Incorporating Applied Behavior Analysis into the General Education Classroom (Springer Texts in Education) [1 ed.] 3031358244, 9783031358241

Citation preview

Springer Texts in Education

Jennifer Quigley Mindy J. Cassano Julie A. Ackerlund Brandt   Editors

Incorporating Applied Behavior Analysis into the General Education Classroom

Springer Texts in Education

Springer Texts in Education delivers high-quality instructional content for graduates and advanced graduates in all areas of Education and Educational Research. The textbook series is comprised of self-contained books with a broad and comprehensive coverage that are suitable for class as well as for individual self-study. All texts are authored by established experts in their fields and offer a solid methodological background, accompanied by pedagogical materials to serve students such as practical examples, exercises, case studies etc. Textbooks published in the Springer Texts in Education series are addressed to graduate and advanced graduate students, but also to researchers as important resources for their education, knowledge and teaching. Please contact Yoka Janssen at Yoka.Janssen@springer. com or your regular editorial contact person for queries or to submit your book proposal.

Jennifer Quigley · Mindy J. Cassano · Julie A. Ackerlund Brandt Editors

Incorporating Applied Behavior Analysis into the General Education Classroom

Editors Jennifer Quigley The Chicago School Chicago, IL, USA

Mindy J. Cassano The Chicago School Chicago, IL, USA

Julie A. Ackerlund Brandt The Chicago School Chicago, IL, USA Yellow Brick Academy Eau Claire, Wisconsin, USA

ISSN 2366-7672 ISSN 2366-7680 (electronic) Springer Texts in Education ISBN 978-3-031-35825-8 (eBook) ISBN 978-3-031-35824-1 https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35825-8 © The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are solely and exclusively licensed by the Publisher, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, reuse of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in any other physical way, and transmission or information storage and retrieval, electronic adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter developed. The use of general descriptive names, registered names, trademarks, service marks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are exempt from the relevant protective laws and regulations and therefore free for general use. The publisher, the authors, and the editors are safe to assume that the advice and information in this book are believed to be true and accurate at the date of publication. Neither the publisher nor the authors or the editors give a warranty, expressed or implied, with respect to the material contained herein or for any errors or omissions that may have been made. The publisher remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations. This Springer imprint is published by the registered company Springer Nature Switzerland AG The registered company address is: Gewerbestrasse 11, 6330 Cham, Switzerland

Introduction

Teaching is hard! I found this out firsthand when I was 22 and substitute teaching while finishing up my undergraduate degree. Of course, at the time, I thought I knew how to teach, and that I was good with kids. I thought I would walk into that room and impart all the knowledge and their little faces would light up. But when I was on my own, without the safety net of the regular classroom teacher, I realized after 30 min (at most) how truly hard it is to teach that many children. I realized then that I needed to put my “behavior analyst” hat on instead of just my “teacher” hat because I wasn’t just there to teach. I was there to manage the variety of behaviors that come from more than 20 5- and 6-year-old children, and that is what behavior analysts are trained to do. Thinking back on those days, I don’t think I would have been able to return to a classroom (or maybe wouldn’t have been asked!) if I hadn’t had that training. The experience has made me more empathetic to teachers I’ve worked with over the years, both as a parent and professional. Oftentimes, they are sent into classrooms without the oh-so-important knowledge of behavior management. As a professional, I’ve been able to help teachers to set up group-based reinforcement plans in their classrooms to help increase some of the overarching behaviors they want to see. As a parent, I’ve been able to work with my son’s teacher to find ways to make the monitoring and managing of one child’s specific plan work within the larger group plan. It is all possible, and that is what this book is meant to do. We want to give teachers the tools they need and as much help as possible in that area of behavior management. This project grew out of a series of papers and assignments my doctoral students in applied behavior analysis completed in their psychology and education course. The papers and assignments were centered around Project Follow Through (PFT). PFT began in the 1960s and is the most extensive educational experiment that has ever been conducted. It was a government-funded project targeted at 22 models of instruction to see which would be the most successful at teaching atrisk children in grades K-3. After ten years of study, which included over 200,000 children in over 175 different communities, the results of the study were compelling—direct instruction (DI) was the most effective at increasing basic academic skills, problem-solving skills, and self-esteem. Unfortunately, DI is rarely used in general education classrooms today, regardless of the compelling data that was disseminated almost 45 years ago. v

vi

Introduction

Direct instruction (DI) will be described in Chap. 10, but the key information, for now, is that much of the procedures in DI are based on the basic behavioranalytic principles that are presented in this book. As my students and I read the original report written by Cathy Watkins (1997), we discussed how DI was not the only procedure that could be that effective. There are many procedures that, if teachers could use them, we knew would be helpful. This started the idea to develop this book; a series of chapters showing how ABA can be used in general education classrooms to improve behavior and ease the stress of trying to manage so many children all at once. Our hope is that teachers will find it useful and continue to learn about the ways ABA can help across many settings and populations! Julie A. Ackerlund Brandt Jennifer Quigley Mindy J. Cassano

Reference Watkins, C. L. (1997) Project follow through: A case study of contingencies influencing instructional practices of the educational establishment. Cambridge, MA: Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies.

Contents

Part I Introduction and Basic Concepts 1

Introduction to Foundations of Behavior Change Strategies Applicable in the General Education Classroom . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tyler C. Ré, Rebecca Gonzales, Jennifer Quigley, and Tanya Hough

2

Determining Behavior Change . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tyler C. Ré, Shannon Hoey, Jennifer Quigley, and Tricia R. Clement

3

Functional Behavior Assessment in General Education Classrooms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tyler C. Ré, Jair Yepez Torres, Jennifer Quigley, and Tricia R. Clement

4

5

Antecedent Interventions: Proactive Strategies for Changing Behavior . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mindy J. Cassano, Holly Bruski, and Sarah Bendekovits Getting the Behavior You Want Using Reinforcement . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Julie A. Ackerlund Brandt, Mindy J. Cassano, and Tanya Hough

3

11

27

37 51

Part II Group Systems 6

Positive Behavior Intervention System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Gena Pacitto

61

7

Group Contingencies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Tyler C. Ré and Brittany N. Beaver

73

8

Fluency . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Lacy M. Knutson

85

9

Equivalence Based Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Timothy D. Caldwell and Laura A. Kruse

97

10 Direct Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 109 Kozue Matsuda vii

viii

Contents

11 Precision Teaching . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Jared Van and Jennifer Quigley 12 TAGteach . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137 Robin Arnall 13 Personalized System of Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145 Jennifer Quigley Part III Successful Integration of ABA into School Systems 14 The Early Start Denver Model (ESDM) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163 Laura A. Kruse 15 Morningside Model of Generative Instruction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175 Holly Barszcz 16 Comprehensive Application of Behavior Analysis to Schooling (CABAS® ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 193 Tricia Clement

Part I Introduction and Basic Concepts

Julie A. Ackerlund Brandt There has been a recent push for behavior analysts to have a larger presence within general education classrooms (Hirsch et al., 2021). Given that, this text was developed to assist teachers in learning about applied behavior analysis (ABA) and hopefully facilitate more extensive collaboration between all teachers, administrators, paraprofessionals, and behavior analysts or specialists. In developing the text, this first part targeted providing additional information on ABA as a field and on some of the key principles that are most applicable to all classrooms. First, you will read a brief history of ABA with an emphasis on how it has been used within special education. This is one area in which there is a wealth of research and a successful history of collaboration due to the breadth of ABA procedures being applied to children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) or other developmental disabilities and delays; however, it is the hope that more of these principles will be extended to general education classrooms. There are always opportunities for behavior change, whether it is a behavioral deficit or excess. There are a plethora of procedures—based on ABA—that may be applied. Behavioral excesses often will require some sort of functional behavioral assessment (FBA), which is likely one of those terms in which you are already familiar (Bloom et al., 2011). FBAs have been conducted in schools for many years (Blood & Neel, 2007; Conroy et al., 2000), but Chap. 3 will provide a thorough description of the specific procedures and why those procedures are implemented the way they are. After determining what behavior change you want to see, and determining a behavioral function, there are two chapters that provide information on two general groupings of behavioral procedures. First, you will read about antecedent interventions, which means there will be descriptions of various procedures that can be implemented before the target behavior occurs (Kern et al., 2002). Many antecedent interventions will be simple environmental changes that can benefit not only the specific student’s behavior but also the behavior of multiple students. For example, providing choices to students of which book to read first or which of two similar worksheets to completes can decrease the likelihood there will be problem behavior and increase the student’s feelings of autonomy and control. The last chapter in this part will describe differential reinforcement, which can be characterized as catching your students “being good.” The primary focus of Chap. 5 will be to pay attention to the behavior you want to see because, all too often, we focus more on the behaviors we don’t want to see. By increasing the

2

Part I: Introduction and Basic Concepts

delivery of behavior specific praise for the behaviors—any behaviors—that we want to see repeated, we can not only increase those behaviors but also our overall outlook and mood during the day. By the end of Chap. 5 , and this initial part of the book, you will have all the tools you need to successfully implement many of the group systems detailed in part II.

References Blood, E., & Neel, R. S. (2007). From FBA to implementation: A look at what is actually being delivered. Education and Treatment of Children, 30(4), 67–80. https://doi.org/10.1353/etc.2007. 0021 Bloom, S. E., Iwata, B. A., Fritz, J. N., Roscoe, E. M., & Carreau, A. (2011). Classroom application of a trial-based functional analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 44, 19–31. https:// doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2011.44-19 Conroy, M. A., Clark, D., Fox, J. J., & Gable, R. A. (2000). Building competence in FBA: Are we headed in the right direction? Preventing School Failure, 44(4), 169–173. https://doi.org/ 10.1080/10459880009599802 Hirsch, S. E., Randall, K., Bradshaw, C., & Lloyd, J. W. (2021). Professional leaning and development in classroom management for novice teachers: A systematice review. Education and Treatment of Children, 44(2), 291–307. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43494-021-00042-6 Kern, L., Choutka, C. M., & Sokol, N. G. (2002). Assessment-based antecedent interventions used in natural settings to reduce challenging behavior: An analysis of the literature. Education and Treatment of Children, 25(1), 113–130.

1

Introduction to Foundations of Behavior Change Strategies Applicable in the General Education Classroom Tyler C. Ré, Rebecca Gonzales, Jennifer Quigley, and Tanya Hough

1.1

Overview

Many behavior change strategies used in general education classrooms were developed based on the learning theory and are further rooted in behaviorism. Applied behavior analysis (ABA) suggests that any behavior that a person engages in can be studied, evaluated, and intervened upon if necessary. For instance, if a student is having difficulty staying in their seat, the teacher may choose to thank or praise the student any time they are sitting in their seat. Alternatively, the teacher may reprimand the student for not following rules by stepping away from their seat. In both scenarios, the teacher is trying to change the behavior of a student. By gaining greater understanding of the principles of behavior, you can further support your students across skills and goals. One major misconception of ABA is that it is focused exclusively on the decrease of problem behavior; however, many of the evidence-based practices you implement have been studied by behaviorists. For example, you may have learned how important it is to set classroom rules. Behavior analysts have evaluated different ways to increase the effectiveness of using rules to support students in being motivated to meet your expectations. To highlight the behavior analytic underpinnings of many of your classroom evidence-based practices, this initial chapter will introduce you to the basic foundations of ABA which are called the seven dimensions of behavior. Furthermore, the authors will discuss foundational components found in almost every strategy covered in this book. This chapter will provide you with the relevant context to support implementation of the strategies discussed in this book and how they can be used across different environments. T. C. Ré (B) · R. Gonzales · J. Quigley · T. Hough The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Chicago, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 J. Quigley et al. (eds.), Incorporating Applied Behavior Analysis into the General Education Classroom, Springer Texts in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35825-8_1

3

4

1.2

T. C. Ré et al.

Introduction to Applied Behavior Analysis

The evidence-based science of behavior analysis can be used to change socially significant behavior (Heward et al., 2022). Behavior analysis, as a science, aims to identify and categorize knowledge regarding the deterministic nature of the natural world, which encompasses three levels of scientific understanding: description, prediction, and control (Skinner, 1953, p. 19). Description is defined as quantifiable and categorizable systematic observations (Normand, 2008). Prediction is when two events may frequently co-occur, but one event may not always cause the other to occur (Bouton & Balleine, 2019). The highest level of scientific understanding is reached when a functional relation is demonstrated or when manipulating one event results in the second event occurring (Bouton & Balleine, 2019). As an educator you have undoubtedly demonstrated control or a functional relation in the classroom setting. Suppose you implement a contingency that states that if each student sits in their chair for 25 min during on-task work, they will receive an additional 10 min for recess. All the students in the classroom continue to meet the criteria for remaining in their seats during on-task work. The instructor continues to repeat the intervention each day for the rest of the week, yielding the same results. In that situation, applying the intervention causes changes in the behavior of sitting/on-task behavior, demonstrating control or a functional relation. Behavior analysis is both a science and a philosophy. As a science, it aligns with science’s six attitudes including determinism, empiricism, experimentation, replication, parsimony, and philosophical doubt (Cooper et al., 2020). Determinism demonstrates a cause-and-effect relationship and believes that behavior occurs based on specific events happening in the environment (Skinner, 1953). Teachers can improve their student’s behavior by holding the perspective that all behaviors can be changed by identifying the cause or function of their behavior to modify future occurrences. Empiricism is taking a data-based approach requiring observable and measurable descriptions of the events occurring in the environment (Deitz, 1982). Suppose a parent tells you their child engages in attention-seeking behaviors and that you, as their teacher, should implement planned ignoring when they engage in those identified behaviors. Instead of implementing the intervention suggested by the parents without further assessment, you may take an empirical-based approach by first identifying the maintaining variables and then implementing a function-based intervention. Repeating the intervention to assess its reliability is known as replication (Normand, 2008). As mentioned in the example above, if the teacher continued to implement the contingency of delivering additional recess contingent on remaining in their chair for X number of minutes, this would determine the intervention’s reliability. Parsimony, the fifth attitude, is based on ruling out the simplest explanation before considering a more complex one. Instead of jumping to the conclusion that a student requires a full change to their BIP due to increased problem behaviors during classroom instruction, the instructor should first rule out the simplest explanations.

1

Introduction to Foundations of Behavior Change Strategies Applicable …

5

Philosophical doubt is the final attitude of science, which is identified as having healthy skepticism regarding our outcomes (Deitz, 1982). Suppose you’ve implemented a token board for each student in your classroom, and each student begins to engage in the desired behaviors. Before immediately assuming your token economy is effective, you may evaluate other potential reasons for the change in behavior with a critical eye. These philosophical assumptions of behavior analysis help practitioners take a scientific approach to identifying and modifying environmental variables influencing socially significant behaviors that are practical and applicable across environments, other behaviors, and time.

1.3

Seven Dimensions of ABA

Applied behavior analysis is based on a set of guiding principles to ensure proper services are provided to students (Baer et al., 1968). These seven dimensions of ABA include generalization, effective, technological, applied, conceptually systematic, analytical, and behavioral (Baer et al., 1968). These dimensions are utilized to guide practitioners in creating and implementing behavior change treatments which are research based, monitored for effectiveness, and socially significant to the individual. In the classroom setting, these socially significant behaviors may be identified by increasing the rate of reading words or increasing the rate of responding by raising their hand in classroom settings. Behavior analysis as an evidence-based approach can provide an easily accessible technology for changing socially significant behaviors across time, environments, and other individuals. First is the applied dimension. For strategies to be considered as applied, they must target socially significant behaviors (Baer et al., 1968). Socially significant behaviors are meaningful and important to the student. In your classroom, these may be specific to your classroom rules, but may also include how students are learning math, grammar, history, etc. Sometimes, these behaviors may be determined to be important by a team (e.g., other teachers, administrators or even the parents of your students) but ultimately these targets should aim to increase the student’s quality of life in some way. Second is the behavioral dimension. The behavioral dimension states that the goal must be observable and measurable (Baer et al., 1968). For instance, a goal that meets the behavioral dimension may be a student will solve multiple digit addition using the carryover procedure. A goal that does not meet the behavioral dimension would be, the student thinks about their actions. At face value, it would be very difficult to determine if a student is weighing the pros and cons of engaging in a specific behavior before engaging in said behavior. To reword this goal to meet the behavior dimension would be to create an operational definition. Operational definitions allow anyone to clearly observe the target behavior occurring or not occurring. For instance, a student thinking about their actions may be operationally defined as, a student writing on a piece of paper the pros and cons of engaging in a behavior. With this definition, you could walk by a student’s desk and see a pros

6

T. C. Ré et al.

and cons list related to a dilemma you presented. This behavioral target may be more accurately titled problem solving. Operational definitions can be created for both desirable and undesirable behaviors. The third dimension is the analytic dimension. For you to know if your student is making progress, data must be collected. This meets the analytic dimension. As a teacher, you will be or already are frequently collecting data! The data you may most frequently collect is the percentage of accuracy on assignments. However, data can and should be collected on a myriad of targets in the classroom. Administrators may collect data on the number of opportunities students have to respond in your classroom during classroom observations. You may collect data by putting a jellybean in a jar anytime the students follow your classroom rules and then count the number of jellybeans earned at the end of each week. Once collected, this data must then be compared to previous data to evaluate or analyze the effects of different strategies. Therefore, the purpose of data is to measure the amount of change in a targeted response. Data help to make objective decisions and should be used to determine the direction of change toward the specified goal. The technological dimension states that any strategy recommended for use must be clearly and completely described (Baer et al., 1968). The goal of this dimension is that anyone with minimal training can read the description of the strategies used and be able to implement them. For instance, in a scenario in which you are not physically in the classroom, the person filling in for you needs to know exactly how you run your classroom (e.g., classroom schedule, classroom rules, rewards, punishments, etc.) to maintain consistency. By providing a detailed description of the strategies used in your classroom, you may meet the technological dimension. For example, a technological teaching plan will include steps to introduce the lesson, how to prompt students to engage in the skill, how to fade those prompts, how to correct an incorrect response, and how to provide rewards for correct responses. The conceptually systematic dimension states that the strategies used to alter the occurrence of the target behavior are founded in research or are evidence-based practices (Baer et al., 1968). By supporting your teaching strategies with research, you are more likely to see greater outcomes across students. For example, if you implement the Good Behavior Game (discussed in Chap. 7: Group Contingencies) you could support the use of this strategy by related research articles. By holding yourself to only evidence-based strategies, you are increasing the quality of your academic teaching and classroom management. Effectiveness is another dimension of behaviorism. This dimension is very closely tied to the behavioral and analytic dimensions. This dimension does exactly what it states: you will ensure that the strategies you are implementing in your classroom are successful at teaching what you say you are teaching. For instance, you are teaching in an elementary school classroom that incorporates spelling tests. You provide students with a pre-test to determine which level of spelling words they should be focused on. Then you provide a specific strategy (e.g., repeated practice) to teach the students how to spell the words for the week. At the end of the week, you have a post-test to see how much the students have improved

1

Introduction to Foundations of Behavior Change Strategies Applicable …

7

on their spelling words. If students are increasing the number of words they spell correctly, then you can demonstrate the strategy as an effective strategy. The last dimension of ABA is generality. Generality states that the change in behavior occurs across multiple people, environments, and behaviors (Baer et al., 1968). As a teacher, you want your students to be able to demonstrate their new skills to their parents when they are at home. So, you may create assignments that require the student to practice their spelling words at home (e.g., generalization across environments). You may do this by incorporating key words from the math curriculum as spelling words so there is practice multiple times per school day (e.g., generalization across behaviors), or you may have another teacher conduct the test with the students (e.g., generalization across people). All the strategies aim to show the student has learned the skill and can demonstrate the skill regardless of who the student is with or where they are. By becoming more familiar with these dimensions, you may feel more confident in creating a classroom environment that is evidence-based and geared towards a better quality of life for each of your students. Additionally, this knowledge will help you understand what behavior analytic strategies are based on and why they are recommended. You may be surprised that much of what you are already doing is based in behavior analysis.

1.4

Applied Behavior Analysis in the Classroom

ABA interventions in the classroom setting have been demonstrated as effective tools within the general education population for increasing desired targeted behaviors. These interventions can be divided into antecedent and consequencebased interventions. For instance, in the classroom you’ve probably implemented interventions before the behavior occurs which may include non-contingent reinforcement, behavior momentum, or functional communication training to name a few. Each of these interventions are delivered before the behavior (antecedent), whereas consequence-based interventions are delivered after the targeted behavior occurs. For example, have you delivered reinforcement to a student for engaging in raising their hand to respond to a question to replace yelling out the answer? That is an example of differential reinforcement of an alternative behavior (DRA). The reinforcement was presented contingent on the student emitting the targeted alternative behavior to replace the problem behavior of yelling, making this a consequence-based intervention.

1.5

Operant Learning in Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA)

Operant learning occurs through contact with consequences on behavior. When a stimulus is presented or removed immediately following a response (see consequence) resulting in an increase or decrease in the response occurring in the future (reinforcement/punishment). The stimulus delivered after the response is

8

T. C. Ré et al.

also known as the consequence which is described as anything that happens following the occurrence of a behavior in ABA (Skinner, 1953). In ABA, we use the term contingency when discussing this phenomenon. Much of what we learn throughout our development is learned through operant conditioning. In addition, we don’t need to be aware of operant learning or the consequences of our behavior for behavior change to occur. Reinforcing and punishing contingencies are occurring all around us. In the classroom, you may see an operant contingency occur in the form of a teacher posing a question, student raising their hand, and the teacher calling on them to respond. In this example, hand raising is a desired behavior the teacher wants to increase in the future. In addition to the response and consequence, it also includes the antecedent which creates the three-term contingency. The antecedent in the three-term contingency is the condition or stimulus occurring prior to the targeted behavior. Applying the same example above, the antecedent could be the teacher providing a question to the students (antecedent), the student raising their hand (targeted behavior), and the teacher providing their attention/response (consequence) for engaging in the targeted behavior. This may be different than what you have previously thought of as a consequence. This is an important distinction because anything that follows a behavior is a consequence (in ABA terms); we then assess the outcomes of the consequence to determine if it functioned as a reinforcer or punisher (Chap. 2 provides a more thorough description of the antecedent-behavior-consequence relationship). Once the consequence occurs, we continue to observe the targeted behavior to know what the effect is on the behavior. Consequences only impact future behavior; they occur automatically and may select any behavior. It is the temporal relationship between behavior and consequence that impacts the future likelihood of the behavior occurring.

1.5.1 Reinforcement and Punishment Reinforcement is the process and procedure that increases the rate of a behavior and punishment is the process and procedure that decreases the rate of a behavior (Skinner, 1953). Think about how you have viewed reinforcement or punishment in the past. Have you ever told your child “No” after they did something, and they kept doing it? If so, by definition, that interaction would be viewed as reinforcement of the undesirable behavior. The behavior increased following the consequence of being told ‘no.’ Likewise, have you ever told your child “Great Job!” and then not seen the behavior again? That would be an example of punishment. The wanted behavior decreased after receiving the consequence of praise. Being able to distinguish between reinforcement and punishment is highly important for the success of any program that you may encounter for your child (see Table 1.1). As a stimulus is presented or increased, the future frequency of the behavior increases, whereas when the stimulus is removed or decreased the future frequency of the behavior decreases.

