SPP 044: Progress Monitoring Part Two Show Notes

In this episode, effective methods for monitoring progress of both learning and social behaviors are discussed. Tips for developing meaningful goals and approaching their assessment are given with illustrations.

Progress monitoring helps teachers and parents stay on track, use effective interventions and assess outcomes.

The latest podcast episode focused on the topic of progress monitoring. We introduced the concept of progress monitoring and discussed how to go about setting up goals in an effective way.

Unfortunately, problems with interventions are often due to poor goal setting or even neglecting to set goals. To review from my previous episode, you should

1) Set goals that are specific, achievable and measurable.
2) Monitor progress to assess effectiveness of instruction and to inform decisions about changing instruction.
3) Use multi-tiered intervention levels to match the intensity of instruction in a system (school) to the needs of the students. Some students get less intense instruction and some get more intense instruction, with a continuum of intensity levels.

It is not enough to talk about learning or social behaviors in a vague manner. If we want to lose weight we might talk about calories or pounds. If we want to stop drinking, we might talk about days of sobriety.

In psychology, there are different dimensions of behavior which also relate to learning behaviors. There is the most commonly focused dimension of topography. This is a description of how the behavior looks to an observer. However, this can be broken down into various sub-diminesions, such as the form of the behavior (hitting, reading, talking, walking), the frequency of the behavior (it happened 5 times), the rate of the behavior (5 times per hour), the duration (the tantrum lasted 20 minutes), latency (it took her 20 minutes to start her homework), intensity (his speech was inaudible) and focus (he always yells at the male teachers).

I picked dimensions of behavior that are observable and measurable. They can be plotted on a graph or at least charted in order to determine changes in behavior. The dimensions made sense with the type of behavior I chose and the convenience of being able to record the behavior.

Reference:

Alberto, P., & Troutman, A. C. (1999). Applied behavior analysis for teachers (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Merrill.

Other resources:

http://www.studentprogress.org/default.asp


http://www.interventioncentral.org/


http://www.jimwrightonline.com/php/rti/rti_wire.php

School Psychology Podcast 008 Republished Shownotes

In previous episodes, I discussed reinforcement, which involve consequences that affect behavior. This is an approach with a strong history of empirical support. If reinforcement or consequences are seen as a cart in the behavioral equation, then prompts and antecedents could seen as the horse before the cart. These are the factors that increase or decrease the likelihood of a behavior occurring, not because of a contingent response after a behavior (reinforcement), but because of settings, triggers or environmental factors that come before the behaviors (antecedents). By combining an understanding of the relationship between antecedents, behaviors and consequences, the entire A-B-C sequence of the behavioral episode is better understood and potentially improved.

In the podcast, I give some examples of children helped by manipulation of antecedents (modified academic expectations, additional support , changing environmental triggers, seating arrangements, alternative instructional practices, etc. The examples illustrate some of the many findings that have been uncovered by educational and psychological research regarding instructional, environmental and social factors that affect learning and behavior in schools.

School Psychology Podcast 007 Republished Shownotes

Image via Wikipedia

Weisz reviews several free and useful web resources for school staff and parents.

A good place to start is the intervention central website by Jim Wright. This site provides programs to create behavior report cards individualized to different children and concerns. There are manuals and booklets for bully prevention, ADHD assessment, curriculum based measurements, peer tutoring, response to intervention resources, and so forth. If a school psychologist, teacher or parent can think of something that you need, check here and see if it’s already on his site.



http://www.interventioncentral.org/


Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports is a program that trains and assists schools to develop school-wide positive, proactive and evidence-based practices. There are plenty of useful articles, powerpoints and other items here.

Pbis.org


The behavior advisor is a useful and wide-ranging site about behavior modification developed by Dr. Mac.

http://www.behavioradvisor.com/


For a variety of useful tools for teachers, such as a very nice Daily report card check out the busy teachers café site.

http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/

Polyxo.com is a great source of resources for behavior assessment and planning.

http://polyxo.com/


For both parents and teachers, this site has excellent forms to download that help evaluate the function of a problem behavior, monitoring forms and improvement and planning forms. This would help in setting up functional assessment and behavior improvement teams in schools. It can also be used with less of a formal structure by individual teachers or parents.

http://fifa.fmhi.usf.edu/


The worksheet place is another great source of ready-made worksheets related to behavior, helping children reflect about their behavior and track behavior improvement. Setting goals and character development sheets are also available on this site.

http://worksheetplace.com/Behavior/behavior.htm

SPP 006: Reinforcement Part 2 - Podcast Episode republished.

