Social Skills

Social skills is one of the most difficult concepts to teach individuals because it requires a mechanism that many individuals with disabilities lack - reading other people's social cues. As a result, many individuals either do not generalize the skills they have been taught or they use them inappropriately. When this occurs, it is called a performance deficit - a person has the necessary social skills needed to perform socially appropriate behaviors, but does not use them or does not use them at socially appropriate levels.

I worked with a student a few years ago who was 5 years old at the time. He used to love Barney the dinosaur, so we taught him to ask students if they wanted to play with his figurines. He would ask "Wanna play Barney with me?" I was asked to work on a different case and did not see the child again until he was 8 years old. I was observing him in the classroom and saw him go up to a student and ask "wanna play Barney with me?" The teacher was thrilled at the fact that he had maintained his social skills throughout the years. What do you guys think about this situation? Does this student have a performance deficit or has he mastered his social skills?

Visual Prompts

Visual prompts have assisted some of my students to learn the skill of addition. In order to teach comprehension of this skill, I allowed my students to add two numbers using manipulatives. After this skill was mastered, the students were taught to add using a number line. These visual cues have supported my students in the process of addition and virtually guaranteed success, which is a powerful motivator. Hopefully, my students will begin to memorize these addition facts to increase fluency.

How do you use visual supports in your instruction?

An Advantage of Community- Based Instruction

Community-Based Instruction is instruction that is carried out outside the confines of the classroom. Students either walk or take public transportation to travel to a nearby grocery store, restaurant, convenience store, etc.. and apply skills that they have learned within a classroom environment. This is a clear example of training using sufficient exemplars. The behavior of making a purchase is not always performed in exactly the same way in exactly the same place. Students need to be provided with sufficient lessons and examples to generalize the skill of making a purchase. Student store in a classrom is one way of teaching this skill; however, performing this skill in a real life situation allows for generalization. The community is the most ideal place of instruction since it also prepares them for the realities of daily living.

RtI and Behavior

I spent Friday at an inservice on RtI and behavior. The women who did the presentation are from San Bernadino. The gave a lot of good information and also a website with forms and ideas that can be used in a classroom, school wide or district wide. The website is: www.modelprogram.com. Everyone should check it out, it may not seem worth looking at unless you are in classroom, but if I had know about this website before I started teaching, I would have had a much better start to the year.

Self Management and students with Autism

I found it interesting to note that in chapter 11 there was a breakdown of the effectiveness of self management with students with severe disabilities. This made me think of students I have worked with who have autism. To me, self management would be quite successful. I have had students that were fascinated with time, which tells me they would be great at monitoring how long it would take for them to complete a task or how long they must stay on task. Often these students would remind me of what they were supposed to do and when, so I say we should be taking advantage of these strengths within our students with autism. I have been told by my superiors that many children with autism want to follow "the rules" and gain a lot from structure. If we could work with students to have them create and be responsible for their own aspects of structure, this could be very useful. However the down side I see is a student becoming upset when getting only 4 points instead of the 5 points he wanted. So teaching some flexibility is also important, and focusing on a range of appropriate behavior and not just one possible way to be successful. Do any of you have any thoughts on this subject? Autism is definitely one of those areas we will most likely deal with and brainstorming solutions now can always help us in the future.

Final Review

Basically, you'll need to know concepts and issues that were addressed in the SPED 553 course AFTER the midterm exam...understanding that some concepts were covered BEFORE and AFTER the midterm...so, they will be included in the final exam.

Be knowledgeable of the following:

* Positive and negative reinforcement
* Punishment
* primary and secondary reinforcers
* schedules of reinforcement
* Stimulus control
* Generalization
* Elements of a contract
* Prompts
* Differential schedules of reinforcement (DRA, DRI, DRO, DRL)
* Social Skills (Performance vs. Skill deficits)
* Given a case,

• know how to identify the problem behavior using appropriate terms,
• select data collection systems,
• analyze data, determine if beh. is performance or skill deficit,
• develop appropriate strategies,
• identify and make recommendations for changes in the ecology/environment,
• develop a self-recording system, and
• teach student to self-reinforce.

I will see you all sometime next week...and if I don't see you, have a great summer!

