Western New England College
Kevin enrolled as a doctoral student at the University of Kansas, where he co-designed and implemented effective and preferred classroom environments for young children with and without disabilities. This led to research on determining the efficacy of and preference for different schedules of social interaction, which demonstrated that children preferred contingent reinforcement to noncontingent reinforcement under various conditions in which different schedules, response types, and reinforcers were arranged. Kevin extended this work by demonstrating the boundaries of such preferences and by evaluating children’s preference for certain practical reinforcement schedules. Kevin’s doctoral work continued at Western New England College and involved teaching children with autism at the New England Center for Children and studying the impact of inter-teaching intervals on the acquisition of mands. This work led to the study of the acquisition, generalization, and maintenance of critical social behaviors of preschoolers, such as requesting attention and assistance and tolerating delays. Kevin designed a series of studies that provide systematic replications of efficacious interventions while also serving as baselines from which to evaluate new independent variables for promoting generalization and maintenance of acquired social skills.
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