1

Introduction to Foundations of Behavior Change Strategies Applicable …

Table 1.1 Visual depicting reinforcement and punishment

1.6

9

Behavior

Addition of stimulus Removal of stimulus

Increase in behavior

Positive reinforcement

Decrease in behavior

Positive punishment Negative punishment

Negative reinforcement

Summary

This chapter aims to provide you with the foundations of applied behavior analysis. Throughout the rest of the book, you will encounter interventions that seek to increase desirable behavior (e.g., skill acquisition goals) and to reduce undesirable behavior (e.g., behavioral excesses or challenging and disruptive behavior). Some of the interventions you learn about will be considered to be antecedent interventions, which means the strategy comes before the behavior occurs (e.g., prompting and prompt fading procedures). Other interventions come after the behavior which are called consequences (e.g., reinforcement and punishment). The remainder of this book will provide educators with the foundational principles of evidence-based strategies for the general education classroom. Each chapter will provide you with an overview of the information to be presented, a more detailed description of the strategy, examples of implementation, applications in the classroom and materials or templates available for your use.

References Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1968). Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis 1. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1(1), 91–97. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba. 1968.1-91 Bouton, M. E., & Balleine, B. W. (2019). Prediction and control of operant behavior: What you see is not all there is. Behavior analysis (Washington, D.C.), 19(2), 202–212. https://doi.org/ 10.1037/bar0000108 Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied behavior analysis (3rd Edn.). Pearson Education, Inc. Deitz, S. M. (1982). Defining applied behavior analysis: An historical analogy. The Behavior Analyst, 5(1), 53–64. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03393140 Heward, W. L., Critchfield, T. S., Reed, D. D., et al. (2022). ABA from A to Z: behavior science applied to 350 domains of socially significant behavior. Perspective Behavior Sci, 45, 327–359. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-022-00336-z Normand, M. P. (2008). Science, skepticism, and applied behavior analysis. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 1(2), 42–49. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391727 Skinner, B. F. (1953). Science and human behavior. Macmillan. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2006. 144-05

2

Determining Behavior Change Tyler C. Ré, Shannon Hoey, Jennifer Quigley, and Tricia R. Clement

2.1

Overview

This comprehensive review of data will cover helpful considerations and options educators have when selecting a data collection system. The most important takeaways from this chapter include that data should be tracked with intention and collecting data, on its own, is not an intervention. The responsibilities of educators make their time and effort precious resources. Inaccurate or unnecessary data collection efforts deplete an already burdened system. If wielded correctly, data collection is one of the most important tools in an educator’s toolbox. Therefore, the purpose of this chapter is to provide educators with support in setting up effective and accurate data collection systems.

2.2

Operational Definitions

As outlined in Chap. 1 of this text, the behavioral dimension of applied behavior analysis means that a behavior is defined in a measurable and observable way (Baer et al., 1968, 1987; Miltenberger & Weil, 2013). In other words, when a definition meets the behavioral dimension of applied behavior analysis, one has an operational definition for that behavior (Cooper et al., 2020). When behaviors are operationally defined, anyone who has that definition—a substitute teacher, an administrator, an art teacher—can determine when a behavior is happening and when it is not happening (Altman, 1974; Cooper et al., 2020; Kahng et al., 2021). Education is very much a team sport with many different team members. When T. C. Ré (B) · S. Hoey · J. Quigley · T. R. Clement The Chicago School, Chicago, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 J. Quigley et al. (eds.), Incorporating Applied Behavior Analysis into the General Education Classroom, Springer Texts in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35825-8_2

11

12

T. C. Ré et al.

all those team members are on the same page with identifying the occurrence and non-occurrences of behaviors, with help from those operational definitions, there will be a much clearer picture of how significant of an impact that behavior may be having on a student achieving their maximum potential as a learner. Once there is an operational definition and, with that, the ability to differentiate the occurrence and non-occurrence of that behavior, then the discussion of setting objective goals based on those operational definitions can begin. When creating these operational definitions, only include information that pertains to what can be seen (Cooper et al., 2020; Kahng et al., 2021; Miltenberger & Weil, 2013). People have a tendency in their regular lives to describe events by simultaneously assigning a reason. This tendency can sometimes be a barrier when creating operational definitions. Here is an example to demonstrate the difference between an operational definition and a non-operational definition. An example of an operational definition may be the following: property destruction is when the student rips papers during an assigned classroom activity (e.g., worksheets, peers’ artwork, own artwork). A non-example of an operational definition may be the following: property destruction happens when the student is upset, doesn’t want to do his work, and throws the work on the ground or at the teacher. When there is room for interpretation, like there is in this second definition, there will be inconsistencies in the data collected (Repp et al., 1988). Words such as intend should be avoided when creating operational definitions (Miltenberger & Weil, 2013). For example, one would want to avoid the following language within a definition: aggression is when the student is intentionally trying to hurt others. While it may not be technically wrong about a student’s so-called intent, it makes room for messy data collection because two people may interpret intent differently since it is not something that can be seen (Kahng et al., 2021). An operational way to define this behavior could be, aggression is when a part of the student’s body (e.g., hand, foot) makes contact with another person’s body with enough force to leave a mark on the person’s skin. To help provide clarity with definitions, it can be helpful to provide examples and non-examples along with the operational definition. These examples and nonexamples do not need to be an exhaustive list of every situation that may qualify as an instance of the target behavior, but it can provide some guidelines for the staff on what to look for when recording their data. For example, the definition of aggression can be expanded upon as follows (Table 2.1). The combination of the operational definition with the examples and nonexamples of the behavior, provides a very clear picture of what would be counted as an occurrence of a behavior and what would be counted as a non-occurrence. If there are a number of individuals who know the student well or there are multiple staff who will be collecting data based on this definition, it will be beneficial to get their input on the definition you have crafted. Once the operational definition is finalized, the team can differentiate the occurrence and non-occurrence of that behavior. At that point, teaching teams can then approach setting objective goals based on those behaviors of interest.

2

Determining Behavior Change

13

Table 2.1 Examples and non-examples of an operationally defined behavior Operational definition

Examples

Aggression is when a part of An example of aggression the student’s body (e.g., hand, may be when the student hits foot) makes contact with a peer’s arm with a closed fist another person’s body with enough force to leave a mark on the person’s skin

2.3

Non-examples A non-example of aggression may be when the student gives a peer a high five or if the student and a peer accidentally collided during recess

Objective Goals

The concept of objective goal creation and implementation is repeated throughout the book and deserves considerable attention. When goals are derived from operational definitions and are objectively written, they will be viewed and understood the same across all teachers and the student (Kahng et al., 2021). Since an objective goal is targeting an operationally defined behavior, information about the occurrences or non-occurrences of the behavior can be recorded. Just as with the importance of communicating operational definitions of behaviors to other team members, goals must also be clearly communicated to all members of the team. Everyone involved in the student’s success should be aware of the goals and what it takes to achieve them. This clarity helps to ensure everyone is on the same page. Like the way you have seen IEP goals written, your objective goals must be observable, measurable, and state a mastery criterion. An example may be the following: during circle time, the student will stay in their assigned spot for 90% of recorded intervals for 10 consecutively recorded school days. A non-example may be the following: the student will stay seated during circle time. One thing to be mindful of when setting mastery criteria for the objective goal is that being 100% perfect for all goals is often not realistic. There are certainly some behaviors— such as behaviors related to the safety of the student or others—that would be understandable to aim for perfect or near-perfect performances. For example, if a student’s target behavior is aggression, the team would likely target a mastery criterion of zero instances of aggression. Conversely, if a student’s target behavior is off-task behavior for a kindergartener, there would be a less stringent mastery criterion. Being off-task is not a danger to the student or others and, to a given extent, needing reminders to stay on task may be more in-line with the typical behaviors of a kindergartener. Objective goals that are meaningful and achievable for the student requires that these goals are also individualized. Now that there is an operational definition of a target behavior and an objective goal created about that operationally defined behavior, the next step is to assess progress in attaining that goal. Several tools and strategies may be employed to determine where a student is currently performing in relation to an established goal. There are benefits and drawbacks to every tool in relation to the specific

14

T. C. Ré et al.

goal and the context of the learner. Therefore, it is important to consider this step (see Chap. 3 for information about the assessment of problem behavior). If through individual assessment and observation of the student’s progress, it is determined that a student is not learning and acquiring adequate skills, the teaching methodology needs to be evaluated. If a student isn’t learning, the onus is on us as educators. If sufficient student progress is not being made, the teaching strategy should be changed. Data can assist in identifying a new teaching strategy by identifying contexts or behavioral patterns that have shown more or less progress. This should be viewed as an opportunity to promote more effective learning opportunities for the student and to meet that student where they are at with their current skillset. When assessing the effectiveness of the teaching methods, educators will put on their scientist hats and approach assessment from a place of curiosity and a desire for discovery. As a place to start assessing goals and progress, let’s discuss ranking systems. Each student’s progress should be measured against themselves rather than solely against their peers. Some instructional programs reference normativebased assessments but comparing our student’s performance to the “norm” should never be the sole indicator for progress. Normative-based assessments may be used in conjunction with individual and group measures as exemplified in the Morningside Model (see Chap. 15). Behavior analytic-based educational programs highlight the importance of students proceeding at their own pace. In typical general education classrooms, the same or similar assignment and material is presented to all students. This may inadvertently create a ceiling of achievement which could hinder academic progress for some students. To remove this ceiling effect, we can instead compare the student’s current performance to their previous performance. Therefore, when we scaffold instruction to promote growth for the individual student, we may include bonus assignments to expand learning for those who have accomplished everything in the class or offer different levels/modifications of assignments for students based on their current performance level. Behavior analytic-based instructional programs enable students to progress more quickly or slowly than their peers, dependent on the targeted skill. Because programming is individualized, students receive the most effective instruction for them. This way of grouping learners to deliver differentiated instruction to meet the needs of individual students may sound familiar since many general education classrooms have adopted similar approaches for instruction delivery for math and reading.

2.4

Data Collection

Teachers will know the interventions in place, such as bonuses and differentiated activities, are causing the desired change by collecting data. Data collection is one of the most important aspects of any classroom and is a concept that educators are likely quite familiar with. Teachers check the accuracy on a timed math problem worksheet (i.e., rate), provide a percentage correct on a homework assignment (i.e.,

2

Determining Behavior Change

15

percentage), track time from direction to initiation of assignment (i.e., latency), and take attendance (e.g., frequency) data often. Teachers also may track how long a student is out of the classroom (e.g., duration). Perhaps sometimes a teacher may make a mental note of this information or make a note on a sheet of paper or in a digital document. The key to collecting data is to know how to use it. Data collection itself is not an intervention. It is a tool that can evaluate different strategies of teaching and ways of interacting with students. Without data collection, it is impossible to determine the effect a teaching strategy is having on the student’s learning. From a behavior analytic lens, data collection encompasses four of the seven dimensions (e.g., behavioral, analytic, effective, and generality; Baer et al., 1968). To collect data, one must first create an operational definition with clear objectives. This is so that multiple people can all agree that a behavior has occurred or not occurred. For example, out-of-seat behavior may be perceived to have occurred by one person if the child walks away from their desk, while another person may consider it to have occurred if the student stands up and sits back down in their seat during instruction. Data will be collected specifically using the operational definition. Collecting data also meets the criteria for the analytic and effective dimensions. Data collection allows educators to gather more information on the impact of the behavior for that student in relation to their classroom environment (Miltenberger & Weil, 2013). For example, one could see how frequently or how long a behavior is occurring. Furthermore, all data can be graphed to be visually analyzed. Graphs provide a visual picture of what is occurring with the behavior (see Figs. 2.1, 2.2, 2.3 and 2.4). An educator can see when a strategy or intervention (e.g., classroom management or teaching strategies) is introduced and if there is a change in behavior related to the introduction of the intervention. This visual inspection of the data is how one will be able to analyze the occurrence of behavior and ensure that your strategies are effective in the behavior change you seek. For this to happen, there are several different methods of data collection an educator may try. In special education, data collection is often associated with IEP goals, but it can be used for a variety of other reasons as well. Anytime an educator is interested in whether the teaching strategy or new reinforcement system is working, they could determine that by looking at the data collected. However, data can be used in just a slightly different way. For instance, when an educator has observed that a student is struggling with spelling words and they decide to change the way they are teaching the spelling words, they should look at the accuracy on the spelling test before they changed the strategy and then after they changed the teaching strategy. Is the student doing better (e.g., increased accuracy) or worse (e.g., decreased accuracy) since the change? By looking at these data, an educator can see if the change in strategy is working for that student. However, each data collection strategy has strengths and weaknesses related to what is being evaluated. Any of the data collection systems may be a fit depending on the behavior being measured and the context in which it is being measured.

16

T. C. Ré et al.

Fig. 2.1 Trends a ascending, b descending, and c no trend

Types of data collection include rate, duration, and a variety of skill acquisition data collection methods (Altman, 1974; Carr et al., 2018; Kahng, 2021; Miltenberger & Weil, 2013; Repp et al., 1976). Individual skill acquisition and behavior reduction tend to be the most commonly observed in the classroom setting. Other types of data could be used to evaluate the effects of classroom behavior management systems. One common misconception is that data must be collected every day, all day, to be used to evaluate the effects of interventions. However, data can also be collected occasionally (Kahng et al., 2021; Repp et al., 1976). For instance, an educator could collect data every other day, once per week, or even

2

Determining Behavior Change

17

Fig. 2.2 Examples of variable and stable data patterns

Fig. 2.3 Graph representing a line graph with two conditions. Note The vertical line shows where strategies were changed. This graph shows effective intervention

every other week to evaluate the effects of a classroom behavior management system. Furthermore, data could be collected during one portion (e.g., 10 min period during math instruction) of the day instead of all day (Repp et al., 1976). One of the most important considerations for data collection is the feasibility of the type

18

T. C. Ré et al.

Fig. 2.4 Graph representing a line graph with two conditions. Note The vertical line shows where strategies were changed. This graph shows ineffective intervention

of data chosen for selection. Even if an educator chooses the best way to collect data, if that way is not a realistic possibility for their schedule, their classroom, etc., accurate data collection is likely to wane over time or not occur at all—then it is best to pick an alternative method of data collection. Now that it’s known that it is okay and useful to collect data intermittently, let’s dive a bit deeper into the different types of data that can be collected. When deciding on data collection, an educator must first decide on the measurement, the method of collection, and the way the data will be presented. All three should align; if recording the rate (e.g., accuracy on a timed math worksheet) of a behavior, the datasheet will need to record the frequency of the behavior within a defined time. Ideally the educator would graph the data to visually see the behavior on paper, however, educators are most likely looking at a grade book or table that can show the changes too. Table 2.2 displays the three aspects an educator should take into consideration when selecting a data collection strategy. As demonstrated in Table 2.2, educators have a number of options, but the considerations for these types of data collection methods should not end there. These different methods will be reviewed in order of perceived difficulty for the classroom setting with feasibility of data collection for staff working in a general education classroom in mind.

2.4.1 Interval Recording Interval recording may be the easiest form of behavior data collection to evaluate the classroom behavior management system you have implemented in your classroom. This is because it does not require constant observation to collect data (Repp et al., 1976). Interval data collection is a system in which a person marks if

2

Determining Behavior Change

19

Table 2.2 Examples of data collection decisions domains Decision domain

Choices

Examples

System of measurement

• • • • •

• Frequency of noncompliant behaviors • Rate of vocabulary words answered correctly • Latency to first response after teacher question • Duration of elevator speech during a public speaking class

Frequency Rate Interval Recording Latency Duration

Method of data collection • Paper/pen • Web-based application • Clicker with recording

• Individualized printed datasheet • Downloaded application • Waterproof paper • Clicker

Presentation of Data

• Percentage of vocabulary words defined correctly • Rate of hand raising • Duration of tantrum • Latency to first independent answer

• Percentage of occurrence/ independence/success • Rate • Duration • Latency

Note Decisions to be made when creating a data collection system for graphical analysis

the behavior occurred or did not occur during a portion of an observation period (Cooper et al., 2020; Kahng et al., 2021; Repp et al., 1976). For instance, an educator may want to track what percentage of time students engage in vocal disruptions during math class. The math class starts at 10:00 A.M. and ends at 10:55 A.M. The educator could break the 55 min class into eleven 5 min intervals. If they then notate that the behavior occurred or did not occur during each 5 min interval, they will be able to determine how frequently vocal disruptions occurred during math class. Notice how it was mentioned that they notate if the behavior occurred or did not occur at any point during a 5 min interval. This is known as a partial interval recording system. This kind of data collection system is usually used for behaviors desired to be decreased since it tends to overestimate how often a behavior is occurring (Cooper et al., 2020). Another type of interval recording would require that a teacher mark if the behavior occurred for the entirety of the interval or not. This is known as a whole interval recording system (Cooper et al., 2020; Kahng et al., 2021). This data collection system is typically used when someone wants to see an increase in a behavior because it underestimates the occurrence. For example, if a teacher would like to see a student remain at their desk, they would only mark the interval if the student stayed at their desk for the entire interval. If the student were to move away from their desk for any reason and any duration, even as short as 2 s, they would not mark the behavior as having occurred for the entire interval. Finally, if both of these interval systems are a bit too intensive and not quite feasible for the educator’s classroom, they could use a momentary time sample

20

T. C. Ré et al.

interval recording system. Like the other two kinds of interval recordings, a person would be taking an observation and breaking it down into equal-length intervals. They would then only mark an occurrence of a target behavior if it was occurring at the end of the interval. For example, if a momentary time sample interval recording system was used for vocal disruption, the data collector would record an occurrence of a vocal disruption if it is occurring at the end of the 5 min interval. For whole interval and momentary time sample interval recording systems, the data collector would calculate the percentage of intervals in the same manner as the partial interval recording system.

2.4.2 Rate Rate data collection may be the next easiest form of data collection. This is because the teacher will only make a mark if the specific behavior occurs. Rate is then calculated by taking the total number of occurrences and dividing by the total number of minutes of observation (Kahng et al., 2021). This will provide the teacher with the number of responses per minute, but one could also do the number of responses per hour as an evaluation tool. For example, if data were collected over a 15 min period and the target behavior happens 3 times, the rate would be converted to 1 time every 5 min or they could multiply 3 occurrences of the behavior by 4 (e.g., four 15 min intervals in an hour) they would find a rate of 12 instance per hour.

2.4.3 Duration Duration is another form of data collection. This type involves collecting information of how long a behavior occurs from start to finish, again within a specified amount of time (Cooper et al., 2020). Typically, a timer or watch would be used to see how long an episode of the behavior occurs and the total time is recorded. For instance, duration could be used to see how long a student remains on task in an academic setting or how long a student is off-task during an academic lesson.

2.5

Context Within Data Collection

Educators will also want to collect additional information about the context in which those behaviors are occurring. For example, when they take rate data and find out that the behavior of tantrums is happening on average 5 times per hour, that does not tell them what caused those tantrums and how staff responded. One way to get an idea of how often a challenging behavior is happening, to what degree, and why it may be occurring is to use a commonly used method of data collection called antecedent-behavior-consequence data collection or A-B-C data collection (Cooper et al., 2020).

2

Determining Behavior Change

21

Table 2.3 Example of A-B-C data collection Antecedent

Behavior

Johnny was presented with Johnny ripped the worksheet instructions to complete a into pieces (e.g., property worksheet. “Okay Johnny, time destruction) to finish your math work”

Consequence The teacher told Johnny to go sit in the hallway until he was ready to complete the worksheet

The purpose of this A-B-C data collection system is to figure out the reason this behavior is occurring or what the child is getting by engaging in this behavior. This type of data collection even reveals patterns associated with this behavior (Cooper et al., 2020). Educators may often think to themselves that a student is just talking out of turn because they want the educator’s attention, or that a student is ripping the worksheet because they don’t want to work. These thoughts are a form of A-B-C data collection and can be used to figure out why someone is doing something. So, let’s dive a bit deeper into this type of data collection. Antecedent (A) is the situation that occurs immediately before the target behavior. The behavior (B) is whatever has been operationally defined as a target behavior. The consequence (C) is what occurred immediately following the behavior (Cooper et al., 2020). It should be noted that antecedents and consequences are always there, even if they seem ‘unrelated’ to the behavior, or the antecedent/ consequence has no clear change in the environment (Table 2.3). This type of data collection typically allows educators to get a better picture of what types of situations are influencing the occurrence of the target behavior and thus the reason why the behavior occurs (or what you may hear referred to as the ‘function of behavior’ which is discussed more in-depth in Chap. 3).

2.6

Data Assessment

Though it is important to collect data, collecting data without analysis is a waste of time. Remember, data is a tool…not an intervention! Data should be collected for the purpose of analysis; how will the data collected inform the teacher’s decision making? What does the data tell the teacher about the instruction’s impact on the skill you are teaching? How does the behavior compare before and after the teacher introduced the new instructional program? Using a graph, instead of a table, can more quickly show you a few things about the behavior you are measuring (Cooper et al., 2020). For instance, it is easier to see which direction (e.g., trend) the behavior rate/frequency/accuracy/ duration/latency is going. The most used graph within ABA is a line graph. The line graph shows a change in behavior over time. Whether across hours, days, sessions, or weeks, behavior change is shown over time; one data point can be compared to the previous or following data point. This comparison then allows you to evaluate the effect of the teaching strategy of behavior change strategy.

22

T. C. Ré et al.

Is the behavior rate going up, going down, or staying the same (e.g., ascending, descending or no trend; Fig. 2.1)? This is known as the trend (Kimball & Heward, 1993). Second, one would look to see how much change there is from data point to data point. This is known as reviewing the variability of data (Kimball & Heward, 1993). Variability helps a person to see the consistency the student is doing something (Fig. 2.2). This may help an educator identify if there is something going on at recess or in the educator’s teaching strategy that is changing each day. If things are changing each day, it is difficult to predict how a student will learn. Therefore, without predictability, it is more difficult to make decisions based on the data which in turn can impact student outcomes. Once the data are graphed, the teacher can see the effectiveness (or not) of the intervention. Has the student’s behavior changed and, if so, has it changed in the predicted direction? For example, have targeted vocabulary words increased in comparison to the pre-test/baseline condition following your teaching strategies? Has calling out behavior decreased following the implementation of a reward program for raising hands? Fig. 2.3 depicts one example of a pattern of behavior before and after intervention. Responses per minute of correctly spelled words are displayed across days. During the first teaching strategy, the rate of correct spelling is increasing (i.e., trend) with relatively little variability. During the second teaching strategy, the overall trend is decreasing with highly variable data. A decision would need to be made regarding the effectiveness of each teaching strategy. Is this a target behavior to increase or reduce? Is variability ideal? Either way, this picture allows an educator to make informed decisions regarding the effects of the intervention via visual analysis.

