You Have to Build the Plane as You Fly It!: Core Components of an Evidence Based Behavior Support Program Part 2 AA

Kaye Otten, PhD, BCBA, Author

12/14/2021 Added

126 Plays

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Secondary Session

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[00:00:05.340]Alright, good afternoon.
[00:00:07.070]My name is Kelli Heller and I teach in the secondary level
[00:00:10.950]of Brook Valley South at ESU 3.
[00:00:15.760]I'm Anne Baptiste,
[00:00:17.104]and I teach in what is called
[00:00:18.730]the personalized support classroom
[00:00:20.460]at Learning Academy at ESU 7 in Columbus.
[00:00:26.220]And today we are going to present to you
[00:00:28.020]some of the things that we use
[00:00:29.300]for our social skills training with our students,
[00:00:32.180]what our reinforcement systems look like
[00:00:35.030]in a more self-contained classroom setting.
[00:00:38.940]Here is our contact information,
[00:00:41.170]if you would like to reach out to get further information
[00:00:44.730]on any of things that we are sharing with you today,
[00:00:47.140]you can see our email addresses,
[00:00:50.010]as well as where we are located.
[00:00:56.130]For us, our social skills
[00:00:58.080]is a non-negotiable component of our program.
[00:01:01.740]It is something that is touched upon
[00:01:04.330]or directly taught daily.
[00:01:07.320]It is integrated into all aspects of our program,
[00:01:10.590]we're using the same language with our lessons
[00:01:13.090]as we do within our program.
[00:01:16.320]The whole purpose of this is that we
[00:01:18.630]must teach replacement behaviors
[00:01:20.650]for those negative behaviors so that students
[00:01:23.750]can grow those coping strategies
[00:01:27.204]and be more successful in their classroom environment.
[00:01:30.770]Our social skill components build off self-management,
[00:01:35.780]social awareness, creating some relationship skills,
[00:01:39.480]having some self-awareness,
[00:01:41.130]and making responsible decisions.
[00:01:49.100]Those five components come
[00:01:51.210]from an outline provided by CASEL
[00:01:54.230]and that's the Collaborative for Academic,
[00:01:57.040]and Social, and Emotional Learning.
[00:01:59.540]They have a great framework and they're a great resource
[00:02:02.720]when you start looking into providing SEL
[00:02:04.960]and setting up programming,
[00:02:06.520]just to make sure it's effective
[00:02:08.770]and covers a lot of different areas.
[00:02:10.610]It's easy to kind of fall in that trap of well,
[00:02:13.140]I'm teaching this lesson every day, I'm doing my job,
[00:02:16.300]and it's really a much bigger picture than that.
[00:02:20.933]I think a lot of us in the level threes, you know,
[00:02:23.460]we do social skills so frequently and so naturally
[00:02:27.820]that sometimes we honestly kind of forget
[00:02:30.020]that we are implicitly teaching a social skill,
[00:02:32.940]it is just part of our common vocabulary
[00:02:35.350]and part of one of the things that we do in our programs.
[00:02:42.690]Some key considerations when you're thinking
[00:02:45.000]of social skills is that it should be individualized
[00:02:49.150]based on student needs, however,
[00:02:50.790]there's also a streamlined component of some
[00:02:53.670]of those reminders and skills
[00:02:55.480]that all students really need to be proficient at.
[00:02:59.330]We do a lot of expected versus unexpected behavior.
[00:03:03.380]It's not about being in trouble,
[00:03:04.870]it's about in a social situation,
[00:03:07.980]what you just did would be unexpected
[00:03:10.360]and you might get a unexpected reaction.
[00:03:14.870]It is tricky when you think of how teens socialize versus
[00:03:18.320]how we expect them to socialize,
[00:03:21.360]with technology today, with COVID today,
[00:03:26.760]some of those social skills look very different
[00:03:30.010]than either how we grew up
[00:03:31.870]or what we would think
[00:03:32.860]to be a typical socialization component.
[00:03:37.120]Like I said, it happens all day long
[00:03:39.280]and it's happening on the fly
[00:03:41.010]as we are experiencing behaviors.
[00:03:44.920]For secondary kids, a lot of these kids in this age group
[00:03:48.760]have been through a lot of different programs already,
[00:03:52.780]they have been through
[00:03:55.594]a lot of different social skills components already,
[00:03:56.830]so it's lost some of its novelty,
[00:03:59.643]but we're going to show a couple of different programs
[00:04:01.827]that we still use that we still think are important.
[00:04:06.340]I know Anne does a big piece with restorative justice
[00:04:10.070]and that's something that we
[00:04:11.190]are really still building here at Brook Valley South
[00:04:15.495]in our secondary component of having
[00:04:18.607]that restorative piece,
[00:04:20.077]both with relationships and with property as well.
[00:04:29.226]One of the programs that we use here at Brook Valley South
[00:04:32.729]is a Skillstreaming component.
[00:04:35.570]What I really like about the Skillstreaming
[00:04:37.370]is we have an elementary, we have a secondary,
[00:04:40.390]and we have an autism Skillstreaming piece.
[00:04:43.910]And so it's really nice because this no matter
[00:04:47.499]what your students need or where they're falling
[00:04:49.300]in those categories, if we have a student
[00:04:52.020]who emotionally is still at the elementary level,
[00:04:54.300]we have an elementary piece,
[00:04:55.620]but we also have a spectrum student,
[00:04:57.950]they can benefit from the Skillstreaming piece.