Reinforcement procedures with children are reviewed. In this episode, I review how reinforcement works, when it fizzles and when it backfires, and why. Reinforcement is a powerful methodology for parents and teachers. Ignorance or misunderstandings of the procedures can lead to negative outcomes. Learning about it can lead to more effective behavior management.

In order to actually implement reinforcement it is necessary to understand the function of reinforcement to influence behavior on the long run. It's important to understand that providing rewards indiscriminately is not equivalent to reinforcement and not planning long term can impede the desired effects. Also, what a teacher thinks is rewarding or punishing may not be, so it is more important to determine what actually functions as a reward or a punishment to the child, that is what increases the target behavior and what decreases it in the long run.

Kathleen Cotton’s article on instructional reinforcement is very instructive in explaining how reinforcement works based on research.

http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/2/cu3.html

More on reinforcement http://www.usu.edu/teachall/text/behavior/LRBI.htm

Featured region: Trinidad and Tobago

For being the second largest group of visitors to my blog, I am giving a shout-out to my friends who visit my site from Trinidad and Tobago, all 12 of them.

SPP 043: Progress Monitoring Show Notes

The latest podcast episode focused on the topic of progress monitoring. What is meant by progress monitoring? Are we talking about something more involved than just report cards and progress reports?

Here are some of the technologies specified in such systems approaches as "Response to Intervention" and Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports" that are associated with best practices and evidence-based methods.

1) Setting goals that are specific, achievable and measurable.

2) Monitoring progress to assess effectiveness of instruction and to inform decisions about changing instruction.

3) Multi-tiered intervention levels to match the intensity of instruction in a system (school) to the needs of the students. Some students get less intense instruction and some get more intense instruction, with a continuum of intensity levels.

Alberto and Troutman (2006) recommend the following when developing education goals, the following considerations be taken into account.

1. Evaluation data.
2. Rate of development
3. Physical and communication capabilities.
4. Inappropriate behaviors that need to be brought under control.
5. Skills the student is lacking.
6. The amount of instructional time available.
7. Prerequisites needed for aquiring new skills to be taught.
8. Functional utility of the skills to be taught.
9. Specialized materials, equipment or resource personnel available.

These points are critical if you do not want your well-intentioned plan for success to fall apart before you even get started. Let's go over them individually and consider this.

This podcast episode introduces these concepts from Alberto and Troutman and explores the nuts and bolts of developing effective goals for educational and behavioral outcomes.

Reference:

Alberto, P., & Troutman, A. C. (1999). Applied behavior analysis for teachers (5th ed.). Upper Saddle River, N.J.: Merrill.

Does Reinforcement Work? Republished Podcast Episode 5

Is reinforcement bribery? The answer is no.

A fairly standard definition of bribery includes offering money or something else to a person to persuade that person to perform an illegal or wrongful act. Here’s the definition of reinforcement. Reinforcement is a process that strengthens a behavior; increasing the probability of its occurring in the future by presenting a contingent positive event or removing a negative event.

Most parents and teachers would like to increase certain behaviors and decrease certain other behaviors in children. Most people would agree that there is nothing immoral about doing so, in fact the opposite is true. Parents and teachers are supposed to manage and teach behavior to children, not just allow all behaviors that arise. Is there anything wrongful or illegal in strengthening positive behaviors in others? Of course not. The use of the pejorative term of bribery comes from a misunderstanding of reinforcement or a dislike of it. However, the term is simply inaccurate.

The next question is whether or not reinforcement is effective at what it claims to do. The answer to that one, based on decades of research in behavioral science, is that reinforcement is very effective. There is a great body of research that supports and replicates the use of many kinds of reinforcement approaches in education and parenting for a wide range of behavioral concerns. Reinforcement has been used to help people increase pro-social behaviors, learn basic skills, reduce habitual negative behaviors and improve group relationships.

The third question is about practicality. Is it easy enough to learn and implement these techniques for most parents and teachers? Most teachers and parents can learn to use reinforcement effectively with relatively little support if they are provided with some training and guidance. Some people can read books or find references online that provide guidance. Most teachers have access to supports and training in schools to learn about different behavior management approaches. Most behavior management approaches use some aspects of reinforcement.

