Intervention Plan for Roland
Identify the function of the challenging behavior
Roland sustains his challenging behavior because it is positively reinforced by the antecedents and the consequences of violating the expected behavior (Chandler & Dahlquist, 2014). Roland desires the attention of the teachers and that of his peers. He gets this attention by talking about cars and motorcycles, two things about which he is very passionate. He also loves control. When he is in a situation where he has not control, for instance, where he instructed on what to do, he exhibits the challenging behavior. With regards to attention, it is not of any consequence to him if the attention is negative or positive. Reforming Roland’s challenging behavior requires teaching him a replacement behavior without necessarily denying him the attention that he desires.
Teach replacement behavior
The replacement behavior to be taught to Roland with the view of reforming his challenging behaviors takes a multifaceted approach. The approach to the replacement behavior is teaching him alternative ways to obtain the attention that he desires. At present, Roland engages in challenging behavior when he feels he is not getting the attention he wants. This replacement behavior will enable him to get the attention through the use of proper behavior. In this regard, Roland will be taught functional communication which he will employ in the place of the challenging behavior to get the attention he desires (Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice, 2000).
Teaching Roland the replacement behavior is important to reforming the challenging behavior. To achieve this, the teacher will combine independent tasks with high attention activities as a change to the antecedents that trigger the challenging behavior. As evidenced in the assessment form, Roland feels that he is not getting attention during group instruction when the teacher is focusing on the entire class. He shouts questions to the teacher in order to get some attention, and when he is ignored by the teacher, he turns to his peers and starts a conversation about race cars. Interspersing the group instruction and other independent tasks with high attention activities allows Roland more opportunities to practice the replacement behavior while also teaching him delayed gratification. This is because even when using the functional communicational approach to get the attention of the teacher, doing it at every turn is disruptive to the class, hence the need for Roland to learn delayed gratification (McDougal, Chafouleas & Waterman, 2006).
Dissociate challenging behavior with positive reinforcement
Roland is aware of the pattern of his challenging behavior and positive reinforcement. That is why he engages in inappropriate behavior whenever he needs the teacher’s or peers’ attention. There is a need to undermine this link in order to enable the development of the replacement behavior. To undermine the link between the challenging behavior and positive reinforcement, the teacher will ignore Roland from time to time for engaging in the challenging behavior while offering positive reinforcement whenever he engages in the replacement behavior.
Reinforce replacement behavior
In addition to offering positive reinforcement whenever Roland engages in the replacement behavior, it is important to ensure that he has sufficient opportunities to practices the learned behavior (Volkmar, Rogers, Paul & Pelphrey, 2014). Additionally, the teacher will teach self-assessment so that Roland can also see the benefits of the replacement behavior from an objective standpoint. The teacher will also change the antecedents and the consequences in order to encourage Roland passively and actively to practice the replacement behavior.
References
Center for Effective Collaboration and Practice. (2000). Addressing Student Problem Behavior— Part III: Creating Positive Behavioral Intervention Plans and Supports (1st Edition). Retrieved from http://cecp.air.org/fba/problembehavior3/part3.pdf
Chandler, L. & Dahlquist, C. (2014). Functional Assessment: Strategies to Prevent and Remediate Challenging Behavior in School Settings. Upper Saddle River. Pearson.
McDougal, J. L., Chafouleas, S., & Waterman, B. B. (2006). Functional behavioral assessment and intervention in schools: A practitioner's guide : grades 1-8. Champaign, IL: Research Press.
Volkmar, F. R., Rogers, S. J., Paul, R., & Pelphrey, K. A. (2014). Handbook of autism and pervasive developmental disorders, assessment, interventions, and policy. Hoboken, N.J: Wiley.