[00:05:01.630]And it's got these four parts to it.
[00:05:05.227]A lot of our cards ties into what Skillstreaming skill
[00:05:08.350]could be used for replacement behaviors.
[00:05:14.680]We do a lot of self-determination here at Brook Valley.
[00:05:18.560]Students are part of their IEPs, they build their IEPs,
[00:05:23.960]and lead the IEP meetings.
[00:05:25.890]We think that that's really important
[00:05:27.150]that they are very much knowledgeable about their needs,
[00:05:31.230]their coping strategies, and their disabilities.
[00:05:34.200]And so that's that part of the self-determination component,
[00:05:37.820]it's a program that has a really great online piece
[00:05:40.670]with it as well.
[00:05:43.910]Now Anne's going to share some of the pieces that she uses.
[00:05:49.610]This is a piece that really changed
[00:05:52.740]things for me with my students.
[00:05:54.560]I had very much been, I guess,
[00:05:58.600]in the routine of, you know,
[00:06:00.510]having the scripted curriculum,
[00:06:02.000]whether it was Boys Town or Skillstreaming,
[00:06:05.407]and this was recommended to me
[00:06:06.770]to incorporate mindfulness, and I loved it.
[00:06:11.200]It gives you a lot of materials for teaching kids
[00:06:16.340]about their brains and about being attentive
[00:06:18.700]to what they are doing at the moment,
[00:06:21.160]and being in the moment, and being present.
[00:06:24.380]I love this because I did not have any training
[00:06:27.893]and the curriculum really had everything
[00:06:29.310]I needed to get started.
[00:06:31.830]The MindUP curriculum does only go to 5-8,
[00:06:35.930]but I've used it with high schoolers very successfully.
[00:06:38.840]And I really loved how teaching the kids about their brains
[00:06:43.444]then gave us language to talk about behaviors afterwards.
[00:06:46.170]And it was easier for them to talk
[00:06:48.650]about it in terms of, well,
[00:06:50.930]my amygdala kicked in and I had this reaction,
[00:06:55.130]then maybe owning up fully to making a bad choice.
[00:07:01.100]When we talk about it in terms of our brain structure
[00:07:03.480]it was easier for them to talk through some of those things.
[00:07:07.330]I've used this curriculum as well in the past,
[00:07:09.760]and I really like the science piece that goes with it,
[00:07:14.160]kind of takes some of that pressure off for some
[00:07:16.110]of those kids who struggle with addressing their feelings,
[00:07:21.360]like those feelings take them to a really hard spot.
[00:07:23.760]And so you can kind of keep it
[00:07:25.220]that scientific approach to it, which is really nice.
[00:07:30.810]This is a program that was shared with me
[00:07:34.260]by an occupational therapist,
[00:07:36.300]and I've implemented it program wide as a result.
[00:07:42.010]It goes well with any of your kids who have been through
[00:07:45.090]all of our different color social skills curriculum,
[00:07:48.670]whether it's a five point scale or a zones of regulation,
[00:07:52.730]it's pretty comfortable for kids,
[00:07:55.360]they're familiar with this.
[00:07:57.650]But it gives you some guidance
[00:07:58.940]for occupational therapy activities to support the student
[00:08:01.550]where they're at at that moment.
[00:08:04.240]And they have a menu of things to pick from,
[00:08:08.130]whether it's a, I need to get going,
[00:08:10.920]or get moving, or wake up,
[00:08:12.370]or I'm doing really well and I need to stay focused,
[00:08:15.210]or I've got to calm down, I've got a slow down.
[00:08:18.600]So breaks those things down, which is so helpful because,
[00:08:23.370]you know, we never have the luxury of having
[00:08:24.930]an occupational therapist available to us all the time.
[00:08:28.280]So it's been a really great tool
[00:08:30.630]to help meet some sensory needs.
[00:08:34.893]And it's been fun to teach it to the kids
[00:08:35.730]and to get familiar with it myself.
[00:08:37.930]I use it for my students, it's one of their expectations,
[00:08:41.100]and throughout the day, they have to have
[00:08:42.780]a self-selected occupational therapy activity.
[00:08:46.170]So that's where they identify what they need into something,
[00:08:49.080]and then they also have to accept appropriately
[00:08:51.780]a teacher directed occupational therapy activity.
[00:08:55.030]So part of it is accepting the teacher saying,
[00:09:00.010]I can see you're getting agitated, let's pick a calm down,
[00:09:03.110]and then we just really heavily reinforce accepting
[00:09:09.350]that suggestion.
[00:09:14.810]This is a curriculum that we've just started using
[00:09:18.490]in the last two years.
[00:09:22.120]And I have really appreciated it.
[00:09:26.300]It is set up to work like cognitive behavioral therapy,
[00:09:30.200]really focusing on how those positive thoughts
[00:09:33.530]can change our feelings and then our actions.
[00:09:37.280]It has a lot of great materials.
[00:09:40.640]And I have gotten a little tired of scripted things
[00:09:44.710]in the past, but this is scripted
[00:09:47.470]and it's kind of a relief because it's just,
[00:09:50.390]I always have something there, and ready,
[00:09:53.200]and high quality,
[00:09:56.210]whereas it's easy to get overwhelmed
[00:09:59.570]or behind when you're trying to pull things
[00:10:01.420]or make things up day by day for the students.
[00:10:05.820]So I've really enjoyed working with this program.
