The effects of audio cueing on the rate of teacher praise

Abstract

The effects of audio cueing on teacher praise rate was investigated in a special class of four children with behaviour problems. After establishing baselines on teacher praise rate and the children's constructive and inappropriate behaviours, auditory cues were given to prompt increased praising. Introduction of the cues significantly increased the teacher's praise rate and resulted in a generalized effect to non-cued periods. In addition, there was a concomitant increase in the frequency of the children's constructive behaviour and a decrease in the frequency of their inappropriate behaviour. It had been planned to introduce an audio cue to apply time-out in a multiple baseline fashion. However, when the frequency of inappropriate behaviour decreased with the increased praise rate, no opportunity arose to cue time-out. The results were interpreted as indicating that audio cueing is an effective teacher training technique.