DIS 1

Readings

1. Cooper et al. Chapter 26

2.  Meier, A. E., Fryling, M. J., & Wallace, M. D. (2012). Using high probability foods to increase the acceptance of low probability foods.  Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,  45(1), 149–153.  https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2012.45-149Links to an external site.

3. Durand, V. M., & Moskowitz, L. (2015). Functional communication training: Thirty years of treating challenging behavior.  Topics in Early Childhood Special Education,  35(2), 116–126.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0271121415569509Links to an external site.

4. This week, we will examine antecedent events as possible intervention strategies. Before beginning, the text warned of the importance of differentiating the evocative functions of both SDs and MOs. Remember, the key difference between the two is that MOs will increase the frequency of a behavior, despite the availability of reinforcement; SDs require the availability of reinforcement.

5. Also, in order to be an effective intervention, we focus on contingency-independent antecedent events. In other words, the antecedent event is not dependent on the consequences of the behavior in order to establish an evocative (or abative effect).

6.  

7. Modify the Content to Prevent Problem Behavior

8. Include Student Interests. One type of antecedent intervention involves identifying student preferences and modifying a task associated with problem behaviors so that it incorporates student interests. The purpose of this type of intervention is to decrease the aversive characteristics of an activity. One research study described an antecedent intervention for a young student who engaged in aggression, talked out loud during quiet periods, made noises from in class, left his seat without permission, and destroyed property. The antecedent event was the teacher’s request that the student complete two worksheets which involved tracing and copying lower and upper-case letters of the alphabet. After tracing the letters, the student then colored the objects that corresponded to each letter of the alphabet. These pictures included balloons, animals, and other objects. The antecedent intervention was to incorporate the student’s interest in cars and motorcycles into this letter-tracing activity. Instead of balloons, animals, and objects, the student was asked to color pictures of different types of cars and motorcycles. The student’s problem behavior decreased, and his participation increased by modifying the task.

9. Change Task Difficulty. There is a clear relationship between task difficulty and problem behavior. Difficult tasks are associated with more student errors, frequent corrective feedback, and lower rates of positive reinforcement - all of which can result in higher levels of frustration, decreases in student responding, and escape-maintained problem behavior. Antecedent interventions that address task difficulty involve modifying instruction to ensure the student experiences higher levels of academic success.

10. In one study, an antecedent intervention was implemented for a fourth-grade student who engaged in aggression, property destruction, made negative verbal comments, and frequently walked away from tasks and activities. Whenever the student was asked to complete an English worksheet that focused on the use of capital letters, punctuation, and abbreviations, she engaged in problem behavior. The functional behavioral assessment determined that the student was reading at a first-grade level. However, her academic reading and writing tasks were at the fourth-grade level. The Antecedent Intervention was to modify the reading tasks to compensate for the student’s skill deficits, include illustrations on the worksheets describing how to complete the tasks, and to highlight and underline important words in the instructions.

11. Sometimes the adaptations needed to decrease the difficulty of a task do not involve lowering expectations of the work. Instead, some interventions involve prompting the student before errors occur in order to decrease mistakes. This approach can increase correct responding and ensure a student's success. Prompting procedures can involve verbal, physical, or gestural prompts that are systematically faded until the student is independently able to complete a task.

12. Keep in mind – we do not always need to make a task less difficult – often problem behaviors emerge in gifted students when they are forced to complete tasks that are of little value to them or do not challenge them. There are several occasions in the classroom where students are “mislabeled” because materials were simply too easy.

13. Make the Task More Meaningful. Activities that are functional have meaningful outcomes and an immediate impact on the learner's life. Choosing activities that produce immediate reinforcement can naturally increase academic responding and reduce problem behavior. For instance, instead of requiring a student to copy letters from a handwriting book real letters can be written and mailed to a pen pal. Antecedent interventions could involve asking a student to write captions in a photo album instead of practicing his writing skills in a standard handwriting book. Teaching an isolated skill out of context of a meaningful activity makes it harder for the student to understand the importance of learning the particular task. In one study, an academic activity that involved the student handing coins to a teacher upon request was changed so that students purchased items using correct change.