Look at how many forms of reinforcement are practiced by parents and teachers even without special instruction and training. Examples include, use of praise and positive attention to increase emerging behaviors in babies such as when they start vocalizing, when they begin to walk, when they attend to books. Praise and attention are among the most powerful forms of reinforcement. Teachers constantly use attention and praise to increase various student behaviors such as raising hands, finishing work and answering questions. These examples make reinforcement seem rather easy and obvious. However, the decades of research have also illuminated guidelines and principles that help improve the effectiveness of reinforcement and reduce the use of reinforcement that is ineffective or that backfires. That’s the catch, you may reinforce unwanted behavior, without realizing it. For example, frequently and dramatically focusing on negative behavior can reinforce negative behavior. Giving in to whining can reinforce whining.

Contingent reinforcement is generally recommended over non-contingent reinforcement. Don’t give reinforcement, such as attention and praise to all responses, but to those you want to increase. So far, that makes good sense. Yet so often, we give more attention to behaviors that bother us.

Reinforcement is effective when correct responses are acknowledged as correct and when as reinforcement is linked to student’s progress toward goals.

Using reinforcement to increase behaviors related to instructional objectives is just as beneficial as combining reinforcement of instructional behavior and other behaviors. In other words, many behavior and social problems can be reduced by improving instructional behavior. I see this a great deal in school psychology. Often the behavioral or social/emotional problems is really a response to inability or poor match of instructional demands and responses. Focusing on making the instructional climate work will reduce behavior problems in school and around homework.

In the next segment about reinforcement, we’ll discuss when our attempts at reinforcement works, when it fizzles and when it backfires. The good, the bad and the ugly. We’ll make sure you can tell the difference between these three states and learn to stay successful.

Kathleen Cotton's article about instructional reinforcement can be found at the following link. Her excellent review of the literature and discussion about how to effectively use reinforcement is both practical and helpful and it was my main source of research findings cited in this podcast.


Reference:

http://www.nwrel.org/scpd/sirs/2/cu3.html

The Technology of Learning

There are various kinds of technologies available to make things work. Pistons, motors, engines, pulleys, and lots of other things that I don't really understand, but can appreciate how they can save me from breaking my back and getting difficult things accomplished.

In psychology and education, there are also technologies that many people do not fully appreciate can do the same thing in regard to learning and solving problems. Some people think that it is just a matter of working harder and that there are no short-cuts. Hard work is important, however, there are ways to work smarter and not just harder in education and psychology.

Here are some of the technologies specified in such systems approaches as "Response to Intervention" and Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports" that are associated with best practices and evidence-based methods.

1) Setting goals that are specific, achievable and measurable.

2) Monitoring progress to assess effectiveness of instruction and to inform decisions about changing instruction.

3) Multi-tiered intervention levels to match the intensity of instruction in a system (school) to the needs of the students. Some students get less intense instruction and some get more intense instruction, with a continuum of intensity levels.

In future blogs and podcasts I will elaborate on these technologies further. However, here are some resources where you can learn more.

http://www.studentprogress.org/default.asp

http://www.interventioncentral.org/

http://www.jimwrightonline.com/php/rti/rti_wire.php

The 3 R's Reading, Writing and Recess?

A recent research study helped support the concept that recess is important to children (Adults too).

An article in the New York Times reports on a study published in the Journal of Pediatrics that suggests that play and recreation are important to children's academic success, concentration and grades. This study found that 15 minutes of recess a day was associated with better behavior in class. In another study of children who have ADHD (attention deficit hyperactivity disorder) it was found that outdoor walks resulted in higher scores on attention and concentration measures. Those who took their walks in natural settings as opposed to urban ones, did better. This report was published online in The Journal of Attention Disorders in August of last year.

Link to NYT article:

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/24/health/24well.html?_r=5&partner=rss&emc=rss

Spanking: Effective Discipline or an Education in Aggression?

"Spanking Leads To Child Aggression And Anxiety, Regardless Of Cultural Norm" is the title of a ScienceDaily article summarizing research about the effects of spanking on childhood aggression (ScienceDaily, 2005).

According to this article, regardless of the cultural norms, when children are physically disciplined they are more likely to be anxious and aggressive than children who received other forms of discipline. The article cited this finding from Journal Child Development.

The article can be found at the following web address:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2005/11/051114110820.htm

Who's reading my blog?

Periodically, I look at the statistics and demographics of my readers. It's good to know that someone aside from me is clicking to this page.

I have noticed that in addition to about 65 viewers per week from the United States, I also have many visitors from other countries. There were 19 visitors from Ireland in the past week. There were 2 from Australia and 2 from the Netherlands. 1 from Macedonia and 1 from Hong Kong.

