Maiko Hosokawa

CPSY 627
Dr. Emily Monn
November 25, 2016
Intervention Individual Paper: Chris

Background Information
Chris is a 12th grade male student of a charter school in suburb of Minneapolis. Chris
meets educational criteria for Developmental Cognitive Disability: Mild-Moderate (DCDMM),
with secondary disabilities of Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) and Other Health Disabilities
(OHD). His OHD is strongly related to food. Chris has school lunch and snack; however, he
often gets very panicked, upset, disappointed, and anxious regarding food. His disabilities of
DCD and ASD affect his abilities to retain, retrieve, and comprehend information. Chris'
strengths include: easy to talk to, being caring and curious about others, being funny and
entertaining, and beginning to explore coping strategies.
His academic level is about 3rd to 4th grade levels and is enrolling in special education
core subject classes. His functional skills level is also in the low range. He needs help for:
shopping, time management, going out, cooking, laundry, and so on. He is taking transition
classes to learn the functional skills and has opportunities to practice in the classroom as well as
in the community. Chris takes art, Yoga, and other electives based on his preference. Chris
receives the mental health supports by a school social worker.
The charter school serves 7th to 12th grade students with mainly ASD. Case managers and
classroom teachers have different roles and do not share the roles so that case managers are
available for students when they are needed.

Function of Behavior
Based on functional behavioral assessment (FBA), the target behavior is refusal. Chris'
team defined the functions of behavior; escaping from unfavorable situations and obtaining
tangibles. The triggers the team identified are: anxiety regarding academic demands, unexpected
issues related to food, confusion, and new learning.
Operational Definition of Target Behavior
The operational definition of target behavior of refusal is: fail to perform required
actions/tasks, decline to accept an offer, throw away something, express a determination not to
do something, and noncompliance in terms of initiating and/or attempting to focus on and/or
engage in educational tasks as directed by instructional personnel.

Behavior Intervention Plan and Data Collection (Appendix A. BIP Snapshot)

Target Behavior. Chris’ target behavior is refusing. His refusal behaviors are shown as: do not
stop preferred tasks such as drawing, sewing, and computer, leave classroom, put his head down,
shut down, throwing pencils away, frequently request walk breaks and visit his case manager.

Rationale. The rationale behind the team decision of the target behavior is that Chris graduates
high school soon and starts the transition program. He eventually wants to get a job and work in
the society. Once he graduates, he will not have a person who always sits by him and is available
for him all the time, unlike his current case manager. Also, when he gets a job and works, he will
have challenging tasks and will not be able to take a break from the tasks. Therefore, Chris needs
to learn how to handle difficult situations with coping strategies.

Replacement Behaviors. Replacement behaviors he need to learn are: request a break before
blowing up, explain why he is upset, ask for help instead of running away to CM, and use
copying strategies, and let staff know what he needs to do. Recognizing of anxiety and
frustration is the prerequisite skill, which he has worked on with a school social worker and a
case manager.

Previously Tried Interventions. The team used reduce rewards, such as computer time and free
time. Chris showed more behavior, rather than understanding the consequences and improving
the behavior.

Interventions and Procedure. Based on FBA including the teachers’ interviews, Chris’ refusing
behaviors have been seen in Social Studies, Science, and Math classes, which are his unfavorite
and challenging classes. So, the team decided implementing intervention in these three classes.
According to the school schedule, each class has 10 class periods each month and eighty minutes
per class.
The team came up with data collection and intervention plan. The team will collect the
baseline of his refusing behavior in each classroom for a month, then will intervene with the
school-wide PBIS ROAR tickets (explained details in Appendix B) for a month. Students will
get the tickets sporadically, and staff puts the tickets in a bin. Every Friday, students are drawn
from the bin and can get a prize from the varieties of prizes. The more tickets students get, the
more chances to be drawn every Friday. For Chris, staff provide the tickets more often with
verbal acknowledgements to reinforce his positive attitude in the classroom and hard work on the
tasks. Then, the team collect the baseline again without any specific prize for a month, and then
implements the second intervention, the point system and behavior contract (explained in
Appendix C). Each teacher discusses the expectations, prizes, and the point sheets including the
behavior contract with Chris. Because he is old enough to discuss the consequences and
expectations, it is better to include him, rather than deciding among just teachers. When he
contributes making decision, he will be more responsible for his behavior and consequences.