[00:10:13.400]If you are looking at programs,
[00:10:15.960]there are so many out there,
[00:10:18.370]so many that I've never seen an action or tried,
[00:10:24.162]but CASEL offers some really great information
[00:10:27.590]about the programs that are available.
[00:10:31.493]It will even give you information about whether
[00:10:34.275]an SEL program is recommended
[00:10:36.230]for your region of the country,
[00:10:38.340]what age groups is appropriate for, if it's evidence-based,
[00:10:42.870]it can connect you to those researchers
[00:10:46.550]and the research that's behind the programming.
[00:10:49.250]So if you're looking for something that fits well for you,
[00:10:52.830]or you've heard about something
[00:10:53.940]and you're wondering if it's a good idea,
[00:10:56.150]I really recommend looking at up here in this area.
[00:11:01.850]It's easy to kind of fall in that trap
[00:11:03.750]of somebody recommend something and go down that path
[00:11:07.000]of not using things that are evidence-based
[00:11:09.370]or research-based,
[00:11:12.406]and we have an obligation
[00:11:13.240]to have high quality things for our kids.
[00:11:20.040]Just some additional topics,
[00:11:21.410]not necessarily set from a curriculum,
[00:11:24.730]but some social skills that we feel are very important
[00:11:27.550]to be bringing into our students each day
[00:11:29.660]is a growth mindset, focusing on executive function skills.
[00:11:35.260]We teach them about flipping their lid
[00:11:38.030]and what that looks like.
[00:11:40.460]Lizard brain versus their wizard brain,
[00:11:43.100]and that kind of goes back to the study of their brain.
[00:11:46.720]The importance of sleep hygiene
[00:11:49.020]and what that can do to your body and to your moods.
[00:11:53.120]Character education, as well as the PEERs Model.
[00:11:58.805]I put the character education on there,
[00:12:02.766]and just to clarify, I feel like those are some
[00:12:04.370]of those things that we can't always quantify,
[00:12:07.480]but that will improve outcomes for our kids
[00:12:10.550]as far as their mental health
[00:12:12.120]and their success in the world.
[00:12:14.430]So in our program, we reinforce things
[00:12:17.880]like showing gratitude or engaging in a lesson.
[00:12:24.880]So we want to reinforce it,
[00:12:26.130]even though it's not necessarily a measurable quality.
[00:12:30.720]We want our kids to learn those things
[00:12:33.477]and recognize how they can really improve school
[00:12:36.510]and life by embracing those different aspects.
[00:12:41.400]And I think later on Anne will show how she incorporates
[00:12:44.380]that character education into her program.
[00:12:46.930]So we'll kind of get more in-depth
[00:12:49.579]in that a little bit later.
[00:12:52.020]So when it comes to reimbursement systems,
[00:12:54.360]we're going to show you what our level systems look like
[00:12:57.490]for behavior and what our cards kind of look like
[00:13:01.180]with each one.
[00:13:02.013]So Anne's going to start with the cards
[00:13:03.450]that she uses in her program.
[00:13:06.970]This is pretty standard version of the card
[00:13:11.040]that I've used over the years.
[00:13:14.250]Something very similar was handed to me when I started
[00:13:16.670]and I've kind of adapted it over the years to use.
[00:13:20.580]And in each time interval
[00:13:24.160]the student has an opportunity to earn either
[00:13:26.960]a plus or minus for demonstrating or not demonstrating
[00:13:31.260]what we expect.
[00:13:32.930]And then we reinforce things when they do well
[00:13:37.810]or when they meet all of their skills
[00:13:39.140]for a particular time period.
[00:13:41.890]If you look at the bottom of this one,
[00:13:44.010]we have a place where we can track their levels.
[00:13:48.330]I've added a lot of different things onto these
[00:13:50.440]that we've tracked for kids like minutes of sleeping,
[00:13:54.560]or number of profanities,
[00:13:56.330]or incidents of like touching others,
[00:13:59.500]we have some kids that have some bubble issues,
[00:14:03.684]and I found that this is a pretty easy way to track behavior
[00:14:07.710]and a pretty easy thing that I can hand off
[00:14:11.650]to just about anyone who comes to my classroom
[00:14:14.110]to monitor what's going on for me.
[00:14:21.080]So the students in our programming have access
[00:14:25.470]to a level system.
[00:14:26.620]When a student starts with us,
[00:14:28.340]they are usually on level one.
[00:14:32.300]And I think if you're setting up a level system,
[00:14:36.670]there's tons of evidence,
[00:14:37.730]there's tons of resources out there,
[00:14:39.370]but I think the big thing is every level needs
[00:14:44.350]to have elements that the kids like and enjoy,
[00:14:48.900]if you make the lowest levels
[00:14:51.010]so they don't even enjoy school anymore,
[00:14:53.600]then you create a different problem.
[00:14:57.170]So this outlines the things
[00:14:59.960]that are available to all of our students on level one,
[00:15:04.920]and some of those are pretty highly reinforcing,
[00:15:07.670]but there's still things
[00:15:08.710]that we keep available to all kids all the time.
[00:15:17.690]Level two, the big thing for our kids
[00:15:21.070]is the technology privileges.
[00:15:22.400]this one, as far as having technology for free time,
[00:15:26.320]that is hugely motivating to our students to be allowed
[00:15:30.960]to use technology for what they want,
[00:15:34.980]and with high schoolers
[00:15:37.260]to be allowed to use their own technology.
[00:15:39.320]So this has been a huge thing because kids love
[00:15:45.100]to be allowed to get their phones out.
