Todd Haydon

A Comparison of Three Types of Opportunities to Respond on Student Academic and Social Behaviors

An alternating treatments design was used to investigate the effects of three types of opportunities to respond (i.e., individual, choral, and mixed responding) on sight words and syllable practice in six elementary students with behavioral problems. During the mixed responding condition, five out of six students demonstrated a lower rate of disruptive behavior, and four out of six students had fewer intervals of off-task behavior. Results of the three types of opportunities to respond on participants’ active student responding were less clear. A discussion of limitations, implications, and future research directions is included.

Using Opportunities to Respond in a General Education Classroom: A Case Study

In this study researchers examined a teachers use of opportunities to respond in a 5th grade general education classroom setting. Using an ABA single subject design, the effects of a choral responding procedure and increased rate of delivering questions with an elementary aged student identified as at-risk for emotional or behavior disorders were examined. Results indicated that when the teacher increased the rates of opportunities to respond, the students on-task behavior and correct responses increased, while the students disruptive behavior decreased. A discussion of limitations and future research directions is included.

A Comparison of iPads and Worksheets on Math Skills of High School Students with Emotional Disturbance

ABSTRACT: The authors used an alternating treatments design to compare the effects of a worksheet condition and an iPad condition on math fluency and active academic engagement during a high school math class in an alternative school setting. Following group instruction, the three participants engaged in independent seatwork either by completing problems on a worksheet or completing problems presented on an iPad. Based on visual analyses, students solved more math problems correctly in less time and demonstrated higher levels of active engagement in the iPad condition as compared to the worksheet condition. Social validity assessments indicated that the teacher and three students preferred the iPad condition to the worksheet condition during the math lessons. A discussion on study limitations, implications, and future research directions is included.

Differentiated Effects of Paper and Computer-Assisted Social Stories[TM] on Inappropriate Behavior in Children With Autism.

Despite evidence from previous studies that support using Social Stories™ for problem behaviors, research conducted with more rigorous controls is needed to examine whether or not Social Stories constitute an evidence-based practice.This study employed an ABABCBC single-subject design comparing a Social Story presented in two formats across three elementary-age students with autism. Interpretation of the results documents a decrease in the frequency of problem behavior for each participant. Outcomes were slightly better for the PowerPoint™ format than for the paper format. Results were maintained in the training setting and were generalized to another setting with a single verbal prompt. Teachers reported that the PowerPoint format was easily implemented, and students indicated that they liked the computer-assisted format.

Effects of a Modified Milieu Therapy Intervention on the Social Communicative Behaviors of Young Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the effectiveness of combining milieu therapy and functional communication training (FCT)] to replace aberrant behavior with functional communicative skills in 3 male preschool or elementary aged children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD). Study activities were conducted in the natural environments of the participants and parents acted as change agents. A concurrent multiple baseline design across participants was used to evaluate the effectiveness of the modified milieu therapy intervention. Results indicate that aberrant behavior decreased concurrent with an increase in total percentage of communication responses (PCR). The children maintained communication and low rates of aberrant behavior, and generalized their communication from the home to the classroom. A discussion of limitations and future research directions is included.

Classroom-Based Research in the Field of Emotional and Behavioral Disorders Methodological Issues and Future Research Directions

Classrooms serving students with or at risk for emotional and behavioral disorders (EBD) are complex environments that include multiple interactions such as those between (a) students and teachers, (b) students and peers, and (c) temporally distant or concurrent classroom-setting factors and subsequent behavioral episodes. As a result, the scientific processes and methods used to investigate the nature of these interactions are often as varied and complex. The purpose of this article is to review and discuss the extent to which research methods and practices evident in current classroom-based studies measure and predict these relationships accurately. To this end, the authors present an overview of common research methodology and related measurement strategies and some considerations for conducting research using these methods in classrooms serving students with or at risk for EBD.