Measuring the Target Behavior. The team will measure his refusal behavior in two dimensions:
1) frequencies per month (out of ten classes) and 2) the duration per each occurrence. The reason
of measuring with the frequencies and the duration is because the staff have realized that Chris
leaves classes so often for a short time. It sums up and becomes a long time of leaving classes in
total and results in many missing works. The team also discussed that it is important that Chris
recovers in a short time even if he is in difficult situations. Therefore, the team will monitor his
progress with the frequencies out of ten class periods for each in Social Studies, Science, and
Math classes as well as the durance each occurrence.
The team records on the Google documents each time he shows any refusal behavior
predefined by the team based on FBA. The classroom teachers and EAs fill out the documents to
record the frequencies and duration of Chris’ refusals.

Generalization. Chris generalizes the coping strategies which are pre-taught by a social worker
and a case manager with the intervention of ROAR tickets and the point system across
environments and staff.
Evaluation Plan. The team decided to have a case conference in four months to review the
interventions, its effectiveness, and discuss next steps. The case conference will be set and held
by his case manager. By the time, his classroom teachers and EAs keep recording the
information. The information share among the team with Google Documents, and share with his
family via his case manager.

Results (Graphs shown in Appendix D)

Chris’ progress was measured with the frequencies in each class (out of 10 class periods
in each class) and the duration of each occurrence. The recorders in each class were either the
classroom teachers or the classroom EAs. Chris decreased both frequencies and the duration of
refusal behaviors.

ROAR tickets. The intervention of ROAR tickets was implemented after the team collected the
baseline. Chris showed the improvement in both frequencies and durations in all three classes. In
Social Studies, he decreased by two class periods from the baseline; but, he still showed the
target behavior in more than half of the number of the class periods. In Science and Math, he
decreased by 2 and 4 class periods respectively and improved to less than fifty percent of the
possible class periods. Especially in Math, he improved and reduced his behavior by half.
The duration can be discussed with the average duration and the longest occurrence. In
Social Studies, Chris improved in frequencies but did not improve in the average duration. His
refusal lasted almost the same length in average. The most improvement in Social Studies is the
longest time of occurrence. He showed refusal behaviors for 60 minutes in the baseline and
improved to 45 minutes. In Science, both the average length and the duration of the longest
occurrence improved. The average length decreased from 38 minutes to 18 minutes, and the
longest occurrence went from 60 minutes to 35 minutes. In Math, the average duration was
improved by 10 minutes, and the longest occurrence shortened from 50 minutes to 30 minutes.
Chris showed the improvement with both indexes in Math but not as much as he did in Science.
Based on the results, his average time of being in class is increased 9% in Social Studies
and 22% in Science and Math classes.

Point System and Behavior Contract The point system with the behavior contract was
implemented after the baseline was collected again by removing sporadic ROAR tickets. During
collecting the second baseline, he had hard time in Social Studies. He showed more behaviors in
the second baseline than in the first baseline. However, there was not a significant difference in
Science and Math compared with the intervention of ROAR tickets. To implement the point
system, each classroom teacher discussed with Chris what he needed to achieve and what he
would get as rewards. Chris showed interests and seemed excited to get the rewards that only he
could get. He chose the computer time in Social Studies, preferred sitting place in Science, and
the advanced class in Math (more details explained in Appendix C).
Chris showed the improvement in both frequencies and durations in all three classes. In
Social Studies, he decreased by 4 class periods which is at fifty percent of the number of the
class periods. In Science, he decreased by only 1 class period, which is 3 out of 10 class periods.
Chris also was seen with target behaviors only 3 class periods in Math, which is 2 times fewer
than the baseline. With the point system and the behavior contract, Chris improved the refusing
behavior by at or less than fifty percent of the class periods in all three classes.
Same as the intervention of ROAR tickets, the result with the duration is discussed in
terms of the average duration and the longest occurrence. In Social Studies, Chris did not show
significant improvement in the average duration, but the longest occurrence shortened by 20
minutes. In Science, both the average length and the duration of the longest occurrence improved
dramatically. The average length decreased from 50 minutes to 17 minutes, and the longest
occurrence went from 75 minutes to 25 minutes. Both indexes are one-third of the baseline. In
Math, the average duration was improved by two-fifths of the baseline, and the longest
occurrence shortened from 40 minutes to 15 minutes. Based on the results above, his average
time of being in class increased 20% in both Social Studies and Science and 12% in Math.

