Preventing severe problem behavior in young children: The Behavior Education Program.

Abstract

Doss and Reichle (1991) define challenging as behavior by a that results in self-injury or injury of others, causes damage to the physical environment, interferes with the acquisition of new skills, and/or socially isolates the learner (p. 215). Challenging behaviors may take many forms. Behaviors that are self injurious may include scratching, biting, head banging, punching, face slapping, pinching, eye gouging, ear pulling, hand mouthing, arm biting, and self choking (Carr, 1977; Horner & Day, 1991, Iwata, Dorsey, Slifer, Bauman, & Richman, 1982; Taylor & Carr, 1992). Aggressive behaviors may involve hitting, scratching, kicking, biting, pinching others, and knocking over objects (Carr & Durand, 1985a; Carr & Durand, 1985b; Horner & Day, 1991; Horner, Sprague, O'Brien, and Heathfield, 1990; Taylor & Carr, 1992). Behaviors that involve tantrums may include persistent crying, loud vocalizations, screaming, and whining (Carr & Durand, 1985a; Carr & Newsom, 1985; Durand & Carr, 1987; Taylor & Carr, 1992). Finally, the form of some challenging behaviors may entail more unique or stereotypical mannerisms such as body rocking, hand flapping, mouthing, and body posturing (Carr & Durand, 1985a; Carr & Newsom, 1985; Durand & Carr, 1987; Taylor & Carr, 1992). Oftentimes, the immediate influence of a challenging on a child and/or his environment (e.g., self-injury or injury of others, damage to the physical environment, interference with the acquisition of new skills, social isolation of the learner) is significant enough to warrant intervention. The importance of intervention is further accentuated by research examining the potential long term influence of challenging behaviors. Research has demonstrated that challenging behaviors create a barrier to community placement (Hill, Lakin, & Bruininks, 1984; Pagel & Whitling, 1978) and are a major cause of admission as well as readmission to state institutions (Nihara & Nihara, 1975; Pagel & Whitling, 1978). Furthermore, individuals who engage in challenging behaviors are at increased risk for rejection by teachers and peers (Walker, Ramsey & Gresham, 2003). Increased awareness and understanding of the potential immediate and long- term influence of challenging behaviors on a child and/or his environment has resulted in an interest in developing interventions to address challenging behaviors during the early childhood years. Reichle et al (1996) note that this interest has met with some resistance given that many individuals who serve preschool aged children who engage in challenging behaviors report a belief that these children will grow out of the challenging behaviors. However, this belief is not supported by analyses suggesting that challenging behaviors engaged in by preschoolers are not outgrown and many preschool aged children who engage in challenging behaviors will continue to engage in problem behaviors in elementary school (Campbell, 1998). For children who engage in the most severe problem behavior, researchers recommend developing individualized interventions based on functional assessment data (Crone & Horner, 2003; Sugai & Horner, 2002). Functional assessment is the process that is used to obtain information regarding the environmental antecedents (Richman, & Wacker, 2001) and consequences that motivate an individual's emission of challenging (e.g., Durand, 1990; O'Neill et al, 1997). This process involves (a) identifying and defining the challenging behavior, (b) identifying the events and circumstances that are regularly associated with the occurrence and nonoccurrence of the challenging behavior, and (c) determining the social function or the purpose of the challenging (Foster-Johnson, & Dunlap, 1993; Mcintosh, & Av-Gay, 2007; O'Neill et al, 1997). A number of methods have been described for collecting functional assessment information. …