Positive Behavioral Support High Five Expectations Be there and be ready. A functional assessment attempts to discover the purposes, goals, or functions of behavior by Identifying the events, times, and situations that predict when the challenging behaviors will and will not occur across the range of daily routines. Developing one or more summary statements or hypotheses that describe specific behaviors, specific types of situations in which they occur, and the reinforcers that maintain the behaviors in that situation. Collecting directly observed data that support these summary statements. [From: Families and Disabilities Newsletter (Winter 1997), Beach Center on Families and Disabilities.] | Researchers are finding that PBS is effective with general education and special education students. Following are a few examples of researchers who are expanding our understanding of PBS. Implementing PBS in Schools for All StudentsGeorge Sugai and Robert Horner are researchers at the University of Oregon, where they direct the OSEP-funded Center for Positive Behavioral Interventions and Support. The Center's goal is to increase the capacity of schools, families, and communities to support and educate children with significant problem behaviors.With funding from OSEP over the years, Horner and Sugai have studied PBS in over 65schools in Oregon, Hawaii, Texas, and British Columbia. Their schoolwide approach (which they call Effective Behavioral Support) defines, teaches, and encourages appropriate behavior in children in elementary and middle schools. "Effective Behavioral Support is based on the fact that about 85% of students have the social skills to do quite well if placed in a reasonable environment," Horner explains. "With our approach, schools establish an effective environment, which frees teachers to devote special attention to the students who have more challenging behavioral problems." To address the behavioral needs of all students, Horner and Sugai suggest an approach that considers support from four perspectives:
A Schoolwide Plan for PBSImagine experiencing a 42% drop in office referrals in one year's time! That's what happened at Fern Ridge Middle School in Elmira, Oregon, when Principal Susan Taylor-Greene and her staff implemented Horner's and Sugai's PBS approach. They emphasized:
"The staff and I began with a belief that we could make significant changes, but we found that change had to start with us." Taylor-Greene points out that "if you want to approach students from a proactive perspective, then the staff must work as a team-which means being consistent in their expectations and reactions to students' behaviors." Staff at Fern Ridge put the three levels of PBS recommended by Horner and Sugai into place. The first level is preventive and, according to Taylor-Greene, provides the necessary supports to 80% to 90% of the student population. After doing an analysis of the school environment, the staff defined their expectations for student behavior-called "High Five." At the beginning of the year, staff directly taught the skills underlying these expectations (a training manual is available for purchase from the school). Students then practiced the appropriate behaviors with reinforcement and feedback. "To support the students, we have a school widetoken economy which reinforces youngsters for appropriate behaviors throughout the year, "Taylor-Greene notes, and adds that the High Five expectations are posted in every classroom. While this level is very effective, some students need more structure to help them solve problems and set goals. These students attend daily morning check-in and afternoon check-out sessions with counseling staff. Students carry a point card on which teachers can award points when the youngster demonstrates the High Five expectations. The card is brought to the counselor at the end of each day and sent home to families. An individualized behavioral education plan (BEP) is also developed for these students. "Even with this additional structure, some kids still aren't making it," Taylor-Greene confides. To support these students, amore intensive BEP is developed. Responding with Support: The Think Time StrategyAccording to Arizona State University researcher Ron Nelson, the consistent, systematic interpersonal response to disruptive behavior is also critical in providing PBS and goes hand-in-hand with a schoolwide discipline policy. "We found that despite the implementation of proactive strategies, some students still exhibited disruptive behaviors, "Nelson explains. "With these students, typical classroom management approaches that rely on repeated warnings are problematic for three reasons: they often reinforce the disruptive behavior; they do not help the student distinguish the appropriate behavior from the inappropriate one; and they can result in power struggles between teachers and students."With OSEP support, Nelson developed and researched the Think Time Strategy, a cognitive-behavioral time-out strategy designed to:
The Think Time Strategy requires teamwork between two or more teachers and the establishment of a Think Time area in each teacher's classroom. Teachers teach all students the strategy, using these steps:
Suzanne Schmick, Principal of Endicott Elementary-St. John Middle School in rural Washington, attests to the usefulness of the approach. "In conjunction with our schoolwide discipline plan, the Think Time strategy helps us reduce problem behaviors and prevent those that do occur from escalating." Schmick and her staff introduced the strategy to students during the first few weeks of September and reinforced it throughout the year. Teachers directly taught the steps and routines to students. "It is important to be very clear and consistent about expectations," Schmick points out. "This means that the staff must have conversations about the approach throughout the year. "To support teachers, Schmick recommends the following:
Using Functional Assessment with Young ChildrenWith OSEP support, researcher Debra Kamps, at the University of Kansas, has been studying the use of functional assessment with young children. "Experienced teachers can learn informal functional assessment techniques and use the results to determine the best targeted intervention," Kamps asserts.In one project, case studies were conducted to improve the social and behavioral performance of young children identified as having behavior risks in Head Start and kindergarten classrooms. According to Kamps, the functional assessment of environmental events allowed researchers to determine the functions and maintenance of inappropriate behaviors so that interventions could be prescribed. The results of the case studies were encouraging: children's behaviors improved over time. These changes were a result of environmental manipulations including:
Kamps recommends that practitioners consider incorporating the following positive supports when addressing challenging behaviors:
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