Thomas J. Kehle

• University of Connecticut

Disparity exists between racially minoritized students and their White student counterparts in academic achievement. This discrepancy engenders the difference with which students will have opportunities in advanced courses; rates of high school graduation, college acceptance, and completion rates; and salary and quality of life. The academic dispar...

The present pilot study employed an experimental design to examine the efficacy of a self-distancing intervention for promoting adolescent’s reflective adaptation to anger inducing events. Recent experimental studies on college students, elementary school students, and couples have found that self-distancing interventions, as compared to self-immer...

This investigation employed a multiple baseline design across individuals with a follow-up to study the effects of self-modeling as an intervention for stuttering in 4 school-aged students with diagnosed stuttering disorders. The students viewed two 5-minute edited videotapes of themselves speaking fluently on 7 occasions during a period of 6 weeks...

In the past few decades, as Japan has navigated a rapidly shifting social landscape that has altered the underpinnings of Japanese society, the Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science, and Technology (MEXT) has attempted to adapt by undertaking multiple revisions and reforms to the national education law with important implications for the...

Some individuals with developmental dyslexia are able to acquire age-appropriate reading comprehension abilities by the time they reach postsecondary education. This study explored the role that study strategies have with secondary students with dyslexia in achieving age-appropriate reading comprehension skills. The findings of this study indicated...

The Good Behavior Game (GBG) is a group contingency intervention that has effectively reduced disruptive behavior and improved classroom management in many replications, for various settings and populations. The student composition of American public schools is changing, leading to culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms with unique psycho...

As the number of children affected by obesity increases in the United States, it is necessary to intervene with preventive and intervention techniques that will enact change. Because children spend a significant amount of their time in school, it is of particular interest to target strategies during the school day. Given the recommendations for the...

There are many important phenomena involved in human functioning that are unnoticed, misunderstood, not applied, or do not pique the interest of the scientific community. Among these, autonomous sensory meridian response(ASMR) and frisson are two very noteworthy instances that may prove to be therapeutically helpful in promoting subjective well-bei...

This research project case focuses on a new line of research that combines a mental health behavior treatment with personalized genomics-based cancer treatment (e.g. a personal vaccine) to extend life and improve life satisfaction. The case chronicles how social science colleagues connected professionally with physicians to join their research area...

This case study provides information on conducting a single subject, multiple baseline design for people who experience both asthma and anxiety. These two conditions are often comorbid, and the symptoms of each condition can work against those of the other. There is growing support for the use of different mind-body practices in general, but also s...

Divorce is an increasingly prevalent occurrence in society that has the potential to result in many adverse short- and long-term consequences for children and their parents. Social skills, such as those with peers, are one of the problems that may emerge for children of divorce. Despite this growing problem, there is a paucity of research available...

Selective mutism is a rare disorder that is difficult to treat. It is often associated with oppositional defiant behavior, particularly in the home setting, social phobia, and, at times, autism spectrum disorder characteristics. The augmented self-modeling treatment has been relatively successful in promoting rapid diminishment of selective mutism...

Students with intellectual disabilities can exhibit a wide array of challenging behaviors in the classroom that pose disruptions to the learning milieu and management problems for those involved in their education. Self-modeling, a behavioral intervention that involves viewing edited videotapes of oneself depicting exemplary behavior, has had docum...

Why individuals differ typically involves the study of practically inseparable influences of multiple dimensions of complex and confounded environmental, genetic, and epigenetic factors. With respect to the practice of school psychology within the context of historical, social, and political influences on education, studies dealing with individual...

"Science is built up of facts, as a house is built up of stones, but a accumulation of facts is no more a science than a heap of stones is a house" (Poincare, 1905, p. 101). The continual plea for scientifically based practice that affects measurable outcomes is laudable. However, with little or no consensus regarding the relationship between outco...

With its roots in clinical and educational psychology, school psychology is an ever-changing field that encompasses a diversity of topics. The Oxford Handbook of School Psychology synthesizes relevant literature in all of these areas, producing an authoritative resource. Comprising articles authored by the leading figures in school psychology, the...

