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"THE PLAN WORKED,
SO WE STOPPED IT"
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If the child exhibits the
desired behavior (or inhibits the undesirable
behavior) while the behavior plan is in place,
don't assume that they will do it if you stop the
plan. If your plan appears to be succeeding, you
might try to systematically and gradually introduce
longer delays before reinforcers are delivered, or
occasionally 'probe' to see if the child can
maintain the behavioral control without the
reinforcer. Just stopping "cold turkey" may lead to
a situation in which the child is "okay" for a few
days or a week, but then starts to show
deteriorating behavior again.
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TRYING TO CHANGE THE CHILD WITHOUT CHANGING THE ENVIRONMENT
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Even if we agree that the
child's behavior needs to change (for the child's
benefit), that doesn't mean that we start by
applying direct consequences to the child's
behavior. Our first intervention should be to
change the environment to reduce triggers to
undesirable behavior, to provide more support and
cueing, and to see if the child has the
prerequisite skills to exhibit the desirable
behavior. If not, our intervention should be to
teach the skills while providing more support and
cueing in the environment.
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KEEPING THE CHILD IN A PROGRAM WHEN THEY CAN'T SUCCEED
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If a child is having a
horrible day due to medication side effects,
fatigue, or some other factor, continuing to apply
the contingencies may frustrate them and/or
demoralize them. While there is some admitted value
in teaching the children that they have to learn to
"play hurt" because people will still have
expectations of them, we may instead be teaching
the child that the world is an uncaring and
uncompassionate place. Furthermore, if they can't
comply with the plan that day and fail, they may
lose their motivation to try again the next day. If
you are working with a child whose symptom severity
cycles, you may need a "Plan B" to use on
particularly bad days.
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FAILURE TO CONSULT WITH PARENTS FIRST
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Parents often know whether
their child does better if they earn rewards for
desirable behavior or if they do better if they
lose rewards for undesirable behavior. Parents also
often know if their child is likely to get too
obsessed with the reward system to the point where
it is likely to be counterproductive. In my
opinion, no plan should ever be implemented without
involving both the student and the parent in the
design of the plan.
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ASKING PARENTS TO PROVIDE THE REINFORCERS IN THE HOME
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Educators and parents often
assume that since the parents can generally provide
more powerful or desirable rewards, writing that
into the behavior plan for school behavior should
boost motivation and behavior. The problems with
such approaches are threefold: (1) it introduces a
delay in providing or delivering the reward, (2) it
keeps the parents as the main "players" when we
want the child to see the teacher as being
reinforcing, and (3) even parents who mean well
often fail to follow through, thereby decreasing
the effectiveness of the plan.
If you are planning a
behavior program for implementation in school, have
the necessary reinforcers or consequences all be
school-based. The parents can add to that if they
wish, but be sure that there are enough reinforcers
in school to make the plan work.
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