-mediated group supports. Each section include...

The current study examined digits correct per minute (DCPM) growth using explicit timing procedures across varying instructional set sizes (ISSs) and dose. Specifically, the study used a randomized group design to compare DCPM growth within three different ISSs (9, 18, and 36 multiplication facts) across three different levels of dose (2-, 4-, and...

Adapted alternating treatment designs were used to evaluate and compare the effectiveness of two computer-based sight-word-reading interventions among three elementary school students with an intellectual disability. Each intervention provided 30 stimulus–response–stimulus–response learning trials. One intervention included fixed 3-s response inter...

When remedying student academic deficits, educators must decide not only upon the intervention package to employ but how much of that intervention to deliver in order to provide an effective dose. In the current study, various doses of an explicit timing math fluency intervention package were evaluated with 105 fourth-grade students to identify the...

An alternating treatments design was used to evaluate and compare the effects of two interdependent group contingencies on the academic performance, on-task behavior, and disruptive behavior of eighth-grade students in a social studies class. All students were enrolled in a self-contained alternative school for students with behavior problems. Deli...

Elementary school multicultural reading curricula include characters with diverse proper names, which are often unfamiliar and differ phonetically from students' native language. These names could impact reading outcomes by increasing students' cognitive load and/or creating cognitive disfluency. In Study 1, students in grades 1 through 2 read a st...

Research findings support a relationship between writing self-efficacy and writing production. A multiple-probe across students design was used to evaluate the effects of a writing intervention, which included strategy instruction and cognitive-behavioral components, on the writing production of three middle school students. Visual analysis of repe...

Teachers regularly apply independent group-oriented contingencies (e.g., each student who scored above 89% gets a reward) which are designed to enhance students’ academic performance and achievement. In some instances, these contingencies are ineffective with low performing students. Numerous researchers have demonstrated that applying interdepende...

Enhancing rates of accurate, active, academic responding can enhance learning. Both temporal manipulations (i.e., reducing time to work on assignments) and providing multiple distributed temporal cues (MDTC), sometimes referred to as explicit timing, have been shown to enhance rates of accurate mathematics responding. The current study was designed...

Inappropriate behaviors are common during hallway transitions. Researchers have successfully reduced hallway transition times using the Timely Transitions Game, which involves applying interdependent group rewards delivered contingent upon a class’s transition time. A multiple-baseline design was used to evaluate effects of a modified Timely Transi...

This study was designed to extend the research on tootling interventions, which involves reinforcing students’ reporting of their peers’ incidental prosocial behaviors. Specifically, a withdrawal design was used to determine if a tootling intervention decreased antisocial/disrespectful interactions of four, teacher-nominated students in an after-sc...

Oral reading fluency was investigated as a predictor of standard scores on the Woodcock-Johnson Tests of Achievement III Broad Reading Cluster (BRC). Participants included first- through third-grade students (n = 1301) from elementary schools in and around Houston, Texas. Median words correct per minute scores from three oral reading passages were...

The color wheel is an evidence-based classroom management system that has been used to decrease inappropriate behaviors and increase on-task behaviors in general education elementary classrooms but not in classrooms for students with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). A multiple-baseline design was used to evaluate the effects of the color wheel syste...

Two studies were conducted to examine the effects of a brief prompting intervention (verbal and visual reminder of classroom rules) to improve classroom behavior for an elementary student during small-group reading instruction in a special education classroom (Study 1) and for three high school students with mild disabilities in an inclusive genera...

Students with intellectual disability often have difficulty reading commonly used words. Researchers have found altering printed text from fluent, easy-to-read font, to disfluent, difficult-to-read font can enhance comprehension and recall. An adapted alternating treatments design was used to evaluate and compare sight-word acquisition and maintena...

Researchers have evaluated the effects of repeated reading and listening-while-reading interventions on oral reading fluency and comprehension, and have compared the effects of these two interventions on indirect measures of comprehension. The current study was designed to extend this research by evaluating and comparing the effects of these two in...

During a typical school day elementary students make numerous room-to-room or hallway transitions. For a variety of reasons, inappropriate behaviors often occur during hallway transitions. Problem solving researchers developed the Timely Transitions Game to reduce the time students spend transitioning and the probability of inappropriate behavior o...

An adapted alternating treatments design was used to evaluate and compare the effects of two group contingency interventions on mathematics assignment accuracy in an intact first-grade classroom. Both an interdependent contingency with class-average criteria (16 students) and a dependent contingency with criteria based on the average of a smaller,...

