Behavior Intervention Planning: Socially Withdrawn Students

Christensn, L., Young, K. R., & Marchant, M. (2007). Behavioral intervention planning: Increasing appropriate behavior of a socially withdrawn student. Education and Treatment of Children. 30(4), 81-103.

Topic: The effects of behavioral intervention planning on increasing appropriate behavior of a socially withdrawn student.

Summary of lit review:

Previous researched showed that social competence is essential in school especially in keeping friendships.

Lack early intervention in the classroom.  This would allow for less behavior challenge for teachers.

Teachers struggled finding interventions that would help and how to implement it.

Purpose/Questions: Investigate the effects of an intervention package on the classroom behavior of a socially withdrawn, Hispanic, learning disabled, third grade student.

1. The effects of peer mediation on behavior.
2. The effects of aligning assessment data to BIP.
3. Social validity of the assessment and intervention process.

Methods:

Participants:

Jose

• 8-year-old
• Hispanic
• SLD
• low socio-economic background

Peer Partner: Thomas

• In same class
• Pacific Islander
• Good social interactions with peers
• 8-years-old

Setting:

• School, urban setting, in the classroom and the activity is an hour-long literacy period in which students selected activities from a menu of reading, writing, and spelling activities.

Independent Variable:

Social Skill—how to ask for help, self-management, peer mediation, positive reinforcement.

Dependent Variable: There were seven socially appropriate classroom behavior categories chosen to measure.  The following were measured as dependent variables:

• Attending
• Working on academic assignments
• Reading Aloud
• Answering questions
• Getting the teacher’s attention appropriately
• Complying with teacher instructions
• Other—general compliance

Data collected using 10-second whole-interval recording and an audiotape to signal the end of each interval.  Data were collected daily with sessions ranging from 25-40 minutes.  Percentage of socially appropriate classroom behavior was calculated at the end of observation sessions, providing a percentage.

Type of Experimental Design: ABAB withdrawl design

Treatment Fidelity: They had a checklist for each participant training.  They had to check off that each step was completed at training.  Once a week, an observer used a checklist to make sure peer partner was completing steps and if they missed a check, then they had to have retraining.

Interobserver Agreement: They calculated by dividing number of agreements by number of agreements + disagreements x 100.

Social Validity: They did a social comparison to determine wither student’s behavior emt or exceeded the level of other children.  They used a normative sample.

Subjective evaluation: teacher mailed Likert-scale questionnaire to researchers.

Each of two students also completed questionnaire.

Results were positive.

Result/Findings:

The baseline was 11 and then in intervention, the data points distinctly changed almost up to 100%.  They reversed it, and it went down showing a distinct change.  Upon changing back to the intervention, the data went right back up almost to where it was before.  The intervention is deemed successful.

Discussion:

Implications for Practice:  Self-management is shown to be powerful, even for an internalizing behavior.  Also, the peer-mediation piece makes it less time-consuming and more realistic.

Implication for Research: This study could be done again with different populations and similar populations.  A closer look into peer-mediation in general education settings could be taken in the future.  Socially withdrawn behavior can be changed.  Interventions can be successful.

Strengths:  This study shows functionality because of the design (ABAB withdrawl), interobserver agreement, and social validity.

Weaknesses: It was only done with 2 students, and the categories seem to be pretty complicated for the observers.  It can’t be generalized to other populations, not a lot of external validity.

Why is the study socially significant?   (This can be assumed to be the case to some degree if it was published.)

Interventions can be successful even with socially withdrawn behaviors.  It is helpful for teachers to enlist peers to help carry out interventions. Self-management is shown to be powerful, even for an internalizing behavior.  Also, the peer-mediation piece makes it less time-consuming and more realistic

Understanding Behavior Disorders in India

Chakraborti-Ghosh, S. (2008). Understanding behavior disorders: Their perception, acceptance, and treatment-a cross-cultural comparison between India and the United States. International Journal of Special Education, 23(1), 136-146.

• “In 1947 the Government of India began an initiative in the education and rehabilitation of persons with disabilities.  However progress was slow until the entire disability sector received a boost in 1981 with the declaration of the International Year of the Disabled Persons by the United Nations” (Singh, 2004).
• “Unlike the United States, the category behavior disorder is not considered a disability in Indian culture.  The implications are: (a) there are no behavior problems among children in India, (b) Indian society does not recognize behavior problems as disabilities or it defines behavior problems differently, (c) behavior is perceived as the responsibility of someone other than the school’s or (d) behavior problems which do exist are so well accommodated that they do not merit additional attention” (p. 138).
• “All teachers in India and in the United States defined behavior problems or disorders based on their own lives and experiences.  In India, Problems are defined as common to all human beings and are not considered disabilities” (p. 142).
• “In India, poor socio-economics, extreme poverty, family problems, and social expectations are considered responsible for causing behavior problems” (p. 142).
• Chakraborti-Ghosh (2008) found that “…the Indian people have been accustomed to dealing with disabilities in a natural psychotherapeutic way rather than depending on western medicine; disabilities were traditionally accepted as misfortune” (p. 137).  This is another example of disabilities being perceived negatively in India.  Researchers also found that behavior problems as a result of disabilities are perceived by teachers in India as being “based on their own lives and experiences” and that problems are experienced by all human beings and are “not considered disabilities” (Chakraborti-Ghosh, 2008, p. 142).