Jose Luis

substitute teacher help

I have recently ended a long term subsitute teaching assignment (6 mos.) for a teacher on medical leave. I now find myself working in different classrooms every day. I encounter many different students with many different issues and behaviors. Most of the time I don't know the students and sometimes I don't even know their names. Most of the time there are no serious behavior problems and if there are I just send them to the office. Even though there are usually no serious behavior problems many student could have improved behavior and students who may have behavior issues could be kept from escalating to that point. I try to use positive reinforcement as much as possible in the form of verbal praise. Does anyone have any creative ideas about how to manage student behavior for a short period of time when you do not know the students?

Who Are We Serving??

Chapter twelve reminds us that we must be responsible in our use of behavior analysis procedures. There is one section in particular that emphasizes that the behaviors targeted for change should be those whose change will benefit the student. As we begin state testing, I think that this is an important reminder because it's easy to forget that we are serving individuals and young people. It is all to easy for our students to become numbers, statistics, or miniature pscyhological experiments.

I keep signs posted around my desk and around the room that remind me why I teach, and that I am ultimately there to serve the best interests of the children. Does anybody else have any ideas about how to keep the children's interests at the forefront?

Self monitoring and recording Attempt

I just wanted to share an story. After reading all of this great stuff on self monitoring and recording, I decided to try to apply it to my current job, which resulted in some less than positive feedback from other school personnel.

I am currently a 1 on 1 aide for a 4th grade student who has diabetes, NO cognitive delays, and is in a general ed. classroom. He has a one on one primarily to ride the bus with him, but I have also been given directions to help monitor his behavior, as he is prone to behavior issues when his blood sugar is low. Every school day, Peter (the student I work with) tests his blood sugar 4-5 times. He is fairly independent with his testing and understands all the devices and numbers that go along with his condition. After every time he tests in class, he gets up and calls the nurse, who writes down in his log book his numbers, and advices him what to do if his numbers are off (which is only about 15% of the time).

After reading the last couple of chapters I began to think that Peter should be self monitoring and recording. And so I came up with the idea of having Peter keep his own log, as well as having the nurses log in the nurse's office. Peter (with my supervision) would learn how to fill out his log, and keep track of his numbers during the day. Doing this would be good practice for Peter's independent health monitoring and would give him a feeling of "responsibility" over his own health. It could also be a scaffold eventually leading to Peter being less reliant on calling the nurse several times a day (having to get up in class to call the nurse, even when his numbers are normal, is a big class distraction.)

However, when I approached the school nurse with this idea, she immediately shot it down. She did not think that Peter would be responsible enough and did not see the point. I was very disappointed. It seems like all this self monitoring and recording is a great idea, but I believe that a lot of adults would have a hard time relinquishing power to students. Thoughts?

Self Reinforcement

Self Reinforcement is the ultimate goal to teaching the children in our classrooms. When a child can self reinforce they are no longer relying on an outside source to supply their reinforcement. The individual knows what is reinforcing and then is able to manage their own behaviors. This is a life skill that is very necessary for the children we teach to blend into society. Self-recording charts are an example of how to teach students to monitor their own behavior. An advantage to charts like this is that students can observe and record more than one behavior at a time. In addition, meeting their goal on a self-recording chart can be rewarding in itself. Just filling in the chart and knowing they met their goals can be enough to keep them continuing to perform their desired behavior, even without praise or recognition from others. If self-recording is not enough to maintain their behavior, self reinforcement after completing a certain amount of steps could be used. For example, once the child has completed 2 assignments, then they could take a break for a few minutes and engage in a preferred activity.

Self-Recording

Self-recording is “data collection on one’s own behavior (also called self-observation, self-evaluation, or self-monitoring)". I engage in self-recording more than I realized! One strategy I use is checking off tasks from my “to-do” list. Although the task may not be difficult, just the idea of accomplishing something is rewarding. My dilemma is how to get students to want or strive for that feeling of accomplishment and eventually use that feeling as a reinforcement. This is probably a task that will take more than just one school year. When asked to complete an assignment or task, I usually get “I don’t know”, “I don’t know how”, or “I can’t do it”. How can I use self-recording to motivate students? And how do you teach students the importance of being honest to his/herself when conducting self-evaluations?

A caution about audience and the benefits of video

Recently I have become aware that it is really important to not only assess the consequence of behavior like getting attention for their behavior but also the intended audience. For awhile we have been trying to ignore the inappropriate behavior of a student who speaks inappropriately to the staff in a variety of ways. The behavior really seemed to be seeking attention from the staff since it was directed at the staff. However, after watching the students behavior on video it became clear that he is attempting to gain attention from his peers. While he was addressing the teacher and the inappropriate comments were directed at getting the teachers attention. It became clear that while we, the staff, were trying to ignore the behavior to put it on extinction, he was looking at the other students to see their reaction to us ignoring him since his behaviors were so over the top. We weren't seeing him look at the other students who have been trained to ignore as well but find it much more difficult to do so. I really dislike being video taped but it is instances like these that remind me how valuable a tool recording the students and yourself can be in the assessment process of figuring out the ABCs. It lets you see things in a different light.