2.7

Summary

In summary, data collection is something that educators are quite familiar with and, hopefully, this chapter will give teachers new (and feasible) ways to determine if a teaching strategy is resulting in the desired outcome. These authors recognize and respect that the responsibilities of today’s educators are nothing short of expansive. Efficient and accurate data collection—while at the surface it may seem like one more task to add to the ever-growing list—can help make educators’ lives better. Through the strategies outlined in this chapter, educators will be able to pinpoint exactly the behavior of interest and be able to efficiently communicate them to other team members (i.e., operational definitions). Teachers will then be able to set objective goals rooted in those definitions. Then, teachers will select from a number of options outlined in this chapter (e.g., interval, rate, duration, A-B-C data collection systems) a data collection method that accurately captures the behavior of interest, as well as fits within the needs of the educator’s classroom. Teachers are then able to display those data in such a way that they can quickly know if the teaching strategy is doing what they want it to do.

2

Determining Behavior Change

23

Key Terms Operational definition: describing behavior in such a way that anyone who is observing, would be able to identify whether the behavior is occurring or not occurring. Objective goal: a statement that is observable, measurable, and related to operationally defined behaviors; these goals should specify the mastery criterion. Interval data collection systems: a method of data collection where you are indicating whether or not a behavior occurred during a particular number of intervals within an observation; examples may be partial interval, whole interval, and momentary time sample interval recording system. Rate: the number of instances of a behavior within a given amount of time; examples may be instances per minute, instances per hour. Duration: the length of time a behavior is occurring for, from start to finish. A-B-C: a method of data collection where the antecedent (A), behavior (B), and consequence (C) are notated; this form of data collection can provide information about why, or under what context, the target behavior is occurring. Trend: the direction in which the path of data points is going. Variability: how close the data points are to one another in a given data path. Stability of data: when data points are very close to one another.

Appendix Materials and Templates: Data Sheets See (Tables 2.4, 2.5, 2.26, 2.7 and 2.8).

Table 2.4 Descriptive blank ABC data sheet

Event Info Time Start: ________ Time End: ________ Location: ________ Activity: ________ People Present:

Antecedent Behavior Consequence

24

T. C. Ré et al.

Table 2.5 Checklist ABC data sheet Event Info

Antecedent

Behavior

Consequence

Time Start: ________ Time End: ________ Location: ________ Activity/Subject: ____ ____ People Present:

⟁ Low attention ⟁ Removal of item/ task: _________ ⟁ Denied Access of item/task: _________ ⟁ Transition out of the room ⟁ Transition between subjects ⟁ Change in routine ⟁ Other: __________

⟁ hitting peers ⟁ Throwing items ⟁ Running away from teacher ⟁ Mouth noises/ humming ⟁ Task refusal ⟁ Calling out

⟁ Task/Item removed ⟁ Task/Item provided ⟁ Attention Provided ⟁ Child removed from class ⟁ Coping strategy offered ⟁ Emergency Safety Procedures

Table 2.6 Interval recording blank data sheet Interval # (5 min intervals)

Date: Date: Date: Date: Date: Activity: Activity: Activity: Activity: Activity:

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Total # of Intervals Behavior Observed % of Intervals of Behavior Observed Note this data sheet can be used for partial interval, whole interval, or momentary time sample interval data collection

2

Determining Behavior Change

25

Table 2.7 Rate data sheet Rate of Behavior

Date:

Date:

Date:

Date:

Date:

Start Time: End Time: Activity: Start Time: End Time: Activity: Start Time: End Time: Activity: Start Time: End Time: Activity: Start Time: End Time: Activity: Average Rate (Rate 1 + Rate 2 + · · · Rate 5) divided by 5 Note Tallies would be put into a blank box for the frequency of the target behavior per activity

Table 2.8 Duration data sheet Sample #

Date:

Date:

Date:

Date:

Date:

1

Start Time: Start Time: Start Time: Start Time: Start Time: End Time: End Time: End Time: End Time: End Time:

2

Start Time: Start Time: Start Time: Start Time: Start Time: End Time: End time: End Time: End Time: End Time:

3

Start Time: Start Time: Start Time: Start Time: Start Time: End Time: End Time: End Time: End Time: End Time:

4

Start Time: Start Time: Start Time: Start Time: Start time: End Time: End Time: End Time: End Time: End Time:

5

Start Time: Start Time: Start Time: Start Time: Start Time: End Time: End Time: End Time: End Time: End Time:

Average Duration (Sample 1 + Sample 2 … Sample 5) divided by 5

References Altman, J. (1974). Observational study of behavior: Sampling methods. Behavior, 49(3), 227–267. https://doi.org/10.1163/156853974x00534

26

T. C. Ré et al.

Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1968). Some current dimensions of applied behavior analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 1(1), 91–97. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1968. 1-91 Baer, D. M., Wolf, M. M., & Risley, T. R. (1987). Some still-current dimensions of applied behavior analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 20(4), 313–327. https://doi.org/10.1901/ jaba.1987.20-313 Carr, J. E., Nosik, M. R., & Luke, M. M. (2018). On the use of the term “frequency” in applied behavior analysis. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 51(2), 436–439. https://doi.org/10. 1002/jaba.449 Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2020). Applied behavior analysis. Pearson. Kahng, S., Ingvarsson, E. T., Quigg, A. M., Seckinger, K. E., Teichman, H. M., & Clay, C. J. (2021). Defining and measuring behavior. In W. W. Fisher, C. C. Piazza, & H. S. Roane (Eds.), Handbook of applied behavior analysis (pp. 135–154). The Guilford Press. Kimball, J. W., & Heward, W. L. (1993). A synthesis of contemplation, prediction, and control. The American Psychologist, 48(5), 587–588. https://doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.48.5.587 Miltenberger, R. G., & Weil, T. M. (2013). Observation and measurement in behavior analysis. In G. J. Madden, W. V. Dube, T. D. Hackenberg, G. P. Hanley & K. A. Lattal (Eds.), APA handbook of behavior analysis, Vol. 1: Methods and principles; APA handbook of behavior analysis, Vol. 1: Methods and principles (pp. 127–150, Chap. xxx, 567 Pages). American Psychological Association, American Psychological Association. Repp, A. C., Nieminen, G. S., Olinger, E., & Brusca, R. (1988). Direct observation: Factors affecting the accuracy of observers. Exceptional Children, 55, 29–36. Repp, A. C., Roberts, D. M., Slack, D. J., Repp, C. R., & Berkler, M. S. (1976). A comparison of frequency, interval and time-sampling methods of data collection. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 9(4), 501–508. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1976.9-501

3

Functional Behavior Assessment in General Education Classrooms Tyler C. Ré, Jair Yepez Torres, Jennifer Quigley, and Tricia R. Clement

3.1

Overview

The importance of determining the function of behavior is highlighted throughout this chapter. All behavior serves a function (Skinner, 1963); in its most simplistic form, any behavior will produce a consequence, either the occurrence of something (i.e., getting an object) or the removal/avoidance of something (i.e., getting out of a non-preferred task). Determining the function can help you and other educators to ensure the proper intervention is implemented to help your classroom run smoothly. There are two common ways to determine the function of a particular behavior or groups of behaviors. One is known as functional analysis (FA), which is the experimental manipulation of consequences. Through this systematic analysis, the function of behavior can be determined and lead to the development of a function-based treatment. While an FA is a well-known evidence-based strategy to determine the function of a behavior (Hanley et al., 2003), most educational environments incorporate the use of a functional behavior assessment (FBA). Both an FA and an FBA consist of similar components. Both include an indirect assessment (e.g., interviews and surveys) and direct assessment (e.g., direct observation), but an FA includes an empirical (e.g., testing across different consequences) assessment as well. Based on these differences it is important to note that an FBA can develop a hypothesized function, but an FA can determine the empirically supported function of a behavior (Lewis et al., 2015). These assessments are vital to supporting both students and staff because without knowing the reason why a behavior occurs, we can only guess at the most effective intervention.

T. C. Ré (B) · J. Y. Torres · J. Quigley · T. R. Clement The Chicago School, Chicago, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 J. Quigley et al. (eds.), Incorporating Applied Behavior Analysis into the General Education Classroom, Springer Texts in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35825-8_3

27

28

T. C. Ré et al.

In schools, many special education teachers participate in the development of a functional behavior assessment (FBA). An FBA is a non-experimental assessment that allows us to figure out why a student is engaging in a specific behavior. An FBA consists of two major aspects. First, the assessment administrator will use an indirect assessment tool (i.e., questionnaire) to gain a better understanding of the situations in which the behavior is exhibited. The second aspect is direct observation. Based on the questionnaire, the assessment administrator will determine a time to come and directly observe the situation that leads to undesirable behavior. This observation will most likely occur several times to ensure accurate information is gathered. As a teacher, you may already be doing this informally. For example, how many times have you thought that a student is talking out of turn just to get your attention? If you had that thought and you observed the behavior, you have informally started to look at the function of a behavior and provided an educated decision that the student is engaging in the behavior for attention. You also know that if you do not intervene appropriately, the learning opportunities for that student and every other student in your classroom may be negatively impacted. Determining the function of a behavior can help you intervene accordingly using a function-based intervention, which will allow you to provide more instructional opportunities to achieve better student outcomes. Undesirable behaviors can often impact learning and, as we know, if a student isn’t learning, a teacher isn’t teaching.

3.2

Indirect Assessment

The functional behavior assessment process usually begins with an indirect assessment procedure. An indirect assessment procedure is conducted by gathering information from an individual who is in close contact with the student and the challenging behavior (Floyd et al., 2005). In a classroom setting, this person may be a teacher, teacher’s aide, or any other person in close contact with the challenging behavior. Indirect assessment measures involve the use of tools to record information from these informants, in other words, the behavior is not measured directly. For example, these indirect assessments may include interviews, checklists, and rating scales (Floyd et al., 2005). These tools are structured to gather information about possible antecedent and consequence variables that maintained the challenging behavior. The Function Analysis Screening Tool (FAST; Iwata & DeLeon, 2005) is a great example of an indirect assessment questionnaire. This tool presents a list of yes/no questions related to variables that may occur before or after the challenging behavior. Once this assessment is scored, the results may provide a prospective answer about the possible maintaining variables of the challenging behavior. Another example is the Functional Assessment Checklist for Teachers and Staff (FACTS; March et. al, 2000). This assessment tool is divided into two parts. Part A was designed to help the assessor identify which routines and challenging behaviors to target. Then part B can be used to identify environmental variables that may affect the target behavior previously identified. A

3

Functional Behavior Assessment in General Education Classrooms

29

variety of other indirect assessments can be listed here such as the Questions about Behavioral Function (QABF; Paclawskyj, 1998), preliminary functional assessment survey, teacher functional behavior assessment checklist, the aberrant behavior checklist, and others (Anderson, et al., 2015). Although these tools may vary in the format in which they are presented, they all are based on information obtained from an informant and not by observing the student engaging in the problem behavior. Because information described in these assessments is based on the ability of informants to recall information, these assessments may be prone to error (Floyd et al., 2005). For this reason, usually, the next step in the FBA process is to conduct a direct assessment.

3.3

Direct Assessment

Direct assessment procedures involve the collection of information directly from the source or in other words by observing and recording environmental variables that occur before, during, and after the challenging behavior. Different from indirect assessments, this method allows the observer to record information avoiding perception or memory errors from the reporters (Alter et al., 2008). Direct assessment procedures are usually presented in different formats such as ABC recordings, structural analysis, and scatter plots (Anderson et al., 2015). Overall, direct assessments involve an observer taking detailed notes on antecedent and consequence variables that occur during the challenging behavior. An observer can use a form that has been pre-filled with different antecedents and consequences options that are being selected during the observation session. This method is more timeefficient and allows the observer to spend less time taking notes. Often an assessor or observer can use both methods by combining pre-filled forms with open-ended notes. The most common tool for direct assessments are ABC data forms. These forms are divided into three sections, the first section (A) refers to antecedent variables that occur immediately before the challenging behavior. The second section (B) stands for behaviors and in this section information about challenging behavior is described. The third section (C) stands for consequences and focuses on variables that occur immediately after the behavior are recorded. For example, in an ABC form, under the A section, the teacher placing a request can be identified as an antecedent event, then under the B section, a challenging behavior such as the student eloping from the desk can be described; finally, under the C section, the teacher’s reprimands or other consequence events can be detailed.

3.3.1 The ABCs The ABCs of ABA refer to antecedent-behavior-consequence and is often referred to as the three-term contingency (Skinner, 1965). When discussing the role of the ABCs in instructional programming, one should look at what is being done prior to the student’s targeted behavior and what is directly following the behavior.

30

T. C. Ré et al.

If behavior is not changing, it is due to the current strategies. Throughout the chapters, the ABCs may be referenced in a variety of ways, but when broken down, they refer to the environmental context prior to the targeted behavior and the consequences delivered following the behavior. In ABA, consequences are not a bad thing. They are just something that directly follows behavior. Only across time are we able to tell the effect a consequence has on behavior; the behavior increased, decreased, or stayed the same.

3.4

Functions of Behavior

When a student engages in a challenging behavior that is disrupting the learning environment, a behavior assessment is recommended to determine the function or the reason behind this undesirable behavior. This is known as a functional behavior assessment (FBA). An FBA will include a combination of indirect measures (e.g., survey questions directed to you) and direct observation (e.g., data collected when someone observes the student in a class setting). Indirect measures may include interviews with teachers and caregivers, questionnaires, or surveys. Direct observation includes a variety of data collection methods, typically done by a behavior analyst or the school psychologist. The overall purpose of these assessments is to form a hypothesis as to why the behavior occurs. Behavior analysts call this the function of behavior. You have probably encountered a time when you or someone you know has said something like: “He is only doing it to get attention.” Or “She is just trying to get out of having to do work.” Little did you know that you or your friend were discussing the basic forms of the functions of behavior. Without getting too technical, there are four potential functions of every human behavior (attention, tangible, escape, and automatic; Cooper, 2020). An important note before going into this discussion is to realize that all behaviors are maintained by at least one of these four functions; meaning, both undesirable behavior and desirable behavior meet these interactions.

3.4.1 Attention Function Access to attention is one of the four functions of behavior. It is important to note that with this particular function, the type of attention is not specified, meaning that does not matter if attention is viewed as desirable or undesirable. An example of a behavior that is maintained by access to attention is: The child is sitting at their desk working quietly and then raises their hand. The result of them raising their hand is that you come over to their desk to see what they need. The act of raising their hand was an attempt to gain your attention in a desirable way. A student can engage in undesirable behavior to get your attention too. For example, your class is participating in individual seat-work. A student is sitting at their desk working on a worksheet and throws their eraser in your direction. You then address the student to inform them that is not appropriate classroom behavior. Here, your

3

Functional Behavior Assessment in General Education Classrooms

31

correction and response gave the student attention. It was negative attention but still a form of attention.

3.4.2 Tangible Function Access to tangibles is another one of the four functions of behavior. A behavior maintained by this function may occur either by being denied or prevented from getting a specific item or from the removal of a specific item or activity. For example, a child is playing with blocks during indoor recess. When the class is instructed that indoor recess is over, the student playing with blocks yells that recess is not over. The teacher doesn’t insist recess is over which allows the student to play with the blocks a few more minutes. Another example, everyone has been to a grocery store and seen a child yelling and crying about wanting to get something from the check out candy section. The child is crying and yelling because they have been denied the specific piece of candy. Furthermore, if the parent gives in and allows the child to get the piece of candy after they have been yelling and crying, this behavior is more likely to occur next time they are in the same situation. The behavior of crying has been reinforced by giving the candy bar.

3.4.3 Escape Function A third function is escape or avoidance of an interaction. A distinction can be made within this function. First, escape means that the task/activity is terminated. Avoidance is when the start of the task/activity/interaction is delayed or not presented due to the behavior. An example of escape-maintained behavior may be when a student yells profanities at the music teacher during a music class activity. The teacher sends the student to the office and the student is not allowed to return to the class that day or week. An example of avoidance-maintained behavior would be a student ripping up the math worksheet. The student is then sent to the hall and asked to return when they are ready to complete the worksheet. The student’s behavior has just allowed them to potentially avoid completing the worksheet.

3.4.4 Automatic Function The final function of behavior is known as automatic. Automatically-maintained behavior suggests that access to the preferred sensation or removal of aversive sensation can be achieved without the assistance of another person. This behavior would occur regardless of whether another person is in the area, or the person is alone in a room. Many people engage in automatically-maintained behavior and don’t even know it. There are many behaviors that are categorized as automatic: scratching an itch, wiping a runny nose, stretching a cramping muscle, sitting in a chair when tired, a person cracking their knuckles, bouncing their knee, humming

32

T. C. Ré et al.

to themselves, rubbing their beard, or twirling their hair; just to name a few. However, in the classroom, automatically maintained behavior that may disrupt the rest of the class may include a group of behaviors known as stereotypical responding such as, hand flapping, excessive tapping of the feet or rocking. The functions of behavior may be one of the most important aspects of developing a classroom behavior management program. The functions of behavior and other situations surrounding the occurrence of a specific behavior guide the development of behavior change procedures; as well as are used to increase socially appropriate behaviors.

3.5

Implementation of an FBA

Once the need for FBA is identified in a classroom, appropriate consent should be gathered, and relevant participants are selected, the assessor will initiate the FBA process as follows. For purposes of this example, the challenging behavior to assess will be elopement from the classroom without permission for a child named Jonny. To start the assessment process, the assessor needs to gather information to clearly define the challenging behavior and identify times, settings, and variables to observe during the direct assessment process. To do so, the assessor may conduct an interview with the teacher and teacher’s aide. With this information, it is important that the assessor clearly defined the challenging behavior with objective and descriptive language. In this example, elopement from the classroom is defined as any instance the student leaves his chair or designated area and moves to the classroom’s exit without the teacher’s permission. Once this challenging behavior is identified, the teacher or teacher’s aide can be asked to complete an additional indirect assessment such as the FAST (Iwata & DeLeon, 2005) or FACTS (March et al., 2000). With this information, the assessor now is able to identify the circumstances where the direct assessment observation should take place such as time, class setting, teacher in charge, etc. Before continuing into the direct assessment observation, the assessor should have an idea of what antecedent and consequence events may be maintaining the elopement behavior. Knowing these, the assessor will schedule an observation or a series of observations at the setting and time when the challenging behavior is more likely to happen. During the direct assessment observation, the assessor will use an ABC form to fill out, these forms can include pre-filled options. In this example, the observer may write down the following information: (A) Antecedent: During music class, the teacher instructed the students to get into groups and start a dancing activity. (B) Behavior: Immediately after the presentation of the teacher’s request, Jonny yelled “look there is a giraffe in the hallway” and ran toward the exit door. Jonny opened the door and exited the classroom.

3

Functional Behavior Assessment in General Education Classrooms

33

(C) Consequence: The music teacher immediately ran after Jonny who was standing behind the door on the hallway. The teacher reprimanded Jonny stating that he was not allowed to exit the class without permission and that there was not a giraffe in the hallway. Jonny entered the classroom and his classmates laughed and asked him about the giraffe. The assessor may continue observing and recording additional instances of challenging behaviors. Once this information is obtained, the assessor may determine the possible function of the behavior based on the recorded antecedent and consequence events. For this example, the possible function may include possible escape from demands or non-preferred activity (dancing) and possible access to social attention (laughs and interactions with peers).

3.6

Summary

Every behavior that we engage in during our daily lives serves a function or a purpose as some people may say. Challenging behaviors shown by students in a classroom are not different. Although it is not possible to conduct a formal experimental analysis in a classroom, FBAs help us understand challenging behaviors and the environmental variables that are maintaining or increasing these. The FBA process starts with the assessor conducting an indirect assessment, usually conducting an interview with the teacher or teacher’s aide. Additional indirect assessment tools can be used to collect further information on variables affecting challenging behavior. With this information, assessors can arrange a direct assessment observation at times, locations, and with people in which the challenging behavior is more likely to occur. During the direct assessment observation, the assessor will collect ABC data. The ABC data collected represents what is known as the threeterm contingency or in other words the antecedents, behaviors, and consequences. With this information, the assessor can start concluding the possible functions of the challenging behavior. The four potential functions that behaviors can serve are attention, tangible, escape, and automatic functions. Once one or more of these functions are identified, then a possible course of treatment can be developed. An appropriate treatment or behavior plan would use the information obtained during the FBA process to appropriately create a plan, this process will be described in the next chapters. Key Terms ABC Data. A description of antecedents, behaviors, and consequences collected by an observer. Antecedent. An environmental event that occurs immediately before challenging behavior.

34

T. C. Ré et al.

Attention Maintained. A behavior that is being reinforced by access to social attention such as peers, parents, teachers, etc. Automatic Maintained. A behavior that is being reinforced by access to an internal stimulation that cannot be measured and that is not socially mediated. Behavior. Any action in which a living organism engages that produces a change in the environment. Consequence. An environmental event that occurs immediately after the challenging behavior. Direct Assessment. The process in which behavior and related variables are recorded by observing the actual behavior. Escape/Avoidance Maintained. A behavior that is being reinforced by terminating or preventing an aversive event. Function of Behavior. The observed relation between the occurrence of the behavior and the occurrence of a consequence event that reinforces the behavior making it more likely to occur in the future, Indirect Assessment. The process in which the behavior and related variables are recorded based on information obtained from other observers (i.e. teacher or teacher’s aide). Tangible Maintained. A behavior that is being reinforced by access to objects or activities.