I'd love to hear from the visitors around the world who are reading my blog. Please leave me a comment!

Republished SPP 004: Does Psychotherapy Really Work

An important topic that is full of confusion and misinformation: Psychotherapy and whether it works or not.

Everybody says their psychotherapy model is the best one, so which one is right, if any? Is psychotherapy more than a placebo on a comfortable couch?

There has actually been a considerable amount of research investigating psychotherapy. There have even been systematic statistical reviews of the research, known as meta-analyses. Based on these studies, Psychotherapy works. The findings were strong, consistent and robust.

Smith, Glass and colleagues have written about their meta-anaylses. Some references to their articles are listed here:

Smith, M. L. Glass, G. V., & Miller, T. I. (1980). The Benefits of Psychotherapy. Baltimore, MD:Johns Hopkins Univeristy Press.

Smith, M. L., & Glass, G. V. (1977). Meta-analysis of psychotherapy outcome studies. American Psychologist, 32, 752-760.

In a presentation of research findings summarizing the research in this area, Scott D. Miller of the Institute of the Study of Therapeutic Change, compared therapy effects to that wonder drug, aspirin which had been shown to be effective at preventing heart disease. In fact, the effect sizes found with the aspirin studies were miniscule compared to the effect sizes found for psychotherapy in the meta-analyses I just mentioned. Show notes will provide a reference for Dr. Miller.
Meta-analyses have shown psychotherapy to be very effective. Glass and colleagues found that in general, therapy produced positive results with effect sizes of about .85. These are considered very impressive as far as effect sizes go. The average treated patient was improved or better off compared to about 80 percent of those who did not receive treatment. In some comparisons, when certain factors were eliminated which reduce the effect of placebo and similar factors, the effect sizes of therapy were as high as (.93).

The quality of the working relationship between therapist and client and the positive attitudes and feelings were the most powerful factor captured in these studies.

Should therapists give up their squabbles about their pet theories or approaches? Or is there still more to learn yet?

The take away messages for our purposes are the following.

Therapy is effective for many people, with all kinds of problems and complaints.
If therapy is not working well, rather than examine the patient and his defense mechanisms or resistance, it might be more helpful to question what might be wrong with the alliance.

Research found that when the working alliance was rated highly, improvement was seen early, around the first six weeks, where the largest improvements occurred. Even when medication is used for treating patients, better effects resulted when the relationship was better between the client and the practitioner.

Bottom line, therapy is very, very effective. It’s able to help people with a wide range of emotional, behavioral and relationship problems. If it’s not working, check out the therapeutic alliance or lack thereof.

web address to Dr. Scott Miller's site below:

www.talkingcure.com

web address to short article on Smith and Glass meta-analysis below:

http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/classics1983/A1983QF87200001.pdf

Republished SPP 003 Episode: SPP 003 Republished: Replacing Problem Behaviors with Appropriate Behaviors.

In this episode, the spotlight is on dealing with challenging behavior once again. Challenging behavior can be managed better when we recognize that behavior serves a purpose to the person and offering a replacement behavior that serves a similar purpose but is more acceptable can be a powerful approach to managing challenging behavior.

SPP 042 Show Notes: Why Are Special Education Laws Needed?

In this episode the background and reasons for the special education laws are examined. The abuses of the past were addressed through legislation leading to the present important principles that protect the educational rights of individuals with disabilities.

Why Are Laws Governing the Education of Exceptional Children Necessary?

In the past, children with disabilities, along with many other differences were excluded from education or given a second class education.

Civil rights laws highlighted the fact that separate is not equal when it comes to educational opportunities.

Six Major Principles of IDEA (Heward, 2009)

•Zero Reject: Schools must educate all children with disabilities

•Nondiscriminatory Identification and Evaluation: Schools must used nonbiased, multifactored methods of evaluation

•Free, Appropriate Public Education: An IEP must be developed for each child

•Least Restrictive Environment: Must be educated with children without disabilities to the maximum extentappropriate

•Due Process Safeguards: Parents’ and children’s rights protected

•Shared Decision Making: Schools must collaborate with parents


Reference:

Heward, William L. (2009). Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education (9th edition). Pearson, New Jersey.

School Psychology Podcast Episode 2 Re-issued

In this episode, the topic of dealing with behavior is introduced.

