Abstract
Sidney W. Bijou’s contributions to the practice of behavior analysis spanned nearly 7 decades, and they continue to influence what is considered “best practice” in our field today. By extending basic behavioral phenomena conducted with nonhuman animals to children in laboratory and naturalistic settings, Bijou’s early research sparked a watershed of similar extensions. More importantly, Bijou’s approach has led to a greater understanding of child development and behavior. This tribute will highlight what may be three of Bijou’s most significant contributions to practice, namely his studies on (a) programmed instruction for children with developmental disabilities (Bijou, Birnbrauer, Kidder, & Tague, 1966), (b) children’s responding under schedules of reinforcement and extinction (Bijou, 1957), and (c) the use of descriptive analysis to identify functional relations (Bijou, Peterson, & Ault, 1968).
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Athens, E. S., Vollmer, T. R., & St. Peter Pipkin, C. C. (2007). Shaping academic task engagement with percentile schedules. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 40, 475–488.
Barker, R. G., & Wright, H. F. (1955). Midwest and its children: The psychological ecology of an American town. Oxford, England: Peterson.
Bijou, S. W. (1957). Patterns of reinforcement and resistance to extinction in young children. Child Development, 28, 47–54.
Bijou, S. W. (1970). What psychology has to offer education — now. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 3, 65–71.
Bijou, S. W. (1973). Behavior modification in teaching the retarded child. In C. E. Thoresen (Ed.), Behavior modification in education. Chicago: The National Society of the Study of Education.
Bijou, S. W. (1976). Child development: The basic stage of early childhood. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Bijou, S. W. (1977). Practical implications of an interactional model of child development. Exceptional Children, 44, 6–14.
Bijou, S. W. (1996). Reflections on some early events related to behavior analysis of child development. The Behavior Analyst, 19, 49–60.
Bijou, S. W. (2001). Child behavior therapy: Early history. In W. T. O’Donohue, D. A. Henderson, S. C. Hayes, J. E. Fisher, & L. J. Hayes (Eds.), A history of the behavioral therapies: Founders’ personal histories (pp. 105–124). Reno, NV: Context Press.
Bijou, S. W., & Baer, D. M. (1961). Child development: A systematic and empirical theory. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Bijou, S. W., & Baer, D. M. (1965). Child development: The universal stage of infancy. New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts.
Bijou, S. W., Birnbrauer, J. S., Kidder, J. D., & Tague, C. (1966). Programmed instruction as an approach to the teaching of reading, writing, and arithmetic to retarded children. The Psychological Record, 16, 505–522.
Bijou, S. W., Peterson, R. F., & Ault, M. H. (1968). A method to integrate descriptive and experimental field studies at the level of data and empirical concepts. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1, 175–191.
Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Improving and assessing the quality of behavioral measurement. In J. O. Cooper, T. E. Heron, & W. L. Heward (Eds.), Applied behavior analysis, (2nd ed.; pp. 102–124). Englewood, NJ: Merrill Prentice-Hall.
Freeland, J. T., & Noell, G. H. (1999). Maintaining accurate math responses in elementary school students: The effects of delayed reinforcement and programming common stimuli. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 32, 211–215.
Hall, S. S., Maynes, N. P., & Reiss, A. L. (2009). Using percentile schedules to increase eye contact in children with Fragile X syndrome. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 42, 171–176.
Lerman, D. C., Kelley, M. E., Vorndran, C. M., Kuhn, S. A. C., & LaRue, R. H., Jr. (2002). Reinforcement magnitude and responding during treatment with differential reinforcement. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 35, 29–48.
Lerman, D. C., Iwata, B. A., Shore, B. A., & Kahng, S. (1996). Responding maintained by intermittent reinforcement: Implications for the use of extinction with problem behavior in clinical settings. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 29, 153–171.
Lerman, D. C., Iwata, B. A., Shore, B. A., & DeLeon, I. G. (1997). Effects of intermittent punishment on self-injurious behavior: An evaluation of schedule thinning. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 30, 187–201.
Matson, J. L., Mahan, S., & LoVullo, S. V. (2009). Parent training: A review of methods for children with developmental disabilities. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 30, 961–968.
Morris, E. K. (2008). Sidney W. Bijou: The Illinois years, 1965–1975. The Behavior Analyst, 31, 179–203.
Vorndran, C. M., & Lerman, D. C. (2006). Establishing and maintaining treatment effects with less intrusive consequences via a pairing procedure. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 39, 35–48.
Worsdell, A. S., Iwata, B. A., Dozier, C. L., Johnson, A. D., Neidert, P. L., & Thomason, J. L. (2005). Analysis of response repetition as an error-correction strategy during sight-word reading. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 38, 511–527.
Worsdell, A. S., Iwata, B. A., Hanley, G. P., Thompson, R. H., & Kahng, S. (2000). Effects of continuous and intermittent reinforcement for problem behavior during functional communication training. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 33, 167–179.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Mendres, A.E., Frank-Crawford, M.A. A Tribute to Sidney W. Bijou, Pioneer in Behavior Analysis and Child Development: Key Works That Have Transformed Behavior Analysis in Practice. Behav Analysis Practice 2, 4–10 (2009). https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391743
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391743