[00:15:49.150]Monitoring phone usage
[00:15:50.630]and technology gets a little complicated,
[00:15:53.960]but not so complicated that I think it outweighs
[00:15:57.550]it as a tool for motivating kids.
[00:16:01.550]I would completely agree with you.
[00:16:03.090]I try to fight it for so long,
[00:16:08.006]and this has probably been the most successful year
[00:16:09.610]because we finally started bringing
[00:16:11.230]in those technology pieces and allowing some phone time use.
[00:16:16.510]I tried to fight it because I thought, well,
[00:16:18.380]they need social skills and that's not always happening
[00:16:22.690]with technology, but that's the whole point,
[00:16:24.610]they are on technology outside of skill school.
[00:16:27.060]And so how do we pull in social skills
[00:16:30.450]and incorporate technology?
[00:16:31.760]And so I would agree with Anne 100%, don't try to fight it,
[00:16:36.250]it is something that is a huge carrot for them,
[00:16:39.070]and they will work hard to be able to have those privileges.
[00:16:42.955]I think it's really important.
[00:16:44.864]I think another thing I've noticed is once they have it,
[00:16:47.520]they really don't like losing it,
[00:16:49.080]and so I've seen more responsibility
[00:16:52.520]than I would've predicted from our students
[00:16:55.540]because they really hate losing days
[00:16:59.265]or going back a level and not having access to their phones
[00:17:01.650]or technology for games.
[00:17:04.610]I've worked in multiple systems
[00:17:06.860]where the level one is your highest level
[00:17:11.340]and I've worked where your level three
[00:17:13.230]is your highest level, or even a level four
[00:17:15.060]is your highest level.
[00:17:17.430]I don't know that there's necessarily research behind it.
[00:17:20.290]Currently in our system, if you are a level one,
[00:17:22.580]you are a highest, 'cause you're a number one,
[00:17:25.730]just as long as it's very clear to students,
[00:17:27.960]the different levels, the different privileges,
[00:17:30.050]and the different, I don't know if expectations
[00:17:33.130]is the right thing, but the different things you can earn
[00:17:35.670]at each level is really important.
[00:17:38.660]And we go the other way.
[00:17:40.462]So level one is where you start and level five
[00:17:43.910]is where you end up.
[00:17:48.630]Level three, the big thing for the we add in for students
[00:17:53.266]at this level is traveling privileges.
[00:17:55.620]So being allowed to go out and do things in the community
[00:17:58.100]and leave the school.
[00:18:00.550]And then we also increase the expectation,
[00:18:03.680]you're not only having to meet your goal,
[00:18:05.030]you're having to meet it for consecutive days at this point,
[00:18:09.200]so that they're having to work harder
[00:18:11.270]and hold it together longer to,
[00:18:13.550]to keep moving and gaining access to other things.
[00:18:21.280]And here the students have their traveling privileges,
[00:18:24.250]but they also can use money from our token economy
[00:18:28.150]to go where they want to.
[00:18:29.350]So it's not just that they're allowed to go
[00:18:31.240]on an educational field trip
[00:18:33.190]or an outing that's planned by staff.
[00:18:34.920]They can find somewhere in the community
[00:18:37.630]that they want to go,
[00:18:39.600]and then we figure out a cost, and they pay,
[00:18:41.610]and so we arrange the transportation.
[00:18:45.250]The biggest thing is the Out-to-Eat lunch.
[00:18:48.020]Some of our kids don't even care if they ever leave campus,
[00:18:50.230]but being able to get McDonald's for lunch is huge.
[00:18:55.550]A hot ticket in our economy system as well
[00:18:59.440]is they love to be able to order, you know,
[00:19:01.360]Raising Cane's or getting McDonald's
[00:19:03.050]and be able to eat it in front of their friends.
[00:19:05.020]So that's been a good thing.
[00:19:07.974]And we go out of our way and bend over backwards
[00:19:10.940]to try and stay away from food reinforcers,
[00:19:13.930]or have a lot of different options on there.
[00:19:17.620]And that one, it's just big and it's effective,
[00:19:21.590]but it just can get a little complicated
[00:19:23.010]with mental health things sometimes.
[00:19:25.230]Yes.
[00:19:28.160]So our students,
[00:19:29.370]when they work their way through our program,
[00:19:34.289]we try to replicate what they would experience
[00:19:37.430]at their school as much as we can at our school.
[00:19:41.080]So we would call this off card and the students expect
[00:19:46.260]to go through their day maintaining their behavior
[00:19:50.010]without that constant visual
[00:19:52.750]and conversation to monitor their behavior.
[00:19:56.820]And so we do this to hopefully build their skills
[00:20:04.320]for doing what's expected without that constant feedback.
[00:20:13.870]And we do have the major consequences of being zeroed out.
[00:20:19.974]So the way I've used this in my programs
[00:20:22.410]is we take suspension and expulsion off the table,
[00:20:28.170]but being zeroed out is an alternative to that.
[00:20:33.045]And then for those major behaviors, harming someone,
[00:20:38.320]you know, assault,
[00:20:40.060]substance abuse issues, or bringing substances to school,
[00:20:43.860]drugs, or alcohol,
[00:20:46.530]and that's when you would get zeroed out
[00:20:49.440]and you don't have access really to anything at that level.
[00:20:54.440]And what I would do when a student was zeroed out
[00:20:58.700]is then have them at that level for the amount of time
[00:21:03.680]that the administrator would have suspended them.