Appendix Useful Resources FAST; Iwata, B., & DeLeon, I. (2005). The functional analysis screening tool. Gainesville, FL: The Florida Center on Self-Injury, University of Florida. https:// depts.washington.edu/dbpeds/Screening%20Tools/FAST.pdf QABF; Paclawskyj, T. R. (1998). Questions About Behavioral Function (QABF): A Behavioral Checklist for Functional Assessment of Aberrant Behavior. 127. https://arbss.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Questions-about-Beh avioral-Function-QABF-Google-Docs.pdf FACTS; March, R. E., Horner, R. H., Lewis-Palmer, T., Brown, D., Crone, D. A., Todd, A. W., et al. (2000). Functional assessment checklist for teachers and staff (FACTS). Eugene, OR: University of Oregon. https://doe.virginia.gov/support/stu dent_conduct/functional_assessment_checklist.pdf

3

Functional Behavior Assessment in General Education Classrooms

35

ABC Data Collection Template; https://www.kalamazoopublicschools.com/site/ handlers/filedownload.ashx?moduleinstanceid=2010&dataid=2002&FileName= abc_recording_form_20150909_155712_1.pdf

References Alter, P. J., Conroy, M. A., Mancil, G. R., & Haydon, T. (2008). A comparison of functional behavior assessment methodologies with young children: descriptive methods and functional analysis. Journal of Behavioral Education, 17(2), 200–219. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10864008-9064-3 Anderson, C. M., Rodriguez, B. J., & Campbell, A. (2015). Functional behavior assessment in schools: current status and future directions. Journal of Behavioral Education, 24(3), 338–371. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10864-015-9226-z Cooper, J. O. (2020). Applied behavior analysis (3rd ed.). Pearson Education, Inc. Floyd, R. G., Phaneuf, R. L., & Wilczynski, S. M. (2005). Measurement properties of indirect assessment methods for functional behavioral assessment: A review of research. School Psychology Review, 34(1), 16. Hanley, G. P., Iwata, B. A., & McCord, B. E. (2003). Functional analysis of problem behavior: A review. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 36(2), 147–185. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba. 2003.36-147 Iwata, B., & DeLeon, I. (2005). The functional analysis screening tool. The Florida Center on SelfInjury, University of Florida. https://depts.washington.edu/dbpeds/Screening%20Tools/FAST. pdf Lewis, T. J., Mitchell, B. S., Harvey, K., Green, A., & Mckenzie, J. (2015). A comparison of functional behavioral assessment and functional analysis methodology among students with mild disabilities. Behavioral Disorders, 41(1), 5–20. https://doi.org/10.17988/0198-7429-41.1.5 March, R. E., Horner, R. H., Lewis-Palmer, T., Brown, D., Crone, D. A., Todd, A. W., et al. (2000). Functional assessment checklist for teachers and staff (FACTS). University of Oregon. Paclawskyj, T. R. (1998). Questions about behavioral function (QABF): A behavioral checklist for functional assessment of aberrant behavior. 127. Skinner, B. F. (1965). Science and Human Behavior. Free Press. http://ebookcentral.proquest.com/ lib/tcsesl/detail.action?docID=4934291 Skinner, B. F. (1963). Operant behavior. American Psychologist, 18(8), 503–515. https://doi.org/ 10.1037/h0045185

4

Antecedent Interventions: Proactive Strategies for Changing Behavior Mindy J. Cassano, Holly Bruski, and Sarah Bendekovits

4.1

Overview

This chapter discusses a variety of proactive strategies for changing behavior that are applicable within the general education classroom setting. Antecedent variables (what happens prior to) can help predict behaviors and will be presented in the context of motivating operations (encourage or discourage a certain behavior). In addition, descriptions of antecedent interventions such as, high-probability response sequence, antecedent exercise, providing choices, visual schedules, foreshadowing, and countdowns are explained. Examples of how each one of these interventions can be applied will be provided.

4.2

Implementation and Application

As discussed in earlier chapters, in behavior analysis, the term antecedent refers to any stimulus that is present or occurs before the target behavior of interest (Cooper et al., 2007). Antecedents are the first part of the three-term contingency, commonly called ABC contingency which stands for Antecedent, Behavior (what a person does) and Consequence (what occurs after the behavior). However, remember from previous chapters that a consequence is not necessarily a negative response or a punishment. For example, consider a teacher asks the class a question (antecedent), a student calls out (behavior), and then the teacher tells the student to raise their hand and answer the question (consequence).

M. J. Cassano (B) · H. Bruski · S. Bendekovits The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Chicago, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected]; [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 J. Quigley et al. (eds.), Incorporating Applied Behavior Analysis into the General Education Classroom, Springer Texts in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35825-8_4

37

38

M. J. Cassano et al.

In the early years of behavior analysis, antecedents were not commonly considered as variables that affected behavior change. However, with the publication of Michael’s (1982) discussion on motivating operations, the role of antecedent variables in changing behavior came to the forefront. This is important to know so behavior can be changed by better understanding the motivation behind it. Then strategies can be put into place in order to manipulate those antecedents to increase positive behavior. Using the above example, when the teacher answered the question (even though they did correct the behavior), they inadvertently reinforced the calling out behavior. The motivation behind the behavior was attention for the teacher to call on them. The student still received attention in the form of the teacher’s response; therefore, the student is more likely to call out again in the future. Now knowing this, the teacher can either model the appropriate behavior (by raising their hand with their finger over their mouth) or completely ignore the calling out behavior by not responding and then reinforce (praise) the next time that child raises their hand without calling out. Using this strategy, will reduce the negative behavior (calling out) and will increase the positive behavior (raising hand).

4.3

Motivating Operations (MO) Definitions and Examples

Antecedent variables are often assessed based on their motivating operations. Motivating operation (MO) is an umbrella term referring to establishing operations (EO) and abolishing operations (Cooper et al., 2007). EOs increase the value of a reinforcer and increase the frequency of a behavior. Therefore, EO’s increase the motivation to access a reinforcer. For example, if a student had a small breakfast before coming to school, being hungry would be the EO to gain access to food. Further, if a student is hungry, they may be more likely to engage in those appropriate behaviors or tasks that are required in order to get to lunch. A student who dislikes math may be more motivated to do their work close to lunch time. Being hungry increases the value of food and increases behaviors that gain access to the food. Abolishing operations (AOs) decrease the reinforcing effectiveness of a reinforcer and decreases the frequency of a behavior. In other words, AO’s decrease the motivation to access a reinforcer. Using the above example, if a student just had a large snack or is no longer hungry, food or using the prompt “it is almost lunch time” as the motivation to go to lunch would serve as an AO, decreasing the reinforcing effectiveness of food at that time. The fact that the student just ate means they will most likely no longer be motivated by food. Because of this decrease in reinforcing effectiveness, the student may also be less likely to engage in those same appropriate task-oriented behaviors mentioned above, such as, completing a task (Fig. 4.1).

4

Antecedent Interventions: Proactive Strategies for Changing Behavior

39

Motivating Operations (MOs)

Establishing Operations (EOs) ● Increase the reinforcing effectiveness of a stimulus ● Increase the current frequency of a behavior

Abolishing Operations (AOs) ● Decease the reinforcement effectiveness of a stimulus ● Decrease the current frequency of a behavior

Fig. 4.1 Characteristics of motivating, establishing, and abolishing operations

4.4

Stimulus Control

It is possible that students may have more challenging behavior when in the presence of someone they are unfamiliar with such as a substitute teacher. This is likely because the classroom teacher has gained stimulus control of the classroom, and the substitute teacher does not. Stimulus control can be used to describe when a behavior is triggered by the presence or absence of something. Stimulus control can either encourage or discourage a behavior. In this case, the students have learned what the consequences (positive or negative) are with the regular teacher through a history of reinforcement. For example, if they don’t listen or follow directions (behavior) they may have to stay in for recess or don’t get extra free time at the end of the day. In chapter one, authors discussed that a consequence in the three-term contingency or the ABC contingency refers to something that occurs after a behavior. Behavior tends to be controlled by its consequences. For example, a student may be very talkative with friends, but not talkative during class. With friends, a student gets reinforcement by having reciprocating conversations (maybe having a friend laugh at their joke). In class, the teacher may either reprimand talking or not respond when they are talking out of turn. Students learn that in order to access reinforcement (teacher praise or even just a response), they must work quietly and

40

M. J. Cassano et al.

behave accordingly to access reinforcement (praise or maybe something tangible if the teacher had a classroom behavior management plan). In general, stimulus control influences the probability of a student complying with teacher requests. If stimulus control is achieved, the probability that a student will comply with the teacher’s instruction will increase. In contrast, if there is little stimulus control, the student will be less likely to comply with instructions. Stimulus control can be strengthened by providing consistent consequences when a student engages in a particular response. For example, if a teacher always provides praise (consequence) for on-task behavior (remaining seated, attending to the teacher, completing work, etc.), it is likely that students will continue to engage in these appropriate behaviors. In contrast, if students are intermittently allowed to leave their desks and not check if work is completed, they will be less likely to remain on task. For a behavior to be under stimulus control, the stimulus or event that precedes the behavior must continuously be followed by that specific behavior or response. Using these examples, the student learns that reinforcement (possibly praise) will be given after staying on task, or quietly working. Stimulus control is pertinent to increasing the frequency of appropriate behavior in any learning situation. In order to establish stimulus control in a classroom for not calling out, students behavior can be praised (and/or answer them) when they raise their hands. For example, teachers can provide behavior specific praise by saying they liked that the student raised their hand and answered their question. In the same manner, teachers should not respond to students who are calling out. For example, when a student calls out “Ms. C, Ms. C I have a question.” They can either praise the student for raising their hand, make a general statement to the whole class that they will only answer students who have their hands raised” or they can model hand raising by raising their own hand. Then the teacher should immediately answer and praise the student engaging in the appropriate behavior. This contingency that is implemented will influence the probability of a student complying with future requests from the teacher.

4.5

Increasing Compliance

In addition to stimulus control, there are many different types of antecedent interventions that can be used to increase student compliance. Here, compliance refers to the completion of a given request or demand. Some of these interventions include techniques such the high-probability response sequence, antecedent exercise, providing choices, visual schedules, foreshadowing, and countdowns.

4.5.1 High-Probability Response Sequence The high probability (high-p) response sequence can be referred to the process when a person starts something and then is likely to continue it until an outside

4

Antecedent Interventions: Proactive Strategies for Changing Behavior

41

force stops them. The high-p response sequence is an instructional sequence where 2–5 low effort instructions are rapidly delivered that have a high-probability of occurring based on a student’s past performance and following these with a single request that has a low-probability of occurring to increase compliance (Mace et al., 1988). The low effort instructions should be in the student’s repertoire (skills they know). The high-probability response sequence may be beneficial for a student who has a history of not completing a given instruction or is slow at completing tasks. The high-probability response sequence shouldn’t be used for students who don’t know how to perform a particular skill, rather, this should be used for students that know how perform a particular skill but won’t. Research has demonstrated that high-p sequences have been effective in increasing compliance in medical examination requests (Riviere et al., 2011), increasing social interactions (Davis et al., 1994), and increasing compliance during academic tasks (Brosh et al., 2018). In the high-p sequence, a teacher presenting a workbook page to a typically noncompliant student could precede that low-probability request of a workbook page with three high-probability requests such as, “Take out workbook,” “Take out pencil,” and “Write name on top.” By preceding the request to start the workbook page with three relatively easy requests that the student has a history of reliably completing (and is already in their repertoire), the student will be more likely to comply with the less preferred task (given they have the required skill to do so). This sequence should produce “momentum-like” effects. When placing the demands, they should be placed as clear and concise statements and not as a question. For example, “sit down in chair” versus asking the student if they can sit down over there? Another example may be asking a student to turn on the lights for the class because that’s a preferred activity and then asking to them to sit (again higher probability task) followed by get started on the task (non-preferred and low probability request). One key variable that affects the efficacy of the high-p response sequence is how quickly the requests are delivered. Requests that are delivered in quick succession have been shown to be more effective at increasing compliance than requests that are delivered more slowly. In reference to the previous example, if the student is not told, “take out workbook” until several seconds have lapsed from them sitting down, they will be less likely to comply than if the request to take out workbook is delivered as soon as the student sits.

4.5.2 Antecedent Exercise There is all this talk in education today about giving movement breaks but why? Breaks and movement increase productivity and help our brains learn new skills. Antecedent exercise has also been shown to be an effective intervention for increasing compliance and decreasing problem behaviors (Cannella-Malone et al., 2011). Antecedent exercise refers to engagement in physical activity prior to the onset of a demand (Morrison et al., 2011). In addition, Folino et al. (2014) discovered that 30 minutes of exercise resulted in 90 minutes of “behavioral

42 Table 4.1 Movement breaks used to help gain attention and calm bodies

M. J. Cassano et al.

Movement breaks

Website

Cosmic yoga

https://cosmickids.com/

GoNoodle

https://www.gonoodle.com/

Headspace

Www.Headspace.com

Calm app for kids

www.calm.com

improvements” (p. 447), with the greatest improvement being within the first 30 minutes. Movement breaks can be beneficial for students who engage in stereotypy, self-injury, and disruptive behaviors (Baumeister & MacLean, 1984; Kern et al., 1982; McGimsey & Favell, 1988). Kern et al. (1984) found that 15 minutes of mild exercise, such as playing ball, had little or no influence on stereotypy, but vigorous exercise such as 15 minutes of jogging showed reduced stereotypy. Based on previous research, by preceding periods of work with physical activity, a student may be more likely to comply with presented tasks. For example, if a teacher finds that many students in a classroom are less likely to comply with a reading assignment as compared to other school subjects, they may choose to schedule reading after gym. Thirty minutes of gym directly preceding reading class may increase compliance with demands placed during reading. There are also times in every teachers day when they feel like they are losing the kids focus and attention; maybe the math lesson ran late or they notice many of the students are increasingly wiggly. On the other end, they may notice that when their students come back from recess, they have loads of energy and it’s difficult to get them back to work. Here are a few examples of videos that can be played in efforts to regain student’s lost attention and also help calm their minds. The examples provided vary from vigorous workouts and guided dances, on GoNoodle and calming videos on Headspace, Cosmic Yoga, and Calm App for Kids. Depending on the student and what behavior they’re engaging in, one type of video may be more beneficial over another (Table 4.1).

4.5.3 Providing Choices The provision of choices has also been demonstrated to be an effective means of increasing compliance when presenting a nonpreferred task. Through choosing a particular item or task, a student is allowed more control over their environment, typically resulting in increased compliance and a reduction in disruptive behavior (Dunlap et al., 1994). Choices can be as simple as giving the student a choice on which task they can complete first or what they can earn upon the completion of a task. For example, allowing the student to choose any five math problems out of the nine listed (even if a teacher throws in a few extra to start with, knowing they will be giving the student a choice). Or giving a student the choice to write or type their essay for a student that may dislike writing. Additionally, giving students the choice on what they want to earn, such as a book, or a puzzle after completing the

4

Antecedent Interventions: Proactive Strategies for Changing Behavior

43

task. Cole and Levinson (2002) found that providing choices reduced challenging behavior for students who were typically noncompliant. By providing reasonable, controlled choices, students are more likely to follow the direction. It gives them a sense of control. In the end, teachers can ask themselves, does it really matter how the task is completed as long as it gets completed?

4.5.4 Visual Schedules Visual schedules are often a staple in behavioral interventions, as they allow the student to reference what is expected of them and what is to come at any given moment. This can often be effective for reducing challenging behavior, especially for students who have difficulty with transitions (Dettmer et al., 2000; Dooley et al., 2001; Pierce et al., 2013). Visual schedules can be simple or complex in nature, and may range from simple work tasks to picture icons depicting specific ordered tasks (see Fig. 4.2 for examples of early education visual schedules). Visual schedules can be used for individual students or for the whole class. They help students to know what comes next and how many activities or steps are left (see Fig. 4.2a). Students can even remove or check the activity icons that have already taken place, so they have a visual of what tasks are still left and what tasks have been completed (see Fig. 4.2b). If a student is struggling with a step in the schedule, the step can be broken down into smaller parts. For example, a general handwashing visual (see Fig. 4.2c) may be beneficial for some students but the broken down steps (Fig. 4.3d) of the handwashing routine may be beneficial for others. For the upper elementary grades, teachers may consider writing the subjects of the day on a white board for all the students to see, and then they can cross off or erase as each activity/class is complete. As students get familiar with visual schedules, students may become more independent and compliant with transitions to daily activities.

4.5.5 Foreshadowing and Countdowns Foreshadowing, or providing a student with an idea of what is to come, can be an effective means of preparing individuals for upcoming changes in their environment and help to increase compliance. Verbal reminders, visuals, and timers can be used as foreshadowing stimuli. For example, an educator may remind their class using a verbal reminder, “One minute until we need to line up” as a foreshadowing technique to indicate when a change is expected. In this case, the teacher would want to use that warning to let the students know it is almost time to go inside after recess. This could help to alleviate or reduce any problem behavior during transitions. Countdowns are another form of foreshadowing that can be effective at increasing compliant responding to environmental changes. Countdowns can be verbal, visual, and/or auditory in nature. For example, counting down from five “5, 4,

44

M. J. Cassano et al.

a A sample visual schedule of a daily routine that can be usedfor the whole class or an individual student

b Unpacking visual schedule checklist

Arrival Open backpack and start unpacking

Calendar Put snack in snack basket

Math Put lunch in lunch bin

Reading Put homework in homework bin

Bathroom

Hang up backpack

Lunch/

Sit at desk and start morning work

Recess Music

Art

Go home

Fig. 4.2 Example of a visual schedule for early grades

3, 2, 1” while simultaneously using their fingers to represent the change in time (putting down one finger at a time) or incorporating a visual timer which depicts the amount of time left. Some visual timers may also beep for the last five or ten seconds in a countdown, which provides students with an auditory stimulus to indicate an upcoming environmental change. Middle school and high schools tend to use warning bells to let students know they have a few more minutes until they need to get to class and another bell for when they should be in their classroom. For an early education teacher, time trackers and visual timers can be useful to help with transitions, improve time management and increase productivity within tasks. Time trackers (Fig. 3a) can be used to keep students on task and allow them to know upcoming changes both with light and sound cues. The red visual timers (Fig. 3b) are helpful to show the passage of time as the red disc disappears. These

4

Antecedent Interventions: Proactive Strategies for Changing Behavior

c Simple handwashing visual schedule

Turn on water

Turn on water and Wet hands

Get soap and rub hands together

Rinse soap off

45

d Hand washing visual schedule broken down

Turn on water

Wet hands

Get soap

Rub hands together for 10 seconds

Dry hands

Rinse soap off

Turn off water

Get paper towel Dry hands

Fig. 4.2 (continued)

can be used with individual students on their desk or visual cues for the entire class.

4.5.6 Setting Events The foreshadowing example provided above depicts modifications in the environment that directly affect the behavior. Using this example, the Antecedent would be the teacher giving the 1 minute warning, the Behavior would be the student coming in from recess. In contrast to antecedents that are a part of the three-term contingency (ABC contingency), setting events influence behavior (Carter & Driscoll, 2007), but may not directly affect it. For example, if a student does not sleep well

46

M. J. Cassano et al.

a.

b.

Fig. 4.3 a Time tracker® can be used to keep students on task using both light and sound cues. b Red visual timers are helpful to show the passage of time as the red disc disappears

and is fatigued while at school, they may put their head down on the desk when presented with a difficult worksheet, rather than completing the task. Here, lack of sleep does not directly determine whether an individual will engage in a specific behavior, such as putting their head down, but given a specific antecedent (presentation of a difficult worksheet), the student is more likely to engage in the behavior because of the setting event (lack of sleep). Conversely, if a preferred activity was presented, such as playing outside, the student may be less likely to put their head down. Setting events can make students more reactive to changes in the environment. An option to mitigate this behavior would be to use a communication log between the teacher and the parents. Teachers could ask parents via email or note if there are changes in the home setting that may influence school behavior. Of course, this would be cumbersome to do with every student, but we suggest only for students that are exhibiting a change of behavior, different from their personal norm. Teachers can also use data sheets similar to the ABC data sheet mentioned in previous chapters on how to track antecedents, behaviors and consequences in order to determine patterns. See Table 4.2 for an example. To determine if a setting event is affecting problem behaviors, it is suggested to keep track using these data sheets (or taking anecdotal notes) and look for patterns such as, every Monday the student is with one parent, or every Tuesday mom works the night shift, etc. which may have an impact on behavior. Setting events are important to consider when a student is displaying problem behaviors. Equally important, setting events should be considered when a student is performing particularly well. For example, if a student is typically noncompliant when asked to do math worksheets, then one day completes the task without displaying any problem behaviors, setting events should be examined to possibly determine whether a stimulus change, such as a good night’s sleep, eating a large

Antecedent ⟁ Low attention ⟁ Removal of item/task: ____ ____ ⟁ Denied access of item/task: ________ ⟁ Transition out of the room ⟁ Transition between subjects ⟁ Change in routine ⟁ Other: _________

Setting Events

⟁ Late to school ⟁ Feeling sick ⟁ Sick yesterday ⟁ Didn’t eat breakfast ⟁ Tired ⟁ Change in schedule ⟁ Parent said change in home ⟁ Medication changes ⟁ Other _______

Event Info

Time Start: _______ Time End: _______ Location: _______ Activity/Subject: _______ People Present:

Table 4.2 ABC datasheet with setting events ⟁ Hitting peers ⟁ Throwing items ⟁ Running away from teacher ⟁ Mouth noises/humming ⟁ Task refusal ⟁ Calling out

Behavior

⟁ Task/item removed ⟁ Task/item provided ⟁ Attention provided ⟁ Child removed from class ⟁ Coping strategy offered ⟁ Emergency safety procedure used

Consequence

4 Antecedent Interventions: Proactive Strategies for Changing Behavior 47

48

M. J. Cassano et al.

meal, seating changes, or alleviation of a headache, could have influenced the student’s level of compliance. A data sheet similar in Table 4.2 could be created to track this or anecdotal data to examine these variables. Setting events can provide additional information on the likelihood of a given behavior and can help teachers predict a behavior’s occurrence based on events that precede the antecedent. In addition to looking at the setting events on a data sheet similar to Table 4.2, the ABC data could be evaluated. Collecting and evaluating ABC data can be referred to as a functional behavior assessment (FBA). An FBA can be used to determine what typically happens before the behavior (antecedent), what the behavior looks like (behavior), and what follows the behavior (consequence) (Cooper et al., 2007; Jeong & Copeland, 2020). The results of an FBA can be used to determine the function of the behavior (why it’s occurring). Based on this information, teachers can alter or enhance the environment to increase the likelihood of preferred behaviors occurring and decrease the likelihood of the occurrence of problem behaviors.

4.6

Summary

As authors discussed, an antecedent means the event that occurs right before a behavior. Analyzing the events that occur right before a behavior, and taking into consideration setting events, can help teachers predict why a behavior is occurring. Based on this prediction or hypothesis, teachers can then come up with a proactive strategy to enhance or modify the environment to increase positive behaviors and reduce negative behaviors. Research has found that these antecedent interventions: high-probability response sequence, antecedent exercise, providing choices, visual schedules, foreshadowing and countdowns can be helpful to aid in producing socially significant change in behavior.

