Tímarit um menntarannsóknir - 01.06.2012, Page 173

173
„Nú er ég alveg búinn að fatta hvernig ég á að vera“
The goal of this study was to evaluate the
effects of increasingly demanding ver-
sions of function-based behavior interven-
tion plans (BIPs) on students´ disruptive
behavior. Participants were four male stu-
dents from two schools in Iceland´s capi-
tal, where school-wide positive behaviour
support was being implemented. The
participants were 7 to 8 years old and had
reportedly exhibited behavior problems
for 5 to 7 years. Three participants had at-
tention deficit hyperactivity disorder, and
one of them also had oppositional defiant
disorder, autism spectrum disorder, gen-
eralized anxiety disorder and Tourette´s
syndrome. They attended 2nd or 3rd grade
general education classrooms with vary-
ing degree of support from a special edu-
cation teacher.
Various primary and secondary pre-
vention efforts had proved unsuccessful.
Thus, functional assessments were con-
ducted through interviews with teachers,
participants and their parents, as well as
direct observations to detect variables in-
fluencing participants´ disruptive behav-
ior. Based on the results of the functional
assessments, BIPs were created for each
participant through a team-based ap-
proach involving their general education
teachers, a special education teacher and a
behavioral consultant. The BIPs consisted
of four components: setting event strate-
gies, antecedent modifications, teaching of
alternative skills and differential reinforce-
ment of appropriate behavior. Differential
reinforcement was carried out through
an individualized token system with fre-
quent positive feedback, but also warn-
ings in the case of disruptive behaviour.
Four to seven versions of token systems
with gradually increasing demands were
created for each participant to increase
their self-control step by step.
The effects of increasingly demand-
ing versions of BIPs were evaluated with
a multiple baseline design across partici-
pants. Results showed a decrease in fre-
quency of disruptive behaviour for three
of the four participants. No effects were
observed for the fourth participant, possi-
bly due to lack of treatment integrity, fac-
tors at home or changes in medication. For
the other three participants frequency of
disruptive behavior decreased by an aver-
age of 89% during intervention compared
to baseline. Also, variability in disruptive
behavior decreased substantially during
intervention compared to baseline.
Adjusted effect sizes were calculated
based on means of the last three measures
of baseline and intervention phases using
Rosenthal’s (1994) formula, taking into ac-
count the autocorrelation between repeat-
ed measures, to put it on the same scale as
Cohen’s d (Riley-Tillman & Burns, 2009).
For the three participants who responded
to the BIPs, adjusted effect sizes ranged
Abstract
“Now I really know how to behave”: Decreasing chronic dis-
ruptive behviours of students through increasingly demand-
ing versions of function-based behavior intervention plans