Rhianna M.

Gerfin

Student Improvement Project December 20, 2012 EDU 508 State University of New York at Fredonia

1 Problem: Description: The student that I have been working with this semester is a six year old boy in first grade at Carlyle C. Ring Elementary. While I have set instructional goals for the student throughout the semester, I also created an intervention plan to address some problem behaviors that he is exhibiting. The student is exhibiting aggressive behavior such as hitting others, screaming until he does not get his way, and using inappropriate language. The student will sometimes hide in his room and refuse to come out for the rest of the night. Together with his mother I am working to decrease the aggressive behavior. I would like to decrease the problem behaviors and increase more appropriate behavior such as positive communication, taking time outs, and reflecting on how we can make the day better. Rationale: I am trying to decrease the inappropriate behavior for this student 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. Summary: 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 student is aggressive, and will often hit others, hide in his room, scream until he does not get his way, and will use inappropriate language. The students mother has attributed some of these behaviors to his lack of sleep, as he is diagnosed with sleep apnea, and to when there is an unexpected change in the students schedule. When asked to rank the problems in order of their severity the mother ranked them as follows: hitting

2 others, using inappropriate language, hiding in his room and not coming out, and screaming until he gets his way. The behavior of hitting others is the highest priority problem to change, as this is adversely affecting the childs relationship with his mother and sister, and she does not want this problem to carry into his Education. The behavior that appears to be easiest to change is the use of inappropriate language, while the most difficult behavior to change will be hitting others. This has always been the students go to behavior for when he is upset. Although the student displays multiple problem behavior, he displays many strengths socially. The student socializes with others in his class, and plays with friends outside of school. The student speaks very well when he wants to, and is also able to get his point across. I hope to optimize these strengths when developing replacement behaviors. Method: Participants and setting: The participants in this intervention are the students mother, and the student. The student is a six year old boy who is in first grade at Carlyle C. Ring Elementary School in Jamestown, New York. The student attended speech therapy for the duration of one semester last year, and his speech has greatly improved. The student is no longer attending speech therapy sessions, and does not display any potential learning disabilities at this time. The student is Caucasian and Liberian. The student lives with his mother and his younger sister in Jamestown in a two bedroom apartment. The students father is not a big part of his life, and the student displays some resentment and angry feelings towards his father. The students mother attends college, but spends the rest of her time with the children. The students family has a relatively low socio-economic status. The family receives assistance such as WIC, food stamps, HUTT housing and heating assistance. The student and I meet twice weekly basis at his home. Depending on the level of focus, and interest, we work for a half an hour to an hour, taking a five minute break at some point.

3 Target Behaviors: The target behaviors that I wish to set in place for the student serve as replacement behaviors for his aggressive behavior. The target behaviors that I wish to increase include positively communicating his feelings, and taking time outs to assess his feelings. The behaviors that we are trying to decrease are hitting others, using inappropriate language and screaming, and the student hiding in his room when he does not get his way. I would like to measure the target behaviors in the frequency that they occur. The frequency of positive comments and communication The number of times that the student independently takes a time out to gather himself and his feelings. The student completes his homework without an outburst

I will use direct observation as a measure of these behaviors. As I work with the student on his homework and skill sets I will also be observing his behavior in his home, towards his mother and sister. This will allow me to see and assess how the student interacts in his home setting, and attempt to correct the behavior to ensure that it does not follow him to school. Intervention strategies: The major components of this intervention are direct instruction tutoring, and point earning. I meet with the student on a weekly basis and tutor him in the subject areas of math and literacy. The student is displaying inappropriate, aggressive behaviors. Together with the student, we have 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 we have a sheet that reminds him of the inappropriate behavior, which we both initialed. The student has an opportunity to earn five points a day. Every time that he displays an inappropriate behavior, he will lose a point. When the student earns 15 points he is allowed to pick out

4 of the mysterious grab bag. The bag includes small tokens and prizes for the student. I have incorporated the strategy of self-monitoring into this intervention as well. The student is self-monitoring himself throughout the duration of our session together. If the student displays an inappropriate behavior, then he is asked to erase one of the tally marks on his point sheet. This serves as a reminder that he is accountable for his behavior. At the end of each session, the student has an opportunity to earn back one point. The student must 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 will go over the sheet together and set a goal for the following week. I will be implementing this intervention on a weekly basis. I meet with the student weekly, in his home. We work together for a half an hour to an hour, depending on the students mood and level of focus. The student and I work together at his kitchen table while his mother works around the house, and his sister plays in their room. His mother supervises, and occasionally walks through the kitchen to see how he is doing. The student will count up his points at the end of each session, and we will maintain a running total. Project Procedures: During baseline conditions I have been observing the students behavior. The student displays aggressive behavior, and has many outbursts. It is common that the student will have three to four emotional outbursts or display two to three of the inappropriate behaviors during the half an hour to hour time period that I am working with him. I arrive at the students house after school, generally 3:00, and the student has a snack. We then discuss what we are going to work on for that day. The student and I work one-on-one for the entire session. The student does not currently have any consequences for his aggressive behaviors.

