|
- An important part of a student's educational experience is the development of stronger communication, self-management, and social skills.
- A strategy in positive behavioral support is to replace a student's problem behavior with new social, communication, and independence-building skills.
- Sometimes problem behaviors and appropriate behaviors are part of the same response class.
- The goal is to find an appropriate behavior that is as easy, or easier, for the student to engage in than the problem behavior.
- An important first step in communication training is to make sure that the new communication response is more efficient than the student's problem behavior before moving on to more complicated communication strategies.
- The number of times a response occurs before a student achieves the desired outcome is considered.
- Another important issue to remember is related to the quality of the reinforcement that a student receives.
- The time it takes between the new response and the presentation of the reinforcer must be addressed.
- Information gathered regarding the student's existing communication strategies might indicate that the student uses appropriate communication skills in other situations.
- Building rapport means that time is spent developing a positive relationship characterized by mutual liking, empathy, and cooperation.
- Create opportunities for you and the student to spend time together engaging in common activities and interests using the list of reinforcing items and activities as a guide.
- The idea is to create natural ways to experience rewarding activities together, not to set up a situation that feels false and uncomfortable for you or the student.
- Use an observation form to collect more information about the length of time that transpires between the beginning of a task or event and the occurrence of problem behavior.
- Systematically reduce the amount of support delivered to ensure that the student will be able to independently engage in the communication response.
- It is possible to change the environment so that it is more difficult for the student to leave the room or receive attention from peers.
- It is important to remember that high levels of communication have been the goal of the intervention and should be seen as a sign of success.
- One strategy would be to create, in collaboration with the student, an agreement that if the student finishes a task independently instead of requesting his teacher's assistance, he can choose a preferred activity.
- Tolerance for delay involves gradually increasing the amount of work completed before receiving a reinforcer.
- If the student continues to use a communication request at extremely high levels, there may be other issues to consider.
- Strategies allowing individuals to manage their own behavior are considered necessary for living independently.
- Self-management strategies have been effective in improving academic performance, productivity, and time on-task.
- Self-monitoring usually involves the student observing their own behavior, recording its occurrence on a data collection form, and graphing the data to observe progress.
- Encouraging students to set their own goals and work towards them can foster self-direction.
- The student takes an active role in self-reinforcement strategies by determining the evaluative criteria, controlling access to the reinforcer, and administering the reinforcer independently.
- The rapport building strategies we described earlier can be used to develop a collaborative atmosphere for building an effective self-management plan with the student.
- It may be useful to designate a small amount of time to assess whether the student is using the self-management plan correctly.
- Self-management strategies promote generalization since students carry cues for engaging in appropriate behaviors and techniques for reinforcing themselves to other settings.
|
