lab art_1 ESE425 Classroom Management of Exceptional Children Email Professor
lab art_2 Behavioralist Module
Home : Behavioralist Module : Assignment 3

Behavior Change Contract

To complete this assignment successfully, you should:

  1. Study the assignment carefully
  2. Enter your response(s) in the space(s) provided
  3. Fill in your Name and Email address
  4. Send the Assignment

  5. Tally up 's for completion of this assignment.



Assignment: Develop a behavior change contract on a student.


An easy way to complete this objective is to read about behavior contracting in the text.

Hyman, the author of your text, gives a slightly different name to the behavior change contract. He calls it Behavioral Diagnosis. He describes the set of steps and necessary procedures on pp. 50 - 63 in the text. Please review that material and then proceed.

Most behaviors are linked to situations in the environment and needs or drives that the student feels. They become behavior problems when they come in conflict with the needs of the teacher or the behaviors and actions of other students. If you are student oriented, this analysis is the next step in helping a student find a better way to gain need satisfaction. If you are content oriented, this is the next step in getting the classroom order reestablished and students back under control and on task. (Which of the two orientations do you think fits the behaviorist philosophy of education and describes the teaching role?)

Steps in Making a Behavior Contract:

  1. Identify the problem behavior.
  2. Define the behavior clearly in observable terms.
  3. Observe the student in the setting.
  4. Identify antecedents for student misbehaviors (what sets the behavior in motion).
  5. Look for or ask about the needs being fulfilled or the student motives.
  6. Identify replacement behaviors that are likely to fulfill the student needs.
  7. Develop an intervention plan.

You may choose Case One which comes out of your Hyman book and is a fairly simple case (p. 37), or take on a more difficult challenge and try Case Two.

Case One:

Chris is an eleven year old boy in the sixth grade. He lives with his natural mom, step dad, new sister, age 1. The familyās income is considered middle class, both parents work at blue collar jobs. The parents divorce occurred during Chrisās kindergarten year at school. He was in a regular kindergarten, moved to from kindergarten to transitional 1st grade, then on to a regular 1st grade.

His behavior in kindergarten and first grade was restless, clingy, dependent, and sometime oppositional. In the second grade the earlier behaviors disappeared, and were replaced with more appropriate, grade level skills; able to do work, did well in some areas "when he wanted to," periodically misbehaved, When misbehavior occurred the teacher had trouble getting him to attend to work, daydreamed. Reports show that this behavior remained consistent through 6th grade.

In the sixth grade he became very disruptive- inconsistent in following directions, out of seat, talking out of turn, making aggressive statement and gestures toward other students, when asked to sit down or stop bothering them. He never physically attacks his peers, but his behavior is erratic.

By afternoon, Chris spends very little time at seat work compared with his peers. The teacher believes that Chris is not learning much in class, although he is able to pass tests when he studies for them during class time.

Case Two:

Jerome is an eleven year old fifth grade student. He is of an average size, and weight. He was retained last year due to his lack of retention and absenteeism. Jerome lives with his mother, older brother, and younger sister. His father is not present at this time, but continues to move in and out of the childās life. The home life isnāt a stable one, and the family continues to move around the community a lot.

The mother has stated that there were no problems during pregnancy or delivery. During a student interview, Jerome stated he would rather spend time with adults or older students, and that he enjoys riding and working on his motorcycle. His mother reaffirmed his statement during the parent interview. Jerome has a learning disability plus has been diagnosed with ADHD. He is currently not taking medication since the Ritalin he was taking gave him migraine headaches.

He is in the average to low average intelligence range and performs his academic work below his intelligence range. Jerome has problems controlling his anger, and keeping his hands to himself. He has also been heard saying obscene remarks about women to the young girls in his class. Many times he does this when no one is listening or he thinks no one is listening. He has stated, during a student interview, that the children tease him and this teasing makes him angry.

Jerome acts out in class by drawing attention to himself and away from the teacher. He makes loud noises that disturbs the rest of the class, refuses to do assigned work, typically ignores the teacherās requests, and sometimes even gets under the tables to gain attention. Jeromeās teachers and other staff members have requested help.

