Amy is a four-year-old girl who attends a Minneapolis preschool. Her class has roughly twenty other students. Amy lives with both her mom and dad, as well as an older sister. She has no known disabilities or relevant medical issues, but has had some comprehensive dental work done in the past three months.
She is generally cheerful and has many friends and playmates. She loves to play pretend games, sometimes at the expense of focusing on tasks she should be doing. She has two or three friends in particular that she spends most of her time with. She can occasionally be crabby or sullen, usually when asked to focus on a task when she had be playing. She also occasionally avoids using the bathroom or tries to avoid going to nap, most often when she is playing happily with friends she doesn't wish to leave.
The target behavior:
During group time, Amy has a tantrum if she is asked or brought over to join the group. She is allowed to be excused from group, but she must first sit down and ask politely to be excused as any other child would.
Operational Definition:
The operational definition for "tantrum" includes running away, hiding, crying or screaming, or physically pushing the teacher when approached.
Function:
The function of the behavior is to avoid group time, which she says is "boring."
My suggested intervention would be touse a difeenial reinformcement of alternative behavior (DRA) to replace the challengng behavior. The alterative behavior to the tantrum is of course sittng appropriately for group time. Amy could be offered the chance to have additional free play time with her friends if she sits in group time without throwing a tatrum. She would need to have a chart to monitor her success. She can do this on her own, showing success with a sticker fr each day she joins the group time without incidenct. After a predetermined number of successful attempts she would be given her reward.
ReplyDeleteAnother suggestion for a antecedent intervention is to have her become the teacher's helper in setting up group time. Ask her to help set up the group setting, with mats, etc. or put her in charge of something else. I also agree she would benefit from a progress chart with stickers to show her successes as a consequence intervention.
ReplyDeleteMy first thought it what is group time entailing? Is it a topic in whinch Amy may feel defensive or nervous about. I woudl try to ask Amy to do a single one on one group session to see if she can open up on a individual basis. I would also see and anylaze what Amy speaks of during group time. Amy be so shy that her only way to avoid the group time session is to become defensive and call it boring.
ReplyDeleteAmy is avoiding the group activity and recieving attention. I would try a reward system, maybe she needs something tangible. Could start out in small increments, telling Amy she only needed to sit in group for 5 minutes then she could go sit quietly at another place (that is appropriate) and draw quietly. If she did that for a week she could get some sort of a reward. Over time, the amount of time she sits with the group could be extended.
ReplyDeleteIf the transition from one activity to another is abrupt, maybe Amy has a hard time making that change. The teacher could try a transition activity (sing a song, make a game of putting toys away, ask Amy to help organize the next activity) before proceeding with the next part of the class or group activities. I think this was called high-p request in the IRIS module.
ReplyDeleteAmy is avoiding the group time to gain attention possibly. Could you maybe ask her to help you with something that involves group time? That way she feels important and needed. Is she just fidgety? Is that why she doesn't want to sit? Because if that’s the case, I would give her one of those fidget bracelets.
ReplyDeleteAmy is attempting to avoid an activity that she perceives as unenjoyable. She has learned that she gets attention and is able to avoid group when she throws a tantrum. I would also agree with Roger, transition time might be difficult for her and she could use skills in learning how to move from one activity to another. I would work with Amy on offering re-inforcement for when she is able to participate in group.
ReplyDelete