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14 Jul 23

Step 5: Behavior Supports [SELF-CONTAINED BASICS COURSE]


The purpose of step 5 is to help our students learn to regulate their behaviors so they can be independent self-managers of their own bodies!

calm down or cool down area with blue bean bag

Resources for this step: 

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Behaviors are what we do. We all have behaviors; some are more regulated than others and it’s our job to help our students learn to regulate their behaviors so they can be independent self-managers of their bodies! 

    In step 5 you will be preparing antecedent strategies, a list of reinforcements, social narratives, and a sensory diet schedule to help shape and manage behaviors starting on the first day of school! 

    First, I need to go over some behavior terms and research-based strategies that will be talked about. You may know some of these and can jump past them if you do. 

Behavior Terms:

Antecedent-Based Interventions: 

A lot of our strategies in this course are ABIs. That is an arrangement of events that come before an interfering behavior occurs that can reduce the occurrence of the behavior. 

Differential Reinforcement of Alternative, Incompatible, or Other Behavior (DRA/I/O): 

When the individual behaves in a desired ALTERNATIVE to an undesired behavior (DRA); when they’re doing something that they couldn’t physically do if exhibiting an undesired behavior - making it incompatible (DRI); or when they’re not engaging in the undesired behavior (DRO). 

Modeling:

A modeled or demonstrated behavior or skill that the student imitates and eventually acquires on their own. For example, generalizing color identification to Skittles or you've moved their favorite toy and they have to make a request for it. 

Naturalistic Intervention (NI): 

The intervention happens in the learner's natural setting. The teacher arranges a learning event that supports the desired student participation. 

Pivotal Response Training (PRT): 

Guided by motivation in settings that build on students' interests. For example, the “reward” for a child who makes a meaningful attempt to ask for a toy is that he or she gets to play with it. 

Reinforcement and Punishment: These terms can be a bit confusing and they do all have a time and place to be used. 

Positive Reinforcement: Strengthens a behavior by adding something after a student displays a behavior (candy, verbal praise, high five, the requested toy)
Negative Reinforcement: Strengthens a behavior by removing something after a student displays a behavior (a student runs away from you while working, you turn your back to work with another peer who is sitting and working)

Social Narratives: 

Stories are told from students' perspectives that describe a social situation and how to respond appropriately.

Time Delay: 

A delay is given between the directive and prompt, allowing the learner a chance to display a skill without any prompting.

Contingency Maps (More information here!)

Shows an individual the choices they can make during an activity. Showing them a map of desired behaviors with the desired outcome and undesired behaviors and undesired outcome. They may or may not include visuals depending on the child's cognitive level.

Sensory diet: 

    A plan of physical activities to accommodate a child's sensory needs. Despite that it has 'diet' in the name it actually has nothing to do with food! But teaching students to regulate their bodies so they can be in a state to learn.

Token Boards
First-Then

First things first. 

    Now that we have some behavior terminology sorted, let's get started by giving yourself a pat on the back for completing the individual schedules in step 3. This will help you determine the use of mini schedules, timers, tokens, rewards, and breaks. But how do you know what your students will work for? That's where the R survey comes into play. 

Step 5 VIDEO coming soon! 

Reinforcement Survey


 My #1 selling product - the reinforcement survey helps teachers, staff, and families determine what students want to work for. You can follow along the survey as it's laid out or you can dig through paperwork or use the Beginning of the Year parent survey to help determine what students want to work for. Also, the more difficult the activity, the greater the reinforcer. 


    Let's be honest, we wouldn't put as much time and energy into our jobs if we didn't get paid, right? It's the same for our kids, what is their form of payment for completing something they wouldn't do in the first place? 

    Once you have a list of items, put that into a choice board and you can make it where the choices can be added or taken away depending on time of day, availability (staff, resources, etc.). For example, my students had the choice of technology before lunch and before dismissal. At any other time of the day, that choice was taken away and they could complete other activities of choosing (basketball, playdough, puzzles, reading, lay down, motor lab, etc.) 

    Choice boards can also help facilitate communication outside of reinforcers. They can include visuals or just words and can be used for academics, leisure, play, turn-taking, food, and more! Get creative and see how much offering choices will give your students the sense of 'being in control' instead of us just telling them what to do all the time! 

    Make sure you have their favorite things in class so that on the first day, they're interested in 'hearing you out' because you already have things they like. I also try to have visuals of items, especially for my lower-level students. For ones that can function with written schedules, we'll use an expo marker and write it on their schedule. You can also make their check schedule, tokens, and countdowns mirror their favorite things! 


    A little side note, I've seen some differing views on token boards and that they shouldn't be used. Token economies are used to decrease undesired behavior by increasing desirable behaviors. You can use pennies, stickers, checkmarks, velcro visuals, etc. Then after a pre-determined amount of tokens, they exchange them for their reinforcer which can include objects, people, or activities.