In this chapter the authors describe how functional behavioral assessment (FBA) procedures can be used to identify the function of various behaviors and the relation between FBAs and related interventions that have successfully reduced inappropriate behaviors. Using the principles of FBA it is possible to identify natural environmental contingencie...

A concurrent multiple-baseline across-tasks design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a computer flash-card sight-word recognition intervention with elementary-school students with intellectual disability. This intervention allowed the participants to self-determine each response interval and resulted in both participants acquiring previousl...

Adapted alternating treatments designs were used to evaluate three computer-based flashcard reading interventions (1-s, 3-s, or 5-s response intervals) across two students with disabilities. When learning was plotted with cumulative instructional sessions on the horizontal axis, the session-series graphs suggest that the interventions were similarl...

Evidence suggests that installing a classroom management system known as the Color Wheel reduced inappropriate behaviors and increased on-task behavior in second- and fourth-grade classrooms; however, no systematic studies of the Color Wheel had been disseminated targeting pre-school or kindergarten participants. To enhance our understanding of the...

Middle-school students completed a comprehension assessment. The following day, they read four, 120-word passages, two standard and two non-standard ransom-note passages with altered font sizes. Altering font sizes increased students’ reading time (i.e., reduced reading speed) by an average of 3 s and decreased students’ words correct per minute (W...

The relationship between reading comprehension rate measures and broad reading skill development was examined using data from approximately 1425 students (grades 1-3). Students read 3 passages, from a pool of 30, and answered open-ended comprehension questions. Accurate reading comprehension rate (ARCR) was calculated by dividing the percentage of...

We aggregated and analyzed single-case research targeting math-fact fluency to investigate whether learning (behavior change) data were sufficient to summarize and compare intervention outcomes or if learning rate (learning/ cumulative instructional time) data would provide divergent effect size (ES) results. We also extracted the curricular scope...

Working with elementary students with disabilities, we used alternating treatment designs to evaluate and compare the effects of 2 computer-based flash card sight-word reading interventions, 1 with 1-s response intervals and another with 5-s response intervals. In Study 1, we held instructional time constant, applying both interventions for 3 min....

After students acquire a skill, mastery often requires them to choose to engage in assigned academic activities (e.g., independent seatwork, and homework). Although students may be more likely to choose to work on partially completed assignments than on new assignments, the partial assignment completion (PAC) effect may not be very powerful. The cu...

Because teacher-to-student ratios often m ake it difficult f o r teachers to work individually with students on skill-building activities, educators and researchers have developed and evaluated procedures in which audio­ recordings are used to improve basic academic skills. In the current paper, we describe and analyse reading, math, and spelling i...

Using alternating treatments designs, we compared learning rates across 2 computer-based flash-card interventions (3 min each): a traditional drill intervention with 15 unknown words and an interspersal intervention with 12 known words and 3 unknown words. Each student acquired more words under the traditional drill intervention. Discussion focuses...

A multiple baseline design was used across probe sets to evaluate the effect of detect, practice, and repair (DPR) on the math fact fluency rates of a third-grade class. DPR was applied with a large group (n = 11) selected from an intact class (n = 17) in a manner that allowed each student to work on specific problems from a specific basic fact ope...

The authors used a withdrawal design to evaluate an intervention designed to decrease interruptions during small-group instruction in a Kindergarten class. A new rule was put into place; during teacher-led small-group instruction, those not in the small group were required to address questions to designated student leaders, as opposed to interrupti...

The success of Response‐to‐Intervention (RTI) and similar models of service delivery is dependent on educators being able to apply effective and efficient remedial procedures. In the process of implementing problem‐solving RTI models, school psychologists have an opportunity to contribute to and enhance the quality of our remedial‐procedure evidenc...

Maze and reading comprehension rate measures are calculated by using measures of reading speed and measures of accuracy (i.e., correctly selected words or answers). In sixth- and seventh-grade samples, we found that the measures of reading speed embedded within our Maze measures accounted for 50% and 39% of broad reading score (BRS) variance, respe...

The authors used a multiple-baseline-across-behaviors (i.e., word lists) design to evaluate a computer-based flashcard intervention on automatic sight-word reading in a 4th-grade student with moderate to severe intellectual disabilities. Immediately after the intervention was applied to each of three lists of sight words, the student made rapid gai...

An adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the effects of class-wide applications of Taped Problems (TP) and Cover, Copy, and Compare (CCC) procedures designed to enhance subtraction fact fluency in an intact third-grade classroom. During the TP procedure, a tape provided an auditory prompt (i.e., the problem), followed by a 2-sec...

