Skill Deficits
Temperament
– Academic
– Social
– Frustration Tolerance
– Adaptability
– Communication
– Attending Skills
– Distractibility
– Attention Span
Ecological Factors
Sensory Challenges
– Tired, Hungry,
Chaotic home situations
– Unregulated System
– Sensory Systems
The 3-Term Contingency
Antecedent
Behavior
Consequence
etc…
Relative Thinking
Relative Thinking is the ability to determine what
information is relevant in any given situation & act on it
Non-preferred directives/activities
What triggers
the behavior
or
happens right
before the
behavior
Denied access to desired items/activities
What the
student actually
does
What happens
as a result of
the behavior
or
Right after
the behavior
Transitions
Ability to process information
Threshold for Persistence
Attention deprivation
Ecological Factors
Attention / Access
Avoidance / Escape
Attention – gain attention
Avoidance – to avoid or
– Social, Adults or peers
Access – to acquire to get
something
– Tasks, activities, sensory
situations and/or locations
– CONTROL
postpone something
– Tasks, activities,
people, sensory situations
and/or locations
Escape – terminates or
produces an end
– Tasks, activities, people
sensory situations and/or
locations
Maintaining
Consequence
Antecedent
Behavior
Consequence
What preceded
and/or triggered
the behavior
Target behavior
What happened as a
result of the
behavior
The Function
(the why)
Student
refuses to do
work & makes
noises
Teacher sits with
the student and
helps
Attention
Student
refuses to do
work & makes
noises
Teacher takes
work away and/or
sends student to
another area
Teacher gives
student work
and/or
directions
Teacher gives
student work
and/or
directions
Access
Avoidance
Escape
1
Make challenging work easier by breaking into
smaller segments or altering the difficulty
Provide assistance for difficult work – before
behavior starts
Provide visual schedules to support transitions
or clarify work expectations
Teach student to ask for help
Implement sensory breaks during sustained work
sessions
Provide quiet or alternative work areas
Assign jobs in the classroom (allow for movement)
When possible, give students a choice of what work
to do first
Use student interest to make assignments more
interesting
Use visual prompts i.e., Schedules, Choice Boards
Use cue cards to prompt desired responses
Classroom Rules:
Shorten the time the student must sustain
engagement in non-preferred tasks
1. Follow directions
2. Do my work
3. Use a nice voice
Allow extra time if needed
Avoid giving difficult work to students when they are
already stressed or tired/hungry
Remember to implement these strategies BEFORE
the behavior occurs!!
Good Behavior
1. Be flexible/Compromise
2. Be a good listener
3. Keep my hands and feet to myself
2
Premack Principle: making the opportunity to
engage in a high-probability behavior contingent
on the occurrence of a low-frequency behavior
will function as reinforcement for the low
frequency behavior (i.e., if you do this… then
you can do this…)
Behavioral Momentum: 2 to 5 easy
requests/tasks with a with a history of
compliance/success in quick secession
immediately followed by the target task
Students don’t learn to read or to perform math
calculations without a lot of practice. We don’t
expect a kindergarten student to be a
proficient reader
Competence is built by experiencing success at
progressively more difficult tasks, starting with
simple operations
Confidence is developed over time with multiple
opportunities for successful practice
Provide social support for pragmatic behaviors,
facilitate reciprocal activities with peers
Increase meaningful verbal and nonverbal communication
with peers
Provide opportunities for small talk, facilitate new
games and activities
Accepting correction or no
Asking for help or a break
Learning effective ways to initiate play
Learning how to sustain peer interactions
Using self calming strategies when they are upset
or frustrated
Applying strategies for trying/ completing
difficult work
Begin by acknowledging and reinforcing partial
success or emerging skills
Practice challenging situations
Contrive opportunities for reinforcement
Help student present and offer interesting items, topics
or activities to peers
Prime or use frontloading before triggers
occur
Develop sharing exchanges
Model and role play desired skills
Give opportunities to seek or give assistance to peers
3
Change requires a consistent approach and
even very small increments of progress should
be recognized and rewarded
The reinforcement schedule will need to be
more powerful at first to “encourage” the use
of new behaviors
Reinforcement must be individualized and
meaningful to each student
Students must always know why they are being
reinforced so label the desired behavior
Remind student of reinforcement opportunities or
reference their schedules
Provide lots of verbal & gestural praise for
positive behavior throughout day (i.e. good choices,
using nice words, thumbs-up, high “5”,etc...)
Teach students to recognize social reinforcement
from a distance and to reference adults for
feedback
Encourage students to develop their own
motivational strategies (work first – then…)
It is important to
deliver reinforcement
immediately
consistently, &
contingently
Students should always
know when & why they
are receiving tokens
(i.e., happy faces,
stickers, checks, stars,
etc...)
SCHOOL RULES
Follow directions
Do my work
Use a nice voice
Be a good listener
3 Stars = Free Choice
Free Choice
Drawing Computer 1.
2.
3.
Follow Class Rules
Do my work
Ask for help
Floor time
 

8:00 -8:30
8:30 – 9:00
9:00 -9:30
9:30 – 10:00
10:00 - 10:30
If I follow School Rules I can Color a Balloon
When I color 6 Balloons, I can earn ______________________
10:30 -11:00
Stars needed to earn reward: _________
Totals Stars for the Day: ___________
4
When a student is engaging in challenging
behavior and/or not responding to a
direction, often staff have a tendency to
continue repeating the direction (often times
accompanied by threats of consequences or
removal of privileges)
In most cases this reinforces the behavior
because the student is able to escape the
work AND continue to get attention.
Worst case, the continued demands actually
triggers or escalates the challenging behavior.
Remember…look for why or the function
Create a sense of competence in our students
Provide clear rules & expectations
Change the Triggers (Antecedents)
Rewards must be attainable & reinforcing to the student
Manage our own expectations of our students
– So we can control our emotions
Meltdowns are not personal, it is not a threat to your
competence…it serves a function for the student
Avoid power struggles
5