[00:21:07.230]So if it would have been a five day suspension,
[00:21:09.270]you're zeroed out and you have no earning
[00:21:11.560]for those five days and to get off of level zero
[00:21:16.010]you have to meet your goals,
[00:21:17.800]you know, for five days,
[00:21:19.490]and then we start back at level one.
[00:21:21.944]So it's a pretty serious consequence,
[00:21:25.840]and definitely not a favorite,
[00:21:29.046]but a good alternative to being out of school.
[00:21:34.760]And it prevents kids from those who want
[00:21:39.628]to get out of school from getting a reward for bad behavior.
[00:21:43.204]So a lot of our kids don't want to be in school,
[00:21:44.820]so if they just act up enough, their hope is to get removed.
[00:21:48.560]And so that's one of the things that a level three
[00:21:50.280]that we kind of have that privilege, if you will,
[00:21:52.850]to say, sorry, we don't suspend you,
[00:21:55.307]you get to keep coming back every day.
[00:21:59.180]Yes, and unfortunately for a lot of our kids
[00:22:01.280]it's been effective for them for a long time
[00:22:03.910]by the time they land in a level three programs,
[00:22:07.420]schools just don't often have the depth to keep a,
[00:22:14.165]you know, highly disruptive student in the building.
[00:22:19.140]These are just some examples of reasons
[00:22:21.840]that students would lose days or levels.
[00:22:26.920]And so those are just consequences.
[00:22:29.584]We use our restorative justice and our community circles
[00:22:32.970]to negotiate some of this at the beginning of the year.
[00:22:35.940]So it used to be that I had a system
[00:22:39.950]and it's just what was in place, and that's what we used.
[00:22:42.890]And now we go through this with the kids
[00:22:45.760]and as a community decide on
[00:22:48.590]what things warrant losing days in the level system,
[00:22:52.000]what things weren't losing a whole level.
[00:22:56.106]And it's been really powerful to have the kids
[00:22:57.800]have a voice in that system because
[00:23:00.040]it increases their buy-in even more.
[00:23:02.730]And the way they hold each other accountable,
[00:23:11.370]Where I am at now, we are a level three placement,
[00:23:16.298]and we've only been open a few years,
[00:23:17.350]but after our first year, we had,
[00:23:22.410]let's see, four students who weren't making progress,
[00:23:26.750]we were just having kind of chronic behavioral problems,
[00:23:33.980]aggression, disruption, shutting down.
[00:23:38.270]And so that's when we started the classroom I teach in now,
[00:23:42.840]called the personalized support classroom.
[00:23:45.020]And we took away anything from the students
[00:23:49.837]that would visually indicate
[00:23:50.900]that they're not meeting their goal,
[00:23:52.340]and just try to really hit hard on reinforcing
[00:23:56.070]any positives we can.
[00:23:58.908]I've noticed sometimes,
[00:23:59.820]particularly with students on the spectrum,
[00:24:01.760]even one slash or one loss of points,
[00:24:04.300]and then they just can't handle that setback,
[00:24:09.020]they don't have the resilience
[00:24:11.490]or the processing to think through that,
[00:24:14.210]this can be okay at the end.
[00:24:16.010]So I use this honors card
[00:24:18.480]and when students do the things that we expect,
[00:24:22.770]we sign off on it.
[00:24:24.270]We keep the data for their IEP separately,
[00:24:28.580]where they don't see it,
[00:24:30.250]and this is what they have in front of them.
[00:24:33.190]So this student,
[00:24:34.110]once he combs his hair and brushes his teeth,
[00:24:36.910]he can get his hygiene routine signed off on.
[00:24:40.870]And that can be at any time of the day.
[00:24:45.010]So even though on his behavior data,
[00:24:47.560]that would be an unexpected thing
[00:24:49.725]for like the morning routine time.
[00:24:50.980]If he gets, you know,
[00:24:52.300]to 15 minutes before honor's time
[00:24:54.910]and he decides to do it, we still give him credit.
[00:24:59.260]So it's allows us to reinforce things whenever
[00:25:04.120]and wherever we can to start shaping behaviors
[00:25:07.780]for these kiddos, they just couldn't handle the setbacks.
[00:25:15.210]So I'm not going to rehash everything,
[00:25:17.340]but a lot of what Anne said,
[00:25:18.820]we also do care at Brook Valley.
[00:25:20.970]We may have given it a different name,
[00:25:24.038]or maybe we work our levels differently,
[00:25:25.120]but everyone comes in on a goal card.
[00:25:30.380]Our goal cards are tracked every 10 minutes,
[00:25:34.460]this allows us opportunities to really zoom in
[00:25:38.340]on time of day, subject that students
[00:25:42.010]are really having trouble with.
[00:25:44.190]We focus on three main categories,
[00:25:46.450]we focus on adult interactions, peer interactions,
[00:25:49.760]and classroom behaviors.
[00:25:51.850]We either mark it with a plus or we write
[00:25:55.360]a corresponding behavior number in that box that might be,
[00:26:00.210]you know, disrespectful language,
[00:26:01.700]it might be not accepting feedback, work refusal,
[00:26:05.700]procrastination, a technology violation,
[00:26:08.070]just depending on whatever the behavior might be.
[00:26:12.290]In secondary we keep our boundaries pretty tight,
[00:26:16.480]just because if they're going to transition
[00:26:18.710]back to their home school we want to make sure
[00:26:21.857]that they are fully ready,
[00:26:23.783]and because that peer component
[00:26:25.760]is a lot stronger in secondary,
[00:26:28.290]we want to make sure that they're not disrupting
[00:26:32.550]their peer relationships when they return back to school.