Studies in positive psychology, including happiness, well-being, and life satisfaction, are reviewed. The preponderance of the research literature on the promotion of positive psychology tends to focus on broad social competences. However, there is an emerging body of evidence that supports employing specific techniques that are more amenable to sc...

What does a gifted student with learning disabilities look like? How can school psychologists and teachers recognize gifted students with learning disabilities? Consider the case of Ronald, a fourth grade boy with a 145 IQ. In kindergarten, before students are expected to read, Ronald was at the top of his class. Teachers raved about Ronald’s verba...

A multiple baseline design was used to examine the effects of participation in antecedent physical activity on the academic engagement of four elementary-school children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder (ASD). The results indicated large effect sizes for academic engaged time for all four students. It was suggested that physical activity in...

This study used an alternating-treatment design to compare the efficacy of discrete trial training (DTT) with fluency training (FT) for the acquisition, stimulus generalization, and retention of noun labels in children with autism. Four elementary-age students diagnosed with autism were taught to expressively label nouns using a DTT format and a FT...

This school-based study analyzed the impact of RGI on lung functioning (forced expiratory volume in 1 s [FEV1] and forced expiratory flow 25-75 [FEF25-75]) and by employing a multiple baseline design across 3 high school students with asthma and clinically diagnosed anxiety disorders. The RGI intervention took place for a 20-min period, an average...

Individuals with autism spectrum disorders experience pervasive social and communication skill deficits. One of the most popular treatment recommendations to address these deficits is the use of social stories. Although social stories are beneficial at reducing many disruptive behaviors, empirical evidence for their use to increase social and commu...

The correlates and suspected causes of the intractable condition obesity are complex and involve environmental and heritable, psychological and physical variables. Overall, the factors associated with and possible causes of it are not clearly understood. Although there exists some ambiguity in the research regarding the degree of happiness in child...

The present study employed an alternating-treatments design to compare the differential effect of group contingencies on the improvement of homework completion and accuracy of students with disabilities in a self-contained fifth-grade classroom. Generally, past investigations have indicated a positive association between homework performance and ac...

The intent of this preliminary study is to explore the effectiveness of self-modeling in altering maladaptive behavior in children through the mediating effect of modifying their autobiographical memories of their dysfunctional behaviors. We proposed that the alteration of inappropriate classroom behaviors afforded by the self-modeling intervention...

Homework is an often employed teaching strategy that has strong positive effects on academic achievement across grade levels, content areas, and student ability levels. To maximize academic learning, accuracy of homework should be addressed. The present investigation employed a multiple-baseline design across academic behaviors to examine the effic...

There is considerable support for the effectiveness of psychotherapies regardless of their individual theoretical underpinnings. They all evidence substantial positive outcomes, particularly if they contain common elements. These include a therapeutic relationship within an appropriate setting, a rationale for why the client is unhappy or distresse...

Limited research exists related to empirically validated strategies to assist college students with learning disabilities (LD). Given that students with LD demonstrate both fewer test-taking skills and higher levels of test anxiety than their peers without LD, and poor test-taking skills contribute to higher levels of test anxiety, such research is...

Asthma is a chronic disease of the airways. It affects approximately 12% of American children, and it appears that that incidence is increasing. Asthma in children negatively influences school-based outcomes such as absenteeism and friendship formation. Potential triggers of asthma include environmental allergens, exercise, weather, and emotional s...

Considerable research has demonstrated the effectiveness of interdependent and unknown dependent group contingencies on reducing inappropriate classroom behavior. Several investigators have focused on the addition of self-monitoring and peer feedback to these interdependent and unknown dependent group contingencies in order to further improve their...

Obesity is a growing epidemic in the United States. Children who are overweight tend to participate in fewer activities, to withdraw from social situations, and to be less physically active than their normal-weight peers. Additionally, they have lower self-image and often suffer from depression. Research on children's perceptions of overweight peer...

Fluency, or the rate at which a student reads, is developed in the early stages of literacy and has been shown to correlate with comprehension. A myriad of interventions have been developed to increase fluency. Group contingencies are one of these that in particular have shown some positive effects on reading fluency. Advantages to using them are t...

