The Syllabus is similar to the syllabus for a course. It is your primary reference for information regarding the module. The online capability of the module allows you to access information directly from Levels II and III of the module, but selected elements of those levels also appear in the syllabus to give you a single source for key information. You may find it helpful to have a hard copy of the syllabus available for reference.

There are six major goals for this module. Upon completion of this module, you should be able to do the following:

1. Discuss how each lesson in the module relates to the hypothesis statement that is developed from a functional assessment.



2. Describe how setting event interventions can be used to decrease the likelihood of problem behavior.



3. Discuss how antecedent interventions can be used to decrease problem behavior and provide examples of specific research-validated strategies.



4. Define response efficiency and describe how it relates to teaching new skills.



5. Outline the major steps needed to teach communication and self-management to your students.



6. Describe the basic goals addressed in a consequence intervention and discuss specific interventions that increase desirable behavior and decrease problem behavior.

The Content Outlines are specific to lessons in this module. They allow you to preview the content to be covered in each lesson and to note how the content for the several lessons combines at the module level to meet the goals for the module. You will also find that the Content Outlines will serve as a useful review feature. Later when you have completed the module and wish to review what was covered in the individual lessons you can return to the Content Outlines.

1. Setting Events
   1. Setting Events
      1. Refer to events that momentarily change reinforcers and punisher
      2. Are an important consideration in positive behavioral support
      3. Importance of setting events has been known for quite awhile
      4. Increase the likelihood that an antecedent event will trigger problem behavior
      
      
   2. Difference between antecedents and setting events
      1. Antecedents immediately precede problem behavior
      2. Setting events change the value of reinforcers and punishers
      3. Setting events increase the likelihood that an antecedent event will trigger problem behavior
      
      
   3. Different types of setting events
      1. Environmental and social setting events
         1. Fighting with peers
         2. Crowded conditions
         3. Schedule changes
         4. Music
      2. Physiological
         1. Food
         2. Sleep deprivation
         3. High arousal levels
         4. Allergies
         5. Mood
         6. Middle ear infection
         7. Other illnesses
      3. Two kinds of setting events
         1. Precedes problem behavior in time
         2. Occurs at the same time as problem behavior
      
      
   4. Examples of setting event interventions that decrease problem behavior
      1. Minimizing setting events
      2. Implementing neutralizing routines
      3. Eliminating or withholding antecedents
      4. Adding prompts for desirable behavior
      5. Increasing reinforcement for desirable behavior
      
      
   5. Examples of setting event interventions that increase desirable behavior
      1. Facilitating positive social interactions
      2. Promoting communication
      3. Providing choice making
      4. Designing the physical environment
      
      
   6. Relationship to positive behavioral support
      1. Part of a multi-component intervention
      2. One way to redesign environmental settings
      3. Increases the quality of life for the student
      
      
   
   
2. Antecedent Interventions
   1. Antecedent events
      1. Immediately precede the occurrence of problem behavior
      2. Can be social, environmental, or physiological events
      3. Immediately precede desirable behaviors
      4. Involve eliminating or modifying antecedent events to decrease problem behavior
      
      
   2. Types of social and environmental antecedent events
      1. Time of day
      2. Physical setting
      3. Presence of individuals
      4. Specific activities
      
      
   3. Types of physiological antecedent events
      1. Middle ear infection
      2. Illness and pain
      3. Arousal levels
      
      
   4. Concepts describing the link between antecedents and problem behavior
      1. An antecedent event that serves as a cue for a behavior is a discriminative stimulus
      2. A behavior that is more likely to occur in the presence of a discriminative stimulus, but not in its absence, is under stimulus control
      
      
   5. Antecedent intervention strategies
      1. Eliminate or modify antecedent events within the environment
      2. Decrease problem behavior and promote positive behavior
      
      
   6. Two common types of antecedent interventions
      1. Making Curricular Modifications
      2. Altering how a task is presented
      
      
   7. Modifying the curricular content
      1. Identifying student preferences and incorporating student interests
      2. Altering the task to ensure the activity has a functional outcome
      3. Changing the difficulty level of the task
      4. Preventing student errors by modifying the characteristics of the task
      5. Altering the way in which an academic task is accomplished
      
      
   8. Modifying how the instructional content is delivered
      1. Providing opportunities for choice making
      2. Providing a variety of brief activities instead of one long task
      3. Including activities that the student has already been working on successfully
      4. Interspersing requests that the student is likely to follow with more difficult tasks
      5. Shortening the length of tasks and providing more frequent breaks
      6. Including clear visual cues indicating how much work is expected
      7. Changing the pace of an activity and making smooth transitions
      8. Incorporating strategies that enhance a student's ability to predict upcoming events
      
