Rhianna Gerfin

State University of New York at Fredonia Spring Term 2013 Focus on Behavior Assessment EDU 530 Mary Galac

1 CONTEXTUAL FACTORS: General: Community Information: Carlyle C. Ring Elementary School is located in the city of Jamestown. One side of the school is a residential area, and on the other side is a busy street. The residential area surrounding the school is full of houses that look as though they havent been renovated in years. It is clear that the community is not wealthy. The roads appear to have not been paved in a long time, and there are an excess of cars in the street. People are always sitting on their porches, regardless of the weather. Although it is somewhat safe to be outside the school during the daytime, it would not be safe to walk around this neighborhood in the evening. Many of the students walk home from school by themselves, at an age as young as kindergarten. Although the street is busy, there are not many businesses in the immediate surrounding area. These factors had a great impact on my instruction. I had to plan my lessons very carefully so that I would not lose the interest of my student. I know that he was always thinking about other things, so I needed to keep him engaged. I was aware of the poverty situation within the community so I wanted to be careful about what prizes I brought over for my student. I wanted to have some kind of reward, but I did not want it to seem as though I was showering my student with gifts that his family could not provide. I decided that school supplies like a pencil a day or reward cards would suffice, and would not be overstepping the unspoken boundaries. School District Information:

2 According to New York State Report Card, 73% of students qualify for free or reduced lunch. There is a very diverse make up of students; about one third of the students are fluent in both English and Spanish. The ethnic make-up of the school is as follows: 64% white, 20% Hispanic or Latino, 7% multi-racial, 6% Black od African American, 1% American Indian, and 1% Asian. Only 6% of students are limited English proficient, and the school employs one ELL teacher. The school is very diverse, as students come from many cultural backgrounds. The community surrounding the school includes a large Hispanic population, and this is reflected by 52% of students being Hispanic at the school. The district wide expenditure per pupil is $16,905. On state wide tests all students have made adequate yearly progress, and all students have met the criteria to score at or above average on their test scores. Student Characteristics The student that I am working with is a six year old boy who is in first grade at Carlyle C. Ring Elementary School in Jamestown, New York. The student does not display any learning disabilities or any other need for Special Education services at this time. The student is Caucasian and Liberian. He lives with his mother and his younger sister in a two bedroom house in Jamestown, New York. The student has lived in this house since he was two years old. The students parents are divorced, and his father is not a stable part of his life. His father does not seek a relationship, and at this time the student does not wish to pursue a relationship either. The student is very angry and resentful of his father. The students mother is the sole provider for her two children. She attends college, and works when she can, but

3 spends most of her time with her children. The students family has a low socioeconomic status, and receives assistance such as WIC, food stamps, HUTT housing, and HEAP. I have been working with this student for two years now. We work mostly on academic problems, as I tutor him in math and reading, but he has existing behavior issues as well. I have existing baseline data on another intervention for aggressive behavior. The student has significantly decreased his aggressive behavior, but his problem behavior of non-compliance sometimes fuels the fire for his aggressive behavior to come out again. He will be frustrated when he has consequences for his behavior, and will revert back to old ways. I chose to work with him again, because I think that by addressing his non-compliance, he will be back on track for handling his aggressive behavior. The student and I meet in his home one to two times a week, depending on each of our schedules. We work for a half hour to an hour, depending on the students mood, and willingness to work for the day. For the first few settings, I spent half of our time together observing the student and his interactions with his mother and sister. This was able to give me a general idea of the severity of noncompliance, and also to provide me with baseline data before I began an intervention plan. Description of Behaviors: The students mother has identified four behaviors as problem behaviors that she would like to address. The student is only displaying these behaviors while at home. The students mother has identified his worst behavior as being non