Managing one's own behavior

After reading chapter 11, I realized how important it is to teach students how to manage their own behavior. Teachers at all levels can help their students learn goal setting. I realized that I have been teaching goals to my students without even knowing it! I work in a preschool class and potty training is a goal most of the students want to achieve. All three of the adults in the classroom make going potty a huge deal and show how proud we are of the students when they use the potty and so do the students. The students want to be a big boy or girl and wear cool underwear so they strive to achieve their goal. The students that do not want to achieve this goal don't until they are ready. We can not force a child to use the restroom, when they are ready and want to achieve the goal they usually can train within a few short weeks. I also notice in my classroom that lots of students use self-instruction, including myself. My students talk their way through problem solving when something goes wrong or they are working on a tough puzzle. We have an ABC puzzle and the student's usually say the letter then look all over the puzzle to find where it goes. I know they are using self instruction skills while putting the puzzle together.

Inclusion

After responding to Tonnette’s thoughts on the lack of education and training provided to general education teachers on the subject of applied behavior analysis, I find expanding on the topic of Inclusion as this topic is important when considering inclusion as well as a few others. Let’s begin with a definition of inclusion: a student with a disability receiving special education services being served in the general education environment. It is more and more prevalent, whether it is to find a loophole to NCLB or simply allow special education students exposure to typical peers in order to gain social skills with the added benefit of a more “real world” mixed environment that will likely exist after public education ends. It has had many benefits for all students, but there are some definite concerns when not implemented correctly or misused. I have worked in inclusion for almost five years now and the conflicts between the views and methods of general education teachers and special education teachers have been the most difficult part of my job. This first began when I assisted a young girl who was medically fragile. The general education teacher did not feel this student should be treated any different from her typical peers, that is did not see that this child, though included, still should have her needs met. Now at my current job, the general education teacher does not think that my student, in her words, needs to “get it,” i.e. learn. These conflicts create some difficult situations, mostly because the training a general educator receives and in fact often whole paradigm is much different from that of a special educator. Also, there are often just “too many cooks.” In my position as a special education aide I likely speak to five people each day that tell me what to do, some general ed, some special ed, and I am left to determine whose opinion has the most validity. Is it the child’s case manager who has followed the child from day one? Is it the general educator who spends most of her day with the student, observing him the most, but does not have the special education background or insight? I’m sure some of these questions arise in this type of position no matter what, but to me, if inclusion continues to be the direction of special education, there needs to be much more cohesion within education, training, and management of all educators involved in inclusion.

Functional Skills

Students need to learn skills that will enable them to function effectively in their environment. Teaching those skills should be the primary focus of every student's educational program. Functional skills vary from person to person. It is functional for some students to learn the multiplication tables in order to learn higher mathematical concepts, and, likewise, it is functional for some students to learn household skills so they can contribute to the duties around their house. According to the textbook, "In every case, the choice of skills must be based on the assumption that unless evidence clearly exists to the contrary, an individual...is capable of full participation in community life and [has] a right to such participation.”

At what point should the attempt to teach academic or pre-academic skills to students with disabilities be abandoned? Should the attempt even be made with some students?

Generalization

Generalization can be achieved only when an individual can perform a skill in conditions other than that of acquisition. As teachers, when teaching a student to generalize, it is very important that we vary instruction, change the environment and stimuli, as well as have a variety of people teaching the skill to help our students access their skills across a multitude of environments.

Consider this case:

An aide in the classroom has been teaching a student how to button her jacket. The child's mother has provided the aide with 3 different jackets - all winter coats with large buttons. After 3 weeks of practice, the child has mastered the skill. After hearing about the student's huge accomplishment, the teacher decides to give the child a pair of jeans to button to reinforce her for her mastery in the newly acquired skill. The child puts on the jeans, but is unsuccessful with the button. What the aide have done differently to prevent this situation from occurring?

Graded Work Posted

All graded work as been posted outside of my office door. Please make the time to drop by and pick up your graded assignments as there may be feedback you will need in preparing your final class project.

