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Behavior Contract SED 402

Written By: Emily Tittiger

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Behavior Contract

Student: P Date: October 31, 2013 - November 8, 2013 Assessment: Talking out of turn during instructional time Behavior: Verbal communication Observer: Emily Tittiger

Baseline Data: Event Recording Number of times P. raised hand/talked out of turn during the school day Date 10/31 11/1 11/4 11/5 11/8 Time All day All day All day All day All day Tally (Raising Hand) llll llll llll llll llll ll llll llll llll llll llll l llll llll lll Average Total 10 17 14 11 13 13 Tally (Talking Out of Turn) llll llll llll llll llll llll llll llll llll llll llll llll llll llll lll llll llll llll llll llll llll l llll llll llll llll llll llll llll llll llll llll llll llll Average Total 34 40 31 35 25 33

Talking out of Turn Range: 25-40 times per day Mean Frequency: 33 times per day

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45 40 35 30 25 20 15 10 5 0 Talking Out of Turn

Information Gathered P demonstrates inappropriate behaviors during class time instruction. His talking out of turn not only disrupts his peers and the teachers instructions, but is also impeding the ability of his own learning and grasping of new concepts. The teacher has taken proactive measures that were put in place to prevent Ps challenging behavior from occurring. These measures included praising appropriate responses and honoring the students request when appropriate, prompting a series of easier behaviors prior to prompting a more difficult behavior or task, along with using a calm, neutral tone of voice. There have been two main behaviors that P has presented in class; talking out of turn with his hand being raised, and plainly talking out of turn. The function of this behavior at first sight appeared to be random, but after taking a closer look, my cooperating teacher and I realized that it could be one of two reasons. The first is that P was seeking attention from anyone. This attention was met and reinforced when peers would either talk back or ask him to be quite, or when the teacher would use verbal cues to redirect P. The second function of this frequent behavior may also be avoidance, or escape of work. P had been trying to terminate or avoid all unwanted work by talking out of turn, knowing that if his behaviors were extreme he would have he would receive the attention he desired, but instead this behavior poses a problem for the classes learning environment. The consequence of this behavior would be that P is avoiding work and not properly grasping the concepts being taught.

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Antecedent Work is presented to P

Behavior In order to avoid the work, P is constantly raising his hand

Consequence P is falling behind on class instruction

Behavioral Contract: Target Child: P, 16 year old student who is Special Needs Unit 2. P. is not a struggling student, yet he constantly talks out of turn throughout the day which causes a distraction for not only his peers, but also distracts his own learning. Class: George Junior Republic 8-12th grade emotional disturbance/Unit 2 All academic subjects Target Behavior: Student is talking out of turn: o Speaking out loud during group instruction o Speaking out when students are to be working independently o Speaking out during transition time o Speaking without being called on or raising hand Target Behavior Goal: Decrease the number of times P talks out of turn without his hand appropriately raised by 60% with a current baseline of 10% as measured by teacher. Daily Behavioral Standard: Student is to: o Raise hand appropriately o Refrain from speaking out of turn during any form of class instruction; large or small instructional groups, independent study, and during transition periods. Length of Contract: Start 10/31/13 Finish June of 2014 (or until P. returns to home/public school)

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Contract Terms: The classroom instructor will monitor the frequency of P. talking out of turn during instructional class time. An individualized prompt will be made for students desk in order to help redirect the undesired behavior. Since George Junior uses a behavior point system, where students work towards having a clean slate or zero points , the teacher will use this same familiar system to base P.s contract on. As students at George Junior complete desired behaviors, they lose points on their behavior plans, therefore undesired behaviors means adding points. The teacher will create a point system for P that is based around George Juniors behavior plan, a system that P is familiar with. P will start with a total of 20 points. Each time he appropriately raises his hand in class, and refrains from talking out of turn, P will lose a point becoming closer to the goal of having zero points thus having a clean slate. Each time P inappropriately talks out of turn or is off task during instructional class time, P will gain a point. The teacher will keep a chart on Ps desk as a visual reminder for desired behavior. P will be able to physically cross off each time he raises his hand to speak in class. The teacher will also have a copy of the chart to use to manage the desired behavior. Example of Chart: 20 19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1 Each time P appropriate raises hand during class, he will cross of a number. P. will receive reward once all numbers are crossed off.

Reinforcer for meeting contract terms: Once meeting the desired goal of losing all points in Ps behavior system, P will have a choice of the following: o Five tickets to go in the monthly raffle (a system already established by classroom teacher) o Additional Computer Time o Receive one brain break o ** choices chose by P Who will implement plan: The behavioral plan will be implemented by me, Miss T., as well as the classroom teacher. The instructional aide will also be aware of the contract and will implement the behavior plan during the four periods each day she assists the classroom instructor.