[00:26:35.310]So students must have a 95% or better as a weekly average
[00:26:39.690]for nine weeks to be able to move to the next level card.
[00:26:43.250]They cannot visit our safe room zero times.
[00:26:49.120]A safe room would be where
[00:26:52.376]we've had to move you to restriction,
[00:26:53.209]where we've had to take you to a safe room
[00:26:54.800]where we can shut the door to keep you safe
[00:26:57.070]or to keep others safe,
[00:26:59.270]and that they actually,
[00:27:01.570]in order to go on to our next level card,
[00:27:03.500]which is our progress card,
[00:27:04.520]they have to fill out an application
[00:27:05.980]and actually go into an interview with staff.
[00:27:08.900]We try to have them interview with a principal
[00:27:12.580]or other teachers, and those teachers
[00:27:15.210]kind of talk to them about, you know,
[00:27:16.950]what happens if you're given negative feedback?
[00:27:18.970]What might that look like if you have a bad day?
[00:27:21.800]Kind of walk through that process with them.
[00:27:24.700]Then our next level card is our progress card.
[00:27:27.760]This switches from being tracked every 10 minutes
[00:27:30.660]to actually being tracked just by the subject,
[00:27:32.640]it's a little least restrictive in terms of a behavior card.
[00:27:37.410]It's a smaller card, we still are tracking
[00:27:40.740]those three main components of adult, peer,
[00:27:42.970]and classroom behaviors.
[00:27:44.780]Rather than a plus or a number, you are given a one,
[00:27:48.870]two, or three.
[00:27:50.000]A one being you needed to be given feedback,
[00:27:52.970]and there should be some corresponding behavior numbers.
[00:27:55.800]A two, you looked just like a typical student
[00:27:58.120]would in a general classroom.
[00:28:00.030]Three, you received bonus points,
[00:28:03.300]so either you went above and beyond,
[00:28:05.540]maybe ignored other negative behavior,
[00:28:07.440]those kinds of things.
[00:28:09.980]Just like in our goal card, we total out
[00:28:12.020]and you need to receive a certain percentage.
[00:28:14.950]Our goal card is out of 90 opportunities of feedback,
[00:28:18.430]whereas our progress card,
[00:28:19.790]you're only given 54 opportunities for feedback.
[00:28:23.457]So it's a little less feedback given,
[00:28:24.640]kind of that gradual release model.
[00:28:30.450]This is kind of preparing them to start
[00:28:32.480]the transition process back to their home school.
[00:28:35.380]So once they get on that progress card,
[00:28:37.230]we start reaching out to our home districts and saying,
[00:28:41.900]hey, we maybe want to start adding a class.
[00:28:44.500]Because we're in the Metro area,
[00:28:45.880]we have a little more flexibility to be able to add classes,
[00:28:49.240]you know, one class at a time,
[00:28:51.320]two or three classes.
[00:28:52.980]Whereas I know Anne, her schools are a little further apart,
[00:28:57.250]and so that makes it a little harder to start
[00:28:58.720]that transition piece because they don't
[00:29:01.640]have that luxury of just doing one class at a time.
[00:29:05.890]Once they start transitioning,
[00:29:07.440]that goal card does go with them,
[00:29:09.210]that gives us feedback from their school.
[00:29:11.890]We transitioned with them that first couple of days
[00:29:15.150]to make sure the classroom teacher feels comfortable
[00:29:17.010]with the card, knows our expectations,
[00:29:19.750]and then we use that card to decide if it's time
[00:29:23.330]to add more classes, if we need to pull back,
[00:29:25.960]or if there's social skill components
[00:29:28.120]that we need to be working on here Brook Valley
[00:29:32.870]to continue that success of that transition piece.
[00:29:40.000]Again, kind of talked about this,
[00:29:41.890]it's a great source of data,
[00:29:43.130]it really helps to drill down,
[00:29:44.800]to help find the function of their behavior.
[00:29:47.320]And the card stays with students,
[00:29:50.560]so they are able to see all the time,
[00:29:53.160]and our kids actually get really good at math
[00:29:55.730]at figuring out, okay,
[00:29:57.330]if I missed this many more points,
[00:29:59.440]what my daily percentage would be?
[00:30:02.060]Those daily percentages then fall into our level system.
[00:30:08.570]So our level system is, like I said,
[00:30:15.260]we work a little opposite of Anne, we are a level one,
[00:30:17.510]two, and three, and then we do have a restriction.
[00:30:19.470]So level one would be your top,
[00:30:21.886]that's where you're earning a daily average
[00:30:24.950]or a weekly average of 90-100%.
[00:30:28.950]Level one's gonna have the most privileges with it.
[00:30:32.792]And at the very beginning of the year,
[00:30:33.625]this is one of the things that we set up with the kids,
[00:30:35.690]the kids help determine
[00:30:37.673]what privileges would be on our level one,
[00:30:41.830]what would be on our level two,
[00:30:43.580]what might be a level three consequence?
[00:30:46.020]And our level three looks very much like Anne's level one.
[00:30:49.320]So the kids, you know,
[00:30:50.410]eat lunch separate, they don't get to interact,
[00:30:52.720]no technology, and then different levels
[00:30:56.090]we get different things.
[00:30:57.440]Restriction means that you have been moved to the safe room,
[00:31:01.120]not for a break, but by teacher choice,
[00:31:04.326]and these are usually bigger behaviors.