Thanks,

Dr. A

Stanford Prison Experiment...

I would think many of you would have heard of the Stanford prison study (in which student volunteers in a mock prison transformed with startling speed into sadistic guards or emotionally broken prisoners), but I heard an interview with the creator of the study and author of a new book today on NPR--Philip Zimbardo.

It really brought the effects internal reinforcement (power) and punishment (by guards to prisoners) to mind. Basically, all the boys were screened, and none had criminal records, and interestingly, when asked whether they preferred to be a guard or prisoner, not one wanted to be a guard. They all felt like they might be a prisoner at some point, but they were not going to school to be prison guards.

http://www.prisonexp.org

If you get a chance, I would be interested to know if anyone thinks behaviors and reinforcement/punishment was involved and how...

General Education

I am wondering why general ed teachers are not taught about applied behavior analysis. I happen to know they are not because I have a general ed credential. I think there may have been a lecture about postive reinforcement but, that was not the focus of our ed psych class. As far as classroom management it was all about having consequences (not consequences like we talk about, consequences meaning a nice word for punishment). If this is the best way to deal with problem behaviors, why aren't gen ed teachers taught about it? General ed teachers have plenty of students with problem behaviors and general ed teachers teach lots of students in special ed.

Applied Behavior Analysis

I am currently at a non-public school where the program is largely based on applied behavior analysis. Most students require replacement of problem behaviors using Behavior Intervention Plans. Functional Analysis Assessments are conducted on an ongoing basis in order to meet the changing needs of each individual. Applied Behavior Analysis involves implementing the scope and sequence of a BIP.

Altering the antecedents to the problem behavior and managing the consequences for problem behaviors are a systematic and effective way to implement a plan. Teachers must be skilled in teaching desirable behaviors such as a) waiting for a preferred activity, b)transitioning away from a preferred activity and c) session skills during instruction. They must also have a plan for consequence management for the problem behavior and for the adaptive/alternative behaviors. It is important to fade antecedent management strategies.

"Data collection" are the key words highlighted in a great big neon sign! I have found that teaching guided by daily measures (data collection) is an effective way to create student IEP goals and objectives, conduct Functional Analysis Assessments and create individualized BIPs.

Uncooperative staff

In this week's chapter, the authors examined concerns and doubts surrounding ABA. In my experience at schools I have met with a lot of trepadation and wariness about ABA from school staff. Specifically, earlier this year I worked at a site where a SPED clas had a student with some behavior issues, pinching, throwing, etc, and the school was advised by the student's behavior consultant (who came to school once a week) to use ABA and positive reinforcment and to decrese the amount of "punishment" (time outs, etc.) and negative stimuli. The teacher and classroom staff happily adopted this new policy. However, other school staff didn't buy into this theory and continued to yell/berate this student when he misbraved and were relunctant to give any positive reinforcement. These staff members included recess moinitors, lunchroom staff, library staff, and other teachers. The teacher talked to these staff members, but they only followed this child's plan when the teacher or consultant were around. Because of this, the student's behavior plan wasn't as effective as it could have been.
Has anyone successfully brought other reluctatn staff on board with ABA and how?

Inclusion

Is inclusion always really the LRE?

I was recently asked to take a special assignment in my district. I am helping to transition a new 3rd grade student from out of state into his new classroom. His qualifiying condition is Autism and is quite verbal and social. He does math at grade level, decodes on a 2nd grade level, and comprehends at a 1st grade level. He receives RSP services for 25% of the day. He came to us with a 12 page behavior support plan that is the most involved I have ever seen. For every 15 minutes that he is on task, he gets a "green light" and earns a 3 minute break which consists of a playing a game with a teacher. He gets to watch a video after recess and lunch for 10 minutes if he behaves on the playground. If he gets more than 50% green lights, he earns a "big reward" before lunch and at the end of the day. After a week with this kid, I feel like the entire day is a big game of Chutes and Ladders with 5 minutes of instruction squeezed in here and there.

Problem behaviors are said to include hitting, inappropriate comments, and being off task, but they are rarely seen because he is always happy earning his games. I have been told that we will follow this plan until the IEP at the end of the month. The parents want to keep this placement because they feel it is LRE. If his old school was so successful at inclusion, why is he getting 3 minute break every 15 minutes? This plan has been in place for over a year and there is no provision for fading this reward system.

Does this kid really have access to the general ed curriculum with this type of programming? I don't think so.

