The Use of Role Play and Reinforcement Procedures in the Development of Generalized Interpersonal Behavior with Emotionally Disturbed-Behavior Disordered Adolescents in a Special Education Classroom

The effects of a role-playing intervention on maladaptive classroom behavior of two emotionally disturbed adolescents were investigated in the context of a multiple baseline design across behaviors. Data were collected daily, both in role playing (training) sessions and in the classroom (generalization) setting. The role-playing intervention proceeded, in successive response-dependent stages, from the training room to the classroom environment. The intervention strategy successfully altered specific maladaptive responses. Generalization in the classroom environment occurred, to some extent, in initial parts of the intervention. It increased in later stages when role playing sessions were initiated in the classroom. Following completion of the role-play intervention program, reinforcement contingencies enhanced the consistency of the effects and were necessary, initially, for maintenance of the newly acquired behaviors in the classroom. Follow-up data, taken after the termination of the study following removal of the programmed reinforcement contingencies, indicated that the reduction of maladaptive behaviors achieved during treatment continued at a near-zero rate.