14. Change How the Instructional Content is Presented

15. Behavioral Momentum. One way to make a task or activity less aversive is to ask a student to complete a number of “high probability” (e.g. activities the student is more likely to engage in) tasks before a more difficult or non preferred task is presented. This process is called behavioral momentum. Asking the student to engage in a number of “high probability” activities increases the likelihood that he or she will continue to respond to your requests when asked to complete a less preferred task and creates more opportunities to provide positive feedback. One study showed that it is important to vary the high-probability requests each time they are used. When high-probability requests are always presented in the same order, student responding decreases and problem behavior increases, possibly because the requests become associated over time with the less-preferred task

16. Task Length. Another strategy is to present a variety of brief activities instead of one longer task. Research studies report that giving a student a variety of activities instead of one task of longer duration has been shown to decrease problem behavior and increase student engagement. Decreasing the length of the task and providing more frequent breaks has also been shown to decreases problem behavior. In one study a teacher used the exact same spelling assignment but instead of one long worksheet and a spelling activity, the student received a shorter worksheet followed by a writing assignment that took only ten minutes to complete. Providing the same material in smaller chunks resulted in a decrease in the student’s problem behaviors. This type of strategy may increase a student's sense of progress and provide a sense of completion. Another strategy is to intersperse tasks that have already been mastered with more difficult activities in order to increase student engagement and decrease the aversiveness of a challenging assignment.

17. Increasing the Probability of Desirable Behavior. Activities can be organized in a way that prevents problem behavior. Re-scheduling a high-energy activity right so that it does not occur right before a quiet reading activity is an example of an antecedent intervention. Instead, a more proactive approach is to schedule a high-energy activity like recess after reading class. Some interventions use behaviors that are more likely to occur to increase those that are less likely to occur. For instance, a teacher may tell a student that he can spend time finishing a preferred activity after his in-class assignment is completed.

18. Increase Opportunities for Choice. A number of studies have demonstrated that giving the student a choice of possible tasks can increase on-task responding and decrease problem behavior. These research studies indicate that opportunities to make choices in between assignments reduces problem behaviors that are maintained by escape and avoidance. Providing a student who engages in problem behavior several choices at the onset of an activity can decrease problem behavior and increase academic responding, even when the choices between tasks are not preferred

19. In one study, a teacher evaluated whether problem behavior decreased and academic engagement increased when students were able to choose their academic activities when compared to a task chosen by the teacher. Two fifth grade students were given an individualized menu containing a list of tasks that were on their desk throughout the class period. When the students didn’t have a choice, they were told to complete assignments that were listed on the blackboard. The teacher found that when the students had an opportunity to choose their assignments, problem behaviors decreased and engagement levels increased.

20. Create Bridging Activities. Sometimes problem behavior occurs during transitions between activities. A student may be more likely to engage in problem behavior while waiting for the next class activity. A “bridging" activity can be used during the transition. For instance, a student may have a preferred activity that she works on when she completes her in-seat assignment and is waiting for her classmates to finish.

21. Predictability. Many students with disabilities show improved engagement in academic tasks and are less likely to engage in problem behavior when they can predict upcoming events. Studies have shown that Antecedent Interventions that increase predictability in a student's life by using daily schedules, modeling new tasks, rehearsing upcoming events, or rescheduling canceled activities on a visual calendar are associated with decreases in problem behavior. These strategies work even when unexpected changes are still occurring in the student's life.

22. Many of the Antecedent Interventions described in the research studies are designed to decrease escape-motivated behavior. However, these same strategies can be used to address problem behaviors that are maintained by access to preferred events, attention, or physiological factors.

23. Functional Communication Training

24. Functional Communication Training (FCT) provided empirical evidence for the timeless assumption that the misbehavior in children was directly related to deficits in communication (Durand & Moskowitz, 2015). In fact, FCT not only supported the relationship, but the functional equivalence between the problem behavior and the trained appropriate response used in the procedure demonstrated clear causation. This functional equivalence is the mechanism responsible for the behavior change in FCT.

