Research

 Spectrum Intervention Group is dedicated to providing services based on the best available scientific knowledge. Data is collected and analyzed for all ongoing individual programs.

 This page is designed to share some of our findings and results. Each month we will share different results.

 

March 2010

Self-Monitoring in Independent Work

Kristen M. Copeland, BCBA, MA & Lynne Thibodeau, M.Ed. Spectrum Intervention Group

Introduction

As learner's are moved out of the 1:1 environment and intergrated into the classroom, it is important that they are able to work independently. Many studies have had success in teaching students to monitor their own behaviours. We began this program in February 2009 after a visit to the learner's classroom reveled he needed constant redirection from the teacher and EA to remain on task.

Participant

Jack* (name changed for privacy)
14 year old boy with a diagnosis of Autism Spectrum Disorder.
He was receiving 1:1 Intensive Behavioural Intervention 25 hours a week with 2 therapists.

Procedure

  • The intervention took place during his intensive 1:1 therapy at avariety of tables and desks.
  • The learner was presented with 1-3 worksheets. The therapist said: "It is time to do your work."
  • The timer was set for 30 seconds.
  • He was expected to work for 5 minutes.
  • At the interval (when the timer went off), the therapist used a gesture or point prompt initially to get Jack to record whether he was on task or off task. The therapist reset the timer after each interval. (After a few weeks the learner began to do this independently and we do not have to teach this part).
  • If he was on task when the timer went off we said “Great doing your work" and we put a piece of reinforcer in a bowl for access when he was done his sheet(s).
  • If he was not on task and monitored himself as being on task, but immediately went back to work after he monitored his behaviour, we did nothing.
  • If he was off task and said he was on task (or even if he said he was not on task) and he did NOT change his behaviour, we prompted him with a textual prompt ("Do your work").
  • If he was off task at any time during the interval, we did nothing. We wanted him to be monitoring himself.
  • When he had completed his work, he had access to the reinforcers he earned.
  • The procedure was completed at least 2 times per session.

After 8 sessions we modified the materials as it was determined that certain types of worksheets were too challenging for the learner and resulted in contextually inappropriate behaviours.
For the modified level 1b, weused simple preferred worksheets and the therapist sat at the table.
Once he had mastered the monitoring system, we increased the difficulty of the worksheets and increased the distance the therapist was from Jack.

Data

Partial Time Interval: Was Jack on task for the entire interval? If he was off task for 3 consecutive seconds we scored it as a no.
Did Jack monitor himself correctly at the end of the interval? Y N
Data was collect the first time the program was run per session. 


Graph

Results

Jack was able to monitor his behaviour and remain on task with easy worksheets and the therapist present after 19 sessions.
After another 19 sessions he was able to monitor his behaviour and remain on task with more challenging worksheets and the therapist further away from him.

Discussion

While this procedure maintained in his Intensive Behavioural Intervention, we were unable to determine if this procedure generalized to the school environment.
We learned that we should have more carefully selected the worksheets we began the procedure to ensure they were sheets he could complete independently.