References Amor, J. (2021). Cosmic kids yoga. www.cosmickids.com Baumeister, A. A., & MacLean, W. E., Jr. (1984). Deceleration of self-injurious and stereotypic responding by exercise. Applied Research in Mental Retardation, 5(3), 385–393. https://doi. org/10.1016/s0270-3092(84)80059-4 Brosh, Fisher, L. B., Wood, C. L., & Test, D. W. (2018). High-probability request sequence: an evidence-based practice for individuals with autism spectrum disorder. Education and Training in Autism and Developmental Disabilities, 53(3), 276–286 Cannella-Malone, H. I., Tullis, C. A., & Kazee, A. R. (2011). Using antecedent exercise to decrease challenging behavior in boys with developmental disabilities and an emotional disorder. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 13(4), 230–239. https://doi.org/10.1177/109830071140 6122 Carter, M., & Driscoll, C. (2007). A conceptual examination of setting events. Educational Psychology, 27(5), 655–673. https://doi.org/10.1080/01443410701309183

4

Antecedent Interventions: Proactive Strategies for Changing Behavior

49

Cole, & Levinson, T. R. (2002). Effects of within-activity choices on the challenging behavior of children with severe developmental disabilities. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 4(1), 29–37. https://doi.org/10.1177/109830070200400106 Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.). Pearson Education Inc. Davis, Brady, M. P., Hamilton, R., McEvoy, M. A., & Williams, R. E. (1994). Effects of highprobability requests on the social interactions of young children with severe disabilities. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 27(4), 619–637. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1994.27-619 Dettmer, S., Simpson, R. L., Smith Myles, B., & Ganz, J. B. (2000). The use of visual supports to facilitate transitions of students with autism. Focus on Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 15(3), 163–169. https://doi.org/10.1177/108835760001500307 Dooley, P., Wilczenski, F. L., & Torem, C. (2001). Using an activity schedule to smooth school transitions. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 3(1), 57–61. https://doi.org/10.1177/109 830070100300108 Dunlap, G., DePerczel, M., Clarke, S., Wilson, D., Wright, S., White, R., & Gomez, A. (1994). Choice making to promote adaptive behavior for students with emotional and behavioral challenges. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 27(3), 505–518. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba. 1994.27-505 Folino, A., Ducharme, J. M., & Greenwald, N. (2014). Temporal effects of antecedent exercise on students’ disruptive behaviors: An exploratory study. Journal of School Psychology, 52(5), 447–462. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsp.2014.07.002 GoNoodle, Movement and Mindfulness for Kids. www.gonoodle.com Jeong, & Copeland, S. R. (2020). Comparing functional behavior assessment-based interventions and non-functional behavior assessment-based interventions: A systematic review of outcomes and methodological quality of studies. Journal of Behavioral Education, 29(1), 1–41. https:// doi.org/10.1007/s10864-019-09355-4 Kern, L., Koegel, R. L., & Dunlap, G. (1984). The influence of vigorous versus mild exercise on autistic stereotyped behaviors. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 14(1), 57–67. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02408555 Kern, L., Koegel, R. L., Dyer, K., Blew, P. A., & Fenton, L. R. (1982). The effects of physical exercise on self-stimulation and appropriate responding in autistic children. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 12(4), 399–419. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF01538327 Mace, F. C., Hock, M. L., Lalli, J. S., West, B. J., Belfiore, P., Pinter, E., & Brown, D. K. (1988). Behavioral momentum in the treatment of noncompliance. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 21(2), 123–141. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1988.21-123 McGimsey, J. F., & Favell, J. E. (1988). The effects of increased physical exercise on disruptive behavior in retarded persons. Journal of Autism and Developmental Disorders, 18(2), 167–179. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF02211944 Michael, J. (1982). Distinguishing between discriminative and motivational functions of stimuli. Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior, 42(1), 363–376. https://doi.org/10.1901/jeab. 1982.37-149 Morrison, H., Roscoe, E. M., & Atwell, A. (2011). An evaluation of antecedent exercise on behavior maintained by automatic reinforcement using a three-component multiple schedule. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 44(3), 523–541. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2011.44-523 Pierce, J. M., Spriggs, A. D., Gast, D. L., & Luscre, D. (2013). Effects of visual activity schedules on independent classroom transitions for students with autism. International Journal of Disability, Development and Education, 60, 253–269. https://doi.org/10.1080/1034912X.2013. 812191 Puddicombe, A. (2022). Headspace. www.headspace.com Riviere, V., Becquet, M., Peltret, E., Facon, B., & Darcheville, JC. (2011). Increasing compliance with medical examination requests directed to children with autism: Effects of a highprobability request procedure. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 44(1), 193–197. https:/ /doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2011.44-193 Smith, M. A., & Tew, A. (2022). Calm. www.calm.com

5

Getting the Behavior You Want Using Reinforcement Julie A. Ackerlund Brandt, Mindy J. Cassano, and Tanya Hough

5.1

Getting the Behavior You Want Using Reinforcement

Knowing the behavior you want to see and knowing how to get it to happen can be two different skills. Oftentimes, someone knows what students should do, but it is the process of getting those behavior to happen that can be the trickiest part. The key is quite simple: reinforcement. Don’t mistake simple for easy; using reinforcement is not always easy, but the principles break down to the same “simple” basics every time. The general principle is called differential reinforcement (DR) and it means to provide reinforcers, or rewards, for the behaviors that should happen again and not for those behaviors that shouldn’t (Hangen et al., 2020; Vladescu & Kodak, 2010; Vollmer & Iwata, 1992; Vollmer et al., 2020). Again, this definition is deceptively simplistic because there is a myriad of ways that this can be done, including shaping, demand fading, and specific DR procedures like differential reinforcement of other behavior (DRO), differential reinforcement of alternative behavior (DRA), differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior (DRI), among others (Jessel & Ingvarsson, 2016; Vladescu & Kodak, 2010). Any of these variations can work depending on your goals, and whether you are looking to replace a behavior you don’t want to see or teach a new behavior.

5.1.1 Increasing Behaviors Most often, teachers are looking to teach. This includes imparting knowledge and new skills to their students. There are many reinforcement strategies to be J. A. Ackerlund Brandt (B) · M. J. Cassano · T. Hough The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Chicago, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 J. Quigley et al. (eds.), Incorporating Applied Behavior Analysis into the General Education Classroom, Springer Texts in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35825-8_5

51

52

J. A. Ackerlund Brandt et al.

used within their teaching, but to varying degrees of effectiveness. The efficacy is altered because it is so important to understand what reinforcers really are. In many instances, they are called rewards, prizes, etc., but something isn’t a reinforcer until it changes behavior, making it a functional (or working) reinforcer. Functional reinforcer may take some time to figure out with some children, but the options break down into a few categories: attention, items, and escape. These groups encompass almost anything that you, or any other person, can provide that a child might want to behave in a certain way to obtain.

5.1.1.1 Demand Fading Demand fading is often used with escape-maintained or task-avoidant behaviors (Piazza et al., 1996), but it is a procedure that can be used with any type of reinforcer (Ringdahl et al., 2013). The key components to these procedures are starting the student at a level that they can be successful at, and then slowly increasing the requirement until they reach the ultimate goal. One example might be working on multiplication. Memorizing multiplication tables can be very difficult for some children, which makes it a great skill for fading. By starting with a small goal, maybe five correct problems within 60 s, and then providing a reward upon reaching that goal, the student will be able to build fluency (see Chap. 7 for a complete description) and confidence through their successful experiences. As the goals are increased, and they continue to reach those goals, and success continues to grow, it helps to build a strong foundation for learning and confidence in their ability to understand and complete difficult tasks. 5.1.1.2 Shaping Another procedure that may help to enhance a skill is shaping. When using shaping, you start with a behavior that your student can already do that is similar a more complex and/or difficult version of the skill; then, you slowly begin to change the behavior that is required until you reach the goal (Athens et al., 2007). An example may be in gym class, a student may be working on a gymnastic skill that requires substantial balance and coordination. Instead of starting with that difficult and complex behavior, an easier skill such as standing with one foot slightly raised would be a better starting point. As each approximation is mastered and the student is able to progress toward the complex behavior, they are able to do so by optimizing successes and minimizing failures.

5.2

Implementation

Increasing new behaviors can be difficult, especially in a class of 20 or more children with varying levels of readiness. Understanding some of these procedures for increasing skills gradually can be very important for helping some of the lower-level learners begin to catch up to others. They can be effortful though, and oftentimes it helps to have the parent’s support. In some cases, token systems can be used in demand fading (Ringdahl et al., 2013) or shaping (Howie & Woods,

5

Getting the Behavior You Want Using Reinforcement

53

1982) and the parents can be responsible for providing stronger or large-scale reinforcers. This is much easier and more efficient now with the use of technology. For example, using an app called Class Dojo©, a second-grade teacher can give students points during the day for task completion and that may correspond to the amount of time the student plays a video game when he gets home from school. It’s a program that can be used for class-wide goals but is also used for setting up specific goals for students.

5.2.1 Replacing Behaviors Another common challenge in classroom management may be the abundant occurrence of various problem behaviors. These behaviors can encompass behaviors that affect an individual student’s learning or multiple student’s learning; they may also range from small “annoying” behaviors to more aggressive or dangerous behaviors. There will always be behaviors that need to be decreased, but it is important to remember that for any behavior that is decreased, there should be another behavior to take its place (Vollmer et al., 1993). Every behavior happens for a reason; therefore, if a behavior isn’t purposely replaced by another, the reason it occurred will still exist and another behavior may develop. Purposely replacing one behavior with another usually means using one of the three differential reinforcement procedures mentioned earlier (a) differential reinforcement of other behaviors (DRO), (b) different reinforcement of alternative behaviors (DRA), or (c) differential reinforcement of incompatible (DRI) behaviors (Boudreau et al., 2015; Vollmer et al., 2020). These are only three versions of differential reinforcement procedures but are likely the most useful in a classroom situation.

5.2.1.1 Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior Differential Reinforcement of Other Behavior (DRO) is the most flexible of the procedures discussed here. When using DRO, a timer of some sort is used to alert when delivery of a reward should occur, but only if any behavior other than the problem behavior is occurring (Rey et al., 2020). The time frame used in a DRO is short enough to observe something other than the problem behavior. This procedure might be useful during rest time because, sometimes, there will be a handful of students who will start talking or making noise when they are supposed to be quiet. If the problematic behaviors start after 5 min typically, a plan to stop by their desks and provide praise for “being quiet” or “not talking” at 4 or even 4.5 min may be developed. If praise isn’t working, something like a token to trade in after rest time for some kind of prize after rest time might be a good option. Once the first-time frame is successful, you can increase it from 4 to 5 min, then from 5 to 7, and continue increasing the time until all the children are remaining quiet for the entire time. They may not all be resting, some may be reading or playing with a fidget toy, for example, but they have all replaced their “noisy” behaviors with something quiet.

54

J. A. Ackerlund Brandt et al.

5.2.1.2 Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Behavior Differential Reinforcement of Alternative Behavior (DRA) is a little more intensive than DRO, because you are looking to replace one behavior with another specific behavior (Petscher et al., 2009). When using DRA, try to remember that all behavior has a reason and may be a way to communicate something. For example, a student who blurts out answers before any else can try to answer may be working to get your attention because they don’t get any at home. Instead of simply telling them not to speak out, teaching them to raise their hand would be an example of DRA because it is a specific behavior that replaces the original problem behavior. To capitalize on the power of attention, providing excited and enthusiastic attention when they raise their hand and answer as opposed to a calm reminder to raise their hand if they forget, may increase the efficacy. Instead of using different types of attention to prompt through the different behaviors, DRA may be implemented with a procedure called extinction. If extinction is used, then the problem behavior does not result in delivery of the reinforcer, only the target behavior earns that reward. Using the example from before, this will include ignoring the student if they blurt out an answer and only responding, and responding excitedly, when they raise their hand. Although this can be an effective way to implement the procedure, there are other side effects that might occur. For example, something called an extinction burst might happen, where the behavior would get worse. This might look like the student repeating the answer louder and louder. Another example would be variations in problem behavior, meaning the student might try new and similar behaviors, such as standing up, throwing their book, or swearing, to get your attention before they start using the planned alternative behavior of raising their hand. These issues can often be mitigated by talking with the student before class starts or by using the corrective prompting procedure mentioned initially. Like DRO, DRA should initially be implemented very often and can then be weaned out. This may mean calling on that student every time they raise their hand for a while, but once they are no longer speaking out of turn, calling on them every other time they raise their hand. As the student remains successful, you can continue to stretch out the regularity of calling on them versus the other children. 5.2.1.3 Differential Reinforcement of Incompatible Behavior Differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior (DRI) is the most intense of the versions of differential reinforcement described, but it may also be the most effective. When using DRI, rewards are only delivered after a behavior that is incompatible with the problem behavior, meaning they cannot happen at the same time (Kelly & Bushell, 1987). The reason this may be more successful than DRA is that the problem behavior cannot happen if the new behavior is occurring. In the DRA example, it would have been possible that the student could raise their hand and still blurt out the answer, which might extend the learning time. An example of DRI would be if a student reaches out and grabs items off their peers’ desks, so whenever they were sitting with their hands folded in their lap or folded

5

Getting the Behavior You Want Using Reinforcement

55

on their desk, a reward was delivered. Having their hands folded on their desk is incompatible with reaching onto their peers’ desks; therefore, increasing that behavior will decrease the problem behavior, potentially without having to call attention to the problem behavior.

5.3

Summary

Across all the differential reinforcement procedures, the key component is knowing the functional reinforcer for the problem behavior. Remember, every behavior has a reason (or function), and if you want to replace one behavior with another, you want to be sure that you’re using the same reason to increase that new behavior. If a student breaks their pencils or rips worksheets to escape work and you try to praise task completion, the planned behavior change is not likely to occur. However, if the student is breaking their pencils or ripping worksheets so you’ll reprimand them and bring them more materials, provided better attention immediately for getting started, more often for task completion will likely result in more behavior change. By understanding what your students are trying to tell you with their behaviors and keeping in mind that you always want to have something to replace a problem behavior, you are much more likely to use reinforcement-based procedures successfully.

5.4

Application: Reinforcers Need to Be Worth It

Having something “worth” working for is very important—especially when teaching new skills. It would be wonderful if all children loved reading or math or science just for the sake of learning; however, sometimes the effort needed to learn these skills outweighs the natural enjoyment of the activity. This is when social reinforcers (meaning something delivered by another person) can be used. Social reinforcers can include praise, points, grades, treats, extra recess time, breaks from class, tickets, and the list goes on; it’s practically endless, the only limit is your creativity.

5.4.1 Attention as a Reinforcer Many times, when talking about reinforcers, people think of edible reinforcers. Although these can be used, there are many types of attention that can be used just as successfully as edibles or toys. Attention can encompass many types ranging from smiles and winks to simple praise statements to physical interactions like high five or hugs (Harper et al., 2021). Using attention as a reinforcer is common, partially because it is readily available and relatively easy to deliver because it does not require proximity; meaning a teacher may be across the room and praise

56

J. A. Ackerlund Brandt et al.

a student’s behavior just as effectively as if they were standing next to the student (Floress et al., 2018). One of the most used types of attention is praise; however, there are many ways that praise can be varied to enhance effectiveness. For example, delivery can make a huge difference in the value of praise. Imagine teaching a class full of students and when one answers a question, if a small smile and “Yep, that right” without any change in tone or volume occurs, it may not be effective. It might be difficult time even imagine that scenario because it seems counterintuitive; however, this happens very often in classrooms when there are a lot of questions being asked and time is short. It is important to always try to make your praise as enthusiastic as possible to increase the likelihood that it will be a desirable outcome and reinforce the behavior you’d like to see again (Clausen et al., 2007; Weyman & Sy, 2018). Another variation of praise is based on the content of the statements. General praise includes statements which are basic and typically short; some examples include “good job” or “that’s awesome.” These statements are easy to remember and quickly delivered; however, putting a little extra information in the statement can increase the efficacy of it as a reinforcer and aid in learning. Behavior-specific praise takes the basic praise statement and enhances it by adding in a description of the behavior being praised; for example, “nice job writing your name” or “I like how you raised your hand quietly.” This is a simply way to help clarify exactly what behavior earned praise and enhance the likelihood that the specific behavior will happen again (Polick et al., 2012).

5.4.2 Strength of Reinforcers Not only are reinforcers varied and many, but they can differ wildly across children. This is an important consideration because sometimes things that “everyone likes” won’t work for some children. For example, praise is often delivered in class when a student answers a question correctly. If that student continues to answer questions, or even better, tries to answer more questions, this would be an example of reinforcement; however, if that student doesn’t raise their hand to answer questions or offer answers, praise likely isn’t a reinforcer so something else like a token or high five might work better. Another example is when children are sent into the hall or to the principal’s office. The intention is often to punish—or decrease— whatever behavior happened prior to being sent out of the room; however, it may actually reinforce the behavior by allowing the child to escape classwork. Sometimes, when a task is especially difficult, the strongest reinforcer is to get away from it, so providing a break for trying and completing some of the assignment might be a great idea. As the skill becomes easier, it is always possible to increase the amount needed to take a break.

5

Getting the Behavior You Want Using Reinforcement

5.5

57

Preference Versus Reinforcement

In behavior analytic instruction, preference and reinforcement are two different things. As a teacher, it is important to identify the different aspects in your classroom. For example, preferred items are those that we like, enjoy, and may choose to have/interact with; whereas reinforcers are those that actually change our behavior. There are many things that one may like, but only certain things will change one’s actions in specific situations. Preference assessments aim to identify the most preferred items for a person or group of people at the time of the assessment (Hagopian et al., 2001). For example, have you ever asked your class what they want to earn if the entire class meets an expectation, maybe extra recess time or a night of no homework. Once the class comes to an agreement, you have evaluated which reinforcer or reward is most preferred by the largest group of the class. Preference assessments can be conducted as frequently as needed to identify items that a person likes. At times, we may draw conclusions from these assessments and say, if this is their most preferred item, it is likely to also function as a reinforcer. The item is then used as a reinforcer and behavior change is measured. If the behavior changes in the intended direction (i.e., increase for skill acquisition, decrease for behavior reduction), the item can be said to be functioning as a reinforcer (Hagopian et al., 2001).

5.6

Summary

Most of the examples provided are of individual behavior problems or reinforcement considerations, but it is important to keep in mind that it is possible to use reinforcement on a large-scale across all the students in your class, or even throughout an entire school. Examples include group contingencies (see Chap. 6) and positive behavior support (this chapter) which are detailed in later chapters. These larger-scale programs are based on the “simple” procedure explained in this chapter, and all can be broken down and considered based on the goal you’re working toward.

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(3), 475–488. https://doi. org/10.1901/jaba.2007.40-475 Boudreau, B. A., Vladescu, J. C., Kodak, T. M., Argott, P. J., & Kisamore, A. N. (2015). A comparison of differential reinforcement procedures with children with autism. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 48(4), 918–923. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.232 Clausen, K. A., Alden-Anderson, E., Stephenson, K., Mueller, A., & Klatt, K. P. (2007). The effectiveness of enthusiasm on skill acquisition by children with autism. Journal of Speech and Language Pathology and Applied Behavior Analysis, 2, 32–45.

58

J. A. Ackerlund Brandt et al.

Floress, M. T., Jenkins, L. N., Reinke, W. M., & McKown, L. (2018). General educations teachers’ natural rates of praise: A preliminary investigation. Behavioral Disorders, 43(4), 411–422. https://doi.org/10.1177/0198742917709472 Hagopian, L. P., Rush, K. S., Lewin, A. D., & Long, E. S. (2001). Evaluating the predicitive validity of a single stimulus engagement preference assessment. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 34(4), 475–485. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2001.34-475 Hangen, M. M., Romero, A. N., Neidert, P. L., & Borrero, J. C. (2020). “Other” behavior and the DRO: The roles of extinction and reinforcement. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 53(4), 2385–2404. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.736 Harper, A. M., Dozier, C. L., Briggs, A. M., Diaz de Villegas, S., Ackerlund Brandt, J. A., & Jowett Hirst, E. S. (2021). Preference for and reinforcing efficacy of different types of attention in preschool children. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 54, 882–902. Howie, P. M., & Woods, C. L. (1982). Token reinforcement during the instatement and shaping of fluency in the treatment of stuttering. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 15(1), 55–64. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1982.15-55 Jessel, J., & Ingvarsson, E. T. (2016). Recent advances in applied research on DRO procedures. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 49(4), 991–995. https://doi.org/10.1002/jaba.323 Kelly, M. B., & Bushell, D. J. (1987). Student achievement and differential reinforcement of incompatible behavior: Hand raising. Psychology in the Schools, 24(3), 272–281. https://doi. org/10.1002/1520-6807(198707)24:3%3C273::AID-PITS2310240312%3E3.0.CO;2-1 Petscher, E. S., Rey, C., & Bailey, J. S. (2009). A review of empirical support for differential reinforcement of alternative behavior. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 30(3), 409–425. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ridd.2008.08.008 Piazza, C. C., Moes, D. R., & Fisher, W. W. (1996). Differential reinforcement of alternative behavior and demand fading in the treatment of escape-maintained destructive behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 29, 569–572. Polick, A. S., Carr, J. E., & Hanney, N. M. (2012). A comparison of general and descriptive praise in teaching intraverbal behavior to children with autism. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 45, 593–599. Rey, C. N., Betz, A. M., Sleiman, A. A., Kuroda, T., & Podlesnik, C. A. (2020). The role of adventitious reinforcement during differential reinforcement of other behavior: A systematic replication. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 53(4), 2440–2449. https://doi.org/10.1002/ jaba.678 Ringdahl, J. E., Kitsukawa, K., Andelman, M. S., Call, N., Winborn, L., Barretto, A., & Reed, G. K. (2013). Differential reinforcement with and without instructional fading. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 35(3), 291–294. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2002.35-291 Vladescu, J. C., & Kodak, T. (2010). A review of recent studies on differential reinforcement during skill acquisition in early intervention. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 43, 351–355. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1984.17-175 Vollmer, T. R., & Iwata, B. A. (1992). Differential reinforcement as treatment for behavior disorders: Procedural and functional variations. Research in Developmental Disabilities, 13, 393–417. https://doi.org/10.1016/0891-4222(92)90013-V Vollmer, T. R., Iwata, B. A., Zarcone, J. R., Smith, R. G., & Mazaleski, J. L. (1993). The role of attention in the treatment of attention-maintained self-injurious behavior: Noncontingent reinforcement and differential reinforcement of other behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 26, 9–21. Vollmer, T. R., Peters, K. P., Kronfli, F. R., Lloveras, L. A., & Ibañez, V. F. (2020). On the definition of differential reinforcement of alternative behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 53(3) Weyman, J. R., & Sy, J. R. (2018). Effects of neutral and enthusiastic praise on the rate of discrimination acquisition. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 51, 335–344.

