M Bailey 21715819 Assignment 2

Positive Behaviour Support Strategy

Introduction

Tertiary level support and intervention is required to redirect Joels behaviour in

order for himself and his classmates to fully benefit from the lessons planned by
their teacher. Joels behaviours are disruptive to himself, his classmates and his
teachers. Joels aggressive behaviours would be the highest priority as it is
stated they can escalate very quickly and can be dangerous to both himself and
those around him. Frey et al. (2015) emphasise the importance of early tertiary
level intervention for students who have social and behavioural challenges within
classrooms, however Joel is in year four and it appears that he has been
displaying these behaviours for quite number of years.

ABC Analysis

A B C

Lining up to enter class - Joel will play with his - Teacher asks Joel to
hair and pull faces at stop these behaviours
other students.

Teacher gives an - Joel will play with his - Teacher asks Joel to
instruction or hair and pull faces at stop these behaviours
introduces a learning other students.
activity - Lesson is
- Joel will get up out of interrupted/stopped
his chair and walk
around the classroom

- Joel will ask the

teacher silly
questions

- Joel will provoke other

students to misbehave

Teacher asks Joel to - Becomes louder and Confronted about

stop these behaviours more disruptive behaviour

- Shouting

- Stomps feet

- Pounding his desk

Confronted about - Becomes personally Lesson ends in chaos

behaviour aggressive and
argumentative

- Calls teacher and

M Bailey 21715819 Assignment 2

others names

- Blames others for his

behaviours

Learning activities - Joel truants from Joel has avoided the

certain classes or from task
whole days of school

Problem Pathway Analysis

Setting/Eve A B C Function
nt

Difficulty Teacher gives Joel begins Teacher ask Task

following the class an playing with him to stop avoidance
instructions instruction his hair and the and attention
pulling faces behaviours seeking
at other
children. Joel
gets up from
his chair and
walks around
the
classroom.

Learning Teacher Joel begins Teacher ask Task

difficulties introduces a playing with him to stop avoidance
learning his hair and the and attention
activity pulling faces behaviours seeking
at other
children. Joel
gets up from
his chair and
walks around
the
classroom.

Learning Joel is Joel truants Joel avoids Task

difficulties required to go classes and school avoidance
to school. whole days of
school

Unable to Joel is asked Joel becomes The lesson Task

communicate to stop a personally will end in avoidance
feelings behaviour aggressive chaos.
appropriately and pounds
the desk,
M Bailey 21715819 Assignment 2

stomps feet
and becomes
louder.
Blames others
for his
behaviour.

Behavioural Function

In this situation the behavioural functions are to avoid the given task and to seek
attention from his peers and adults. Task avoidance can be seen when Joel
diverts his attention to other task when his teacher has begun a lesson or
learning activity. Task avoidance can also be observed from his truanting
behaviour as he is literally avoiding school completely. The behaviours that Joel is
displaying are attention-seeking behaviours as he is trying to involve his peer
while he is disrupting the class through pulling faces and provoking other
students to misbehave as well. However, overall the main behaviour function is
to avoid the task. Task avoidance is the most appropriate function as it is the
most prominent behaviour and the attention seeking behaviours are a form of
task avoidance as well.

Summary of PPA

The problem pathway analysis shows that Joel main behaviour function is to
avoid tasks. It also shows that he is generally successful at achieving his goal of
avoiding tasks that he does not like. It also shows that he does not express
himself appropriately when confronted with his behaviour and instead will
become aggressive and blame others for his behaviour.

Data Gathering Strategies

To identify Joels behaviours clearly and precisely I would use partial interval
recording to record the amount of times that Joel plays with his hair and pulls
faces at his peers. I would use frequency/event recording for the amount of times
that Joel gets up out of his chair and walks around. The next behaviours that I
would use frequency/event recording would be when Joel asks silly questions,
when Joel stomps his feet, pounds his desk, blames others for his behaviour and
provokes other children to misbehave as these behaviours have a clear
beginning and end. I would use latency recording to record the amount of time it
takes from when a learning activity is presented to when Joel becomes disruptive
by getting out of his chair and walking around the classroom or the amount of
time it takes before he begins to provoke his peers to misbehave as well.