25. Over the past few decades, hundreds of studies have been published that demonstrated the effectiveness of FCT and it is a highly preferred intervention. As reiterated in Durand and Moskowitz, the profitability of this intervention stems from the procedure’s ability to solicit the natural environment for reinforcement, at the control of the learner. In other words, the learner can initiate the intervention before the problem behavior occurs and the natural environment will typically reinforce appropriate communication – even if the learner does not get exactly what they are seeking (e.g., having to “wait” for the request). The implications are favorable for generalization and maintenance.

26. Perhaps the most impressive case for the procedure is the social validity. The original article by Durand and Carr (1985) came at a time when the treatment of individuals with intellectual disabilities was under significant scrutiny (and for good reason!). Skinner once indicated that “The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply controls by changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone”. In hindsight, FCT seems so simple – give a person a way to get what they need without hurting themselves or others. As stated in the original article – behaviorists had long known that problem behavior served a function – but it was FCT that truly conceptualized problem behavior as a mode of communication. And this distinction humanizes the response, making it more approachable by the learner’s stakeholders. In other words, instead of seeing a child hitting, we see a child saying, “Help!”

27. High-Probability Sequence

28. As with FCT, the high-probability instructional sequence is just what it sounds like – instruct a learner to complete a couple of responses that are easy or already in their repertoire before asking them to do what traditionally has been refused. Basically, building “momentum”, or what Mace and Belifore (1990) identified as behavior momentum.

29. Many people will arrange their daily to-do lists in this manner. Simply organize the day so that you can knock off several “easy” items. For those who find “task completion” as a reinforcer, this schedule of reinforcement may “push” them into the more arduous tasks, ultimately finishing the day accomplished.

30. In the extra readings this week, you read about emerging research with the high-p sequence with food acceptance programs. Though a lot of this research continues to have mixed reviews, the procedure is far more ethical than say, escape extinction.

Readings

1. Cooper et al. Chapter 26

2.  Meier, A. E., Fryling, M. J., & Wallace, M. D. (2012). Using high probability foods to increase the acceptance of low probability foods.  Journal of Applied Behavior Analysis,  45(1), 149–153.  https://doi.org/10.1901/jaba.2012.45-149Links to an external site.

3. Durand, V. M., & Moskowitz, L. (2015). Functional communication training: Thirty years of treating challenging behavior.  Topics in Early Childhood Special Education,  35(2), 116–126.  https://doi.org/10.1177/0271121415569509Links to an external site.

4. This week, we will examine antecedent events as possible intervention strategies. Before beginning, the text warned of the importance of differentiating the evocative functions of both SDs and MOs. Remember, the key difference between the two is that MOs will increase the frequency of a behavior, despite the availability of reinforcement; SDs require the availability of reinforcement.

5. Also, in order to be an effective intervention, we focus on contingency-independent antecedent events. In other words, the antecedent event is not dependent on the consequences of the behavior in order to establish an evocative (or abative effect).

6.  

7. Modify the Content to Prevent Problem Behavior

8. Include Student Interests. One type of antecedent intervention involves identifying student preferences and modifying a task associated with problem behaviors so that it incorporates student interests. The purpose of this type of intervention is to decrease the aversive characteristics of an activity. One research study described an antecedent intervention for a young student who engaged in aggression, talked out loud during quiet periods, made noises from in class, left his seat without permission, and destroyed property. The antecedent event was the teacher’s request that the student complete two worksheets which involved tracing and copying lower and upper-case letters of the alphabet. After tracing the letters, the student then colored the objects that corresponded to each letter of the alphabet. These pictures included balloons, animals, and other objects. The antecedent intervention was to incorporate the student’s interest in cars and motorcycles into this letter-tracing activity. Instead of balloons, animals, and objects, the student was asked to color pictures of different types of cars and motorcycles. The student’s problem behavior decreased, and his participation increased by modifying the task.