The Effects of Two Types of Teacher Questioning on Teacher Behavior and Student Performance: A Case Study

The authors used an ABCBC design to compare the effects of a single-student response strategy and unison handraising strategy on a teacher and two middle school students (a targeted student and typical achieving student) during a 7th grade health science class. During baseline the teacher had high rates of redirections and low rates of praise statements and opportunities to respond. For the intervention conditions the teacher had slightly fewer redirections and increases in praise statements during unison handraising than during single-student responding. Both the targeted student and the typical achieving student demonstrated slightly higher, levels of on-task behavior, correct responses, and test score percentages during unison handraising compared with single-student responding. Furthermore, a discussion on study limitations, implications, and future research directions is included.

Opportunities to Respond: A Key Component of Effective Instruction.

B oth general and special education teachers face a variety of challenging student behaviors that interrupt instruction and impede learning. Teachers tend to rely on redirections and reprimands to address these student behaviors (Haydon & Musti-Rao, 2011; Madsen, Becker, & Thomas, 2001). Unfortunately, relying on consequences may contribute to a cycle of negative teacher behavior and challenging student behavior (Conroy, Sutherland, Snyder, & Marsh, 2008; Gunter, & Coutinho, 1997; Scott, Nelson, & Liaupsin, 2001), and result in a chaotic, noisy, and disorganized classroom environment. Instead, teachers should employ proactive classroom management strategies described throughout this special issue. Effective instruction is a key component of successful classroom management and includes practices that maximize the likelihood of student participation, active responding, and correct responding while minimizing errors (Scott et al., 2001). Researchers have established the connection between effective instruction and (a) increases in desired student behaviors, including classroom participation, on-task behavior, and academic performance, and (b) decreases in undesired student behaviors (e.g., calling out, walking around; Engelmann & Carnine, 1991; Gunter & Denny, 1998). One effective instructional strategy is providing high rates of opportunities to respond (OTRs; Sutherland & Wehby, 2001). An OTR is an instructional strategy (e.g., asking a yes/no question) that promotes student responding (e.g., holding thumb up for ‘‘yes’’ and thumb down for ‘‘no’’). OTRs may be conceptualized in a direct-instruction model (e.g., Carnine, 1976) as part of a learning trial. A learning trial consists of a three-term, antecedent–behavior– consequence (ABC) sequence (Skinner, Fletcher, & Hennington, 1996). An example of a learning trial is when a teacher presents a spelling word on a flash card (antecedent OTR), the student recites the word aloud (behavior), and the teacher then says, ‘‘Correct answer’’ (consequence; Skinner et al., 1996). A diagram depicting the process is provided in Figure 1. As seen in Figure 1, a teacher asks a question (antecedent), a student responds (behavior), followed by teacher feedback (consequence). Although the learning trial is a useful model, OTRs can be provided across a variety of instructional approaches. More broadly, OTRs include any teacher-delivered instructional stimuli (e.g., questions, prompts, cues) that occasion various forms (e.g., verbal, gestural, or production) of student response (Ferkis, Belfiore, & Skinner, 1997).

Strategies to Increase Behavior-Specific Teacher Praise in an Inclusive Environment:

Managing students’ disruptive behavior in the classroom can be a time-consuming task and greatly reduces the amount of time teachers spend on instruction. Although there are several research-validated classroom management strategies, teachers are more likely to adopt strategies that are less time-consuming than strategies that take more time or require a great deal of teacher preparation. This article highlights behavior-specific praise (BSP), a simple strategy that teachers can use across all grade levels. The article presents eight easy-to-use strategies for teachers to increase their use of praise statements. Increasing teacher praise will not only decrease disruptive behaviors but also create a positive learning environment.

Using Common Sense in Common Settings: Active Supervision and Precorrection in the Morning Gym

The management of a large number of children in a nonclassroom or common setting (e.g., gymnasium, auditorium) can present a challenge to school staff. This article describes a set of commonsense solutions that were implemented with 400 elementary students in a before-school common setting. The solutions are described and the results of the interventions are provided.