Use of Self-Monitoring and Delayed Feedback To Increase On-Task Behavior in a Post-Institutionalized Child within Regular Classroom Settings.

Abstract The use of a self-monitoring strategy to increase on-task behavior was examined with a post-institutionalized 13-year-old child who was included in a regular school. A functional assessment conducted prior to the intervention indicated that the student engaged in stereotypy on an almost continuous basis unless she was actively involved in academic tasks. A self-monitoring intervention was implemented across three classrooms in a multiple baseline design fashion. Significant increases of on-task behavior were observed in all three classrooms during the implementation of the self-monitoring intervention. A brief withdrawal of the self-monitoring intervention in one classroom resulted in decreased on-task behavior. On-task behavior then increased when the intervention was re-introduced. The results are discussed in terms of developing strategies to support children with severe disabilities in inclusive classrooms. DESCRIPTORS: Self-monitoring, Romanian orphans, Inclusive education, Functional assessment, Stereotypy. ********** Recent court decisions and government policy positions have created opportunities for students with intellectual disabilities to attend their local national schools in the Republic of Ireland (Education Act, 1998; O'Donoghue V. The Minister for Health, The Minister for Education, and The Attorney Genera!, 1993). Until recently, the majority of educational services for these students were provided in segregated special schools (Bennet, Gash, & O'Reilly, 1998). Segregated educational provision continues to be the dominant model for children with moderate levels of disability while any form of systematic educational provision for children with severe/profound disabilities remains in its infancy (Gash, O'Reilly, & Walsh, 1996). Children with intellectual disabilities who are placed in local national schools and their teachers usually have very little access to special education support services. Without the development of specialist support services to such classrooms the educational inclusion of these students m ay not be successful (e.g., Hunt & Goetz, 1997). A developing body of literature from the United States is beginning to describe a series of instructional/classroom technologies that seem to be effective in supporting the academic/social inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities in regular classroom settings. For example, the use of cooperative learning or peer tutoring instructional models can enhance academic achievement and social inclusion of students with intellectual disabilities (Hunt, Staub, Alwell, & Goetz, 1994; Robertson & Weismer, 1997). Other researchers have examined various interventions to improve social behaviors of students with disabilities while interacting with peers during play periods at school (Kamps et al., 1992; Pierce & Schreibman, 1997). Various other forms of curriculum modification have been demonstrated to enhance the learning opportunities of students with intellectual disabilities in inclusive classrooms (Dunlap, Kern-Dunlap, Clarke, & Robbins, 1991; Foster-Johnson, Ferro, & Dunlap, 1994). Self-management techniques have also been forwarded as potentially important strategies that can be used to enhance independent activity and decrease challenging behaviors in classrooms (Koegel, Harrower, & Koegel, 1999). Four strategies of self-management have been described in the literature and include: self-monitoring or self-recording, sell-assessment or self-evaluation, self-instruction, and self-reinforcement (Nelson, Smith, Young, & Dodd, 1991). While the functional properties of some of these strategies may differ such strategies can enhance the ability of the student to manage their own behavior and thereby free-up classroom personnel to concentrate on other activities. Self-monitoring or self-recording is a particular set of strategies whereby the student is taught to discriminate targeted behaviors and to record the occurrence and/or nonoccurrence of these behaviors during predetermined time intervals within a given session or activity. …