9. Change Task Difficulty. There is a clear relationship between task difficulty and problem behavior. Difficult tasks are associated with more student errors, frequent corrective feedback, and lower rates of positive reinforcement - all of which can result in higher levels of frustration, decreases in student responding, and escape-maintained problem behavior. Antecedent interventions that address task difficulty involve modifying instruction to ensure the student experiences higher levels of academic success.

10. In one study, an antecedent intervention was implemented for a fourth-grade student who engaged in aggression, property destruction, made negative verbal comments, and frequently walked away from tasks and activities. Whenever the student was asked to complete an English worksheet that focused on the use of capital letters, punctuation, and abbreviations, she engaged in problem behavior. The functional behavioral assessment determined that the student was reading at a first-grade level. However, her academic reading and writing tasks were at the fourth-grade level. The Antecedent Intervention was to modify the reading tasks to compensate for the student’s skill deficits, include illustrations on the worksheets describing how to complete the tasks, and to highlight and underline important words in the instructions.

11. Sometimes the adaptations needed to decrease the difficulty of a task do not involve lowering expectations of the work. Instead, some interventions involve prompting the student before errors occur in order to decrease mistakes. This approach can increase correct responding and ensure a student's success. Prompting procedures can involve verbal, physical, or gestural prompts that are systematically faded until the student is independently able to complete a task.

12. Keep in mind – we do not always need to make a task less difficult – often problem behaviors emerge in gifted students when they are forced to complete tasks that are of little value to them or do not challenge them. There are several occasions in the classroom where students are “mislabeled” because materials were simply too easy.

13. Make the Task More Meaningful. Activities that are functional have meaningful outcomes and an immediate impact on the learner's life. Choosing activities that produce immediate reinforcement can naturally increase academic responding and reduce problem behavior. For instance, instead of requiring a student to copy letters from a handwriting book real letters can be written and mailed to a pen pal. Antecedent interventions could involve asking a student to write captions in a photo album instead of practicing his writing skills in a standard handwriting book. Teaching an isolated skill out of context of a meaningful activity makes it harder for the student to understand the importance of learning the particular task. In one study, an academic activity that involved the student handing coins to a teacher upon request was changed so that students purchased items using correct change.

14. Change How the Instructional Content is Presented

15. Behavioral Momentum. One way to make a task or activity less aversive is to ask a student to complete a number of “high probability” (e.g. activities the student is more likely to engage in) tasks before a more difficult or non preferred task is presented. This process is called behavioral momentum. Asking the student to engage in a number of “high probability” activities increases the likelihood that he or she will continue to respond to your requests when asked to complete a less preferred task and creates more opportunities to provide positive feedback. One study showed that it is important to vary the high-probability requests each time they are used. When high-probability requests are always presented in the same order, student responding decreases and problem behavior increases, possibly because the requests become associated over time with the less-preferred task

16. Task Length. Another strategy is to present a variety of brief activities instead of one longer task. Research studies report that giving a student a variety of activities instead of one task of longer duration has been shown to decrease problem behavior and increase student engagement. Decreasing the length of the task and providing more frequent breaks has also been shown to decreases problem behavior. In one study a teacher used the exact same spelling assignment but instead of one long worksheet and a spelling activity, the student received a shorter worksheet followed by a writing assignment that took only ten minutes to complete. Providing the same material in smaller chunks resulted in a decrease in the student’s problem behaviors. This type of strategy may increase a student's sense of progress and provide a sense of completion. Another strategy is to intersperse tasks that have already been mastered with more difficult activities in order to increase student engagement and decrease the aversiveness of a challenging assignment.

17. Increasing the Probability of Desirable Behavior. Activities can be organized in a way that prevents problem behavior. Re-scheduling a high-energy activity right so that it does not occur right before a quiet reading activity is an example of an antecedent intervention. Instead, a more proactive approach is to schedule a high-energy activity like recess after reading class. Some interventions use behaviors that are more likely to occur to increase those that are less likely to occur. For instance, a teacher may tell a student that he can spend time finishing a preferred activity after his in-class assignment is completed.