5 During intervention conditions I will still arrive at the students house at 3:00. The student will go about his usual routine where he has a snack, and then we sit and discuss the goals that I have for the day. Instead of jumping right into instruction, I will explain to the student that I would like to play a game with him, and challenge him to earn as many points as possible. After I gain the students interest with this proposition, we will have a discussion about some of the behavior that I have been noticing. The student and I will define what his definition of inappropriate behavior is, and then he will tell me if he is doing any inappropriate behaviors. The student and I will list the inappropriate behaviors, and I will type them up to be displayed throughout our time together. After the problem behaviors are identified, the student and I will brainstorm some alternative behaviors that he can be doing. This will allow the student to have a say in what will be going on, and also allow him to reflect on his behavior and how he can change it. After the boundaries and problem behaviors are identified, I will explain the point system to my student. I will have a point sheet that I will bring with me every time that I come over. The student will start with five points for the day. It is his challenge to keep all of the points. Each time that the student displays a problem behavior that we have identified, the student will have to erase a point. The student will have a chance to earn a point back at the end of each session. The student may earn a point back by completing a decision making sheet. This sheet will help to identify why the problem behavior occurred, how the student was feeling, and help to identify some alternative positive behaviors. This will allow for constructive feedback for the student, and will further reinforce the positive behavior. I will keep a running tally of the students points, and each time that the student earns 15 points, he may pick a prize out of the mysterious grab bag, which will contain small tokens and prizes. If the student is achieving 15 points too easily, then the points required to receive a pick out of the bag may be modified.

6 Baseline Intervention Baseline Intervention

Results: 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 four to five inappropriate behaviors. It is very rare that the student will display fewer than four

inappropriate behaviors. As I introduced the intervention and the point system, the students behavior only slightly improved through the first trial. His behavior was erratic, and did not show a consistent improvement. As we approached the second intervention measure, the students behavior started to improve. With each meeting, the students inappropriate behavior decreased. As the second intervention measure was set in place, the students behavior seriously improved, and the inappropriate behavior decreased with every meeting. The results indicate that the pupil has improved greatly between each intervention period. The student progressed throughout the first intervention, but still displayed some hesitation, and the results are sporadic. As he worked across the second baseline measure and second intervention measure he significantly improved, bringing his overall inappropriate behavior finally down to zero. Discussion: The pupils performance did change as a result of my instruction. I believe that he was resistant in the beginning because no one has ever really held him to his word, and made him accountable for his actions. The pupil became more engaged in our lessons, and was able to maintain focus on his task, rather than his own anger, and emotions. The pupil had clearly established goals and rules that were displayed in front of him. The performance of the pupil was positively affected because he had a goal to work towards. I think that the fact that he was accountable for his own actions had a significant impact on his actions and success throughout this intervention. In the beginning, the pupil only slightly improved. He showed resistance at first, as I do not think that he was relating his behavior to a loss of the points. It was only until the ninth

meeting, where I mentioned that had he not displayed inappropriate behavior, he could have earned a prize by now and the pupil realized that his actions were causing him to miss out on fun opportunities. Once the student made the connection between appropriate behavior and maintaining his points he started to show more improvement. It was still a slow road, and there were definitely good days and bad days for the pupil. Significant improvement was shown from meeting seven to eight where the student dropped from five inappropriate behaviors to three. The students behaviors continued to fluctuate until he gradually continued to improve, and finally finish a meeting with zero problem behaviors towards the end of our time together. I think that there are many factors that contributed to the change in the student. The student has some underlying issues of his own which sometimes affect his behavior, and performance for the day. The student has sleep apnea, and rarely is able to get a full nights sleep. It is very evident on the days that he has not slept well, as his behavior reflects his frustrations and exhaustion. Even though the student wanted to earn points, he was exhausted and irritable when I arrived before meetings four through six. The student was not in the right mindset to be working, and therefore was unable to control his behaviors. However, when I introduced the point system, and the fact that he would be keeping track of his points, the student became excited, and I could tell that he wanted to work hard and correct his behaviors. I think that giving the student responsibility for keeping track of his points was a very positive factor in implementing this intervention, and ultimately led to the success and changing of the students behavior. The student finally had something that he was able to control. He has no control over how much sleep he gets, or if he has a bad day as a result of it, but he knew that

when I came to meet with him, that he had control over his points, and whether or not he earned them. I would keep the point system the same with this student. The fifteen points were attainable for him, but he did not reach them too often, to the point where it was becoming ineffective. I would also keep the self-monitoring aspect of the intervention in place. As mentioned above, I think that the sense of control and responsibility over himself created the true push for this student to correct his problem behaviors. I also would keep the decision making sheet. This sheet allowed for the student to verbally identify what the problem was, and why he displayed the inappropriate behavior. It served as a positive reflective way for the student to assess why he was upset, why he acted the way that he did, and better ways for the student to cope with what he is feeling. Throughout this project I was only able to meet with the student after school. If I could change anything, I would like to go and observe the student before he went to school in the morning. This was a time where inappropriate aggressive behavior was being displayed, and I think that he could have benefited from the intervention at different times as well. I think that I could also help the students mother to continue the intervention while I am not there. I would help her devise a reward for the point system, and help her to ensure that the students appropriate behavior is being maintained throughout the day.