1. Reasons why people often misperceive challenging behavior and respond in ineffective ways.

2. Sometimes ineffective methods appear to be effective. "Get tough" and "zero tolerance" approaches appeal to many people and are described as effective, although the research indicates otherwise. In the highly publicized Scared Straight program, youngsters are exposed to hardened prisoners who yell, curse and intimidate them and share their experiences of being in prison. Viewers are led to believe that this dramatic program is effective at reducing future criminality, however the research demonstrates that there is no such link and the actual correlation is the opposite of what would be expected.

"Meta-analysis results show the scared straight-type intervention increases the odds of offending by between 1.6 and 1.7 to 1 compared to a no-treatment control group. These findings lead the researchers to conclude that participating in the Scared Straight program actually correlates with an increase in re-offending compared to a control group of youth who received no intervention at all (Schembri, retrieved 2009)."

Here is a link to a white paper discussing the Scared Straight program.

http://www.djj.state.fl.us/Research/Scared_Straight_Booklet_Version.pdf


3. Being overly emotional, reactive, punitive, problem-focused or controlling - why these methods are appealing and how they backfire.

4. Effective response to behavior problems requires managing your reactions as a first step. It is necessary, but not sufficient.

5. Response to behavior can be seen as teaching and building skills (behavioral rather than academic) which is in keeping with teachers' roles.

In the effort to do something, doing the wrong something is not helpful. In the next segment about evidence based behavior practices, we’ll talk more about what does work.

Evidence-Based Practices

There have been many forces in education recently emphasizing the need to apply evidence-based practices in schools. The internet is a vast source of information and resources that can help educators and parents be more aware of the concepts, research and practical applications of these various approaches. Here are a few of the many resources that provide free and accessible information.

http://interventioncentral.com/

http://www.jimwrightonline.com/php/rti/rti_wire.php

http://

www.specialconnections.ku.edu/cgi-bin/cgiwrap/specconn/index.php

http://www.studentprogress.org/weblibrary.asp#tools

PBIS Resources

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports has been mentioned in legislation, best practices and is becoming more widely known in schools across the nation. For a wealth of information regarding this topic, here are some great resources with which you can learn more.

In addition, you can see these and other resources on my PBIS sidebar on the right, scroll down.

http://fifsinnyspbis.tripod.com/

pbis.org

http://sss.mpls.k12.mn.us/sites/6c9fd336-96c5-451c-a8a6-b6f00373668d/uploads/Section_B_Behavior.pdf

http://www.pbismaryland.org/

http://maxweber.hunter.cuny.edu/pub/eres/EDSPC715_MCINTYRE/SchoolWideSystem.html

Premiere episode of School Psychology Podcast is re-published.

Following some technical glitches at the website that hosts my podcast, the first eleven of my archived episodes were lost. I am going to re-publish the "lost episodes", starting with the premier episode, which is up and running at the website or at Itunes. You can also just link to the episode from clicking on the title of this post.

Positive Behavior Interventions and Supports

At the NYS PBIS Coach's conference in Kerhonkson, NY, I presented one of the workshops about PBIS and attended many other workshops. The concepts of PBIS revolve around the basic ideas of 1) prevention, 2) positive approaches and 3) use of data-driven and evidence-based approaches to solve problems.

It is far more effective to prevent behavior problems than to react punitively. It is hard to convince people of the value of dealing with a problem before it occurs, but it is far more effective, cheaper and easy. By teaching behaviors, pre-correcting students and revising settings so problems are less likely to occur, it is possible to be preventive.

Being positive versus negative or punitive is also far more effective. However, the gut feeling of so many teachers and parents is that they should "get tough" and be more punitive (e.g., raise their voice, use negative consequences). Interestingly, research clearly supports the use of more positive approaches and finds many negative effects of punishment.

Using data and evidence of an interevention's effectiveness seems so obvious when looking at medical treatments. Why wouldn't we apply the same logic to behavioral interventions? PBIS recommends just that.

For more information about PBIS and loads of resources and materials, visit some of these excellent websites.

http://www.pbis.org/

www.pbisillinois.org

http://www.pbismaryland.org

Special Education and Labels

This is the third episode in a series on what is special about special education. The controversies, pros and cons of classification labels for children with special needs are examined.

It can be helpful to identify children's special needs in order to provide them with appropriate instruction and modifications, in order to communicate with others about their needs, in order to apply research findings to practical applications.

It can be a detriment to children if "labeling" brings about negative attitudes, low expectations, incorrect assumptions and if it emphasizes what children cannot do rather than what they can do.

Listen to the podcast episode for the discussion.