Controversy Surrounding Applied Behavior Analysis

According to our textbook, Applied Behavior Analysis for Teachers, ABA has always been a subject of controversy. Referring to ABA as behavior modification can cause confusion because the term "modification" has been often misused, referring to any procedure that has the potential to change behavior. This is the reason the term Applied Behavior Analysis is used as opposed to behavior modification.

Another opposing viewpoint with regards to Applied Behavior Analysis comes from individuals who believe that any attempt to change or modify another person’s behavior is coercive and inhumane. This viewpoint is made by individuals who describe themselves as “humanists.” Humanists argue that to change another individual’s behavior violates their free will and personal freedom.

According to the textbook, ABA was nearly ignored by researchers and educators outside of special education during the 1980s, possibly because its critics perceived “that the battle had been won and “behaviorism” defeated.” Recently, ABA has been under scrutiny once again even by special education teachers. Some possible explanations for these attacks are:

Behavioral approaches are too much work and provide too little reinforcement.
Behaviorism contradicts the popular developmental views of education and psychology.
Behavior analysis is a threat to the prevailing power structures in education and psychology.
Positive reinforcement is a practice that often lacks social acceptability.
Behavior analysis fails to glorify human beings as do other psychologies and philosophies.

What is your viewpoint on ABA? Do you agree or disagree with the critics?

Consistency: an essential element

The importance of knowing the Law
30 EC 56520 - Behavioral Interventions Legislative Findings, Declarations and Intent

That teachers of children with special needs require training and guidance that provides positive ways for working successfully with children who have difficulties conforming to acceptable behavioral patterns in order to provide an environment in which learning can occur.

That behavioral management plans be developed and used, to the extent possible, in a consistent manner when the pupil is also the responsibility of another agency for residential care or related services.

I am currently working with a student whose behaviors can be operationally defined as hitting staff and students, biting, spitting, throwing himself on the floor, running out of the classroom, hiding under tables, etc. His behaviors have increased over the past week and half. He is currently in middle school and rotates between three classrooms, each run by one teacher and three instructional assistants. I feel that there is no consistency in the manner his behaviors are managed, in the use of reinforcements and in how the student is treated by staff when his behaviors escalate. As the law dictates, behavior management plans should be developed and implemented in a consistent manner. My student has demonstrated these behaviors on and off for the past three months and still no functional analysis has been done. Needless to say, a behavior intervention plan has not been created.

Please explain the ways you would initiate and coordinate communication and collaboration with the IEP team.

Managing Behaviors

Right now I am working in a preschool with two year olds. Currently I am having a little bit of difficulty with a few select students in the room. It seems that they have a "love/hate" relationship with each other and feed off of each other. One girl, which is a co-worker's daughter, really seems to be the leader and when she does something the other student seems to follow. Especially if one of the teachers ask her to stop. I know that acknowledging it just draws attention to the situation and for a while we would just ignore it and praise the students doing what was suppose to be done. However, that does not seem to work as well anymore and the students are "annoying" each other even more. I am not sure if the main purpose is teacher attention or what? Also my co-teacher and I tend to disagree on ways to teach certain things. We have different approaches to certain behaviors and techniques. I know some of you are working with younger children and have been for a while so if there is any advice you have please pass it on! Thanks.

Quiz 4 Posted

Dear SPED 553 Class,

On the "Notes" side banner to this blog, you will find the Quiz 4 pdf document. Please print, complete, and return to our next class session on 5/8. We will grade these in class, so that you will know whether to take the final or opt for the quiz average instead of the exam.

Also, in regards to graded work, I have been battling the flu and will not have graded work ready until tomorrow, Wednesday, May 2nd. You may pick up your graded work during my office hours from 3 to 6 pm. Thanks and I apologize for the inconvenience.

Thanks,

Jose Luis

Preparing for State Testing

As we prepare my students for the California Standards Test (CST), we are seeing a lot of behaviors return that had previously been replaced. We use a star system for our token economy and students earn stars for completing assignments and being on task. After lunch they are able to spend stars for items like computer time or some time to play outside with an Instructional Assistant monitoring. We are noticing that several of our students who started out this year refusing to work are starting to return to that. Most of the class took to the star system quite effectively and work hard. Now we are seeing one or two of those students no longer care about earning stars to have those extra privileges. The students are asked everyday if they want to use some of their stars and reminded of the options of what they can do with them. We are stuck for ideas on how to motivate the students to completing their assignments and get back on track. Any ideas or suggestions would be great.