Criticism has been leveled against the use of statistical significance testing (SST) in many disciplines. However, the field of school psychology has been largely devoid of critiques of SST. Inspection of the primary journals in school psychology indicated numerous examples of SST with nonrandom samples and/or samples of convenience. In this articl...

Asthma is a pervasive inflammatory disorder of the bronchial airways that causes the normal functioning of the airways to become overreactive. This disorder affects approximately 8 million children in schools per year and accounts for a significant amount of absences. Researchers have speculated that pharmacological interventions are alone insuffic...

A multiple baseline design across three grade level groups with a comparison group was employed to investigate the effectiveness of yoga for improving time on task with 10 elementary school children who evidenced attention problems. A yoga videotape, published by Gaiam, was used that required the children to follow an adult instructor and three chi...

We argue that the existence of the gap is perhaps a result of an overallegiance to the medical model and the lack of measurable criteria regarding the definition of an educated and psychologically healthy student. Further, an additional and equally daunting problem for school psychological practice is that it is influenced by general education that...

The Chinese College Stress Scale was developed to ascertain stress in university students. Results suggested that the psychometric properties of the Chinese College Stress Scale were satisfactory. Overall, student stress was primarily related to academic, personal, and negative life events. Approximately 8% of Chinese students exhibited high stress...

There is a paucity of research examining the experiences and perceptions of women employed as school psychology academicians. The purpose of this investigation was to ascertain female school psychology academicians' perceptions of their respective academic climates, levels of support, incidences of harassment, and levels of stress. Comparisons betw...

Numerous arguments have addressed the controversies surrounding the category of emotional disturbance (ED) and the exclusion, or proposed inclusion, of students with social maladjustment (SM). In this article we address the consensually agreed upon characteristics of ED that are in common with SM, in addition to examining characteristics that suppo...

The present investigation employed an alternating treatments design to (1) examine the efficacy of group contingencies in the reduction of disruptive behavior, and (2) compare the effects of independent, interdependent, and dependent group contingencies in the reduction of disruptive behavior in adolescent males identified with serious emotional di...

The current perspectives on school-based behavioral interventions presented in this mini-series are underpinned by the authors' compelling arguments to employ these interventions primarily because they believe that they are the most effective in promoting children's academic and social competencies. Unquestionably the arguments presented in support...

This review clarifies the vaguely defined and perplexing terminology that historically has been used in the descriptions of group contingencies. Group contingencies are reviewed and categorized as independent, interdependent, and dependent based on the seminal work of Litow and Pumroy. Further, group contingencies, based on these categorizations, a...

The article addresses the demographic characteristics of students in school psychology programs nationwide with respect to providing a rationale for the importance of increasing the proportion of minority school psychologists who are underrepresented. Emphasis on training culturally competent psychologists is reviewed within a historical context. B...

The role of the school psychologist has evolved from the traditional position of psychometrician to a scientist-practitioner who assumes a more progressive, proactive leadership position in initiating reform in the schools. This shift is guided by a changing paradigm from child deviance, or child pathology, to a collaborative, problem-solving orien...

The acronym RICH stands for resources, intimacy, competence, and health. These characteristics are purported to define psychological health, which is assumed to be synonymous with happiness. The four characteristics encompass all possible reinforcers, are relatively obtainable by all individuals, are interrelated to the extent they incorporate each...

Asthma, a chronic respiratory disease, is caused by a complex interaction between genetic and environmental variables. The intent of this article is to propose a theory that provides an explanation for the reduction of emotionally triggered asthma through treatments derived from positive psychology. The basic tenet of the theory is that physical he...

This study investigated the relationship of self-efficacy for verbal fluency, academic self-efficacy, and depression between adolescents who stutter and fluent speakers. Two separate discriminant function analyses were performed. The first analysis used the self-efficacy and depression scores as response variables and fluency classification as the...

Asthma, a disease of the respiratory system, is the most common chronic medical condition among children. School-aged children with asthma evidence increased absenteeism, decreased school performance, restriction of various activities, poor peer relationships, and emotional and behavioral difficulties. Asthma can be triggered and exacerbated by emo...