A multiple baseline design across students was used to evaluate the effects of a taped numbers (TN) intervention on the number-identification accuracy of 4 kindergarten students. During TN, students attempted to name the numbers 0 through 9 on randomized lists before each number was provided via a tape player 2 s later. All 4 students showed immedi...

This paper presents the initial stages of a teaching tool named iSketchmate, intended for instructor use during lecture. iSketchmate allows users to create and manipulate splay trees through an animated GUI. It improves upon existing tools by providing (1) the ability to begin with any user-defined tree, (2) a history mechanism so tree operations c...

The authors used a withdrawal design to evaluate the effects of a modified Color Wheel System (M-CWS) on the on-task behavior of 7 students enrolled in the 4th grade. Standard CWS procedures were modified to include a 4th set of rules designed to set behavioral expectation for cooperative learning activities. Mean data showed that immediately after...

We used a multiple baseline design across math facts to evaluate classwide use of a taped problem (TP) intervention on first graders' digits correct per minute in a general education classroom. During TP, students attempted to respond to each math fact before they heard the answer on an audiotape. As problems were repeated, response intervals were...

Currently, within the field of school psychology, a shift in service delivery models is occurring. Whereas school psychology had been dominated by a refer-test-report (and place) delivery model (Reschly & Yssedyke, 2002), recent legislation has facilitated a change in service delivery to include a response to intervention (RtI) model (Brown-Chidsey...

After completing the Multidimensional Work-Ethic Profile (MWEP), 98 college students were given a 20-problem math computation assignment and instructed to stop working on the assignment after completing 10 problems. Next, they were allowed to choose to finish either the partially completed assignment that had 10 problems remaining or a new assignme...

A multiple-baseline design across math-fact sets was used to evaluate the effects of a taped-problems intervention on students’ performance with addition facts and their inverses in an intact, rural, second-grade classroom. Results suggested that the procedure was effective in improving fluency on math facts as well as their inverses. Across 3 sets...

This study was designed to investigate the partial assignment completion effect. Seventh-grade students were given a math assignment. After working for 5 min, they were interrupted and their partially completed assignments were collected. About 20 min later, students were given their partially completed assignment and a new, control assignment that...

We conducted two experiments evaluating Sketchmate, a tool used to teach the splay tree data structure and its algorithms. Learning and learning rates were compared across two groups, one using Sketchmate and the other using paper-and-pencil on practice problems. Results from Experiment I showed that when students used Sketchmate with minimal feedb...

A multiple-baseline design across tasks (i.e., word lists) was used to evaluate the effects of a computer-based sight-word reading intervention (CBSWRI) on the sight-word reading of a sixth-grade student with Autism. Across 3 lists of primer and first-grade Dolch words, the student showed immediate increases in sight-word reading after the CBSWRI w...

This review provides a summary and appraisal commentary on the treatment review by Mason, L. H., Kubina, R. M., & Taft, R. J. (2009). Developing quick writing skills of middle school students with disabilities. Journal of Special Education, 44, 205–220.Source of funding and disclosure of interest: No source of funding reported, and the original aut...

We used an adapted alternating treatments design to evaluate and compare the effects of 2 spelling interventions on spelling acquisition and maintenance, word reading, and vocabulary in three first-grade students. The first intervention, Cover, Copy, and Compare (CCC), involved having participants look at a word, cover it, write it, then compare th...

The authors used a multiple-probe, across-tasks design to evaluate the effects of a classwide, multicomponent intervention on first-grade students’ addition-fact fluency. Intervention components included “cover, copy, and compare,” a 2-min math sprint, and a weekly group reward. Results showed that classwide digits correct per minute averages incre...

The measure words correct per minute (WC/M) incorporates a measure of accurate aloud word reading and a measure of reading speed. The current article describes two studies designed to parse the variance in global reading scores accounted for by reading speed. In Study I, reading speed accounted for more than 40% of the reading composite score varia...

Solution-focused brief counseling (SFBC) is an efficient and direct approach to therapy that emphasizes problem identification and solutions. A multiple-baseline-across-participants design was used to evaluate the effects of a SFBC intervention on mathematics assignment completion and accuracy across six fifth-grade students who were failing math....

Four experienced golfers participated in a multiple-baseline across participant design that examined the efficacy of solution-focused guided imagery (SFGI) as a treatment for Type I yips. Data was collected during actual 9-hole golf matches and participants received five interventions of the SFGI protocol. Results supported previous research that f...

A multiple-baseline design was used to evaluate the effects of the Title, Examine, Look, Look, and Setting (TELLS) prereading procedure on reading comprehension in 3, ninth-grade students with reading skills deficits. Results suggest that the TELLS procedure enhanced both comprehension levels and rates across all three students. These comprehension...