Part II Group Systems

Julie A. Ackerlund Brandt Now that we have provided you with the building blocks, we will introduce some of the most common group-based procedures, which will be helpful for most—and potentially all—students in your classrooms! We will start off with a description of positive behavior intervention support (PBIS; Goh & Bambara, 2012), which is one of the most widely used behavior management systems in the USA. Many schools use this three-tiered system to encourage positive behaviors and discourage negative behaviors (Pinkelman & Horner, 2019). There is a strong focus on promoting those positive behaviors using many of the procedures discussed in Chaps. 4 and 5. It is also a perfect introductory chapter to lead into the many procedures that may be applied to a small or large group! Whereas PBIS is a system that needs to be implemented with a large group, some of the systems in this part can work with a smaller group or even individually. For example, working on fluency can be done with one student or can be worked on by everyone in the class. Chapter 8 will explain the benefits of fluency and how it might be applied in different scenarios. There is also TAGteach, personalized systems of instruction, equivalence-based instruction, and precision teaching that can be developed on an individual level or implemented across multiple students. At the core of all these systems is the importance of individualized goals and progress. Using any of these systems, you have the power to meet each student at his or her level and help them maximize their abilities and reach higher goals. Moving to the systems that are typically implemented with larger groups, you will read about group contingencies (Groves et al., 2023) and direct instruction (Twyman, 2021). “Group contingencies” may be a new term to you, but the concept likely isn’t. Much of the research on group contingencies uses the name the “Good Behavior Game” to highlight the importance of the behavior(s) you want to see happen again and again. In Chap. 7, you will be introduced to the various contingency set-ups that you can use, depending on the behavior(s) of interest and how many students you must work with. These procedures are often easy to implement and fun for teachers along with students! Another system devised for larger groups is direct instruction (DI), and one you may be familiar with. This was a system tested in the 1970s by the Department of Education and shown to be the most effective group-based instructional system. Over the past 50 years, there have been multiple iterations and modifications made to the initial iteration of this system. There are many different programs that can

60

Part II: Group Systems

be implemented across subjects and with interesting and creative adaptations. DI can help learners who may be struggling to catch up to their peers through systematic and methodical presentations of various skills and is a wonderful example of using ABA with groups of children (Mason & Otero, 2021). Overall, this part of the textbook is meant to be a bridge from the introductory section with basic terms and principles to the last part which describes some of these most successful settings in which these systems have been implemented. In this part, all the basics previously described should fall together and get you excited to read about examples of achievement at larger, entire-school-sized success stories!

References Goh, A. E., & Bambara, L. M. (2012). Individualized positive behavior support in school settings: A meta-analysis. Remedial and Special Education, 33(5), 271–286. https://doi.org/10.1177/074 1932510383990 Groves, E. A., Najafichaghbouri, M., Seel, C. J., Fisher, S., Thomas, C., & Joslyn, P. R. (2023). A systematic review of group contingencies in alternative education settings. Education and Treatment of Children. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1007/s43494-023-000 95-9 Mason, L., & Otero, M. (2021). Just how effective is direct instruction? Perspective on Behavior Science, 44(2), 225–244. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-021-00295-x Pinkelman, S. E., & Horner, R. H. (2019). Applying lessons from the teaching-family model: Positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS). Perspectives on Behavior Science, 42(2), 233–240. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-019-00199-x Twyman, J. S. (2021). The evidence is in the design. Perspectives on Behavior Science, 44(2), 195– 223. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40614-021-00309-8

6

Positive Behavior Intervention System Gena Pacitto

6.1

Overview

Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS) is a research-based, three-tiered, system-wide intervention designed to promote learning outcomes and prevent and decrease problem behaviors (Sugai & Horner, 2006). This system is grounded in three principles: promoting evidence-based practice, supporting change at the systems-level, and promoting change and effective practice that are sustained over time (Sugai & Horner, 2006). “The foundation for school wide PBIS lies in the application of these features to the whole school context in an effort to prevent, as well as change, patterns of problem behavior” (Horner & Sugai, 2005, p.360). Prevention is a main tenet of PBIS and is implemented across three tiers from a public health perspective with a variety of interventions designed to prevent problem behavior (primary) and reduce the impact and frequency of problem behavior (secondary and tertiary; Sugai & Horner, 2006). Figure 6.1 is a visual representation of the tiers that will later be discussed in detail. This chapter will provide you with background, implementation, and application of PBIS in the general education setting. Positive Behavior Support (PBS), the original framework prior to the conceptualization of PBIS, was developed to improve the quality of life for students with severe, challenging behavior and developmental disabilities (Carr et al., 2002). PBS has a solid foundation in behavioral science, specifically, applied behavior analysis (Sugai & Horner, 2002). Following the implementation of amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA’97) and the spread of awareness for the need for more support for individuals with disabilities, PBS was G. Pacitto (B) The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Chicago, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 J. Quigley et al. (eds.), Incorporating Applied Behavior Analysis into the General Education Classroom, Springer Texts in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35825-8_6

61

62

G. Pacitto

Fig. 6.1 Three-tiered prevention continuum of PBIS

extended to multiple settings including home, school, and community, students without disabilities, and varied ranges of social and academic problem behaviors. After the PBS model was more widely disseminated in public schools, it was renamed the Positive Behavior Intervention System (PBIS) in 2004. PBIS has become substantially widespread in recent years, with approximately 25,000 schools in the United States implementing the interventions (PBIS, 2023).

6.2

PBIS Framework in Schools-SW-PBIS

PBIS is not a formal curriculum. Instead, it is a framework by which school districts and individual schools can adopt organizational practices that establish effective and preventative behavior interventions (Horner et al., 2014). PBIS encompasses core features that are drawn from decades of systematic research in education, mental health, and behavior analysis (Biglan, 1995). This chapter will describe the implementation of PBIS both school-wide and in the general education classroom. After reading this chapter, you will have a better understanding of this three-tiered system and how you can use PBIS to promote more effective classroom management. It is important to keep in mind that PBIS is not a curriculum that can be purchased, and it cannot be effectively implemented following a one- or two-day

6

Positive Behavior Intervention System

63

training. It involves commitment from the entire school staff to promote change at the systems level. If a commitment to this level of change is made, though, you will see your students improve both socially and academically (PBIS.org). Implementation of PBIS in a school begins with self-assessment to determine what elements are currently in place and to select implementation that builds upon the strengths that are already present in the organization. One example of this type of assessment is the School-Wide Evaluation Tool (SET). The goal of the SET is to assess the features already in place, determine annual goals for the school building, evaluate on-going efforts in supporting positive behavior, design and revise procedures in place, and compare results from year to year (Mercer et al., 2017). Following initial assessment, the school team will typically receive three to six days of training and support from a coach (Scott & Martinek, 2006). Following coaching and throughout implementation, teams are expected to collect ongoing data on the fidelity of their initial application of the system. These fidelity measures are also in place to maintain sustainability of the procedures. Examples of coaching and treatment integrity/fidelity data procedures are provided later in this chapter. As mentioned above, PBIS is characterized by three tiers: Tier 1 (universal), Tier 2 (targeted), and Tier 3 (intensive). Each of these tiers is aligned with the types of support the specific student or group of students need.

6.2.1 Tier 1 Tier 1 is the universal level, which means that support is provided to the entire student body in the school. There are core features that are specific to Tier 1 (see Table 6.1) including (a) the commitment of staff to proactive strategies and a formal approach to discipline; (b) positively stated behavioral expectations that are identified at implementation; (c) the teaching of those expectations in multiple settings across the school day; (d) a reward system that acknowledges those students who display the expectations; (e) specific consequences for students who display problem behavior; (f) data collection to drive decision-making (Sugai & Horner, 2009). Below is a summary of the practices and systems included in Tier 1 (PBIS.org). Usually there are three to five behavioral expectations taught schoolwide. They are developed by the school-based PBIS team. Following teaching, modeling, and practice, students can earn tokens or tickets for rewards. Often school-based rewards include a school store, assemblies, or fun days (McDaniel et al., 2015). Figure 6.2 is an example of an incentive that may be earned in Tier 1. If Tier 1 is implemented with fidelity, it is expected that 80% of the student body will have their needs met by the universal system (Lewis & Sugai, 1999). PBIS teams are encouraged to self-assess for fidelity to monitor implementation and identify next steps (Mercer et al., 2017). Typically, PBIS teams are composed of different staff members from the building including teachers, paraprofessionals, support staff, and administrators. These staff members often volunteer to be a part

64

G. Pacitto

Table 6.1 Tier 1 system and practices Tier 1 foundational systems

Tier 1 practices

An established leadership team

School-wide positive expectations and behaviors are taught

Regular meetings

Established classroom expectations aligned with school-wide expectations

A commitment statement for establishing a positive school-wide social culture

A continuum of procedures for encouraging expected behavior

On-going use of data for decision making

A continuum of procedures for discouraging problem behavior

Professional development plans

Procedures for encouraging school-family partnership

Personnel evaluation plan

Fig. 6.2 Sample Tier 1 reward

of the PBIS teams. Some districts also hire outside PBIS consultants or “coaches”. There are a variety of fidelity surveys that are widely used to assess Tier 1 implementation. Fidelity of implementation and data collection facilitates data-based decision making, maintenance, and sustainability of PBIS (Mercer et al., 2017). The students who do not make adequate progress with the support provided at the

6

Positive Behavior Intervention System

65

universal level could be eligible for Tier 2 intervention (McDaniel et al., 2015). Eligibility for Tier 2 services is determined by collaboration of the PBIS team and school administrators.

6.2.2 Tier 2 The supports that characterize PBIS Tier 2 (See Table 6.2) usually apply to 10%15% of the students in a school. These supports are usually provided to small groups, and they are monitored more regularly when compared to Tier 1. Below is a summary of the practices and systems included in Tier 2 (PBIS.org). Monitoring and data collection are used to inform further interventions and to determine responsiveness to the universal supports and incentives (McDaniel et al., 2015). These could be in the form of data collection on frequency of target behaviors in the classroom or review of discipline records. The interventions may include social skills groups, strategies targeting self-regulation, and “checkin/check-out” (CICO), which is a widely used example of a Tier 2 intervention. CICO has also been referred to as the Behavior Education Program (Wolfe et al., 2016). When implementing CICO, the student is provided increased opportunities for positive interaction with adults, in addition to frequent feedback. This process involves the target student meeting with an assigned adult mentor every morning for “check-in”. During this brief meeting, the mentor may review school rules, set a goal collaboratively with the student, and provide the student with a daily progress report (See Fig. 6.3). At the end of the school day (check-out) the mentor will review the progress report with the student and possibly deliver an incentive for goals met. Mentors can be identified as an individual with whom this student already has a rapport, for example a special area teacher or previous teacher. Mentors are often discussed and chosen at PBIS team meetings (Wolfe et al., 2016). A sample of a CICO log is below. Table 6.2 Tier 2 systems and practices Tier 2 foundational systems

Tier 2 practices

An intervention team with a coordinator

Increased instruction and practice with self-regulation and social skills

Behavioral expertise

Increased adult supervision

Fidelity and outcome data are collected

Increased opportunities for positive reinforcement

A screening process to identify students needing Tier 2 support

Increased pre-corrections

Access to training and technical assistance

Increased focus on possible function of problem behaviors Increased access to academic supports

66

G. Pacitto

Check In/Check Out Log Check In

Date:

Time:

Initials:

Check Out

Date:

Time:

Initials:

Fig. 6.3 Check-in/Check-out log

6.2.3 Tier 3 Some students, approximately 5% of the school population, do not respond to the support in the universal and targeted tiers. These students may require the more intensive and individualized support available in Tier 3 (see Table 6.3) due to their complex and extensive behavior problems and histories (McDaniel et al., 2015). Below is a summary of the practices and systems included in Tier 3 (PBIS.org). The interventions developed in Tier 3 are function-based and often include comprehensive functional behavior assessments (FBA) that are conducted prior to developing treatment plans. Data is gathered from various school personnel and through direct observation and multiple methods are used to develop a multicomponent intervention. The FBA process is both time-consuming and labor-intensive, and these students often need other Tier 3 supports, such as mental health counseling. Tier 3 supports require multiple professionals and resources, so it is imperative that schools make efforts to implement effective and consistent Tier 2 interventions to ensure appropriate allocation of resources (McDaniel et al., 2015). Table 6.3 Tier 3 systems and practices

Tier 3 foundational systems

Tier 3 practices

A multi-disciplinary team

Function-based assessments

Behavior support expertise

Wraparound supports

Formal fidelity and outcome data Cultural and contextual fit are collected

6

Positive Behavior Intervention System

6.3

67

Implementation

PBIS has been successfully implemented across seven different states (Horner et al., 2014). PBIS state coordinators from Colorado, Florida, Illinois, Maryland, Missouri, North Carolina, and Oregon completed the State Implementation and Scaling Survey (SSIS). The data generated from the survey included the number of schools in the state implementing PBIS and the timeline of the implementation of different stages of PBIS. All of the states were able to establish scaling (larger implementation across more schools) of PBIS due to administrative support, expertise in training, and availability of trained coaches. These states were all able to achieve a large-scale implementation of PBIS due to establishment of training, coaching, and technical expertise at the local capacity (Horner et al., 2014). The goal when facilitating implementation of PBIS is the achievement of effective school-wide behavior support, not only for students, but for all members of the school community. Effective implementation of Tier 1 supports school-wide will lead to positive outcomes for the school related to both behavior and overall school climate (Bradshaw et al., 2012). Several studies suggest that schools that implement PBIS have more positive relationships among staff (Bradshaw et al., 2008) and significantly fewer suspensions (Bradshaw et al., 2010).

6.4

Application

You may be wondering, how do I apply these strategies in my own classroom, especially with all the other expectations? Good news: you probably are already implementing Tier 1 and Tier 2 supports without even realizing it! The following section will provide you with some examples and tools for the most common behavior issues you may be struggling with in your own classroom.

6.4.1 Tier 1 Supports You may have some students who will do anything to avoid completing an academic task. There are some antecedent (before the behavior occurs) and consequent (after the student engages in the desired behavior) interventions that you can and/or already do use in your classroom (Fig. 6.4). Breaks are a quick, easy to implement option for students that struggle with completing tasks or become easily overwhelmed with longer academic tasks. Breaks can be prompted, or a student can be given a specific number of break cards to use throughout the day. Benefits of giving the students options to take multiple breaks include increasing motivation, avoiding a power struggle, helping the student refocus and refresh. Breaks provide students with the escape they are seeking, without them engaging in inappropriate behavior to access that escape (Tiger et al., 2008).

68

G. Pacitto

Fig. 6.4 Example of a break card

Class-wide reward systems promote positive behavior in the classroom and should be a part of every general education classroom. A visual representation of the system, like the one below, provides tangible indicators of the students’ success. In this example, students may earn pom-poms for prosocial behaviors and win a class-wide reward after a certain criterion is met (Fig. 6.5). You may have a student or group of students that struggle with organization, transitions, and following routine. A visual schedule is another Tier 1 support that can be easily implemented and can especially benefit younger students. Fig. 6.5 Example of a class-wide incentive system

6

Positive Behavior Intervention System

69

Fig. 6.6 Sample visual schedule

Visual schedules promote independence and responsibility and can increase ontask behavior. Below is an example of a visual schedule that can be used for individual students or posted somewhere visible in the room for the whole class (Horner et al., 2005) (Fig. 6.6).

6.4.2 Tier 2 Supports As mentioned earlier in this chapter, you may have students in your classroom that require more intensive, individualized support. Several examples are shared below. They include individual behavior contracts and reward/token boards. When students are struggling to adhere to expectations or complete academic tasks in your classroom, a reward system or contract can provide consistency and increase motivation and effort. These do not need to be time consuming, simply set a goal with the student, and determine a reinforcer for them to access when they have successfully met that goal. Be sure the expectation is reasonable- you want them to “touch” that reinforcement and feel successful! (Figs. 6.7 and 6.8).

6.5

Summary

PBIS is a three- tiered, research-based framework to both prevention and intervention in the school setting. The literature supports the effectiveness of PBIS, but it requires both accurate and consistent implementation to prove successful. Ideally, administration will take an active role in guiding and monitoring their staff to ensure that consistency is achieved. If the team collaborates and administration guides and supports their staff, PBIS has the potential to be both effective and

70

Fig. 6.7 Example of a behavior contract

Fig. 6.8 Sample token board

G. Pacitto

6

Positive Behavior Intervention System

71

self-sustaining (Evanovich & Scott, 2016). While you can utilize these supports in your classroom, even if your school doesn’t use a PBIS framework, it was developed as a system-wide approach. There are several steps you can take to kickstart implementation in your own building. 1. 2. 3. 4.

Download the PBIS Implementation Blueprint (can be found on PBIS.org) Meet with leadership team/administration Set school-wide goals/determine a purpose for school-wide change Contact the local or state coordinator. Every state has a team that can help a school get started with PBIS. (Links can be found on PBIS.org).

After reading this chapter, you have hopefully walked away with tools to promote evidence-based strategies to assist with your own classroom management. PBIS is a system-wide approach, though, that when implemented effectively, can improve not only overall student achievement, but the climate and relationships in your organization.

References Biglan, A. (1995). Changing cultural practices: A contextualistic framework for intervention research, Context, Reno, NV. Bradshaw, C. P., Koth, C. W., Bevans, K. B., Ialongo, N., & Leaf, P. J. (2008). The impact of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports (PBIS) on the organizational health of elementary schools. School Psychology Quarterly, 23(4), 462–473. https://psycnet.apa.org/ doi/10.1037/a0012883 Bradshaw, C. P., Mitchell, M. M., & Leaf, P. J. (2010). Examining the effects of schoolwide positive behavioural interventions and supports on student outcomes: Results from a randomized controlled effectiveness trial in elementary schools. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 12(3), 133–148. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098300709334798 Bradshaw, C. P., Waasdorp, T. E., & Leaf, P. J. (2012). Effects of school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports on child behavior problems. Pediatrics, 130(5):e1136– 45. https://doi.org/10.1542/peds.2012-0243. Epub 2012 Oct 15. PMID: 23071207; PMCID: PMC3483890 Carr, E. G., Dunlap, G., Horner, R. H., Koegal, L. K., & Fox, L. (2002). Positive behavior support: Evolution of an applied science. Journal of Positive Behavior Support, 4, 4–20. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/109830070200400102 Center on PBIS. (2023). Positive behavioral interventions and supports (website). https://www.pbi s.org Evanovich, L. L., & Scott, T. M. (2016). Facilitating PBIS implementation: An administrator’s guide to presenting the logic and steps to faculty and staff. Beyond Behavior, 25, 4–8. https:// doi.org/10.1177/107429561602500102 Horner, R. H., Sugai, G., Todd, A. W., & Lewis-Palmer, T. (2005). School-wide positive behavior support. In L. Bambara & L. Kern (Eds.), Individualized supports for students with problem behaviors: Designing positive behavior support plans (pp. 359–390). Guilford Press. Horner, R. H., Kincaid, D., Sugai, G., Lewis, T., Eber, L., Barrett, S., & Johnson, N. (2014). Scaling up school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports: Experiences of seven states with documented success. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 16, 197–208. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/1098300713503685

72

G. Pacitto

Lewis, T. J. & Sugai, G. (1999). Effective behavior support: A systems approach to proactive schoolwide management. Focus on Exceptional Children, 31, 1–24. https://doi.org/10.17161/ foec.v31i6.6767 McDaniel, S. C., Bruhn, A. L., & Mitchell, B. S. (2015). A tier 2 framework for behavior identification and intervention. Beyond Behavior, 24, 10–17. https://doi.org/10.1177/107429561502 400103 Mercer, S. H., McIntosh, K., & Hoselton, R. (2017). Comparability of fidelity measures for assessing tier 1 school-wide positive behavioral interventions and supports. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 19, 195–204. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098300717693384 Scott, T. M., & Martinek, G. (2006). Coaching positive support in school settings: Tactics and databased decision making. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 8, 165–173. https://doi.org/ 10.1177/10983007060080030501 Sugai, G., & Horner, R. R. (2002). Introduction to the special series on positive behavior support in schools. Journal of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders, 10, 130–135. https://doi.org/10. 1177/10634266020100030101 Sugai, G., & Horner, R. R. (2006). A promising approach for expanding and sustaining schoolwide positive behavior support. School Psychology Review, 35, 245–259. https://doi.org/10. 1080/02796015.2006.12087989 Sugai, G., & Horner, R. H. (2009). Defining and describing schoolwide positive behavior support. In W. Sailor, G. Dunlop, G. Sugai, & R. Horner (Eds.), Handbook of positive behavior support (pp. 307–326). Springer Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-0-387-09632-2_13 Tiger, J. H., Hanley, G. P., & Bruzek, J. (2008). Functional communication training: A review and practical Guide. Behavior Analysis in Practice, 1, 16–23. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03391716 Wolfe, K., Pyle, D., Charlton, C. T., Sabey, C. V., Lund, E. M., & Ross, S. W. (2016). A systematic review of the empirical support for check-in check-out. Journal of Positive Behavior Interventions, 8, 74–88. https://doi.org/10.1177/1098300715595957

7

Group Contingencies Tyler C. Ré and Brittany N. Beaver

7.1

Overview

Classrooms require a carefully devised group of rules. Many teachers have probably had a time where students are choosing not to follow the rules. Teachers may have even asked themselves, “how can I get more students to follow the rules?” One strategy is to create group contingencies. Let’s break this term down a bit. First, group means to focus on several students instead of a single student. Contingency means a rule that includes the expected behavior and what can be earned if the rule is met or taken away if the rule is not met. Therefore, group contingencies are rules that aim to alter the occurrence of a behavior for an individual and a group by explicitly stating what will happen for adherence or breaking of the rule (Litow & Pumroy, 1975). There are three different group contingencies, independent, dependent, and interdependent, that will be discussed in this chapter. The major benefit of a group contingency is that it applies for a group of people and their behavior; therefore, you are not required to memorize individualized plans for that group of people. For instance, it is common for individuals to be part of a team where the team needs to meet a goal to obtain a reward. This is an example of a group contingency.

7.1.1 Benefits and Challenges Group contingencies have many benefits. As already mentioned, the ease of implementing a contingency for a group of people is much easier than implementing T. C. Ré (B) · B. N. Beaver The Chicago School, Chicago, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected] © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 J. Quigley et al. (eds.), Incorporating Applied Behavior Analysis into the General Education Classroom, Springer Texts in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35825-8_7

73

74

T. C. Ré and B. N. Beaver

different contingencies for everyone within a group (Litow & Pumroy, 1975). For instance, it would be rather difficult to implement a plan where one student earns 5 min on their iPad after a 40-min period of following directions and another student earns a walk after 20 min of not calling out during a class lesson. Then continue to add seven more students with different rules and expectations, which would be nearly impossible for one teacher to implement in a class of up to 20 students. It would be much easier to say that each member of the group can earn something after they have met the rules for a 40-min period. Second, a group contingency can stand on its own or can work in conjunction with other teaching strategies (Litow & Pumroy, 1975). For example, visual support, such as schedules placed in the classroom and reminder cards on students’ desks, can be used to assist students in meeting the criteria. Token economies can also be used by visually displaying students’ progress while following the rules and earning the reinforcer. Third, there is the possibility of harnessing the peer pressure that occurs in most environments to achieve goals in a more proactive manner (Cooper et al., 2007). Just as members on a team cheer one another on and congratulate one another, students can provide encouragement and praise to their peers to increase the likelihood they will all meet the expectation. As with all strategies there will be some challenges. With a group contingency, even though peer pressure is a benefit, it can quickly turn into a challenge. For instance, peer support may run a fine line of encouragement and potential bullying. How teachers handle the situation when one person is the reason the group does not meet the goal and other members of the group become angry at the person is critical to the success of the intervention. Let’s look at the three different group contingencies and figure out if it is possible to minimize negative peer pressure and maximize positive peer pressure.