4 complaint. He will refuse to do his homework, refuse to get ready in the morning, and will ignore him mother when asked to do small things around the house. Occasionally when the student becomes overly frustrated and angry he will yell, and sometimes hit his mother and sister. The student is used to routines, and if a routine is not kept, he will shut down, and display these inappropriate behaviors. The student also suffers from sleep apnea, and often does not receive as much sleep as he needs. His mother has mentioned that his behavior is usually worse on the days where he has not had a good nights sleep. When asked to rank the problem behaviors in order of severity the students mother ranked the problems as follows: lashing out and hitting or yelling not get his way, and asked to comply, refusing to complete his homework, or chores at home when asked, refusing to get ready in the morning when it is time to leave for school, ignoring when asked to complete a task, and blatantly ignoring me when asked a question. Although the aggressive behavior of hitting and yelling is concerning, the students mother and I agreed that if we addressed the issue of non-compliance as the highest priority then his aggressive behavior would decrease, as he would know how to manage his feelings, and have more positive behavior supports in place. The behaviors that seems to be the easiest to change is the student ignoring his mother when he is spoken to or asked to do something, and his refusal to do other tasks such as getting ready in the morning. The behavior that may be the most difficult to change is the student lashing out at his mother and sister. Again, the students mother and I feel that if we are able to find a replacement behavior for his non-

5 compliance, then he will have a better handle on his emotions, and the hitting and yelling will not be his first choice in coping with his feelings. Although the student displays the problem behavior of non-compliance, he has strengths that lie elsewhere. The student has many friends, and has regular play dates with his friends. He receives good grades in school, and does not have compliance problems with his teacher. I hope to call upon the students strengths when developing an intervention plan, and finding appropriate replacement behaviors. Previous Interventions: The major components of my previous intervention include direct instruction tutoring, and point earning. I met with the student on a weekly basis and tutor him in the subject areas of math and literacy. The student is displayed inappropriate, aggressive behaviors. Together with the student, I set in place a point system for appropriate behavior while completing homework, and also for while the student is home. The student and I decided what inappropriate behaviors should be included for point deduction, and I had a sheet that reminded him of the inappropriate behavior, which we both initialed. The student had an opportunity to earn five points a day. Every time that he displayed an inappropriate behavior, he will lose a point. When the student earned 15 points he was allowed to pick out of the mysterious grab bag. The bag included small tokens and prizes for the student. I also incorporated the strategy of self-monitoring into this intervention as well.

6 The student self-monitored himself throughout the duration of our session together. When the student displayed an inappropriate behavior, he was asked to erase one of the tally marks on his point sheet. This served as a reminder that he was accountable for his behavior. At the end of each session, the student had an opportunity to earn back one point. The student had to complete a decision making sheet with me, to constructively think about his behavior, and come up with some alternative strategies for dealing with his feelings and behaviors. We then would go over the sheet together and set a goal for the following week. This intervention was implemented on a weekly basis. I met with the student weekly, in his home. We worked together for a half an hour to an hour at his kitchen table, which is his designated homework spot. Educational Impact: I am observing and hoping to decrease the inappropriate behavior for this student so that he can not only be successful in school, but also so that he can have a more positive relationship with his mother. Non-compliance can cause teachers to have a negative view of a student, and at times they will become frustrated and possibly give up on the student. Students who have compliance problems tend to spend a lot of time in the office, and will receive disciplinary referrals. If the student can gain control of his behavior at this young age, then he will be able to learn more positive and appropriate behaviors as he continues to grow physically, emotionally, and academically. Also, if he is able to find alternate means of expressing himself through a replacement behavior, he may have a better grasp on his emotions, and

7 will be able to form more positive relationships, and learn more positive ways to cope with his emotions. I would also like to continue to observe and decrease the students aggressive behavior so that he can be successful in school. When a student displays aggressive behavior, students often become afraid of that student, and teachers will talk about the student as well. Aggressive behavior can set a student up for failure in not only an educational setting, but also socially and throughout everyday life. The student is still young, and if he learns to control and use replacement behaviors instead of his aggressive behavior then he will have better problem solving skills, and coping skills as he gets older. Function of Behavior: a. Affective Regulation/Emotional Reactivity: The student does not display any signs of anxiety or depression. He does struggle with anger problems that stems from a poor relationship with his father. He sometimes becomes angry with his mother because she is the only person that he has to lash out at. When he sees his sister and his mother becoming close he acts out in jealousy because he does not want anything to come between him and his mother. The student will yell at his mother, or sometimes hit and push her because he does not know any other way to express how he is feeling. b. Cognitive Distortion: The student will occasionally make comments that he is stupid when he is asked to do his homework. His grades do not reflect that he has a learning disability, or that he is seriously struggling academically. The student will say that

