I work in a magnet life skills classroom of 7th and 8th graders that consists of 8-10 students with multiple disabilities including Downs Syndrome, Mental Retardation, Cerebral Palsy, Vision Impaired, and Autism. Most have come to our setting with learned challenging behaviors. While there are a number of factors to consider when adapting a behavior intervention such as home life, SES, and medical factors, it is important to address the behavior that is occurring at school ( Chandler & Dahlquist, 2010).
One intervention has been to simply ignore the behavior. This is used in cases of whining, blurting, and mild protests. Generally when the students use these behaviors they are trying to use bad behavior to get teacher attention. Rather than give them this attention, I simply ignore them until they use appropriate behavior and then give them the attention they need (Hester, et al).
Another intervention has been to work individually with a student who would not come to school by setting up a simple rewards system with him. For every five times he comes to school he gets to “buy” a snack from the snack bar at lunch. The teacher has an account set up with the lunch ladies and she lets them know that he can buy a snack that day. This is simple and both the teacher and lunch staff can support it (Lewis).
Another intervention with a boy who would drop in the class or hallway or refuse to work was the break card. If he did not feel like he could do the task or needed a break he could use the card and have a 10 minute break. This idea was to decrease the “dropping” and need to escape and also increase appropriate behavior (Chandler & Dahlquist, 2010).
Another intervention with a boy in our class was to keep a daily report card and give both positive and negative remarks for each class period. Mom would then award video games, bicycle, and new music to help reinforce good choices. (Fabiano, et.al).
All of these interventions have been effective except for the break cards. While I see the reasoning behind the strategy, it was not effective mostly because the boy was too cognitively impaired to understand them. He could not think about when he was going to be frustrated or tired with a task. It ended up when he dropped and was presented with a break card and instructed to use it he would just throw it or destroy it. What do you think? Maybe it needed to be pre-taught better. I have seen it effectively used, but more with students without cognitive delays.
Fabiano, G., Vujnovic, R., Pelham, W., Waschbusch, D., Massetti, G., Pariseau, M., Naylor, J., Yu, J., Robins, M., Carnefix, T., Greiner, A., & Volker, M.. (2010). Enhancing the Effectiveness of Special Education Programming for Children With Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Using a Daily Report Card. School Psychology Review, 39(2), 219-239. Retrieved November 11, 2010, from ProQuest Education Journals. (Document ID: 2079021001).
Chandler, L, & Dahlquist, C. (2010). Functional assessment: strategies to prevent and remediate challenging behaviors in school settings. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson.
Hester, P., Hendrickson, J., & Gable, R. (2009). Forty Years Later -- The Value of Praise, Ignoring, and Rules for Preschoolers at Risk for Behavior Disorders. Education & Treatment of Children, 32(4), 513-535. Retrieved from Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection database.
Jenson, W. R., Rhode, G., & Reavis, H. K. (1994). The tough kid tool box. Longmont, Co.: Sopris West.
Lewis, Beth. "Should You Offer Extrensic Classroom Rewards for Good Behavior?." K 6 Educators About. com. About.com, n.d. Web. 11 Nov 2010. http://k6educators.about.com/cs/classroommanageme3/a/rewardsprizes.htm
