Education and Treatment of Children

Abstract:

The purpose of this study was to explore the extent to which two classroom-wide instructional interventions, peer support and instructional choice, were able to reduce escape-maintained off-task and problem behaviors. This study also measured the extent to which these interventions, when coupled with individually designed function-based interventions, reduced escape-maintained problem behaviors. A multiple baseline across settings design was used to measure the impact of the classroom-wide intervention and the function-based intervention for one student in a self-contained special education classroom and a general education classroom. Results indicated that implementation of these strategies reduced the escape-maintained problem behaviors. Practical applications of the results of this study include the effectiveness of providing both choices and one-to-one support during tasks requiring higher levels of language and social involvement.