[00:31:06.900]They have to earn a 90% in the recovery room
[00:31:11.460]to be able to go back out to a level three.
[00:31:15.310]Level three for us is a three day stay
[00:31:17.920]where you have to get a 90% average during those three days
[00:31:21.060]to be able to move back to a level two.
[00:31:23.460]And then a level two is a week long stay,
[00:31:25.500]and before you get to move up to level one.
[00:31:28.180]So if you're a level one and you choose
[00:31:30.670]to have big behaviors that land you
[00:31:33.820]into our restriction level,
[00:31:36.400]it's going to take you about two and a half weeks
[00:31:39.479]to really get back to where you just left off.
[00:31:40.850]And so we use that a lot with our kids
[00:31:42.840]of this 15 minute moment just cost you three weeks,
[00:31:48.560]and try to try to get them to really focus
[00:31:51.050]on the big picture, keeping those longterm goal in mind.
[00:31:57.750]When it comes to reinforcements, you know,
[00:32:01.060]at the very beginning you are doing frequent reinforcement,
[00:32:03.840]which is why our card starts at just
[00:32:05.550]that 10 minute intervals,
[00:32:06.870]you're constantly getting that feedback every 10 minutes.
[00:32:10.620]Rewards and celebrations should come out very liberally
[00:32:13.890]in the beginning, we need to keep it motivating for kids,
[00:32:17.660]allow kids to vote on the group reward,
[00:32:19.610]or the child's reward,
[00:32:20.920]or those privileges that we talked about.
[00:32:26.300]There are infinite number of visuals,
[00:32:28.750]there are so many different pieces
[00:32:31.006]that you could build in for your reinforcements.
[00:32:33.580]Here at Brook Valley,
[00:32:34.413]we have individual reinforcement systems,
[00:32:37.520]we have class reinforcement system,
[00:32:39.740]we have program reinforcement systems,
[00:32:42.530]which we'll get into in a little bit,
[00:32:44.140]but we try to come at them from every area
[00:32:47.180]to try to build in those reinforcements
[00:32:48.880]to just continue that positive feedback on their behavior.
[00:33:00.210]So here you see
[00:33:01.540]a pretty basic individual reinforcement system,
[00:33:04.670]and I've seen this be really effective in our programming,
[00:33:08.430]and also when I was in the regular resource setting,
[00:33:11.270]that you can identify something that you want
[00:33:13.460]to see the student doing, and when they do it,
[00:33:15.850]they get a punch.
[00:33:17.940]And I think the biggest thing when you're starting
[00:33:20.680]these things is to remember that frequency is a huge thing.
[00:33:23.700]If you have a kid and they haven't gotten
[00:33:24.970]a punch for the whole day, then you need to maybe reevaluate
[00:33:31.130]because you can't start improving that behavior
[00:33:33.290]until you start giving out that incentive.
[00:33:39.870]At Learning Academy, we do have a token economy
[00:33:43.914]and ours is a cash economy.
[00:33:46.910]So students have actual dollars that are given to them
[00:33:51.150]that they can use at the store
[00:33:53.230]and to pay for different privileges.
[00:33:55.960]We match the dollars to the color of their card.
[00:34:01.650]So each student is designated color and it keeps them
[00:34:04.240]from being able to steal or give money away
[00:34:10.024]so that the money they spend is money they've earned.
[00:34:19.974]We also use a token economy,
[00:34:24.125]we actually do a checkbook register,
[00:34:25.138]it's really just a Google spreadsheet
[00:34:27.980]that looked like a check register,
[00:34:31.895]but it allows us to be able to get money for things.
[00:34:34.210]So you can see we've got, you know,
[00:34:36.170]you won UNO, excuse me,
[00:34:39.470]and so there's a 50 cents,
[00:34:41.210]and then they go shopping each week
[00:34:43.550]and get to buy different things
[00:34:46.470]for different amounts of money.
[00:34:47.880]We also do vacations, and so those are bigger activities
[00:34:54.030]where they may have to save some money.
[00:34:56.910]This helps to keep, again,
[00:34:58.850]the eye on the prize, kind of that bigger incentive,
[00:35:01.300]but also help to budget their money.
[00:35:03.070]So a lot of them will say, okay,
[00:35:04.870]I need this much money,
[00:35:06.160]but I still want to buy stuff at the store,
[00:35:08.070]and what that might look like.
[00:35:10.260]We've got, for example,
[00:35:12.320]a vacation coming up at the December,
[00:35:15.160]right before break to go to Urban Air.
[00:35:19.775]And so that is something that'll cost them $25
[00:35:22.310]to be able to go, which you can see,
[00:35:23.890]they clearly have those fees available to them.
[00:35:28.320]We do Friday free time,
[00:35:30.070]and so from 12:45 to 1:30 is Friday free time.
[00:35:34.820]It's kind of their, you've done all week,
[00:35:37.740]here's what you've earned.
[00:35:38.810]We also use that as wasted time,
[00:35:41.090]so if sometime during the week students
[00:35:43.300]are doing work refusal, or procrastinating on their work,
[00:35:47.490]or sloppy, inconsistent work,
[00:35:49.710]then we'll say, okay,
[00:35:50.543]this is going to go into your waste of time.
[00:35:52.040]And that waste of time is then done
[00:35:54.440]during their Friday free time.
