Post by Admin on Jan 11, 2014 10:47:51 GMT -6
I was recently consulting with a grade 2 teacher about some problems that an impulsive (likely ADHD) boy was displaying in the classroom. He tends to very frequently blurt out comments and talk loudly while the teacher is instructing the other students or when he is at his desk, and he tends to watch for the mistakes of other students so he can correct them. In addition, he tends to grab at and write on other students' work to give them "help." Well, I decided we'd do a multiple baseline design on these three behaviors. So, the teacher has been collecting raw frequency interval data, and I've been graphing it using Microsoft Excel as the Daily Percentage of Appropriate Behavior for each behavior (i.e., Directs Himself Only; Talks Quietly-No blurting Out; and Keeps Hands & Feet to Self). I gave the teacher some reinforcer survey forms to rate what he likes the best, and we discussed the use of tokens and a daily reward menu. She recently implemented the intervention. The boy uses a self-monitoring checklist for each period's activity, and he earns tokens (Unifix cubes) for each period in which the target behavior does not occur (essentially a DRO schedule). Just before the last period of the day, the boy counts up how many Unifix cube tokens he has and can exchange them for one back-up reward, selected from among four possible choices (e.g., playing a game with a friend, using a favored piece of equipment, a classroom reward for all students, etc.). The teacher reported to me that the first selected target behavior has markedly improved already (i.e., Directs Himself Only). I'll let you know how later how the boy does with the other target behaviors in a follow-up posting. By the way, Microsoft Excel is great for collecting and graphing data in single-subject design interventions. For the multiple baseline design, I've stacked three graphs on top of each other, one for each target behavior. I show the staggered intervention from baseline using the line shape.