7.2

Three Types of Group Contingencies

7.2.1 Independent Group Contingency An independent group contingency is where every student is working towards the same goal (e.g., completing 10 math problems), but each student needs to independently meet the specified rule prior to accessing the reward (Litow & Pumroy, 1975). For instance, say the same reward will be provided for each person for completing 10 math problems. The reward is the same, but each person will only earn the reward once they have individually met the goal. Meaning, the reward is given to Sally only after she completes the math problems, and to Harry only after he completes the math problems and so on. One way this strategy can be implemented is by using a token economy; the reward menu can be the same for all students, but each student must earn the required number of tokens to purchase the specific items. Let’s look at the vignette below to further illustrate a token economy system.

7

Group Contingencies

75

7.2.1.1 Vignette A school has decided to implement a school wide positive behavior system. As one component of this system, a token economy (rewards of tokens or “money” that can be exchanged for something else) has been developed. In a token economy, “tokens” can be in the form of any visual item, such as poker chips, popsicle sticks, school money, or tallies on a poster board. Students can earn tokens for engaging in specific behaviors related to being safe, responsible, and respectful. In essence, the goal of this system is to catch students being good. For example, a student is walking down the hall and holds the door open for a peer. This could be an opportunity for a teacher to provide a token for being respectful. Another student in the classroom is the only student who put away the materials that were used during class. This is another opportunity for the teacher to give a token for being responsible. A third student watches peers jump over railings on the sidewalk outside of the building. They choose to walk around the railing to enter the school. Here the teacher could use this as an opportunity to give a token for being safe. Furthermore, within the classroom, a token could be given each time a student turns in an assignment by the due date. Once students earn tokens, they need to learn why the tokens are valuable. To establish token value, a token “store” should be created. Students should be able to access the store either on a pre-determined schedule (e.g., every Friday after lunch) or when they have earned enough tokens to purchase an item. A predetermined schedule may be the easiest strategy to manage as a teacher must be available at the store to assist in the trade. Items must be available for differing values, just like any store the student will encounter outside of school. This store can also serve as a fantastic learning opportunity about money value, money management, and budgeting. Some of the items may be little trinkets such as pens, pencils, erasers, or single candy items. For medium level points that “cost” more could be computer time (i.e., 10 min), card games, balls (e.g., play size football, basketball or soccer ball), and king size candy bars available for purchase. For students who want to budget and save (e.g., work towards a long-term goal), they may be able to purchase a lunch with the principal, a coupon for a free pizza from a local purveyor, or the chance to do the morning announcements. These are simply suggestions for what could be included in your store, you should generate a menu based on your students’ preferences and the resources you have available. Make sure that the number of points is equal to the effort/number of tokens required to purchase the item/activity.

7.2.2 Dependent Group Contingency A dependent group contingency requires an individual or a smaller portion of the group to meet a goal in order for the entire group to earn access to the reward (Litow & Pumroy, 1975). For instance, if one person is regularly interrupting class, a procedure for the entire group to earn a reward could be contingent on the one person meeting the goal of interrupting fewer times per class period. Another

76

T. C. Ré and B. N. Beaver

example would be if you set a rule that at least 5 students in the class must receive a high score on their spelling tests. If at least 5 students achieve this goal, the entire class earns an extra 5 min at recess. Hopefully this demonstrates how a dependent group contingency can be implemented using two different strategies; focusing on either a single student or a small group of students. In either strategy, an expectation along with a reward will be selected for how the student or students meet the criteria. The dependent group contingency is sometimes known as the Hero procedure as one student is responsible for earning the reward for the group (Cooper et al., 2007). This title was developed to support the student who earns or does not earn the reward for the entire group. The major concern related to this procedure is if students know who the student is that will earn the reward for the group, there is a potential for negative peer pressure. However, if the group knows who the student is, and the student starts to struggle, the group may provide encouragement to the student to improve the results. Another option is to use a “mystery” student procedure. Meaning, the group does not know who the student is and thus would not necessarily know who failed to meet the criteria, limiting the opportunity for bullying. But, when the criterion is met, the student should be identified so the group can congratulate and thank the Hero. This procedure reduces the risk of negative peer pressure, while hopefully increasing the chance of positive peer pressure among classmates.

7.2.2.1 Vignette A classroom has chosen to implement the Mystery Hero Procedure (Jones, et al., 2008). In this example the teacher sets a criterion of how many points the students should ideally earn during a given class period, morning, or entire school day. The criteria should be announced before starting. For example, “I have selected someone in this class. If they earn 10 tokens by 10 a.m., the entire class will have the rest of the class period to play board games.” During the class period, the teacher can either tally points on the board for each student, tally points on the desk of each student, or give a tangible token (e.g., coin, sticker, etc.). If the targeted student has met the criteria at 10 a.m., the teacher should stop the class and inform them that Johnny met the criteria, and everyone can put away their materials to play board games. If the targeted student does not meet the criteria, the teacher can either continue with the activity or inform the group that the criteria was not met and continue with the scheduled activity.

7.2.3 Interdependent Group Contingency The third type is a combination of the two previous strategies called an interdependent group contingency. This contingency requires that each student within the class meets the criteria such that the group as whole meets the goal (Litow & Pumroy, 1975). For instance, if a goal is set for each student to get 90% on a test and the class to get an average of 95%. If one student scored an 89%, the class

7

Group Contingencies

77

would not meet the criteria, even if the class average met the 95% goal. This type of group contingency is most like the Good Behavior Game (GBG; Barrish et al., 1969). The GBG is a strategy in which the class is divided into at least two teams and rules are set for the teams to follow. Most of the time, points are earned for following rules; but other versions could include “strikes” for not following rules. The team who has the most points earn the reward. Another option is to set a goal to be met, which allows either or both groups to earn access to the reward. In this scenario, both teams can earn if they meet the goal or neither team will earn if they do not meet the goal.

7.2.3.1 Vignette A classroom has chosen to combine the two procedures listed above (e.g., token economy and mystery hero). The teacher should set up the expectations exactly like they did with the mystery hero with one minor modification. Students can earn to play board games if two criteria are met. First, individual students will have to earn at least 7 tokens. Second, the mystery student will have to earn at least 10 tokens. If both expectations are met, then the students who met the contingency can play board games. If both expectations are not met, then the students would be required to continue working on their assigned tasks.

7.3

Implementation of Group Contingency

Babyak et al. (2000) compared variations of contingencies by analyzing eight components. Each strategy was evaluated based on the organization, management, specific behaviors, measurement, reinforcement strategy, criterion for reinforcement, delivery systems, and feedback loops (Babyak et al., 2000). In the description below, each component is further described with the addition of a system to fade the strategies. Ensuring that all aspects of group contingencies are addressed requires planning. This foundation will hopefully support the development of group contingencies in your setting. 1. Organization: What type of behavior needs to be altered? By answering this question, teachers can determine which group contingency will best fit your classroom based on the benefits and limitations of each strategy. It may also be helpful to ask how often challenging behaviors occur and under what contexts, meaning are there certain times of day the behavior is more likely to occur? Another question to ask is, what kind of procedure or reinforcement system will be used? Will positive or negative reinforcement be used? Meaning, students will either earn access to preferred items or will earn the option to remove tasks from their to-do lists. 2. Management: In order to determine if the strategy is effective at changing how often a negative behavior or positive response occurs, a data collection system should be used to evaluate from period to period or day to day. If the strategy

78

3.

4.

5.

6.

T. C. Ré and B. N. Beaver

uses points, you can track the number of points earned for each period and compare. However, it is recommended to evaluate negative behaviors as well. For instance, if the goal is to reduce the number of call outs, data may be collected on the number of call outs or vocal disruptions and the number of times the student raises their hand without interrupting. Although it’s recommended to do both, only one data collection option can be selected. As a teacher, it may be difficult to collect data on both if a paraprofessional is not available for support. Target Behavior: A contingency is the rule(s) that lead to accessing a reward. Any well-designed group contingency will clearly and concisely state the rules and/or expectations for the students to follow. For instance, the rule may be: You raise your hand before speaking in class. A contingency specifies what will happen if the rule is followed. For instance, if you raise your hand and wait to speak during class, you will earn a sticker. System of Reinforcement: During class, how \student(s) are informed whether or not the rule was followed needs to be identified. Several options can be used to signal reinforcement depending on the structure of the contingency. Some options may be to provide points for following a rule (positive reinforcement), take points away (response-cost procedure), provide vocal praise or reprimand statement and/or only provide attention to those following the rules (differential reinforcement). If points are used, the points earned will be traded in for access to preferred items or activities. Criteria to Meet Contingency: What is the criterion to earn access to the reward? The criterion should be based on data collection and target approximately a 50% change in the behavior. For instance, when trying to increase hand raising before speaking and data can be collected, by the teacher or someone else, on the number of times the students raise their hands for a few class periods. If the data show that the class only raised their hands a total of 5 times in the class period, maybe the target criteria would be for them to raise their hands 7 times during the class period. If the goal is to reduce disruptions and the data showed that the class interrupted learning opportunities 10 times during the class period, the goal could be for the class to interrupt learning opportunities only 5 times during the class period. Essentially, what the students must do in order to earn something must be identified based on how they are currently behaving. Delivery of Reinforcer: The reward must be selected. This is a vital component. This can be achieved by asking the class what kinds of things they like to do in school (e.g., extra recess, free time, etc.). However, it is important to note that the reward must be highly preferred by a majority of students in order to see a change in student behavior. Furthermore, teachers must decide how to inform the group if they did or did not meet the criteria. Either way, a great way to inform the group of how they did is to make an announcement at the end of the class period or day. If the class or a portion of the class has earned the reward the teacher should inform them in an excited tone of voice and provide time for them to get their reward at the end of the class period or day. If the

7

Group Contingencies

79

class or a portion of the class did not meet the expectations, the teacher can let them know they can try again another day. When letting them know they can try again, be as natural as possible and use a neutral tone of voice 7. Measurement and Evaluation: Based on the target behaviors (e.g., hand raising, interruptions, etc.), data should be collected and evaluated regularly to determine if the procedure e used is successful. It is recommended that data be collected at least once per week and compared to the previous week’s data to determine the procedures’ effectiveness. This allows the teacher to fluidly alter the plan if the behavior doesn’t change in the way you wanted it to. 8. Strategy to Fade: As with any strategy aimed to alter how often a behavior occurs, a plan to fade the procedure must be created so that the positive behavior starts to occur more naturally. This can be achieved in a few different ways. First, the effort required to meet the rule can be gradually increased. For example, if the goal was for students to raise their hands 7 times per class period, increase the goal to 10 times per class period to earn the reward. Second, the value of the reward earned can be reduced while also increasing the amount of verbal praise provided to the students. For instance, instead of increasing the goal from 7 hand raises to 10, the goal can remain at 7 hand raises, but a less valuable reward can be delivered while continuing to deliver behavior specific praise for hand raising. Third, the procedure can be implemented on some days (e.g., Tuesday this week and Thursday next) and not others or during some portions of a class period (e.g., only during math) and not others. Finally, an announcement that the procedure is being implemented or not during a class period may not always be delivered. If the contingency is going to be run during the next math lesson, an announcement about the rule may or may not be made before starting, but then at the end of the lesson the class would be informed if they raised their hands 7 times and have earned access to a selected reward.

7.3.1 Application of Group Contingency The following example of how to ensure the necessary components are planned for is based on the vignette from the independent group contingency section above. This example uses a third-grade classroom. Additional examples for each type of group contingency are provided at the end of this chapter. 1. Organization: This classroom is trying to increase safe, respectful, and responsible behavior in the classroom environment for all students. 2. Management: A data collection system was created to collect data on the total number of tokens given for the target behavior (e.g., putting materials away, raising hand, helping a peer, etc.) and the number of undesirable behaviors, such as call outs.

80

T. C. Ré and B. N. Beaver

3. Target behavior: Each of the target behaviors should be stated as a rule and rule violation. a. Rules: i. Raise your hand to speak in class. ii. Put all materials away when you are finished with them. iii. If you are having trouble, ask a friend to help. b. Rule Violation: i. Do not speak without raising your hand. ii. Do not leave the classroom without putting items back where they came from. iii. Do not yell or cry if you are frustrated and need help. c. Reward: Earn tokens each time the student follows a rule. 4. System of Reinforcement: Students will learn that they earned a token by the teacher placing a tally mark on a sheet on their desk. This is a positive reinforcement strategy. 5. Criteria to Meet Contingency: “When you follow a rule, you will earn a token. At the end of class, you will be able to exchange tokens for a break activity. If you do not have enough points, you can continue to work on the assignments.” 6. Delivery of Reinforcer: Each student will have approximately 15 min before lunch and before dismissal to cash in their tokens for the purchased activity/ item. 7. Measurement and Evaluation: Data will be collected daily on the total number of tokens earned and the number of negative behaviors. Evaluation of the success of the program will occur bi-weekly. 8. Strategy to Fade: Over the course of the year, the target responses to earn points will systematically be altered. For example, during the first two months of the school year every two instances of desirable behavior will be met with a token. By the end of the school year, it may be that after approximately seven desirable behaviors, the student will earn a token.

7.4

Summary

Group contingencies are fantastic tools that allow a teacher to change the behavior of a group of students without having individualized rules and expectations for each student. Ease of implementation is key to ensuring that the classroom expectations are consistently followed. Group contingencies allow teachers to capture and support desirable peer pressure for meeting goals; however, this could lead to undesirable peer pressure in the form of bullying. So, teachers need to keep a close eye on the type of interactions between students. Multiple strategies can be implemented simultaneously with group contingencies. This type of contingency easily intertwines with a positive behavior support system (see chapter X). It should be noted that it is okay if the group contingency stands independently, however, research does suggest that classrooms that

7

Group Contingencies

81

use multiple evidence-based practices result in the best outcomes (Epstein, et al., 2008; Narhi, ¨ et al., 2017; Sugai & Horner, 2002).

Appendix A: Independent Group Contingency See Table 7.1.

Table 7.1 Independent group contingency example Problem

Students do not complete assigned math problems during independent work time

Goal

Increase number of problems completed during independent work time

Step 1: Organization

• Students will complete the assigned math worksheet in the specified time period • Students will remain engaged with the math worksheet for the duration independent work time or until the worksheet is completed • Independent group contingency • When each student completes the specified number of math problems on the assigned worksheet, the student can have access to their choice for the remained of the independent work time

Step 2: Management

• Data collected twice per week • Number of math problems completed during independent work time • Permanent product- students will turn in the worksheet and the teacher will record the number of problems completed for each student

Step 3: Target

• Contingency will be written on the board in the front of the class • Contingency will be delivered vocally to the class at the start of independent work time

Step 4: Signaling

• Vocal praise will be delivered every 5 to 10 min when all students are working on their math

Step 5: Criteria to meet Contingency • Baseline: 10 out of 15 math problems in 25 min • Criteria: If students complete 13 math problems, students can have access to their choice for at least five minutes Step 6: Delivery of Reinforcer

• Preference assessment in the form of a survey delivered to all students • Students will turn in worksheet when completed, teacher will inform students they can have access to their choice • Vocal announcement at the end of independent work to inform students who did not meet the criteria they can try again next time (continued)

82

T. C. Ré and B. N. Beaver

Table 7.1 (continued) Step 7: Evaluation

• Monitor completion to determine if number of math problems completed is increasing

Step 8: Strategy to Fade

• Once criteria is met for two consecutive weeks, increase to 15 math problems • Decrease duration of reward access • Deliver reward three times per week • Deliver reward once per week

Appendix B: Dependent Group Contingency Example See Table 7.2.

Table 7.2 Dependent Group Contingency Example Problem

A few students regularly call out during group lessons

Goal

Decrease calling out and increase raising their hands

Step 1: Organization

• Students will raise their hands before asking a question or making a comment • Students will remain engaged (i.e., oriented toward teacher or classmates and/or looking at teacher/class materials/classmates) for the duration of the class period • Dependent group contingency • If the selected students meet criteria, students will have access to a chosen reward a the end of the school day

Step 2: Management

• Data collected twice per week • Frequency of students calling out without raising their hands • Teacher will hold a golf counter during class, at the end of the class period, teacher will record the total number of call outs on the data sheet

Step 3: Target

• Contingency will be written on the board in the front of the class • Contingency will be delivered vocally to the class at the start of the period • The selected students will not be names

Step 4: Signaling

• Vocal praise will be delivered every 5 to 10 min when all students are raising their hands to ask questions

Step 5: Criteria to meet Contingency • Baseline: 25 times per day • Criteria: If students call out fewer than 12 times per day, access to a selected reward will be provided for the last five minutes of the class period (continued)

7

Group Contingencies

83

Table 7.2 (continued) Step 6: Delivery of Reinforcer

• Preference assessment in the form of a survey delivered to all students • Vocal announcement at the end of the class periodinform students they can access reward or try again tomorrow

Step 7: Evaluation

• Monitor frequency data to determine if cell phone manipulation is decreasing

Step 8: Strategy to Fade

• Once criteria is met for two consecutive weeks, increase to two days below 12 call outs per day • Three days below five occurrences per day • Access to reward is delivered once per week on Fridays (or the last day of the school week) if frequency of call outs the previous days of the week was below five per period

Appendix C: Interdependent Group Contingency Example See Table 7.3.

Table 7.3 Interdependent group contingency example Problem

Students use cell phones frequently during class

Goal

Decrease cell phone use and increase on-task behavior

Step 1: Organization

• Students will refrain from using cell phones in an inappropriate manner (i.e., for more than 5 s at a time, in any manner not related to the current task) for the duration of the class period • Students will remain engaged (i.e., oriented toward teacher or classmates and/or looking at teacher/class materials/classmates) for the duration of the class period • Interdependent group contingency • If all students meet criteria, students will have free access to manipulate cell phone for the final five minutes of the class period

Step 2: Management

• Data collected twice per week • Frequency of students manipulating cell phone • Teacher will hold a golf counter during class, at the end of the class period, teacher will record the total number of manipulations on the data sheet

Step 3: Target

• Contingency will be written on the board in the front of the class • Contingency will be delivered vocally to the class at the start of the period (continued)

84

T. C. Ré and B. N. Beaver

Table 7.3 (continued) Step 4: Signaling

• Vocal praise will be delivered every 5 to 10 min when all students are refraining from using their phones

Step 5: Criteria to meet Contingency • Baseline: 10 times per class period • Criteria: If students use their cell phones fewer than five times per class period, free access to their phones will be provided for the last five minutes of the class period Step 6: Delivery of Reinforcer

• Preference assessment in the form of a survey delivered to all students • Vocal announcement at the end of the class periodinform students they can access reward or try again tomorrow

Step 7: Evaluation

• Monitor frequency data to determine if cell phone manipulation is decreasing

Step 8: Strategy to Fade

• Once criteria is met for two consecutive weeks, increase to two days below five occurrences per class period • Three days below five occurrences per class period • Access to reward is delivered once per week on Fridays (or the last day of the school week) if frequency the previous days of the week was below five per period

References Babyak, A. E., Luze, G. J., & Kamps, D. M. (2000). The good student game: Behavior management for diverse classrooms. Intervention in School and Clinic, 35, 216–223. https://doi.org/10.1177/ 105345120003500403 Barrish, H. H., Saunders, M., & Wolf, M. M. (1969). Good behavior game: Effects of individual contingencies for group consequences on disruptive behavior. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 2, 119–124. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1969.2-119 Cooper, J. O., Heron, T. E., & Heward, W. L. (2007). Applied behavior analysis (2nd ed.). Pearson. Epstein, M., Atkins, M., Cullinan, D., Kutash, K. & Weaver, K. (2008). Reducing behavior problems in the elementary school classroom (Washington, D.C., National Center for Education Evaluation and Regional Assistance, Institute of Education Sciences, US Department of Education). https://ies.ed.gov/ncee/wwc/Docs/PracticeGuide/behavior_pg_092308.pdf Jones, M., Boon, R. T., Fore, C., III., & Bender, W. N. (2008). “Our Mystery Hero!”: A group contingency intervention for reducing verbally disrespectful behaviors. Learning Disabilities: A Multidisciplinary Journal, 15(2), 61–69. Litow, L., & Pumroy, D. K. (1975). A brief review of classroom group-oriented contingencies. Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis, 8, 341–347. https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.1975.8-341 Narhi, ¨ V., Kiiski, T., & Savolainen, H. (2017). Reducing disruptive behaviours and improving classroom behavioural climate with class-wide positive behaviour support in middle schools. British Educational Research Journal, 43, 1186–1205. https://doi.org/10.1002/berj.3305 Sugai, G., & Horner, R. (2002). The evolution of discipline practices: School-wide positive behavior supports. Child & Family Behavior Therapy, 24, 23–50. https://doi.org/10.1300/J019v24n0 1_03

8

Fluency Lacy M. Knutson

fluency, fluency building, acquisition, mastery, precision teaching

8.1

Overview

All of these individuals are at the top of their respective fields. They perform elegantly and without hesitation. They are fluent performers. A fluent performer is someone who can perform a skill with both speed and accuracy (Binder, 1996). Performing with speed does not mean speed like the Road Runner, as very few skills need that degree of swiftness. However, all skills do require a certain level of timeliness, appropriate to the task, that makes it valuable and functional. This chapter will provide you with information on the value of fluency with respect to ensuring that students are performing in ways that will best serve their success in and outside of the classroom. You may be asking yourself, why bother with fluency? I already know how my students are performing in my class. Fluency adds the extra detail of how quickly that skill was performed in addition to how accurate (Alberto & Troutman, 2013; Binder, 1996). For example, Emily, a sophomore wanting to gain work experience for their college applications, is looking to apply to fill an administrative assistant position responsible for taking dictation. The job posting states that during the

L. M. Knutson (B) The Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Chicago, IL, USA e-mail: [email protected] All Kids Can Therapy, LLC, Madison, USA © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 J. Quigley et al. (eds.), Incorporating Applied Behavior Analysis into the General Education Classroom, Springer Texts in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35825-8_8

85

86

L. M. Knutson

interview, a sample dictation will be completed. It also states a required skill of typing at a rate of 80 words per minute or higher. Clearly, the employer recognizes it will not only be important to ensure the applicants are accurate in their dictation, but also that the dictation can be completed in a timely manner. Thus, ensuring that whoever is hired is productive and efficient. By including this information in the job posting, it helps communicate the skills necessary for the job, but also informs job seekers as to if they have the appropriate skills for the position. Unfortunately, Emily only types at a rate of 70 words per minute. Not to despair, even if an applicant like Emily may not presently meet the rate that an employer is seeking, it provides a clear indication of the type of performance that would make them eligible and gives a concrete goal to aim for. Emily decides to pursue the job and concludes that to be a valuable applicant, they need to increase their typing fluency in preparation for the interview. Fluency therefore is a powerful tool that can inform decision making for all invested parties.

