Behavior Interventions: What Works, What Doesnt,

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Behavior InterventionsWhat Works, What Doesnt,
Whats Promising?

• Gail Cafferata
• Butte County SELPA
• Program Specialist

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Todays focus

• Background of problem
• What do we know about behavior?
• How do we decide how to respond to challenging
  behavior?
• How do we sustain effective strategies?

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Challenging behaviors

• Exist in every school and community
• Vary in intensity and frequency
• Are associated with a variety of risk factors
• Present a serious public health problem
• 2001 Surgeon Generals Report

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Common response to problem behaviors

• Get Tough Practices
• Example
• Student I hate this f___ing school, you are
  a dumb f___er.
• Teacher That is disrespectful language. I am
  sending you to the office so youll learn never
  to say those works again starting now
• Are immediate, seductive, and predictable

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Common response to problem behaviors

• When behavior doesnt improve we get tougher
• Zero tolerance policies
• Increased surveillance
• Increased suspension expulsion
• Alternative programming
• In-service training by an expert

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Erroneous assumption that student

• Is inherently bad
• Will learn more appropriate behavior through
  increased use of aversives
• Will be better tomorrow.

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Sanctions alone are not a solution

• Schools that rely solely on reactive strategies
• have higher rates of truancy, vandalism and
  fighting (Mayer, 1995).
• produce detrimental effects on teacher-student
  relations.
• give the student reduced motivation to maintain
  self-control.
• do not teach alternative ways to behavior.
• have limited effect on long term behavioral
  patterns.

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Reactive interventions/sanctions

• Are potentially more costly than proactive
  strategies.
• Are often harder to implement.
• Are socially stigmatizing.
• Typically focus on one individual or group of
  individuals.

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• If you always do what you always did, youll
  always get what you always got.
• -Moms Mably

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Science of behavior has taught us that students

• Are NOT born with bad behaviors.
• Do NOT learn when presented contingent aversive
  consequence.
• DO learn better ways of behavior by being taught
  directly and receiving positive feedback.

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So, should we

• Purchase Second Step Kit for the school
  psychologist and that will fix all of the tough
  kids?
• Purchase Virtues Project, Life Skills Training,
  or other curriculum and hope teachers use it?
• Look at all of the programs available and just
  get more confused?

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How do we know what works?

• The U.S. Department of Education has established
  hierarchy of evidence-based practices.
• The hierarchy is based on the level of research
  rigor applied to test an intervention.

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What is evidence based in schools?

• Randomized controlled trial design
• Quasi-experimental controlled design
• Statistically significant positive effect
• Positive effect sustained one year post
  intervention
• Positive effect replicated in one or more
  settings/populations
• Opinions of respected authorities
• Source U.S. Department of Education and HHS

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What works in school-based prevention?

• Programs aimed at building school capacity to
  initiate and sustain innovation.
• Programs aimed at clarifying and communicating
  behavior expectations.
• Establishing school rules improving consistency
  of enforcement with positive reinforcement.
• Communicating norms via school-wide campaigns
  (eg. anti-bullying) or ceremonies.
• Comprehensive instructional programs that focus
  on a range of social competency skills.
• On going, long term implementation of social
  skills instruction.

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What works with at-risk youth?

• Social and life skills instruction support
• Adult mentoring and case management
• Specialized school classroom supports
• Academic
• Function-based behavior support
• Alternative discipline
• Parent collaboration or parent training
• Service coordination with other agencies
• Service learning or community service

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Does Functional Behavior Assessment work?

• Only with students with developmental
  disabilities?
• Why cant I just use clinical judgment?
• Behavioral interventions are shown to be most
  effective
• Cant be tested in group design because each
  student is unique
• If FBA helps teams design an intervention that
  works, then it is valid.

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Are good behavior plans evidenced-based?

• If they include the following components
• Environmental changes
• Identification of replacement behaviors that
  serve the same function as the challenging
  behavior
• Teaching the new behavior and reinforcing the new
  behavior
• Reactive strategies in case the behavior occurs
  again
• Provisions for communication between team members

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What does NOT work (when used in isolation)

• Counseling students, particularly in a peer-group
  context.
• Offering students alternative activities such as
  recreation and community service activities.
• Instructional programs focused on information
  dissemination, fear arousal, and moral appeal.

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What is promising?

• Schools within schools
• Behavior modification programs for high-risk
  youth
• Programs that teach thinking skills to
  high-risk youth
• Programs aimed at building school capacity to
  initiate and sustain innovation
• Programs that improve classroom management
• Programs that use effective instructional
  techniques

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Three-Tiered Model School-Wide Discipline
Strategies
Individual interventions for high-risk students
Few
Classroom and small group strategies for at-risk
students
Some
Schoolwide system of supports for all students
All
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What does schoolwide postive behavioral support
look like?

• gt80 of the students can tell you what is
  expected of them give behavioral examples
  because they have been taught, actively
  supervised, practiced, acknowledged.
• Positive adult-to-student interactions exceed
  negative
• Function based behavior support is the foundation
  for addressing problem behavior.
• Data- team-based action planning
  implementation are in operation.
• Administrators are active participants.
• Full continuum of behavior support is available
  to all students.

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How do we sustain effective strategies?

• Periodically evaluate behavior / discipline data
• Use data to drive decisions about BOTH
  academics and discipline
• Avoid using the train and hope method
• Regularly acknowledge staff behavior

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Conclusion

• Progress has been made in understanding how
  antisocial and delinquent behavior develops and
  how to prevent it.
• We have a lot to learn (and a lot to do)
  regarding
• Encouraging adoption of evidence-based practices
• Implementing what we know works
• Maintaining what we know works

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Web Resources

• Institute on Violence and Destructive Behavior
• www.uoregon.edu
• OSEP Center on Positive Behavioral Interventions
  and Supports
• www.pbis.org
• Prevention Research Center
• www.psu.edu/dept/prevention

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Acknowledgements

• Dr. Jeff Sprague
• Dr. George Sugai
• Dr. Roy Mayer
• Diana Browning Wright
• PENT-Positive Environments Network of
• Trainers