8 he is stupid, or that he doesnt understand in order to escape doing his homework, or to delay having to do his homework in hopes that his mother will forget about it. c. Modeling: The student is not copying the behavior from anyone in his home. The students sister listens to the mother, and does not display aggressive behaviors. The students mother has never hit or spanked either of her children, and rarely yells at her children as well. The students mother spoke with his teacher to ask if anyone in the class is extremely aggressive, or non-compliant. The teacher expressed that there are mild cases of misbehavior, but nothing out of the ordinary for a first grade classroom. d. Family Issues: The students mother and father are divorced, and his father is not a consistent figure in his life. The students father lives out of state, and they only communicate via web visits. During these web visits the students father is not very interested in what he has to say, and the student becomes very defensive and angry. The student does not have a positive relationship with his father and harbors feelings of resentment and anger. This plays a large role in the students aggressive and non-compliant behavior. On days where the student has to visit with his father his behavior is affected. He will be extremely non-compliant and aggressive towards his mother. His mother feels as though he is punishing her for making him speak with his father. She feels that she is the only person that he has as an outlet for his frustrations and emotions.

9 e. Psychological/Constitutional: The student does not have any developmental disabilities. He is diagnosed with sleep apnea, and does not get a lot of sleep on a regular basis. The students temperament is greatly affected by his sleep apnea. His mother has said that he is a different person on the days where he gets enough sleep. When he has not had enough sleep his behavior is especially erratic, and he loses control of his emotions. His mother believes that the sleep apnea is directly related to the problem behaviors that he is displaying. f. Communication Need: Based on my observations and interviews with the students mother, I believe that he is seeking attention through his actions and behavior. I think that the student wants people to realize that he is hurting, tired, or uncomfortable and that his behavior is the only way that he knows how to express himself. If the student had a bad day at school, and did not get enough sleep, then he feels the need to make everyone know this, and pay attention to him. For some reason, he does not do this in school. He only displays these behaviors towards his mother, and sometimes his sister. The student wants a close relationship with his mother, but he has feelings of anger towards his father, and in order to express that anger towards his mother, he will be aggressive, mean, and ignore her. g. Curriculum and Instruction: The student does not display the problem behaviors in school. His mother has spoken with his teacher and she does not have behavioral issues with the

10 student during the day. The student is compliant and never aggressive towards her or other students. Target Behavior/Learning Goal: The target behaviors that I wish to set in place for the student serve as replacement behaviors for his non-compliance and aggressive behavior. The student will not do what is requested within 10 seconds and will intentionally stall, dawdle or refuse to complete a task. The student will ignore requests, challenge authority, and/or violate rules that have been set in place by his mother. The student will occasionally use physical or verbal attacks towards his mother and his sister. The positive target behaviors that I wish to increase and reinforce include complying within ten seconds of being asked to do something, positively communicating with his language, and taking time out to assess his feelings instead of yelling or hitting. The student requires structure to be able to perform tasks that he is asked, so the ten second time limit on complying increased the reinforcement of this behavior. The student needed someone to model positive communication skills for him, as he was used to just screaming and/or hitting to get his way, or just ignoring what was asked of him. The time outs allowed for the student to have some time to himself, and allowed him to reflect on his behavior, and how he can improve it. The ball was in his court when it came to taking time outs, and the control over something in the studets loife encouraged him to keep up with this positive behavior. I measured the target behaviors in the frequency that they occurred: The frequency of compliance within ten seconds

11 The number of times that the student uses words to communicate positively how he is feeling The number of times that the student independently takes a time out to gather himself and his feelings instead of reacting aggressively whether it be verbally or physically. I used direct observation to measure these behaviors. I observed the student in his home setting. These observations helped me to correct the problem behavior to ensure that it did not get any worse, and that it does not become a permanent fixture of his life. Behavior Intervention Plan: A. Antecedent/Setting Changes: The student knows how to perform the target behavior of taking time out to gather his feelings instead of reacting aggressively from a previous intervention that I have done. However, the student still requires reminders, and modeling to perform this target behavior. The student and I meet in his home one to two times a week, depending on each of our schedules. We work for a half hour to an hour, depending on the students mood, and willingness to work for the day. For the first few settings, I will spend half of our time together observing the student and his interactions with his mother and sister. This will be able to give me a general idea of the severity of non-compliance, and also to provide me with baseline data before I began an intervention plan. I will model the appropriate behavior for the student, and I will also discuss my expectations with the student. The student and I will define the inappropriate behaviors in terms that he can understand and the appropriate behaviors