The frequency recording for the following behaviours would occur five days a
week for five weeks in order to obtain accurate data:
- Joel getting up out of his chair and walking around
- Joel asking silly questions
- Joel pounding the desk
- Joel stomps his feet
- Joel blames others for his behaviour
M Bailey 21715819 Assignment 2

- Joel provokes other students to misbehave

The partial interval recording would occur every minute for 10 minutes prior to
entering the classroom and every minute for 15 minutes as a learning activity
was being presented three days a week for five weeks for the following
behaviours:
- Joel plays with his hair
- Joel pulls faces at his peers

The latency recording would occur for the following behaviours for five weeks:
- getting up to walk around when a learning activity is presented

Functional Assessment Tool

The functional assessment tool that would be used in this situation would be
Curriculum Based Assessment because the student appears to be displaying
problematic behaviours due to a deficit in academic skills in certain areas. As he
displays these behaviours in most lessons it is assumed that he has a deficit in
his language skills as these skills are used broadly in all key learning areas.
The probes that would be needed to establish Present Performance Level (PLP) in
their language skills would be both writing and reading probes.

For the writing probes I would ask Joel to write a page story starting with Once
upon a time based on the indicator plan, compose and review imaginative and
persuasive texts. I would use a rubric to ensure that all the correct elements of
the text and writing style are being assessed.

Joel had troubles comprehending texts therefore I would set a reading

comprehension assessment that is based on the curriculum indicator
use comprehension strategies to build literal and inferred meaning to expand
content knowledge, integrating and linking ideas and analysing and evaluating
texts. I would have Joel read a short story and then answer questions about the
story verbally to assess comprehension.

As Joel tends to display his problematic behaviours when he is given specific

instructions, it is important that different instructional methods be used. The
following are instructional strategies that could be employed to assist Joel to
understand how to behave appropriately:

The above assessments were performed on Joel and the results are below:

Writing assessment Joel did not appear to have a concept of the text type
required to complete the task. Joel was unable to spell many basic words
correctly. Joel did not use paragraphs or sentences appropriately to structure his
story.

Comprehension assessment Joel was able to answer direct comprehension

questions but was unable to infer information from the text. Joel had difficulty
recalling parts of the story that he had just read and was unable to sequence the
events correctly.

Intervention Strategies
M Bailey 21715819 Assignment 2

In regards to below behaviour that are exhibited by Joel within the classroom I
would introduce a merit system to positively reinforce good behaviour and good
listening as well introducing consequences for Joels actions:
- Getting up and walking around
- Pulling faces at his peers
- Provoking peers to misbehave
- Pounding the desk
- Stomping his feet

Another strategy to prevent Joel from getting up and walking around the
classroom would be a timed token board for while he is completing activities. Joel
would be given a token board that had five blank spaces on it as well as a timer.
The timer could be set for 5 minutes at a time. When the 5 minutes is complete if
Joel has followed the instructions that were given he will receive a token to place
in the empty space on the board. When the token board is full Jeol will receive a
surprise. Each time Joel receives a token he will be reminded why he has
received it. If Joel does not follow the instructions his timer will start again and he
will be told why it is starting again.

The reading and writing tasks presented by the teacher will need to be
differentiated for Joel in order for him to be able to complete tasks and to feel
successful about his learning. If Joel feels successful he will be less likely to
misbehave.

Generalisation of Behaviour

In order for Joel to generalise this positive behaviour I would apply a systematic
reinforcement system. He is currently in the acquisition phase of behavioural
learning where he is being positively reinforced for his good behaviour. This
behaviour is being exemplified in order for him to promptly learn these
behaviours. From there Joel would move into the fluency phase. In this phase the
behaviour would become a part of his routine and more the rewards of his token
system should become social rewards such as being able to choose who he sits
next to. From there Joel would move into the maintenance phase where the
timed token system and the merit system would no longer be used but he would
still get positive reinforcement. The reinforcement in this phase would be less
anticipated for example it could be a teacher praising good behaviour verbally or
by giving a sticker etc. After this phase Joel would move into the generalisation
phase where his behaviour will be internalised and should become automatic.
Joel should now understand that there are rewards and consequences associated
with his actions and should be able to manage his own behaviour appropriately.