Participants (115 low-socioeconomic-status [SES], inner-city, high-school students) were exposed to three reading conditions: (1) a control condition in which students silently read brief selected passages; (2) an experimental condition in which students were prompted to perform a three-part (Ask, Read, and Tell [ART]) comprehension enhancement exe...

The purpose of this study was to enhance students' learning by supplementing a multimedia lesson with interesting and relevant video clips (VCs). Undergraduate students watched a target material PowerPoint (tmPP) presentation with voice-over lecture covering the Big Five trait theory of personality. Students were randomly assigned to one of four gr...

Teacher referrals for consultation resulted in two independent teams collecting evidence that allowed for a treatment component evaluation of color wheel (CW) procedures and/or interdependent group-oriented reward (IGOR) procedures on inappropriate vocalizations in one third- and one first-grade classroom. Both studies involved the application of B...

High-school students were shown an educational video designed to dispel 12 common myths regarding Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) by describing each myth and then presenting accurate information. The experimental group viewed a video that was supplemented by the speaker acknowledging that he had ADHD and providing descriptions of pe...

An across-groups (classrooms), multiple-baseline design was used to investigate the effects of an interdependent group-oriented contingency on the Accelerated Reader (AR) performance of fourth-grade students. A total of 32 students in three classes participated. Before the study began, an independent group-oriented reward program was being applied...

Public schools are continually faced with the challenge of responding to and meeting the demands of an ever evolving set of societal and global expectations (Friedman, 2005). Recent iterations of this responsiveness came in the wake of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the reauthorization of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improve...

Academic skill development requires engagement in effortful academic behaviors. Although students may be more likely to choose to engage in behaviors that require less effort, they also may be motivated to complete assignments that they have already begun. Seventh-grade students ( N = 88) began a mathematics computation worksheet, but were stopped...

An adapted alternating treatments design was used to compare the effectiveness of a taped-problems (TP) intervention with TP and an additional immediate assessment (TP+AIA) on the multiplication fluency of six fifth-grade students. During TP, the students listened to a tape playing a series of multiplication problems and answers three times. Studen...

Using a cross-sectional design and five Dynamic Indicators of Basic Early Literacy Skills measures, researchers tested for gender differences in reading skills for 1,218 kindergarten through fifth-grade students. A series of two-way repeated measures analyses of variance with time of year (fall, winter, and spring) serving as the within-subjects va...

A multiple-probe-across-problem-sets (tasks) design was used to evaluate the effects of the Detect, Practice, and Repair (DPR) on multiplication-fact fluency development in seven third-grade students nominated by their teacher as needing remediation. DPR is a multicomponent intervention and begins with a group-administered, metronome-paced assessme...

Behavior analysts have long been interested in developing and promoting the use of effective generalization strategies for behavioral interventions. Perhaps because research on academic performance has lagged behind in the field of applied behavior analysis, far less research on this topic has been conducted for academic performance problems. The p...

A teacher requested behavioral consultation services to address a first-grade student’s disruptive behavior. Functional behavior assessment (FBA) suggested the behavior was being reinforced by “negative” teacher attention (e.g., reprimands, redirections, response cost). Based on this analysis, the teacher and consultant posited that this student ha...

A multiple baseline design was used to evaluate the effects of a modified Detect, Practice, and Repair (DPR) procedure on multiplication-fact fluency with 10 low-achieving 5 th-grade students. Experimenters modified the DPR procedure using Microsoft © PowerPoint © slide shows to conduct the assessments and allow for more rapid self-evaluation in or...

Almost all academic skills deficits can be conceptualized as learning rate problems as students are not failing to learn, but not learning rapidly enough. Thus, when selecting among various possible remedial procedures, educators need an evidence base that indicates which procedure results in the greatest increases in learning rates. Previous resea...

Within the current climate of educational reform, there is a great need for evidence-based academic interventions aimed at increasing achievement among school-aged students. Particularly in the area of mathematics, few empirically validated, cost-, and time-efficient interventions are available for remediating basic math skills deficits. The curren...

This article describes a secondary analysis of a brief reading comprehension rate measure, percent comprehension questions correct per minute spent reading (%C/M). This measure includes reading speed (seconds to read) in the denominator and percentage of comprehension questions answered correctly in the numerator. Participants were 22 4th-, 29 5th-...

A multiple-baseline, across-tasks design was used to extend research on the taped-problems (TP) intervention with an intact, rural, second-grade classroom. During TP sessions an audio recording paced the class through a series of 15 or 16 addition facts four times. Problems and answers were read and students were instructed to attempt to provide th...