12 in the same terms. The appropriate behaviors will be displayed as a visual reminder for the student of what is expected of him. I am observing the student in his home with his mother and sister in an attempt to change his behavior at home. I will not be making changes to the environment, because the home environment is the only environment where he is displaying the inappropriate behaviors. The student does not display the behaviors in school, at friends and familys houses, or towards other family members, so I wish to keep the intervention as consistent with his home, and home activities as possible. B. Positive Consequences: If the student reaches 25 points, he will be able to earn tickets that will have various rewards written on them. I will keep a running total of the students points that he has earned. The points will be displayed on a poster board that he will be allowed to design, and the student will be able to physically write out his points each day. The students mother and I discussed the rewards and determined that free time before homework, no chores, extra sleep time in the morning, and alone time with mom were some things that would interest the student. If the student has too easy or too difficult of a time reaching the 25 point goal it may be revised to a higher or lower number. The student will also receive verbal encouragement and feedback, and acknowledgement of work, both written and verbal as well. C. Negative Consequences: Negative consequences for the student include losing strips of his paper, which are directly related to his ability to earn points. Other negative consequences may

13 include verbal reminders, planned ignoring, private discussions, and loss of free time. I have discussed the list of negative consequences with the students mother as she is the primary disciplinarian, and she knows what works and what doesnt work for him. I did not want to overstep, or choose a negative consequence that she felt was unfair, or inappropriate for her child. D. Support Team: I will provide the support to the student when I am working with him in his home. At the start of each session together, we will go over the positive behaviors that I am looking for, and that we have defined together. This will serve as a verbal and visual reminder for the student to reach his goal. If the student displays an inappropriate behavior, I will explain to him what he did, why he is losing a strip of paper, and what he can do to improve his behavior. I will be the person who is implementing the behavior plan, and also the person who is collecting the data. I will use a frequency checklist to measure the frequency that the student displays inappropriate behavior. The students mother will provide support to the student by reminding him of the expected behavior throughout the week. The poster where the student and I defined the target behavior will be left at his house, and will be displayed as a reminder of what he should be doing. If the student begins to display an inappropriate behavior, his mother will refer him to the poster in an attempt for him to change his behavior for the better. The students mother will not be collecting any formal data throughout the week when I am not present.

14 E. Student Samples: The student will be able to create a poster in the color of his choice to display his running total of points from our sessions together. The student will be able to earn a reward ticket with various activities such as alone time with mom, extra ten minutes of sleep in the morning, and day off from chores. An example may look like this: To: Student A From: Rhianna YOU DID IT! You have earned an extra ten minutes to sleep in the morning!

Assessment Plan: During the baseline conditions I observed the students behavior. The student is non-compliant and occasionally displays aggressive behavior. It is common that the student will be non-compliant, or display another inappropriate behavior at least five to six times in forty-five minutes to an hour period of time. I usually reach the students house at 4:00. At this time the student has come home from school, had a few minutes to relax and get settled before we begin working. The student and I then work one-on-one for the entire length of the session. The student usually faces time out as a consequence for his behavior from his mother at this point.

15 During intervention conditions I will still arrive at the students house at 4:00. The student will be able to participate in his normal routine, which is very important to him. Instead of our usual tutoring session, I will introduce the selfstripper self-regulation strategy. I will explain to the student that this is a game that we are going to be playing during our time together, and that he will receive ten strips of paper at the beginning of every session. Once I feel that the student is engaged, we will discuss the behavior that his mother has been noticing, and the problems that we have been having during our time together. The student and I will talk about his inappropriate behavior and come up with a common definition for the specific behavior so that we both know what needs to change. We will also define the appropriate behaviors that I am looking for in terms that the student can understand. After the appropriate behavior is defined, I will write it out to be displayed as a reminder for the student as a visual reminder that the student is expected to comply with myself or his mother within ten seconds, and that he is to communicate his feelings positively, and non-aggressively. After the behavior and expectations are identified, I will explain how the strips of paper work to my student. I will have a sheet of poster board that will be used for the point sheet, and I will allow the student to decorate it in any way that he chooses. I will explain that the students goal is initially to earn 25 points. I will explain the rules of the strips of paper, and let the student know that each time that he does not comply within 10 seconds he will have to give me a strip of his paper. I will explain that the students goal is to keep at least five strips of paper by the end of our session. If he keeps at least five strips of paper then he can earn five points. If