    Here's where I think lies the controversy - does your learner need immediate or continuous reinforcement to stay on task? Or can they delay receipt of the reinforcement with paired reinforcement from staff? 

    In some cases, if you have a strong rapport with the student, they can handle delayed gratification, they can use timers, or their schedule effectively, and are regulated, then most likely they won't need the tokens. But I've found them to be more useful than not in various situations ranging from field trips, assemblies, testing, and generalizing at home! What are your thoughts on token boards? I also fade out the frequency of tokens given, and some students by the end of the year have their own timer-based token system that they run themselves or students are faded to a timer alone without the need for tokens. What are your feelings on token boards? Yay, or nay?

Contingency Maps


    Contingency maps are great, for illustrating the result of engaging in desired or undesired behaviors. Sometimes it's hard for our students to put themselves into a different viewpoint, see two sides of a story or think far enough ahead to anticipate an outcome. The contingency maps help them plan out their behavior to get the desired result. There is a download with visuals and maps in the full course, but I've found writing or drawing it out is just as effective.  (TpT) (Website)

Flipbooks/keyrings

 

    These are life savers when you're on the run or around campus and all your visuals are back in class. These should include the basic requests for a student in a crisis situation. So they need to be directive and simple. Some examples include - stop, quiet, walk, sit, stand, all done, nice feet, hands to self, yes, no, listening ears, bathroom, great work, etc.

    Some staff wears theirs on their lanyard, I cannot stand that much hanging on my neck, so I tried to either take them with us when we leave the room or have them in various locations around campus. Specials, cafeteria, front office, etc. If you have them in various locations, you can even have a core vocabulary board stored with them for easier communication facilitation. 

Social Narratives


    I won't go into too much detail since I have a video coming soon all about social narratives and breaks it down further if you want more information! But I will say, it's a simple 4 sentence story from 1st person's perspective (usually that of the child). You'll want to have some data collected in regard to the behavior you want to be shaped. You can easily collect data using my editable ABC data chart. And if you're not ready to create your own social narratives, I have several in my store that will get you started including rules, emergency procedures, and changes in schedules. 

    How to make your own: You need at least 1 descriptive sentence describing the situation of the student from the perspective of the main character (a.k.a first person). You need at least a perspective sentence "Our actions impact others..." You need 1 directive sentence "I will try..." and 1 or 2 control sentences that show how the new behavior will benefit them. Super quick and easy. You can make them up on the fly during naturalistic teaching, or have them pre-made with visuals to really work on some of those stubborn behaviors.

Sensory & Motor


     Needless to say, I'm not an OT, but I've done some extensive research as well as picked our OT's brain about sensory diets and motor needs of low-incidence disabilities. A sensory diet is scheduled sensory and motor activities students engage in during the school day to help regulate their sensory needs which are: visual (sight), gustatory (taste), auditory (sound), olfactory (smell), vestibular (balance), proprioceptive (movement) and interoception (internal). The more needs you can combine into one activity, the more beneficial it will be to the child. A great place to start, if you don't have access to a motor lab is to incorporate fidgets, toys, break items, a sensory walking path, and various movement breaks for sensory input during the school day.


    Some kids will need it more frequently than others and some will need more intensity than others. You'll have to observe and track how the students are engaging with lessons after sensory breaks to tell if you need to adjust frequency and intensity. A simple Google search, TpT search, or Pinterest search will turn up handfuls of activities to incorporate into your classroom. If you do have the blessing of a motor lab and need assistance setting it up, you can find my motor lab bundle included in the full course purchase or individually at the top of this blog post.
 


    I feel this step could have included mounds more information, but I dwindled it down to the essentials to get you up on your feet for the school year. If you are interested in more behavioral information, let me know! I'd be happy to share my experience and knowledge especially since I've been through the RBT certification. 
    
    Also, if you are looking for more sensory regulation, I'd suggest checking out the ALERT program! It worked wonders with my kids!

Look forward to seeing you in step 6: Instruction and Curriculum! Until next time, stay passionate and keep learning! 

Action: 

Preparing antecedent strategies by making a list of reinforcements, gathering or making social narratives, and brainstorming a sensory diet schedule.

Other actions: 

Tape areas of class, gather timers, visual directions, contingency maps, and token boards placed around the room & prepare flip boards with common ‘redirection’ visuals handy (stop, hands out of pants, sit please, etc.).

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Grab all of these resources and a full video for this step as part of the full bundle.

Join the Facebook group for more discussion and support and the weekly emails for reminders in your inbox each week!  https://www.facebook.com/groups/koloscb/ 




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 Image Credit: matt-seymour-Unsplash

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