Discussion
The team, including Chris himself, his parents, and a transition program representative,
reviewed the collected data and Chris’ attitude throughout the baselines and interventions. The
team's discussion focused on the next steps which are applicable and easily used in the transition
program as well as by Chris himself.
Chris explained that he was not very motivated in Social Studies. The team interpreted
his reasons were that the reward of free/computer time was not special for him because the entire
class received it as well. He showed the decent improvement, but the team agreed that the
rewards must be exclusive for him but still achievable. The rewards of the favorite seating place
in Science and the upper classes in Math were great motivations for Chris, as shown in the
improvements of the frequencies, the average duration, and the longest duration.

Limitation and Adjustment. The team implemented the interventions and collected baselines at
one month intervals. There are limitations of outcome in the long term. The team considers that
Chris loses the motivations for the rewards when he gets used to earn the rewards after the third
or fourth time. The team needs to collect and review the data at least every few months to
evaluate the effects of interventions in a long run. If the team evaluates that Chris loses the
motivations, his teachers and Chris discuss and decide the new rewards again.

Recommendation. The team, case manager, classroom teachers, take time with Chris and
discuss the rewards. The criteria of the effective rewards are: 1) it is very special for him, 2)
other students will not get the same rewards, and 3) it is available in his transition program as
well as in the society. When he achieves the pre-set goals and gets the rewards, teachers will
acknowledge his achievement in front of classes. This works as natural reinforcement because he
is proud of himself by getting attentions from peers.
 Appendix A. BIP Snapshot

Student: Chris Grade: 12 Date: MM/DD/20YY

Primary: Secondary:
Developmental Cognitive Disability: Mild- Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)
Moderate (DCDMM) Other Health Disabilities (OHD)
Target Behavior: Minor Type- Refusal
Description (looks like):
 Do not complete work or do not class tasks
 Do not stop preferred tasks such as drawing, sewing, and computer
 Leaving classroom
 Putting his head down
 Throwing pencils away
 Requesting a walk break or visiting CM

Function of Behavior: escape & tangible

Triggers: Replacement Behavior: Response Procedures

Description: Reinforcement:
 His anxiety, usually around
 Request a break before 1. Sporadic and frequent
academic demands
blowing up ROAR tickets (PBIS)
 Unexpected events around
 Explain why he upsets
food
 Ask for help instead of 2. Daily/Monthly points
 Other Anxiety system and joining
running away to CM
 Confusion
 Learn to recognize anxiety advanced classes
 New learning
 Develop skills to manage
 No favorite activities Previous Reinforcement:
unexpected events and
 Peers challenging situations *Abundant praise
 CM is gone *Decrease giving attention
 Let staff know what he
needs to do

Implementation and Progress Monitoring Plan:

BIP will be implemented by whom? where?

By classroom teachers and/or EAs
Chris’s Social Studies, Science, and Math classes

Method of data collection: 1) Frequencies per month 2) Duration per each occurrence

Biggest Risk: Damaging relationships

Goal:
1. Given direct instruction, Chris will participate in activities (structured therapeutic activities, role
plays, self-reflection) to increase his emotional awareness.
2. Given direct instruction, Chris will explore and identify effective coping strategies when feeling
dysregulated
3. Chris will increase the amount of time staying and working on the tasks in Social Studies,
Science, and Math
Appendix B. ROAR Tickets (School-wide PBIS)
ROAR ticket is used as a school-wide PBIS. The school expectations of keeping safety,
respect, flexibility, and responsibility are reinforced with the ticket by school staff. Students will
get the tickets sporadically, and staff puts the tickets in a bin. Every Friday, students are drawn
from the bin and can get a praise from the varieties of praises such as posters, games, books, and
toys. More tickets students get, more chance to be drawn every Friday. For Chris, staff provide
the ROAR tickets more often with verbal acknowledgements to reinforce his positive attitude in
the classroom and hard work on the tasks.

Appendix C. Behavior contract and Point sheet

Chris and classroom teachers (Social Studies, Science, and Math) discussed and made a
contract. Chris chose deer on his behavior chart, which motivates him as well because he likes
hunting with his dad. Every month, Chris wrote his name, prizes, and the daily goal. To earn the
prize, Chris needed to achieve the daily goal, such as more than 7 daily points, and 7 days out of
10 days each month. Each class period, Chris had his behavior chart on his desk to remind him
that he was working toward the prizes.
This behavior chart and the contract both had short-term and long-term reinforcements
for Chris. Being given more than 7
points each day helped Chris seek more
good-days and count down toward the
prizes. The long-term goal promoted
Chris to work hard. He chose the
computer time in Social Studies,
preferred sitting place in Science, and
the advanced class in Math.
Appendix D. Charts: Frequencies and Duration of Chris’ Refusal