16 the student does not keep at least five strips of paper, then he will still have a chance to earn two points for the day. I hope that this will keep the student not only interested, but motivated as well. In order to earn two points, the student must think about why he did not earn his five strips for the day, and write down two ways that I can help him to reach his goal for the next week. We will verbally discuss what he wrote down, and make a plan of action for the week. If the student is thoughtful, and constructive then he will be able to earn two points for the day. I would like to do this to keep the student motivated if he is having difficulty reaching his goal. A running total of the students points will be kept on the poster board. If the student is reaching 25 points too easily, or not easily enough, then the point value may be modified. I will be collecting data on the students frequency of inappropriate behavior through the use of a frequency checklist. I will use tally marks to show how many times the student exhibited either the target behavior, or an inappropriate behavior.

17 STUDENT AS BEHAVIOR FREQUENCY CHECKLIST DATE: TARGET BEHAVIOR AGGRESSIVE BEHAVIOR NON-COMPLIANCE

Instructional Decision Making: The students tendency to display aggressive behaviors made me rethink my plan multiple times. I wondered if my plan was a strong enough intervention for this type of behavior. On 4/7/13, the second day of my intervention, the student left the table and went to his room and pushed his sister. This truly made me question whether or not losing a strip of paper was a severe enough consequence for his aggressive display of hitting his sister. I decided that I would try the intervention for a few more days before I questioned changing it again. I also questioned whether or not my intervention would work because the student reacted very badly when he lost a strip of the paper, but instead of making the relation that if he changed his behavior he would stop losing them, his behavior worsened. I worried that this concept was too complex for him to understand.

18 I decided to modify my intervention plan, and create a way for the student to still earn a small number of points even if he did not have the requirement of at least five strips of paper left at the end of the session. The student was becoming discouraged, and I felt like he thought that he had nothing to work towards. My goal was not to take things away from the student, but rather to encourage him to do better each week. I decided to add an option to earn two points instead of five points for the student. If the student does not keep at least five strips of paper, then he will still have a chance to earn two points for the day. I hoped that this would keep the student not only interested, but motivated as well. In order to earn two points, the student had to think about why he did not earn his five strips for the day, and write down two ways that I could help him to reach his goal for the next week. We then verbally discussed what he wrote down, and made a plan of action for the week. If the student was thoughtful, and constructive then he will be able to earn two points for the day. I did this to keep the student motivated, and interested in changing his behavior. I did not intentionally make a change to the environment that the student and I worked in, but when I worked with the student and his sister was not present, his behavior was much better than when she had been present in previous visits. I am unsure if he was distracted by her presence, or mad that she did not have to work when he did, but I saw a significant change. The students sister was not present on day 11, during my first intervention trial, and the students frequency of behavior was at an all-time low for him. The students mother was not able to have his sister out of the house all the time, and since we were working on improving his

19 behavior in the home setting, I did not want to change our meeting place from the students home to another location. I also was observing the students interactions with his mother and his sister, so it made me wonder if there is an issue between the student and his sister, and if that is why his behavior is so bad when she is around. It would not be conducive to the intervention plan to have the students mother and sister out of the house, or not around when I am working with him because I am trying to increase positive interactions between the three of them. Analysis of Student Learning:

The results throughout the first baseline measure indicate the students typical behavior. Throughout a half an hour to an hour meeting period the student typically displays anywhere from three to six occurrences of non-compliance. The students mother confirmed that this is how he usually acts with her at home, when I

20 am not present. When I introduced the intervention and the self-stripper strategy, the students behavior only slightly improved through the first trial. He still displayed the behaviors of non-compliance and aggressive behavior. His behavior was remained all over the place, and there was not consistent proof or improvement to show that the intervention was working. As I introduced the second intervention attempt, I noticed that the students behavior started to improve. He was beginning to comply within ten seconds, and was speaking with a positive tone instead of yelling. Although the students inappropriate behaviors were sporadic, he was improving with each meeting. As the second intervention measure continued for a few meetings, the students behavior seriously improved, and the inappropriate behavior definitely decreased with every meeting. The results indicate that the student has shown great improvement between each intervention period. The students behavior slightly improved through the first intervention, but he still had days where his behavior got the better of him, and the results are irregular. As the student worked through the second baseline measure to the second intervention measure, he showed significant improvement. Although his inappropriate behavior did not quite reach zero, he went from displaying an inappropriate behavior such as non-compliance and aggressive behaviors six times an hour to only one time an hour, and made great strides in improving himself along the way. He is not displaying more appropriate behaviors such as complying within ten seconds, positively communicating, and taking time outs to address his feelings before acting impulsively and aggressively.