18. Increase Opportunities for Choice. A number of studies have demonstrated that giving the student a choice of possible tasks can increase on-task responding and decrease problem behavior. These research studies indicate that opportunities to make choices in between assignments reduces problem behaviors that are maintained by escape and avoidance. Providing a student who engages in problem behavior several choices at the onset of an activity can decrease problem behavior and increase academic responding, even when the choices between tasks are not preferred

19. In one study, a teacher evaluated whether problem behavior decreased and academic engagement increased when students were able to choose their academic activities when compared to a task chosen by the teacher. Two fifth grade students were given an individualized menu containing a list of tasks that were on their desk throughout the class period. When the students didn’t have a choice, they were told to complete assignments that were listed on the blackboard. The teacher found that when the students had an opportunity to choose their assignments, problem behaviors decreased and engagement levels increased.

20. Create Bridging Activities. Sometimes problem behavior occurs during transitions between activities. A student may be more likely to engage in problem behavior while waiting for the next class activity. A “bridging" activity can be used during the transition. For instance, a student may have a preferred activity that she works on when she completes her in-seat assignment and is waiting for her classmates to finish.

21. Predictability. Many students with disabilities show improved engagement in academic tasks and are less likely to engage in problem behavior when they can predict upcoming events. Studies have shown that Antecedent Interventions that increase predictability in a student's life by using daily schedules, modeling new tasks, rehearsing upcoming events, or rescheduling canceled activities on a visual calendar are associated with decreases in problem behavior. These strategies work even when unexpected changes are still occurring in the student's life.

22. Many of the Antecedent Interventions described in the research studies are designed to decrease escape-motivated behavior. However, these same strategies can be used to address problem behaviors that are maintained by access to preferred events, attention, or physiological factors.

23. Functional Communication Training

24. Functional Communication Training (FCT) provided empirical evidence for the timeless assumption that the misbehavior in children was directly related to deficits in communication (Durand & Moskowitz, 2015). In fact, FCT not only supported the relationship, but the functional equivalence between the problem behavior and the trained appropriate response used in the procedure demonstrated clear causation. This functional equivalence is the mechanism responsible for the behavior change in FCT.

25. Over the past few decades, hundreds of studies have been published that demonstrated the effectiveness of FCT and it is a highly preferred intervention. As reiterated in Durand and Moskowitz, the profitability of this intervention stems from the procedure’s ability to solicit the natural environment for reinforcement, at the control of the learner. In other words, the learner can initiate the intervention before the problem behavior occurs and the natural environment will typically reinforce appropriate communication – even if the learner does not get exactly what they are seeking (e.g., having to “wait” for the request). The implications are favorable for generalization and maintenance.

26. Perhaps the most impressive case for the procedure is the social validity. The original article by Durand and Carr (1985) came at a time when the treatment of individuals with intellectual disabilities was under significant scrutiny (and for good reason!). Skinner once indicated that “The ideal of behaviorism is to eliminate coercion: to apply controls by changing the environment in such a way as to reinforce the kind of behavior that benefits everyone”. In hindsight, FCT seems so simple – give a person a way to get what they need without hurting themselves or others. As stated in the original article – behaviorists had long known that problem behavior served a function – but it was FCT that truly conceptualized problem behavior as a mode of communication. And this distinction humanizes the response, making it more approachable by the learner’s stakeholders. In other words, instead of seeing a child hitting, we see a child saying, “Help!”

27. High-Probability Sequence

28. As with FCT, the high-probability instructional sequence is just what it sounds like – instruct a learner to complete a couple of responses that are easy or already in their repertoire before asking them to do what traditionally has been refused. Basically, building “momentum”, or what Mace and Belifore (1990) identified as behavior momentum.

29. Many people will arrange their daily to-do lists in this manner. Simply organize the day so that you can knock off several “easy” items. For those who find “task completion” as a reinforcer, this schedule of reinforcement may “push” them into the more arduous tasks, ultimately finishing the day accomplished.

30. In the extra readings this week, you read about emerging research with the high-p sequence with food acceptance programs. Though a lot of this research continues to have mixed reviews, the procedure is far more ethical than say, escape extinction.