8.2

Learning Phases

Any parent who has been running late but patiently waited for their young child to tie their shoes before running out the door, can tell you that there is a difference between acquiring a skill and being fluent with that skill. Learning can be broken down into two general phases: acquisition building and fluency building (White, 1985). Acquisition building is the first phase during which a student is learning the sequence of steps to perform the skill. During this phase, teachers and aides support the student by providing instructions, prompts, and feedback. To monitor progress, the system most often used is percent correct measures (White, 1985; White & Haring, 1980). To prepare for an upcoming interview, Emily has been practicing taking dictation. Emily listens to a podcast and types what the speakers say. Emily listens for 5 min and then reviews their work. To review, they play back the podcast while reading what has been typed. Any word typed incorrectly or missed is scored as an error. Any words matching what the speakers said are scored as correct. The next step is to calculate their performance accuracy. On Monday, there were 324 correctly typed words out of 360 total words—90% accurate. Not too shabby! Practice continues throughout the week and by Friday, Emily correctly types 328 out of 345 words—95% accurate! Even better—or is it? A common misconception is that if a student’s accuracy is increasing (e.g., accuracy changes from 90 to 95% correct), that means that the student’s competency in that skill is increasing. However, accuracy measures alone can be misleading. This is why the timeliness of a skill is also critical. Let’s give it a try.

8

Fluency

87

8.2.1 Concept Activity In this two-part concept check, you will see that accuracy doesn’t always tell us the full picture. The whole activity should only take you 1–2 min. Materials—2 addition math facts worksheets; pencil; timer. Part 1 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Set your timer to 30 s. Place one worksheet in front of you and the pencil/pen in your dominant hand. Press start on the timer and begin answering the worksheet. When the timer ends, stop your calculations. Pencils down. Count the number of math facts you completed correctly and incorrectly.

Part 2 1. 2. 3. 4. 5.

Set your timer to 30 s. Place one worksheet in front of you and the pencil in your non-dominant hand. Press start on the timer and begin answering the worksheet. When the timer ends, stop your calculations. Pencils down. Count the number of math facts you completed correctly and incorrectly.

8.2.2 Concept Activity Review It is likely that since you have been doing basic addition for quite some time that you were overall quite accurate in your calculations on both worksheets. Perhaps you even received 100% correct on both worksheets. Where you likely saw the largest difference was in the number of digits you were able to write during the 30 s timing. You also likely noticed a marked difference in the legibility of the digits you wrote with your dominant versus non-dominant hand. These are both examples of differences in fluency. Your dominant hand is more fluent with the basic writing strokes (horizontal, vertical, curves, etc.) as compared to your nondominant hand (unless you are ambidextrous—lucky you!). This disfluency slows you down in your writing while not impacting your ability to remain accurate. As you can see, accuracy only tells us part of a student’s ability.

8.3

Application of Fluency Timings

If instruction stops at the acquisition phase, artificial limitations are placed on students from becoming proficient with the skill. To ensure students are competent and the second phase of the learning process, fluency building, must be included. During fluency building, a student gains ease and finesse with the skill, making it

88

L. M. Knutson

useful in everyday life. This is achieved through repeated practice opportunities, monitoring, and feedback (Kubina & Yurich, 2012; White, 1985). Emily has achieved the first phase of learning, acquisition. Dictation is completed while maintaining high accuracy—90–95% correct. Now, Emily needs to transition to the second phase of learning, fluency building. In this phase of learning, accuracy is examined, but it is done within the context of time. By monitoring how many words are correctly typed in a five-minutes timing, Emily can monitor how fluent they are becoming with dictation. To measure fluency, the skill must first be defined and then determine the current speed or rate that the student can perform the skill. Essentially, this is a count (or number of times a response occurred) per unit of time. Classroom examples may include: three hand raises in an hour; twelve times out of seat in 30 min; one page of a textbook read in 3 min. As you can see, all these examples included a count of how many times something occurred, as well as the timeframe in which it occurred. Time is a key element to measuring fluency because everything humans do occurs within time (seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks, months, years, decades, etc.). All skills require a level of fluency to be functional to the task and are therefore suitable for fluency monitoring. Anything from basic skills such as letter identification, phonetic awareness, basic writing strokes, fine motor skills such as pinching, to more complex behaviors such rate of words read correctly, math facts completed, correct science terms, or number of peer-appropriate social exchanges (see Tables 8.1 and 8.2 for additional skills to consider). As you can see in Table 8.2, fluency measures can also be used to examine a student’s abilities to use appropriate replacement skills instead of more challenging behaviors. The possibilities are limitless. To learn even more, check out Chap. 11 on how to select and describe skills targeted for fluency programs in a highly precise manner. So, you’ve decided adding fluency practice into your classroom would be worthwhile, but how are you going to do it? Adding this valuable learning component is easier than you may think. Table 8.1 Possible academic skills to assess student fluency

Reading

Writing

Mathematics

Letter sounds per minute

Basic strokes per minute

Names digits per minute

Words per minute

Traces letters per minute

Math facts per minute

Sentences per minute

Words per minute

Skip count per minute

Summarize ideas per minute

Basic shapes per minute

Symbol identification per minute

8

Fluency

Table 8.2 Possible social-emotional skills to assess student fluency

89

Social skills

Replacement skills

Challenging behavior

Greetings per day

Requests for breaks Aggressive acts per per hr day

Eye contact with peers per 10 min

Requests for help per 30 min

Self-harm per hr

Offers toy to peer per 30 min recess

Requests attention per 10 min

Disruption per 60 min

Cooperative acts per 10 min

Trips to ‘calm zone’ per day

Talking out per hr

8.3.1 Measurement Materials To complete a fluency building session, you will only need a few items: a clear definition of what is being counted, a method to measure your count (pencil, paper, clicker, golf counter, beans, pennies, etc.), and a tool to measure time (stopwatch, clock, timer), a data sheet to document your data (see Appendices of Chap. 11), and a visual display to monitor your progress (see Appendix in this chapter).

8.3.2 One-Minute Timings Fluency building for many skills can be practiced using one-minute timings (Graf & Lindsley, 2002). This saves valuable classroom time. To carry out a oneminute timing session, you will want to ensure that you have enough materials so that the student can perform at a pace where they will not run out before the timing ends. If there are not enough materials, this could result in an artificial performance ceiling. Essentially, the timing window and activity should be structured to be as barrier-free as possible for the student. With the materials ready, set your timer for one minute. Let the student know that they will have one-minute to do as much of the work as accurately as they can. They should be told to start right away when you start the timer, and to keep going until it beeps/ends. Begin the timer (give them a count-down if you like) and let them roll. Or even better, have them run the timer themselves or with a student partner. After the timer sounds, signaling the end of the window, review the work, totaling both the number of items completed correctly and the number of items completed incorrectly. These two numbers are the rates you will be using to monitor progress. Since both correct and incorrect performances vary independently, it is important to keep an eye on both.

90

L. M. Knutson

8.3.3 Alternative Timings For some skills, one-minute timings may not be the best option for monitoring fluency. When one-minute timings do not fit skill being targeted, different timing durations can be used (e.g., 10 s interval, 30 s interval, 2-min interval, 8-h interval, 16-h interval). For example, to monitor the frequency of checking social media on a cell phone, an individual may use a 16-h interval giving them rate of checking per waking day (assuming they slept for 8 h). Additionally, for a student who is new to fluency building practice sessions, a one-minute timing might be too long for them to sustain a fast-pace. By using a smaller timing window (10 or 30 s), the student might be able to maintain an adequate pace, building fluency in small increments. Play around with the duration of time to find which suits the skill and student’s needs best. Once you have the information from the timing, what do you do with it? You use it to guide your instruction. After reviewing progress from Monday to Friday, Emily was a bit discouraged. Despite being more accurate (90–95%), their typing rate slowed (72 to 69 words per minute). Their interview goal now seemed farther away than ever. Rather than giving up, Emily made a plan to ensure they were a qualified candidate for the position. The first step was to review and identify where errors were being made. In reviewing the practice dictation, Emily noticed that the words most often scored as incorrect were those that required use of a pinky finger and pressing keys such as ‘q’ and ‘p’. Rather than adding typing practice of all letters, Emily decided to prioritize building finger dexterity of reaching the ‘q’ and ‘p’ keys. Each practice session started by completing a regular 5-min dictation timing and calculating the typing rate (words correct and incorrect per minute). Emily used this timing as the primary score to monitor progress. They would then complete a 10 s pinky practice session to improve accuracy with their right hand, followed by a 10 s pinky practice session to improve accuracy with their left hand. During these sessions, Emily typed as many single ‘p’s and ‘q’s as they could moving their pinking from the resting position key up to the target key and back in 10 s. The total number of ‘p’s and ‘q’s typed in 10 s was then calculated. Emily then took a 2-min finger stretch/break before completing another pinky practice session for each hand. Following another 2-min finger stretch/break and calculating letter rates, the session concluded by completing a final 5-min dictation. Emily compared this dictation rate to the first one of the day, examining total words typed as well as accuracy. The total process took less than 15 min. By using the performance in the initial 5-min timing to guide the instruction of focusing on pinky dexterity, Emily was able to prioritize skills and save valuable time.

8

Fluency

91

8.3.4 Analyzing Fluency In the late 1960’s, Dr. Ogden Lindsley developed a highly sensitive tool known as the Standard Celeration Chart (SCC) specifically for monitoring performance fluency (see Appendix; Pennypacker et al., (2003)). This chart allows for accurate monitoring and supports decision-making for all types of fluency-related skills. With the help of a group of 7th grade students, Dr. Lindsley identified and labeled the visual patterns of learning that emerged on the SCC when fluency building data were plotted (Graf & Lindsley, 2002). They called these different patterns learning pictures. The learning picture that emerges during fluency building guides the next step in the decision-making process. For example, a “jaws” learning picture is a pattern in which correct responses (indicated by dots; •) are increasing and incorrect responses (indicated by an X) are decreasing, resulting in the two data-paths separating like a shark opening their mouth wide to take a bite (see Fig. 8.1). This improving learning picture means that the program is working well, and there is no need to change anything. However, a worsening learning picture like a “snowplow,” where incorrect responses are increasing, and correct responses are decreasing means that something needs to be modified in the program (see Fig. 8.2). The sooner, the better. While use of the SCC will provide you with the most sensitive display to analyze your data, fluency data can be displayed in the more commonly used equal-interval graph. So, if you are worried that fluency might not be best for your classroom because you are not familiar with the SCC, don’t stress. Start adding fluency building to your classroom routine and analyze it in a way that makes sense to you. When you’re ready to take on the task of expanding your skills to the SCC, consider checking out the Precision Teaching chapter within this book (Chap. 11), the Handbook of the standard celeration chart (Pennypacker et al.,

Fig. 8.1 Data showing ‘jaws’ pattern

92

L. M. Knutson

Fig. 8.2 Data showing ‘snowplow’ pattern

2003) or the DailyBA’s YouTube video Understand the Standard Celeration Chart (SCC) in Eleven Minutes (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhCx6rcfdIY).

8.3.5 Fluency Aims You might be wondering, “what speed am I trying to build my student’s skills to?” Emily was lucky that the job ad was very clear in what they were looking for (i.e., 80 words per minute or higher). However, for many classroom skills, this information is not always provided. Thanks to the field of Precision Teaching, there has been a lot of work on this question. Precision Teachers advocate for expert level aims (i.e., high performance goal rates). If you are unfamiliar with the term ‘aim’, aims are the rate or responses per unit of time you want the behavior performed at (e.g., 200 words per minute). They are the level students should ‘aim’ to build up to. In The Precision Teaching Book, Kubina and Yurich (2012) provide a variety of suggested aims across skills. When looking to add fluency building into your classroom, this book would be a great resource. High aims are selected for several important reasons. In brief, high fluency aims have been found to be superior to lower aims (White, 1985) and result in a variety of additional benefits for the student such as performing well in the face of distractions, after long breaks in instruction, and in new contexts (Johnson & Street, 2004). To say it another way, when students are held to expert level standards, they not only can perform the skill in the context they need it, they also can do it despite other things happening in the classroom and can retain it over summer break. After all, classrooms aren’t always the quietest, least distracting location on the planet. If you are limited in funds and are not able to purchase the resources listed above, another way of determining an appropriate aim is to identify a student that you would consider to be performing at peak performance in the skill. Complete a

8

Fluency

93

timing with that student to identify their current performance rate and use that as an aim to build other student’s skills up to. In this way, you are using a ‘classroom expert’ to identify an aim for students to build towards.

8.3.6 More Than just Timings As discussed earlier, all behavior occurs in time, but doing timing checks is not enough to build fluent performers. Fluency timings, and analyzing the data patterns, should be a roadmap to guide you in making effective and efficient programmatic decisions. Do I turn left, or do I turn right? For example, you may start your reading class by having students do a 1-min timing check to see how many words they read correctly and incorrectly per minute. For those learners who are on track towards their goals, you might assign them work to expand vocabulary or to assist a peer as a model. For learners who are not tracking towards their goals, you may decide to give more direct teacher support or 1:1 peer mentor to focus on component skills that may be weak (e.g., word decoding). By doing a quick 1-min check, each student experiences an individualized plan for their reading progress that is best suited to their needs. What’s better than that?

8.4

Concluding Thoughts on Fluency

Fluency building can be the deciding factor between being able to do the skill and being able to do the skill in a manner that is relevant for everyday application. Accuracy is only half of the learning equation. To be truly valuable, a skill must also have the relevant speed related to it. Measuring and monitoring fluency is a fairly simple process and can be incorporated into all types of settings. If you have the means to count and to time, you have the means to monitor fluency. When selecting the fluency to build a skill to, several resources are available to assist, or you can find a high performer and use them as your benchmark. Building competent learners includes building accurate and timely performance.

94

L. M. Knutson

Appendix

Likeness of a daily per minute standard celeration chart

References Alberto, P. A., & Troutman, A. C. (2013). Applied behavior analysis for teachers (9th ed.). Pearson. Binder, C. (1996). Behavioral fluency: Evolution of a new paradigm. The Behavior Analyst, 19(2), 163–197. https://doi.org/10.1007/BF03393163 Graf, S. & Lindsey, O. R. (2002). Standard celeration charting 2002. Graf Implements. Johnson, K. R. & Street, E. M. (2004). The Morningside model of generative instruction. Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. Kubina, R. M., Jr., & Yurich, K. L. (2012). The precision teaching book. Greatness Achieved Publishing Company. Likeness of a Daily per minute Standard Celeration Chart. Standard Celeration Charts are available at Behavior Research Company, Box 3351, Kansas City, KS 66103-3351. VM 913-362-5900. www.behaviorresearchcompany.com Pennypacker, H. S., Gutierrez, A. Jr., & Lindsley, O. R. (2003). Handbook of the standard celeration chart. Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. The Daily BA (June 22, 2021). Understand the standard celeration chart (SCC) in eleven minutes [Video]. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IhCx6rcfdIY

8

Fluency

95

White, O. R. (1985). Decisions, decisions. British Columbia Journal of Special Education, 9(4), 305–320. White, O. R., & Haring, N. G. (1980). Exceptional teaching (2nd ed.). Charles E. Merrill Publishing Co.

Lacy M. Knutson is now an assistant professor in the College of Arts, Humanities, and Social Sciences at South Dakota State University.

9

Equivalence Based Instruction Timothy D. Caldwell and Laura A. Kruse

9.1

Overview

The abstract language-based connections between different items, events, and situations are some of the most complex behaviors that need to be taught. Sidman (1971) found an effective way to teach these relations through equivalence-based instruction (EBI). In EBI, sequences of stimuli (i.e., items or events within the environment) are taught to be associated with each other through match to sample training (described further below). Teaching this way can lead the individual to learn how to connect stimuli together that have never before been directly trained. The ability to learn language relations without direct teaching, referred to as generative learning, demonstrates one way that instruction can be arranged to promote efficiency. This chapter will provide you with an overview of equivalencebased instruction along with steps to utilize this technology to promote generative language learning among your students.

9.1.1 Equivalence-Based Instruction As an educator the goal is to teach as efficiently and effectively as possible. If each individual skill had to be taught directly, there would not be enough time in the day to meet the required learning outcomes. Luckily, humans are able to engage

T. D. Caldwell (B) Behavior Interventions Inc., Philadelphia, USA e-mail: [email protected] L. A. Kruse The Chicago School, Chicago, USA © The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2023 J. Quigley et al. (eds.), Incorporating Applied Behavior Analysis into the General Education Classroom, Springer Texts in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-35825-8_9

97

98

T. D. Caldwell and L. A. Kruse

in generative learning. Generative learning is the ability to demonstrate skills that have not been explicitly taught (Critchfield & Twyman, 2014). By taking advantage of this ability, teachers can focus on base skills and then facilitate students being able to derive additional behaviors. While many teachers already focus on base skills which serve as a foundation for future learning, approaching the teaching of these skills more systematically can lead to greater efficiency in teaching procedures. Equivalence-based instruction is based on stimulus relations, or the associations between various stimuli that are both presented by a teacher or provided as an answer by a student, which can allow teachers to maximize learning time. For example, an instructional program could be developed to teach children to match the picture of a state, with the state’s name, and the state’s capital. Trials could be implemented to teach two of the relations directly with the other stimulus relations being learned without direct training. This ability to engage in untrained responses is something that is often taken for granted and just assumed to occur. If we directly teach many different stimulus relations, most children learn to engage in generative learning, which can make additional learning more efficient. Sidman (1971) developed much of the early research related to derived learning, which was initially called stimulus equivalence (Sidman & Tailby, 1982). Stimulus equivalence defines three ways individuals can engage in generative learning. First, there is reflexivity, which is the ability to understand that a stimulus (A) equals an identical stimulus (A). Once a student learns to recognize the number “5” for example, they should be able to recognize it each time it is presented. Next is symmetry, the ability to demonstrate that when taught that stimulus (A) equals stimulus (B) the individual can select stimulus (B) to match with stimulus (A). So, if a student is taught to match five items (stimulus B) to the written number “5”, symmetry would occur if they can also match the written number “5” to the group of five items. The third relation is transitivity, which states that if an individual is taught that a stimulus (A) equals stimulus (B), and stimulus (A) also equals stimulus (C), then the individual should be able to state that B equals C without formal instruction between these two stimuli. Continuing with our examples, transitivity would be demonstrated if the student could now identify the group of five items (stimulus group A) when provided the spoken word “five” (stimulus C). The six different relations that can be learned are shown within Fig. 9.1. Using equivalence-based instruction, a teacher should only need to teach two relations (A-B, A-C) in order to derive four additional relations (B-A, C-A, B-C, C-B). The basic examples above of stimulus equivalence are not sufficient to explain all generative learning. Derived relational responding, or the ability to demonstrate untaught skills due to the relationship between stimuli, is a crucial skill for students to have. Many upper elementary school teachers use logic puzzles (see Fig. 9.2 below) to help strengthen the ability to engage in derived relational responding. Students are given some information, such as a person’s name (e.g., John, Matt, Tony) and the positions within the race, but not everything is stated explicitly. Instead, students are taught to derive the order of placement based on clues provided.

9

Equivalence Based Instruction

99

Fig. 9.1 A simplified example of relations demonstrating stimulus equivalence

1 John Matt X Tony Clue 1: John did not finish first or last Clue 2: Matt finished before Tony

2 X -

3 X

Fig. 9.2 An example of a simple logic puzzle. Clue 1: John did not finish first or last. Clue 2: Matt finished before Tony

Within these logic puzzles, students learn to derive other relations besides equivalence. For example, the puzzle may say that John was not first or last. One could derive then that “not first” could mean second or third, and “not last” could mean first or second. Therefore, John must have been in second place. If the puzzle then states that Matt finished before Tony, students could derive that Matt must have finished first (i.e., above Tony and not in second place) and that Tony must have finished last (i.e., below Tony and not in second place). This ability to derive connections such as this is an example of a relational frame of hierarchy. Relational frame theory states that we learn a number of “frames” which allow us to relate one stimulus to another even when they are not equivalent (Blackledge, 2003). In addition to the hierarchy frame, there are frames which allow for oppositional relations (i.e., large, and small, if an elephant is large it cannot be small) and temporal concepts (i.e., If plane A arrived before plane B, then plane B arrived after plan A) as well as a few other relation types (Cassidy et al., 2010). Practicing this ability to derive relational responses through match-to-sample based instruction has been shown to be beneficial even to the general education

100

T. D. Caldwell and L. A. Kruse

student on a more global level. Cassidy et al. (2016) looked at the effects of providing fluency-based practice of derived relations on the IQ of middle school and high school aged students. The students did 45–60 min of training two to three times per day completing the entire training in an average of 90 days. From this fluency practice, the middle schoolers showed an average increase in IQ of one standard deviation and the high school aged students showed significant increases in the verbal and numerical reasoning subtests. Cassidy et al. (2016) suggests providing high rates of practice in teaching derived relations to students. Match-to-sample (see next section) procedures can be used to teach and practice acquiring stimulus relations and relational frames across subjects within the general education curriculum. The next section will discuss specific examples within the classroom where equivalence-based instruction can improve teaching efficiency.

9.2

Application

The main form of teaching derived equivalence and non-equivalence relations is match-to-sample (MTS) training. In MTS, a sample stimulus is set apart from other stimuli, typically above a group of comparison stimuli that are arranged for the student to select the comparison that matches the sample. For example, if a picture of a cat is placed above a row of comparison written words (e.g., cat, dog, bear), then the correct match would be selecting the written word “cat” from the comparison array. In the next trial, a picture of a dog could be the sample stimulus with the same or similar written words in the comparison array, (e.g., cat, dog, bird). In this case, the written word dog would be correct if selected to match the picture of the dog. See Appendix 1 for samples of MTS stimulus cards. As relations are trained within the MTS format, tests for derived or untrained relations can occur. Within a MTS format, training trials typically contain feedback as to the accuracy of a response where test trials do not provide any feedback on correct or incorrect responding. If the picture stimuli are trained to the written words and then the spoken words are trained to the written words, a test in which the spoken words serve as the sample and the pictures within a comparison array can demonstrate whether students are able to derive the untrained relations between the spoken words and pictures (i.e., transitive responding). If the student is able to show these untrained relations a measure of efficiency in teaching has been gained through the use of equivalence-based instruction within an MTS format. In order to increase teaching efficiency, teachers should carefully choose which base skills they are going to teach. Research suggests that teaching student’s expressive language skills such labeling or answering fill-in the blank questions will more consistently lead to generative learning than receptive language skills such as multiple-choice tasks (Sprinkle & Miguel, 2012). Fortunately, there are no specific materials that are needed to promote generative learning beyond knowledge of the skills you need your students to demonstrate. In mathematics, a simple example of stimulus relations is fact families. When a student can be taught 3 + 2 = 5, an understanding of the equivalence relation

9

Equivalence Based Instruction

101

would allow them to derive that 2 + 3 = 5 as well. If the student understands that addition is the opposite of subtraction, then the opposition relation should then allow them to derive that 5 − 3 = 2 and 5 − 2 = 3. Another example is understanding the relation between greater than (>) and less than ( 3 and they have learned that the (>) is the opposite relation of (