21 Observation Journals: 2/25/13: Student A is not having a good day today. He has been fighting with his mother since he got home from school, and is currently in his room, and refusing to come out. I asked his mother if he had a bad day at school, or if he did not get a lot of sleep the night before. She told me that he had not slept well all weekend, and that his behavior had carried over from the weekend as well. She expressed to me that he has been very difficult, has been refusing to do anything, and has been yelling and hitting as well. The student would not come out of his room today, so we were unable to work on any of his homework. This is the worst that I have seen the student behave since we have been working together. 2/28/13: Student A is in a better mood today. He had a really good day at school, and his mom said that he got about six hours of sleep the night before, which is very good for him. The student had some homework to do, and a spelling test to study for so I sat with him at the kitchen table. He was doing very well until I corrected the way that he wrote his letter d. He became very upset, crossed his arms, and sat there in silence for 15 minutes. I tried to coax him to try again, and his mother spoke to him as well. He made grunting noises, and whined, and continued his refusal to do work. I am now seeing how big of an issue that his non-compliance is. 3/4/13: Today is the day that I am beginning to measure the frequency of the students inappropriate behaviors. I arrived at student As house twenty minutes after he got home from school. In this time he had time to have a snack, and relax for a few minutes. Mondays are the students day to reorganize his bookshelf, and he had some homework to do as well. I observed as his mother asked him to

22 complete his bookshelf chore. The first time that she asked, he completely ignored her request. The second time that he was asked to do so, he yelled at her, and still ignored the request. The third time that she asked he went into his room and closed the door. His mother asked one final time, and he finally completed the task. I then began to work with the student on his homework. I asked him to try the first math problem by himself, and he ignored me, and instead drew on his folder. I asked again, and the student blankly stared at me. I tried to rephrase my request, and the student told me do it yourself. I told the student that I would be leaving if he did not work with me, and he finally complied. 3/7/13: I am still measuring the frequency of the students inappropriate behaviors. As soon as I walked in the door I witnessed the student yelling at his little sister, and then hitting her. I asked his mother what had happened and she said that his sister asked for a turn on the computer, and he was angry. I went to talk with the student and he yelled at me as well. I gave him 5 minutes to cool down in his room, and then we had a discussion about his day. He told me that he was very tired, and that he was angry that his sister wanted a turn on the computer. I asked him if he could apologize to his sister and instead of a sincere apology, he yelled at her again. We went outside for a few minutes to cool down before we came back in to do homework. When we started homework the student was refusing to do work again. His inappropriate behavior count reached six again today within an hour period. 4/4/13: I introduced my intervention plan today. The student was not happy. Although he likes the idea of competition, and earning prizes, he did not like that

23 there were rules to the game, and that the prize was not instantly granted to him. The student lost 4 strips of paper within ten minutes. He refused to do his homework, yelled at his mother in the other room, and ultimately left the table when he did not have enough strips to earn points for the day. His response was to scream and leave the room again. His frequency of inappropriate behaviors within an hour was still six! 4/7/13: Day two of the intervention plan. I re-explained the rules to student A, and that he had an opportunity to earn five points for the day. He seemed excited at first, but when he did not comply with my request to write his name on his paper within ten seconds, he lost a strip of paper. This set the tone for the rest of the session. If I so much as looked at the students paper he would yell what are you doing? and spoke very aggressively. His sister was watching a show in their bedroom and the student got up from the table, ran into the room, and pushed her. I sat him down and explained that he was going to continue to lose strips of paper if his behavior continued, and I explained what he should be doing instead. My efforts were in vain because the student shut down, and refused to do anything again. He ended the day with four strips of paper, and zero points. Reflection and Response: The students behavior did change as a result of my instruction and intervention plan. He showed resistance in the beginning, which was expected considering that the issue at hand was non-compliance. I think that one of the reasons that the student was non-complaint because he needed some source of control in his life, and that this was the only way that he knew how to handle