Problems Identified:

Physical violence and threats towards other students

Lack of attention during class

Ignoring the teacherās requests to complete work

Disruptive during instruction

Belief systems addressed by Jerome's home room teacher:

Biophysical: Diagnosis of ADHD by physician, needs to return to The doctor and have medication changed to something he can take That won't give him migraine headaches. Treatment options - rule out organic problems and prescribe medications that do not cause headaches.

Behavioral/Cognitive-Behavioral: ADHD causes impulsivity, Aggression toward peers, especially girls seems to be reinforced and action is increasing; refusal to work is reinforced by teacher reaction and the students appear to give muted approval, even when acting scandalized, Arrived at through classroom observations, checklists, behavior records from classroom. Treatment options - Behavior contract, Behavior charts, Develop an intermittent reward system for acceptable behaviors, Teach appropriate behaviors such as anger management, time on task.

Ecological: Difficulty working or associating around others, seems to have more difficulty when not supervised, even has problems at home sleeping at night, and resting well÷could be caused by ADHD. The anger is more evident at school, according to the mother, and is triggered when others tease him and this upsets him, Arrived at by use of parent interview, student interview, and observation. Treatment options - Enhance communication skills, change seating in classrooms if problem, encourage learning in personal strengths, work to build a stronger learning community and support the student learning to get along better with peers and gain approval for positive behaviors.

Humanistic: Seems to search for approval and security in a relationship, very mature thinking, seems distrustful of peers and others, wants and enjoys success, needs more goal orientation, Arrived at through peer interviews, student interview, parent interview, and observation of student. Treatment options - Increase trust in relationships, build friendship with student especially a man, build a stronger sense of self by recognizing student strengths in front of other students, provide grade-level work, help student to learn self-control.

Psychodynamic: Seems to not have any serious developmental delays, actually has very logical thinking, and seems emotionally mature..this may even be part of the problem since others arenāt as mature about things and seem childish to him, therefore making him angry. Arrived at through interviews, case history from parents, observation in classroom. Treatment options - Use logical consequences and discuss responsibilities and expectations, provide experiences that allow for some measure of success, help student feel more empowered by helping him set and work toward realistic goals, give student a chance to show independence and responsibility, psychotherapy on at least a weekly basis.

SUGGESTED READING
Hyman text, Chapter Three, pp. 41-84


SUGGESTED ACTIVITY

Follow each of the steps in defining your case study and developing a behavior change plan.

  1. Define the behavior clearly in observable terms -- remember to choose just one thing to work on at a time. It is clear there are a number of things a teacher may want to change, but that is patently unfair and too troublesome in the process. How do you decide? Well I ask myself -

    a) what do I really need this child to do - or-

    b) what is really in this student's best interest -or-

    c) what is at the root of all this - what thing can I change that will change everything else -or-

    d) what is a clear danger or has the potential of being a clear danger

    and once that is chosen I define the behavior I want to work on in observable terms - notice, I am changing the behavior, not trying to change the child.

  2. Observe the student in the setting -- and remember, in behaviorism, that is a pretty set observation. Typically it calls for looking at the behavior at a set interval -- not every few minutes, but more like the first 15 seconds of every minute for 45 minutes -- or observe and note actions continuously for 15 minutes, and do that once an hour for the whole school day. Hyman set up a chart like the following and observed Chris for a whole classroom period. He found that the Chris was out of his seat 8 times in the period. You can see how to set up that kind of chart in Hyman, pp 60 - 61. As you can see, the author chose out of seat behavior as the target behavior. More information about baseline data is in Hyman, pp. 53-4).

    Baseline for 01-21-01

    Times out of seat in 45 minute period

    _l____l_____l_____l____l_____l_____l_____l___ _l_____l______l______l______
    1 ----2-----3-----4----5-----6-----7-----8----9-----10-----11-----12------

    Behavioral Charting

  3. Identify antecedents for student misbehaviors (what sets the behavior in motion). This is where the real creativity and genius of teaching occurs. In behavior modification terms, you are looking for behavioral clues. In psychology terms you are looking for the motivations behind the student actions. If you really get to be an expert or master teacher, part of your success will come in your ability to either intuitively or through observation and discussion, find the antecedents.


