Abstract
This study investigated the effects of varying opportunities to respond when using a behavior management program with three elementary school students with developmental disabilities in a small group special education setting. These students exhibited both academic and behavioral difficulties. With the implementation of Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) with low opportunities to respond (OTR), students increased their active engagement and correct responses, as well as decreased their disruptive behaviors. When CW-FIT with high OTR was implemented, students showed an even greater improvement than CW-FIT with low OTR. Higher rates of OTR resulted in higher levels of active engagement and correct responses and decreases in disruptive behavior for all three students. These results indicate that CW-FIT in combination with high OTR can help elementary school teachers manage students’ behavior and increase students’ correct responding when implemented in a small group special education setting.
Highlights
Challenging behavior and academic failure often co-occur in elementary school, especially for students with developmental disabilities (Desrochers & Fallon, 2014)
Class-Wide Function-Related Intervention Teams (CW-FIT) with high opportunities to respond (OTR) resulted in the highest levels of active engagement
There was some overlap between intervention phases, but CW-FIT with high OTR seemed to result in a greater decrease in disruptive behaviors: from a baseline average rate per min of 3.13 instances to 1.78 instances in the CW-FIT with low OTR phase and 0.75 in the CW-FIT with high OTR phase
Summary
Challenging behavior and academic failure often co-occur in elementary school, especially for students with developmental disabilities (Desrochers & Fallon, 2014). Students with autism spectrum disorders (ASD) and attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) often have difficulties with behavior. There is an inverse relationship between the rate of challenging behavior and the rate of teacher instruction (Sutherland & Wehby, 2001): Teachers provide more instruction to students without disruptive behavior than to students with disruptive behavior (Carr, Taylor, & Robinson, 1991). This can be extremely detrimental to elementary students with developmental disabilities who already struggle with the academic instruction they receive. Due to the complicated relationship of problem behavior, academic success, and teacher instruction it is important for students with developmental disabilities to receive both academic and behavioral intervention
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