Association for Behavior Analysis International

Teachers today face with a multitude of challenges, but disruptive student behavior should not be one of them. This symposium explores behavioral techniques to reduce disruptive student behavior in classroom settings. The first study evaluated the Prevent-Teach-Reinforce Secondary (PTR-SEC) with three students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) and other disabilities. A multiple baseline design across participants showed that PTR-SEC was efficacious in improving the students’ behaviors, decreasing problem behaviors and increasing replacement behaviors. The second study examined the effectiveness of and preference for teacher-implemented accumulated and distributed schedules of reinforcement with three children. Results indicate that both schedules of reinforcement decreased interfering behavior, and participants preferred the distributed arrangement. The third study investigated the incorporation of function-based intervention into self-monitoring and its impact on the behavior of three middle school students with autism spectrum disorder. A multiple baseline design across participants evaluated the effects of the function-based self-monitoring procedure. Results showed increases in functional communicative responses and improvement in classroom behavior for all three participating students. Collectively, these findings demonstrate the effectiveness of low-cost behavior techniques to reduce disruptive student behavior for teachers in school settings. Implications for involving classroom teachers in school-based interventions will be discussed.

1. Familiarity with principles of function-based interventions 2. Interest in and some experience working with teachers 3. Some familiarity with differential reinforcement, preference assessments, and functional communication

Prevent-Teach-Reinforce (PTR) is a manualized, team-based, function-based intervention designed to prevent problem behavior from occurring (prevent), teach functional replacement behaviors or skills (teach), and promote the replacement and other desired behaviors (reinforce). The current study extends the literature on the PTR intervention model by evaluating the PTR model for middle school students in a public middle school setting. The PTR Secondary (PTR-SEC) model was evaluated with three students with emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) and other disabilities, involving their classroom teachers. A multiple baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the behavioral outcomes of the students as they participated in the four steps of teaming and goal setting, assessment, intervention, and evaluation. Results showed that PTR-SEC was effective in improving all three students' behaviors, decreasing target problem behaviors and increasing replacement behaviors. The correspondence between the direct observation data collected by the research team and the Individualized Behavior Rating Scale Tool (IBRST) data collected by the teachers was relatively high for all students, indicating high usability and feasibility of the IBRST by classroom teachers. A strength of this study was the high teacher social validity scores, reflecting their approval of the PTR-SEC intervention and effectiveness in improving behavior.

Self-monitoring is a widely used evidence-based practice in the school setting, shown to be effective in improving both student behavior and teacher performance. However, to date, few studies have investigated the use of self-monitoring to address the functions of problem behavior. To further investigate the incorporation of function-based intervention into self-monitoring and its impact on improving student behavior, this study aimed to examine the effects of a function- based self-monitoring procedure on functional communicative response and problem behavior in three middle school students with autism spectrum disorder. The study procedures included a functional behavior assessment, preference assessment, functional communication training, and teaching self-monitoring procedures. A multiple baseline design across participants was employed to evaluate the effects of a function-based self-monitoring procedure. Data collection is currently ongoing. The results showed increases in functional communicative responses and improvement in classroom behavior for all three participating students. Concurrently, their task engagement levels improved while problem behaviors decreased, demonstrating a promising effect on enhancing the students' overall classroom conduct.