[00:35:55.600]And that's been a great incentive because
[00:35:57.410]while they're sitting in a separate room,
[00:35:59.340]making up work that they chose not to do during the week,
[00:36:02.500]their friends are playing video games on their computer,
[00:36:05.650]or getting phone time, or watching a movie.
[00:36:09.648]And then once their work has caught up
[00:36:10.830]or they've made up the time
[00:36:12.150]that they've wasted in the classroom,
[00:36:13.380]they can then go join Friday free time.
[00:36:15.050]So for some kids, that's like a 15 minute window,
[00:36:17.990]for other kids, they've lost their whole Friday free time.
[00:36:23.510]Kelli, do kids have to be on a certain level
[00:36:25.500]to access your vacation?
[00:36:27.310]Yes, you must be a level one or two,
[00:36:29.100]which is our top two levels,
[00:36:31.360]to be able to go on vacations, for sure.
[00:36:36.350]This is what I'm using currently
[00:36:38.760]for our group reinforcement system.
[00:36:43.629]The students I have are pretty intense
[00:36:45.870]and peer relations are difficult,
[00:36:48.740]and caring about how others are doing is also a skill
[00:36:52.970]that can be lacking for my students.
[00:36:56.688]So I actually am only using this and no tokens
[00:36:59.870]for the students that are in my portion of the programming.
[00:37:02.410]So every time you do well, you do well for everyone,
[00:37:07.930]and every time your friend does well,
[00:37:09.890]they do well for everyone too.
[00:37:11.190]So it kind of helps with our community,
[00:37:13.210]and encouragement, our culture a little bit.
[00:37:17.650]But these would be the nine core values
[00:37:20.170]or our character education.
[00:37:22.919]And these are the things that we try
[00:37:23.752]to teach the kids and model,
[00:37:26.320]but that are a little harder to measure with hard numbers.
[00:37:32.270]But when you look, you know,
[00:37:34.240]if someone is able to demonstrate perseverance or integrity,
[00:37:39.420]it's going to be easier to keep a job
[00:37:41.190]or to have healthy relationships.
[00:37:43.060]So this is where we use our bonus points,
[00:37:48.185]and when the students do these things,
[00:37:49.820]we reinforce them and we do this like crazy.
[00:37:53.850]I'd say that my students fill in one of these cards
[00:37:55.990]probably once a week.
[00:37:59.609]And as a community, we decide what things are going
[00:38:03.240]to go on the back.
[00:38:04.073]We make a whole stack of cards and they don't know
[00:38:06.320]what's going to be on the back when they fill it in.
[00:38:09.210]Fondue was an unexpected one this year, but they loved it,
[00:38:14.870]hugely motivating, and now they keep begging like,
[00:38:19.460]can we put fondue back in the pile?
[00:38:21.580]So it's funny the weird unexpected things you can find
[00:38:25.790]that are hugely reinforcing.
[00:38:28.320]Great idea, I never thought to do the surprise reward,
[00:38:31.270]that's a great idea.
[00:38:35.450]Kind of talked about this, we have all school incentives,
[00:38:38.070]so we try to build in a school-wide community piece,
[00:38:41.800]we try to do one per quarter.
[00:38:43.260]So first quarter as a school
[00:38:45.220]we went to a pumpkin patch last year.
[00:38:47.950]Some of the things we did was we had kite flying day,
[00:38:51.030]which was amazing.
[00:38:52.530]Honestly, I thought,
[00:38:54.042]oh, our kids aren't really going to get into that,
[00:38:55.430]especially the older kids, they loved it.
[00:38:58.100]A lot of these kids had never flown a kite before.
[00:39:00.560]So it was a new piece.
[00:39:01.790]We did snowman building contest,
[00:39:04.390]it was just a great time, didn't cost any money,
[00:39:08.060]but got the whole school together,
[00:39:10.850]and so they got to be part of a group,
[00:39:12.440]which a lot of these kids have often been removed
[00:39:14.640]from groups because of their behaviors.
[00:39:17.580]We do a student of the month here at Brook Valley.
[00:39:19.940]So each program does a student a month, so rotation,
[00:39:23.500]which is our secondary group,
[00:39:25.150]you know, we pick one student,
[00:39:28.199]we have elementary, we've got our life skills group.
[00:39:31.490]We talked about the quarterly vacations.
[00:39:33.170]And occasionally I like to surprise with a lunch.
[00:39:36.660]So for sample, if we've had a really rough week,
[00:39:39.780]but one day everyone gets above a 90%.
[00:39:43.024]Then that next day I will surprise them
[00:39:44.410]and buy pizza for lunch,
[00:39:47.831]but something that they aren't expecting
[00:39:48.664]so that it's not something that they are constantly saying,
[00:39:52.290]when do we get our pizza?
[00:39:56.408]So that's a lot of different information,
[00:39:57.430]a lot of different components,
[00:39:59.500]a lot of similar pieces that Anna and I both do,
[00:40:02.190]they just might've had different names
[00:40:03.830]or come from a different direction,
[00:40:05.280]but ultimately it's the same pillar of reinforcement
[00:40:10.060]and growth for our students
[00:40:13.080]through that social skills piece.
[00:40:15.240]If you have any questions,
[00:40:16.690]feel free to reach out to either one of us.
[00:40:18.620]If you would like to know more about
[00:40:20.100]what it might look like in our classroom,
[00:40:22.060]we both would be more than happy to share
[00:40:24.560]and give you some additional information.

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You Have to Build the Plane as You Fly It!: Core Components of an Evidence Based Behavior Support Program Part 2 AA

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