Using an Academic Peer Interaction Contingency with Emotionally Disturbed Children

Abstract

An academic peer interaction contingency was introduced into an ongoing token economy program in a class of five emotionally disturbed children with minimal interpersonal skills. Seven behavioral categories of academically relevant and irrelevant behaviors were recorded during multiple baseline, contingency, and follow-up observation periods. An ANOVA revealed a significant category effect and a significant category by time interaction, indicating significant changes in the distribution of student behavior across categories as a function of contingency introduction. Hypothesized increases in student academic cooperation with peers and teacher, and hypothesized decreases in student academic work alone occurred at statistically significant levels. It was concluded that enduring academically constructive changes in interpersonal interaction within the classroom occurred as the result of contingency introduction.