This study investigated the effectiveness of the mystery motivator intervention as a means to remediate mathematics homework accuracy and completion problems in five fifth-grade students. An ABAB reversal design with multiple baselines across two classrooms was used. The results indicated that the mystery motivator intervention was effective for al...

This study examined the structure of self-reported problem behaviors in Mainland Chinese children. Third grade (n = 3011) and fifth grade (n = 3708) students completed a 20-item Problem Behavior Frequency Checklist (PBFC). Findings suggested that among the four factors studied (physical aggression, substance use, delinquency, and self-centered beha...

The present study investigated developmental changes in moral reasoning about sibling and parental relationships in Mainland Chinese children. More specifically, motives of a protagonist with conflicting obligations in the family were examined. Results suggested universal stage-like progression in moral judgment from superficial (stages 1 and 2) to...

This entry focuses on promoting intellectual growth in early childhood, primarily from the perspective of cognitive development. However, we recognize that other factors such as affective, behavioral, and social variables are involved in promoting development, and discuss these as relevant to our major perspective.

There is a wealth of research demonstrating the effectiveness of interdependent and unknown dependent group contingencies on improving behavioral and academic concerns within the school setting. Current studies focus on the addition of self monitoring and peer feedback to these interdependent and unknown dependent group contingencies in order to im...

The present study investigated the effectiveness of an intervention comprising posted classroom rules, token economy, response cost, and mystery motivators in reducing disruptive classroom behavior. Participants were three male second grade students identified as having oppositional defiant disorder. To serve as an additional control, a class compo...

The study investigated the effect of self-modeling as an intervention to improve classroom participatory behavior and whether or not increased classroom participation influenced teacher's perceptions of the students' behavior. The study employed a multiple baseline design across five students, and a control, with a follow-up. All students evidenced...

This investigation examined adolescent self-esteem, gender-role perception, gender-role orientation, and attributional style as a function of academic achievement by having 3 groups of 10th-, 11th-, and 12th-grade males and females (n = 540) respond to (a) a self-esteem inventory under 2 sets of instructions, a standard set and a set in which parti...

This article reviews the origin and growth of school psychol ogy in Greece, including the socio-cultural barriers inhibiting its devel opment and events facilitating its progress in the twentieth century and into the new millennium. The need for school psychologists has been fueled by the increasing demand to provide support to children with specia...

Intelligence is defined as the ability to grapple with complexity with respect to the selection and engagement in activities and environments that promote attainment of four characteristics. These characteristics of intelligent behaviour incorporate the individual's attainment of: Resources, Intimacy, Competence and Physical Health (RICH). These RI...

This article reviews the origin and growth of school psychol ogy in Greece, including the socio-cultural barriers inhibiting its devel opment and events facilitating its progress in the twentieth century and into the new millennium. The need for school psychologists has been fueled by the increasing demand to provide support to children with specia...

The intent of this article is to consider similarities between the research on the alteration of memory, and that on the modification of behavior through viewing edited self-modeling videotapes that depict exemplary behavior. A considerable number of studies unequivocally show that memory can be altered through several mechanisms, including visual...

The case of a 25-year-old male with childhood disintegrative disorder (CDD), or Heller's syndrome, is discussed in terms of differential diagnosis, progression of the disorder, and suggestions for home- and school-based interventions. The case documents the progressive deterioration of cognitive and social competencies. Given the paucity of researc...

In recent years, researchers and practitioners have become increasingly interested in students who have both learning disabilities and intellectual gifts. Intellectually gifted students are defined as those who demonstrate outstanding ability to grapple with complexity, or superior academic potential. The definition of learning disability states th...

The effects of divorce on Chinese children's adjustment are reviewed and contrasted to American children of divorce. Over the past 20 years there has been a substantial increase in the Chinese divorce rate. The deleterious effects of divorce on children's academic and social functioning appear to be similar to that experienced by American children.