      
   9. Antecedent interventions can be used at the classroom level as well
   
   
3. Replacing Problem Behavior
   1. Replacing problem behavior by teaching new skills
      1. Importance of teaching new social, communication, and independence-building skills
      2. Interventions address the function of problem behavior
      3. Teaching an alternative response that achieves the same desired outcome
      4. Choosing a functionally equivalent alternative response
      5. Problem behavior and new alternative behaviors can be part of the same response class
      
      
   2. Response efficiency
      1. Physical effort following a response
      2. Schedule of reinforcement following a response
      3. Quality of the reinforcer
      4. Immediacy of the reinforcer
      
      
   3. Preparing for a communication intervention
      1. Identify a functionally equivalent, alternative response
      2. Determine range of activities where student will use new skills
      3. Implement rapport-building strategies
         1. Establish a history of positive experiences with the student
         2. Associate yourself with activities, people, and things that the student values
         3. Create opportunities for you and the student to spend time together
         4. Build a positive relationship that will facilitate communication between you and the student
      4. Determine the point in the activity where problem behavior occurs
      5. Prompt a communication response before problem behavior occurs
      6. Use strategies that make problem behavior less efficient
      7. Create a desirable outcome that decreases high intensity responding
      8. Use tolerance for delay strategies
      
      
   4. Self-management
      1. Taking charge of one's own life and having input in important decisions
      2. Considered a subset of self-determination
      3. Key elements
         1. Goal setting
         2. Self-observation
         3. Self-evaluation
      4. Improve academic performance, productivity, and time on-task
      5. Types of self-management
         1. Self-monitoring
            1. Students observe
            2. Students record
            3. Students graph data
         2. Self-evaluation
            1. Students compare their current performance against a criterion
         3. Self-reinforcement
            1. Students take an active role in determining evaluative criteria
            2. Students control access to the reinforcer
            3. Students administer reinforcer independently
      6. Self-management interventions must consider response efficiency when replacing a problem behavior
      7. Designing a self-management plan with student involvement
         1. Identify the target behavior to be measured
         2. Define the behavior clearly
         3. Make a list of possible reinforcers
         4. Use rapport-building strategies
      8. Initial self-management sessions may involve
         1. Practice in simulated instruction
         2. Role-playing the self-management plan
         3. Direct instruction and demonstration
         4. Practice identifying behaviors to be recorded
         5. Practice identifying obvious and more subtle examples of behavior
      9. Advantages of self-management
         1. Time needed to implement strategies is minimal
         2. Provides more time for instruction
         3. Students carry cues for engaging in self-management to new settings
         4. Promotes a sense of control and ownership of behavior
      
      
   
   
4. Consequence Intervention
   1. Past behavior management approaches
      1. Focused mainly on the consequences a student would receive
      2. Involved reinforcement and punishment of behavior
      3. Did not address the reason why problem behavior occurred
      
      
   2. Schools today rely on the application of consequences
      1. Exclusion, expulsion, and detention for problem behavior are examples
      2. Interventions implemented in schools are primarily negative
      3. An over-reliance on punitive approaches can be a setting event for problem behavior
      4. One explanation for high levels of punishment includes Coercion Theory
      
      
   3. Positive behavioral support now emphasizes a different approach
      1. Preventative strategies redesign the environment and teach new skills
      2. Consequence interventions are one part of a multi-component approach
      
      
   4. Basic goals of consequence interventions
      1. Minimizing reinforcement for problem behavior
      2. Increasing reinforcement for desirable behavior
      3. Redirecting the student towards alternative responses
      4. Providing crisis prevention strategies that assure health and safety
      
      
   5. Strategies for minimizing reinforcement of problem behavior
      1. Response efficiency of a new skill must consider
         1. Effort of the response
         2. Immediacy of the reinforcer following a response
         3. Rate of reinforcement
         4. Quality of the reinforcer following a response
      2. Consequence interventions make problem behavior inefficient
      3. Extinction procedures
         1. Withholding reinforcement for problem behavior
         2. Ignoring problem behavior is an example
         3. Can help you avoid coercive interactions
         4. Some behaviors are difficult to ignore
         5. Behavior gets worse before it gets better
      
      
   6. Increasing reinforcement for desirable behavior
      1. Reinforcement refers to the relationship between behavior and its consequences
      2. Common misunderstandings
         1. Assuming that corrective feedback or negative consequences are never reinforcers
         2. Deciding that "reinforcement doesn't work"
         3. Believing that the same reinforcer works for all students
      3. Noncontingent reinforcement
         1. Providing reinforcement regardless of student's behavior
         2. Delivering reinforcers maintaining student's problem behavior on a time-based schedule
         3. Frequently used in conjunction with extinction procedures
      4. Building a positive climate
         1. Providing positive interactions regardless of student behavior
         2. Including four positive interactions for every request or correction
         3. Spending time listening to and accepting students' ideas
      5. Redirection strategies
         1. Guiding a student toward a positive interaction
         2. Redirection attempts fail when the function maintaining problem behavior is not considered