24 himself. I feel that the student was engaged, and excited about using the strips of paper was because he was responsible for the paper, and he had control over his own actions. This provided the student with something that he himself was responsible for, and it was something that was his own. I had clear expectations for the student, and he had the constant reminder of the expectations displayed for him. I think that providing the student with a goal that was attainable also contributed to the success of the intervention. The student had something to work towards, and he was the one who had the ability to succeed, or not meet his goal for the day. I think that his accountability for his actions is primarily responsible for the success of this intervention. I felt as though my plan was not so successful in the beginning of my trials with the interventions. The students behavior was not greatly affected by my intervention in the first trial. He had a few good days, but still was unable to reach his goal of twenty-five points. He became frustrated, and wanted to give up on the game. The student and I went over the expectation again, and I showed him how simple it could be for him to earn one of the prize cards. We set goals together, that were actually attainable for him, and I think that this drew him back into the game. The strips of paper, and their relation to his behavior was beginning to make sense to him, and he was determined to take control of it, and reach his goal. I also felt as though my intervention plan was unsuccessful because there was not a consistent positive change in the students behavior. The students behavior remained erratic, and he was not making a lot of progress towards the target behaviors.

25 I think that there are many factors that contributed to the change in the student, and his ability or inability to earn points. The number one problem that affects the students behavior is his sleep apnea. When the student does not get a full nights sleep he is a different person, and his behavior is more problematic than ever. He loses control over how he acts, and his exhaustion takes over. On days eight and twelve, the student had not slept, and was being very resistant to my intervention and game. He will be non-compliant, but realize what he has done after the fact, as his exhaustion and frustrations consume him. When this happens it is very difficult to work with the student and his behavior changes radically, and he has no control over this. I think that the students ability to self-regulate his behavior was a leading cause to the success of this intervention. The student really enjoyed having the control over something, and having something that was only his. He shares most things with his sister, but this game belonged to him. I think that he wanted to hold onto this game as much as he could, and that this led to his determination to be successful. If I were to modify this intervention plan I would like to include the students mother more in the intervention. Working with families, and having a positive relationship with families is important to be successful as a teacher. I think that this would have helped me further develop my communication between home and school, and also would have helped to create a clear and consistent behavior plan between home and school. I think that if she would have participated with the strips of paper, and playing the game with him, then I could have found some interesting data. Although I observed the student, and his non-compliance was worse with his

26 mother, I think that having her actually do the intervention with him would have provided me with some interesting data. She would have the chance to carry out the intervention for an entire day, rather than just for two hours of the week. I would have liked to have seen how her data compared with mine, as I believe that this would have impacted the students behavior in an even more positive way. There are many possibilities for professional development after this behavior plan, and some professional learning goals have emerged as well. One of my professional learning goals is to become more educated in the area of behavior disorders. I do not believe that this student has a behavior disorder, but I would like to learn more about these students, so that I can help them, and know how to develop appropriate intervention plans. Behavior disorders are not something that is going away, and even if a student is not classified with a behavior disorder, they may still be struggling. If I have the knowledge base of how to determine why students are acting the way that they are, what they are getting out of their behavior, or even if they are able to control the behavior, I think that I will be a better teacher, and resource. Another professional learning goal that I would like to set for myself is to research positive behavior supports, and to measure their success in classrooms, and even at home. I would like to expand my knowledge on different strategies that I can use with students, and bring more positive into the classroom setting. I believe that these are attainable goals, and that there are steps that I can take to reach them. I would like to take more classes that talk about Special Education and specifically students with behavior disorders. I have found that I am

27 becoming more interested in learning about students classified with emotional disturbance, and I would like to find out more information. There is a wealth of knowledge at the college, and I feel that many professors can help to guide me in the right direction. I also feel that if I were able to get a job in a setting with students with behavior disorders, then I would also learn a lot from actually working with them one-on-one. This could also be an opportunity for me to explore different positive behavior supports, and try them out in my classroom. If there was a varying range of disorders, and severity of disorders, different behavior supports could be necessary for each child. I would ideally work with the parents, and other professionals in my building in order to align a behavior support with the students IEP/504 Plan/etc. and ensure that we can help the student to be successful in not only school, but as they learn life skills, and transition out of the educational setting.