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7 Managing Classroom Behaviors: Tools to Facilitate Behavior Interventions in the General Education Setting
Friday, July 11, 2008
Florida Exhibit Hall A (Gaylord Palms Resort & Convention Center)
Most special educators are equipped during their undergraduate studies with the knowledge needed to implement behavior protocols for children with autism. However, general educators are not given the same knowledge base although current inclusion policies expect them to teach children with special needs (Gongola & Sweeney, 2007). This paper presents strategies to market response cost and token economies to general educators. Both are versatile and feasible strategies to support the learning of children with autism in inclusion settings.
“Joey sit down. Joey sit down. JOEY SIT DOWN!” Do you find yourself repeating this instruction or others like it all day long? With the rise of inclusion practices many general educators find themselves dealing with behavioral issues more frequently (Myers & Holland, 2000). Most often general education teachers have little to no training in teaching children with special needs (Crozier, 2006). What can be done in the classroom to reduce the teacher’s time reprimanding student behaviors? The purpose of this article is to provide general education teachers with two strategies for managing behaviors in the classroom. Token economies and response cost protocols will be described with functional usages for individual or classwide systems.
Reinforcement is a consequence that maintains or increases a behavior. As adults, reinforcement is part of our daily interactions. Think about the following questions: Why do you come to work every day? Why do you strive to do your best? As adults we often work for social rewards such as administrative praise or approval, all of which are our reinforcers. Students have the same needs for reinforcement to do their jobs in the classroom (Gongola & Sweeney, 2007).
When working with children who exhibit difficult behaviors, it is imperative that reinforcement strategies be utilized (Gongola & Sweeney, 2007). Reinforcement can be used in multiple ways in the general education classroom including social, tangible, and activity based rewards. Simple reinforcer sampling can be conducted by the teacher to determine class and individual rewards (Alberto & Troutman, 2006; Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 1987). Token economies and response cost systems are tools for providing reinforcement and are feasible strategies to use with the fast-paced dynamics of a general education classroom.
A token economy is a system for reinforcement delivery which entails identifying behaviors and reinforcers (Heron, & Heward, 1987). When a child engages in a positive behavior, they are then given a token such as a sticker, penny, or ticket to be traded later for the reinforcer. The system can be used with an entire class or with an individual student (Gongola & Sweeney, 2007).
A response cost system is similar to the token economy with an additional procedure in which an individual loses a previously earned reinforcer contingent on an inappropriate behavior (Gongola & Sweeney, 2007). The response cost protocol is concise and when defined for the practitioner, is simplistic to use. Although some teachers are hesitant to use a punishment procedure, Reynolds and Kelley (1997) discussed response cost and identified the procedure as having little disruption to the classroom routine while requiring minimal teacher time or effort. Because implementation is relatively simplistic, prolonged usage is increased (Reynolds & Kelley, 1997).
Researchers frequently discuss the efficacy of behavior procedures such as token economies and response cost and their ability to improve behaviors among populations with special needs. The versatility between token economies and response cost protocols communicates the strength of their implementation (Kazdin & Geesey, 1980; Lazarus, 1990). The behavioral protocols may be modified as individual programs or may be used in conjunction with other protocols to collectively design a treatment package (DuPaul, 1991; Kazdin & Geesey, 1980; Musser et al., 2001) Musser et al. (2001) emphasize the need for both reinforcement based and reductive techniques when striving to increase compliance among children as all procedures have been found to be effective in managing behavior (Filcheck et al., 2004). This paper will delineate characteristics of token economies and response cost procedures and will present visual supports for use among children with autism in the general education setting.
Reinforcement is a consequence that maintains or increases a behavior. As adults, reinforcement is part of our daily interactions. Think about the following questions: Why do you come to work every day? Why do you strive to do your best? As adults we often work for social rewards such as administrative praise or approval, all of which are our reinforcers. Students have the same needs for reinforcement to do their jobs in the classroom (Gongola & Sweeney, 2007).
When working with children who exhibit difficult behaviors, it is imperative that reinforcement strategies be utilized (Gongola & Sweeney, 2007). Reinforcement can be used in multiple ways in the general education classroom including social, tangible, and activity based rewards. Simple reinforcer sampling can be conducted by the teacher to determine class and individual rewards (Alberto & Troutman, 2006; Cooper, Heron, & Heward, 1987). Token economies and response cost systems are tools for providing reinforcement and are feasible strategies to use with the fast-paced dynamics of a general education classroom.
A token economy is a system for reinforcement delivery which entails identifying behaviors and reinforcers (Heron, & Heward, 1987). When a child engages in a positive behavior, they are then given a token such as a sticker, penny, or ticket to be traded later for the reinforcer. The system can be used with an entire class or with an individual student (Gongola & Sweeney, 2007).
A response cost system is similar to the token economy with an additional procedure in which an individual loses a previously earned reinforcer contingent on an inappropriate behavior (Gongola & Sweeney, 2007). The response cost protocol is concise and when defined for the practitioner, is simplistic to use. Although some teachers are hesitant to use a punishment procedure, Reynolds and Kelley (1997) discussed response cost and identified the procedure as having little disruption to the classroom routine while requiring minimal teacher time or effort. Because implementation is relatively simplistic, prolonged usage is increased (Reynolds & Kelley, 1997).
Researchers frequently discuss the efficacy of behavior procedures such as token economies and response cost and their ability to improve behaviors among populations with special needs. The versatility between token economies and response cost protocols communicates the strength of their implementation (Kazdin & Geesey, 1980; Lazarus, 1990). The behavioral protocols may be modified as individual programs or may be used in conjunction with other protocols to collectively design a treatment package (DuPaul, 1991; Kazdin & Geesey, 1980; Musser et al., 2001) Musser et al. (2001) emphasize the need for both reinforcement based and reductive techniques when striving to increase compliance among children as all procedures have been found to be effective in managing behavior (Filcheck et al., 2004). This paper will delineate characteristics of token economies and response cost procedures and will present visual supports for use among children with autism in the general education setting.