using behavior principles to improve quality of services: increasing time-on-task and quality of...

Using Behavior Principles to Improve Quality of Services: Increasing Time-on-Task

and Quality of Interactions in Ten Classrooms Serving Children with Low

Incidence Disabilities

Excellence Initiative

Designed and implemented to increase on-task behavior of students and quality of staff

to student interactions.



The Hope School Therapeutic Learning Center (THSLC) is a 40,000 square foot school designed to provide educational and clinical services to children with Autism Spectrum Disorders and related developmental disabilities.


Children attending day educational programs experience

• significant physical, • developmental, • neurological, and/or other • severe and profound cognitive impairments. Resulting in severely limited communication,

imitation, and attending skills


The THSLC is equipped with: • 12 individual classrooms containing sensory

and observation rooms; • individual and group playgrounds designed by

occupational and physical therapists; • a way finding system to promote

independence; • a sensory sensitive lighting system;

• augmented hallway and classroom acoustics to minimize the traveling of sounds;

• greenhouse; • vocational center; and, • a central observation area enabling video monitoring

and/or recording of up to four classrooms at one time


On-task Behavior• the ability to sustain attention specific to a given task

Staff-Student Interactions• Quality of interactions between staff and children


On-task Behavior

• on-task when the observer noted the student oriented toward the task and performing relevant responses.

• neutral on-task when the observer could not determine whether the student was on or off- task

• neutral on-task whenever the student was alone with no staff direction and none of the behaviors incompatible with on-task were observed , they were alone but engaged in an activity.


Positive verbal/staff behavior

• use of student name,

• politeness,

• use of tones of respect, and calmness while

• controlling volume and intensity of utterances



Positive Staff Behavior• body posture, • facial expression indicating attention and interest, • use of gestures, hand over hand prompting, touch and

gesture prompts, as well as physical demonstrations (modeling).

• neutral - those behaviors of teacher/staff directed to managing the schedule of activities and communicating about management of the classroom environment


Challenges

• Process Definitions/observationsBuy in

• Use of video cameras• Collective bargaining


Intervention Stage One: Data Made Available to Staff

• Baseline collected• Data shared with teachers• Teachers afforded opportunity to change class

structure/schedule


Intervention Stage Two: Reward Top Classes, Train Bottom Classes

• CCS scores shared with all teachers• Top two and bottom two classrooms identified• Top two given $50 reward• Bottom two, provided training/consultation


Training/Consultation Provided

• Classroom structure/schedules

• Classroom physical plant

• Lesson Plans

• Use of Materials

• Management of inappropriate behaviors/ implementation of BSPs

• ParaProfessional Training


• Intervention Stage Three: Increase Number of Trainers for Increased Effect

• Didatic training

• In vivo training


Results

• Classroom Comparison Scores for each classroom were weighted by multiplying the percentage of negative staff interactions (NSI) observed in a given month by two and adding this coefficient to the percentage of intervals of student behavior coded as off-task (OFT), thus creating one score [(NSI)2+OFT=CSS].

• Explicitly indicating that quality of staff to student interactions was twice as important as on-task behavior.


Results continued

• A school wide performance (SWP) statistic was developed and reviewed during and at the completion of each month and phase of the Excellence Initiative. The SWP statistics was calculated as the average of CSS each month across all classrooms

Excellence initiative


Observation data coupled with detailed feedback and targeted training and consultation, improved both target behaviors for all classrooms, thus school-wide.

The project demonstrated the benefits of incorporating: (1) positive behavior interventions of performance feedback: (2) rewards for increased student on-task behavior and quality of staff-to-student interactions: and, (3) targeted consultation and resulting training.

using behavior principles to improve quality of services: increasing time-on-task and quality of...

Documents

excellence initiative

trainingconsultation

student behavior

classroom environment

task neutral

task behavior of students

quality of staff

class structureschedule