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Rationale The goal of Ps behavior contract was developed by a familiar system that he would be able to easily know how it works, what he has to do in order to receive reinforcement and have desirable consequences, and in reverse, he knows what happens when undesirable behaviors occur. The student was involved throughout the process of identifying the target behavior, what desirable behavior is expected of him and how to appropriately conduct himself during class instruction in order to obtain the desired behavior. P was involved in selecting the reinforcers for meeting contract terms. The plan will be implemented by classroom instructors, based on a visual chart on Ps desk. This chart will allow P to visually see how many points he has, and his progress along the way. How goal was developed: The goal was developed after obtaining and analyzing data over five school days. The classroom teacher finds this behavior to be disruptive to other students and also disrupts his instruction. Although little intervention has been tried thus far; the classroom teacher suggests my work to be focused on this skill. After analyzing the data, it was clear that P.s distractive behavior is problematic in the classroom. P.s goal states that we will work towards decreasing target behavior by 60%. As the weeks go on, the behavior will continue to decrease.

How student was involved in developing the reinforcer: When creating this behavior contract for P. I thought it was important to allow him to choose his own rewards for positive and desired behavior. As we have discussed in class throughout the semester, it is an important aspect of teaching to adapt instruction/rewards according to the students in your class. Especially since P. is a student in high school, I knew it would be most appropriate to allow him to choose the appropriate reward he will receive for desired behavior. Once meeting the desired goal of losing all points in Ps behavior system, P will have a choice of the following: o Five tickets to go in the monthly raffle (a system already established by classroom teacher) o Additional Computer Time o Receive one brain break o ** choices chosen by P How plan will be implemented: P will start with a total of 20 points. Each time he appropriately raises his hand in class, P will lose a point becoming closer to the goal of having zero points thus having a clean slate. Each time P inappropriately talks out of turn or is off task during instructional class time, P will gain a point. The teacher will keep a chart on

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Ps desk as a visual reminder for desired behavior. Once P. receives a clean slate and has zero point, he will receive a reinforcer of his choosing (he will receive an option of three choices). If P. continues to add points and exceeds the number 20 to his behavior chart, P. will receive a negative consequence of receiving a hole punch on his behavior card (system used at George Junior). The goal is for P. to eventually stop talking out of turn. The decision of decreasing the number of points on P.s behavior chart will be determined by the teacher after analyzing P.s progress over time. What if the contract fails? If the contract is not being positively implemented: o Adjust contract point system o Allow P. to add his own input on what might work better for him o Consult classroom teacher (is the problem the students behavior or the contract itself?) o Change reinforcers to more appealing ones o Adjust the behavior chart located on P.s desk (change the number of points if necessary)

Summary

Rationale for Behavior Selected: The particular behavior was selected for P. because it is not only disruptive for other students in the class, but also impedes P.s own ability to learn. P. is constantly talking out of turn during instructional time. Not only does P. speak out of turn during inappropriate times throughout the day, but he often talks about topics irrelevant to the main topic. Even when P. is on task, his comments made without raising his hand often makes other students in the class frustrated when they want to share their idea with the class and wait patiently to do so. What Interventions Have Been Tried? Not much intervention has been tried to correct this behavior. The classroom teacher often uses verbal cues to P. and positive reinforcements to students who remain on task and following directions (i.e. raising hand, staying on topic). The teacher has also taken several proactive measures to prevent Ps challenging behavior from occurring. These measures included praising appropriate responses and honoring the students request when appropriate, prompting a series of easier behaviors prior to prompting a more difficult behavior or task, along with using a calm, neutral tone of voice. In severe cases, the teacher will give P. a hole punch on his behavior card if the behavior is out-of-line.

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Antecedents/Behavior/Consequence: In most cases of P.s behavior, the antecedent occurs when P. is presented with work, or class that P. is not interested in. The behavior P. exhibits are talking out of turning, and/or talking off topic. The consequence of this behavior is disruptiveness for P. as well as other students, and well as student falling behind in class instruction. Results of Data Collected: From the results of the data collected, it is evident that P.s habit of talking out of turn is surely disruptive. On the first day of collecting data, P. talked out of turn 34 times. On the second day he talked out of turn a total of 40 times, day three 31 times, day four 35 times and day five 25 times. On average, P. talked out of turn 33 time per day, while only raising his hand and appropriately responding an average of 13 times per day. The data was collected for five days, using intervals of fifteen minutes. Although most of the data collected remained somewhat consistent throughout the five days, some days were worse than others. Being in an emotional disturbance classroom, the overall mood and behavior P. was in during a certain day or class could greatly skew the results. Overall, it seems as though as the week went on, the behavior slightly decreased. The data collected was an overview of the target behavior occurring in the classroom.

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Behavior Contract

I __________________________ agree to the conditions of the Behavior Contract listed above.

(Student Name)

X
P***** Student

X
Mr. Truran Teacher