  4. Look for or ask about the needs being fulfilled or the student motives. What do you think might be the triggers for Chris being out of his seat? It is likely that there are many. Motives or needs may not be obvious at first. It may take a while to find all of them. If you find one or two and get replacement behaviors for them, the plan will probably be inconsistent, but it will work some. If you find a surface antecedent, but miss the root cause or need, the child will probably find a replacement behavior. So even if you keep Chris in his seat with reinforcers and contracts, he may start doing things that are more disruptive. Most replacement behaviors are more bothersome than the behavior we contract to eliminate.

  5. Identify replacement behaviors that are likely to fulfill the student needs. Example: One time I found a way to keep a child in his seat - or at least near his seat, by putting a duck tape square area around his desk and then lessening the size of the perimeter as he got better at staying in the area. He did learn to stay in his seat, but it wasn't long before he was throwing spit wads to get the attention of his peers, since he could not reach into their study spaces for peer contact and stimulation. Since I did not find a replacement behavior that would meet the real need expressed by out of seat behavior, he did. Some folks may say this is not a very clear part of behavior management ALA Skinner, but his experiments with rats netted some of the findings discussed here. If a rat was hungry, but crossing to food meant a shock, some would run across. Others would sit at the side of the site closest to the food but not in the shock zone and quiver. Eventually, some rats became so unable to chose or function that they had to be put to sleep. To make this part work well, a teacher needs two things -- a good idea about why the student is acting as they are, and something to put in its place. This time, let's look at a child who is thumb sucking. No one is certain why seven-year-old Jenna is back to sucking her thumb. She does it surreptitiously by laying her head on her desk and putting her arm around her face and hair. It is not easy to see her sucking her thumb, but it is easy to see that she is not interacting with others and is not doing her work. The teacher gives some real thought to a replacement behavior and decides that she will allow gum chewing and bubble blowing. While Jenna is chewing gum, she does not suck her thumb, so it turns out to be a great choice.

  6. Develop an intervention plan. Let's make an assumption about Chris and his out-of-seat behavior. After careful examination, the teacher - or you, the observer, realize that Chris wants peers to pay attention and like him. He has a lot of stimulation in the morning, but the activities in the afternoon are less structured. In addition, after spending lunch feeling left out or harassed by others, he is angry and miserable.
Intervention plan
Teacher Goal - Increase time on task

Intervention -

1. Use cooperative learning in the afternoon and teach students to interact appropriately.

2. Proximity - float by the group often and support Chris when cooperating

3. Teach Chris positive ways to get attention from his friends

4. Agree on a nonverbal message to help Chris when he first gets out of his seat or disrupts the process

Reinforcements

1. One on one time with a peer mentor for assignments.

2. Participation in group and cooperative learning when able to control actions and stay on task.

3. Opportunity to talk with teacher at least one 15 minute session per week on what is working and things that are not going well.

4. Can pass out supplies and help with teacher tasks while in control of self.

5. When not able to control self, must move to carrel in back and work alone.

Student Goal - Liked by peers

1. Use verbalizations to let peers know he wants to belong.

2. Ask friends for support and to help him do things that make him likable.

3. Work on self control by watching teacher and responding positively to nonverbal signals.

 

There are many plans available on the Internet, too. Click here to go to a site that gives more than 50 interventions for working with students who are ADD or ADHD, and this is a great article on social skills enhancement for students with LD .


EVALUATION OF ASSIGNMENT
- RUBRIC
Excellent

The seven step plan was used to analyze a student behavior or set of behaviors.

Each of the steps is addressed in the write up, with a behavior chosen, defined and a sample of a base line graph is included that provides a context for the student's patterns, and likely antecedents. In addition, there is an effort to determine student motives, and at least one appropriate replacement behavior is included in the intervention plan.


For grading purposes, please provide the following information:

Your Name:
Your Email address:

Once you have filled in the areas above, click the Send button below to send your response to the instructor.

  

E-mail J'Anne Ellsworth at Janne.Ellsworth@nau.edu

Course Created by J'Anne Ellsworth & Center for Technology Enhanced Learning

Copyright © 2001 Northern Arizona University
ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

Module Door FAQ's ...ask Detective Lizzie Module Map Lab Lizzie Module Objects Email