A multicomponent intervention that included a precision request program, mystery motivators, token economy with response cost, and antecedent strategies (i.e., public posting of classroom rules and teacher movement) was employed to reduce disruptive classroom behavior in 3 school-aged students with social and emotional disorders. The study employed...

The present study employed an ABAB design to investigate the effect of randomizing both contingencies for reinforcement and reinforcers to decrease classroom disruptive behavior in 5 adolescent students with serious emotional disorder. With the introduction of the intervention, it was found that the percentage of observed intervals of disruptive be...

This brief article reports a long-term follow-up of the effects of self-modeling on the reduction of stuttering in two groups of students who initially evidenced different mean percentages of stuttered words. The 2- and 4-year follow-up is based on 7 students who were involved in two separate studies published in 1996 and 1998. The 3 students invol...

The study used an A/B/B+C multiple baseline design across individuals with a follow up to examine the effects of a two-component treatment package composed of habit reversal and self-modeling to reduce the frequency of ties in 4 school-age students diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome. The students were taught competing responses to their multiple ti...

The discipline of psychology is emerging as a recognized and respected profession in China. This is perhaps due to the need to address children’s increased difficulties in academic and social functioning. Nevertheless, psychologists are still rare with most services being conducted by medical personnel. However, a number of university psychology pr...

The study investigated the effectiveness of self-modeling as a treatment to increase on-task behavior. A multiple baseline design across 3 students was employed to determine the treatment effects. In addition, classroom peers' on-task behavior was employed as comparison data. The results indicated immediate, substantial, and durable changes in stud...

The intent of this article was to present an on-going line of research that has focused on the design of an effective, easily implemented, economical, and parsimonious treatment for disruptive classroom behavior in both general and special education students. This multi- component treatment has evolved to include mystery motivators, token economy w...

Employed a combination multiple baseline/reversal design across individuals to examine the effects of a packaged intervention designed to reduce disruptive behaviors in 2 8-yr-old female 2nd grade students, with a third 8-yr-old female 2nd grade student serving as a control. The intervention was delivered through a contingency contract and was comp...

This investigation employed a combination multiple baseline/reversal design across individuals to examine the effects of a packaged intervention designed to reduce disruptive behaviors in two 8‐year‐old female students, with a third 8‐year‐old female student serving as a control. The intervention was delivered through a contingency contract and was...

This study employed a multiple baseline design across individuals with a follow-up to examine self-modeling as a treatment for disruptive behavior in 4 school-aged males with social and emotional disorders. Self-modeling is defined as the positive change in behavior that results from viewing oneself on edited videotapes that depict only exemplary b...

This study investigated the effects of a self-modeling/ self-monitoring intervention to increase oral reading fluency in 5 elementary school students. Initially, students were videotaped reading from grade-appropriate text. The videotape was then edited to create a self-modeling intervention tape of approximately 5-minutes in duration, depicting th...

The effect of self-modeling as an intervention to increase individual participatory behavior in the classroom was investigated using a multiple baseline design across three second grade students with a follow-up. In addition, a control student was employed to further investigate the effects of the intervention. Self-modeling is defined as the posit...

The effect of self-modeling as an intervention to increase individual participatory behavior in the classroom was investigated using a multiple baseline design across three second grade students with a follow-up. In addition, a control student was employed to further investigate the effects of the intervention. Self-modeling is defined as the posit...

Three children with selective mutism were treated with a packaged procedure that incorporated self-modeling, mystery motivators, self-reinforcement, stimulus fading, spacing, and, in one case, antidepressant medication. All three children evidenced a complete cessation of selective mutism and maintained their treatment gains at follow-up. An argume...

Despite the overwhelming evidence that mitigates against the use of profile analysis, the practice of diagnosing specific cognitive or processing disabilities continues. The reason that profile analysis remains popular is probably because school psychologists are simply unfamiliar with the literature. They have a difficult time understanding the no...

This investigation employed a multiple baseline design across individuals with a follow-up to study the effects of self-modeling as an intervention for stuttering in 4 school-aged students (aged 8, 9, 11, and 13 yrs, respectively) with diagnosed stuttering disorders. The students viewed 2 5-min edited videotapes of themselves speaking fluently on 7...