Rick's+Interview

= = I did my interview with my sister who works at the Margaret Murphy Center in Auburn. That is all I will say about that because she does a much better job of explaining the school and what she does than I ever could, and yes, she does sound like a textbook.

 Some things to know about our program before I begin.  1. MMCC works primarily with students with developmental delays, and autism. My school in Lewiston is for children from ages 13-21. However, we have a location in Auburn for pre-school and elementary students, a location in Auburn for elementary functional life students, a location in Monmouth for pre-schoolers, and a location in a lewiston public elementary school to integrate special needs students and regular ed. 2. Our program is based on the principals of Applied Behavioral Analysis: “Behavior analysis is a scientific approach to understanding behavior and how it is affected by the environment. // Behavior // refers to all kinds of actions and skills (not just misbehavior), and // environment // includes all sorts of physical and social events that might change or be changed by one's behavior. The science of behavior analysis focuses on principles (that is, general laws) about how behavior works, or how learning takes place. For example, one principle of behavior analysis is positive reinforcement: When a behavior is followed by something that is valued (a reward), that behavior is likely to be repeated. Through decades of research, the field of behavior analysis has developed many techniques for increasing useful behaviors and reducing those that may be harmful or that interfere with learning. Applied behavior analysis (ABA) is the use of those techniques and principles to address socially important problems, and to bring about meaningful behavior change.” margaretmurphycenter.com 3. 1:1 Staffing with Educational Technician III including systematic instruction, participation in on-going Functional Behavior Assessment, Functional Communication Training, Social Skills Training, and overall IEP implementation with corresponding comprehensive data collection and analysis. Data is taken on students' behavior every 15 minutes.  4. Individualized Academic, Social, Behavioral, Communication, Adaptive behavior (self help, social skills, communication, daily living, recreational, functional life skills) and community-based programming. These are all over seen by a certified Special Education Teacher with a case load of no more than eight students. 5. Positive Behavioral Support methodologies are used to increase appropriate pro-social behavior and to simultaneously decrease maladaptive interfering behaviors. The effectiveness of a Positive Behavioral Support Plan reflects the extent to which the plan a) is based on the results of Functional Behavior Assessments, b) is consistent with fundamental principals of behavior and learning theory, c) is a good conceptual “fit” with the values, resources, and skills of the providers in the setting, and d) includes on-going objective evaluation to determine the effectiveness of interventions. student has an individual Positive Behavior Support Plan(PBSP). 6. All services are provided by employees of MMCC including Occupational Therapy, Speech and Language Services, Social Work, and Internal Case Management. 7. We also have three master leveled/doctoral psychologist on staff who create and over see the implementation of the PBSP. All of this drastically impacts how I would handle any of the scenarios. It would be important to keep these things in mind as you read my answers. If something above did not make sense and you need clarification please let me know.

These four questions are very similar for me so I am going to write an answer for all four. When dealing with any student behavior that interferes with their ability to participate appropriately within society it would be important to look at the function of the behavior as well as how you contribute to the likelihood of the behavior happening. All behaviors(good or bad) have a function, people don't do things just to do them, the behavior fills a need. Typically behavior is motivated by either the need to decrease the amount of stimulus in an environment or increase the amount of stimulus. What? :-) Okay, so, behavior is motivated by a stimulant. Something prompts a behavior (good or bad), it just doesn't happen. I eat (behavior) because I am hungry (internal stimulant), but I eat a bagel but I saw a D and D sign (external stimulant). I filled the need for food, but I was prompted to do so, by stimulants. How does this apply to student behavior? As a teacher it would be my responsibility to determine the needs of the student that are currently not being filled. We are talking about children here, so they have to be taught the appropriate way to meet their needs. I would have to determine the function of the behavior in order to plan a course of action to hep the student find more appropriate ways to meet these needs. If a student is talking while I'm talking, or passing notes then the need not being met could be one for increased external stimulus in the form of attention. The function of the above behavior is to gain that attention. Therefore, using the principals of ABA and positive reinforcement I would ignore all interfering behavior (bad), and praise the student when they are on task and acting “appropriately.” By providing the reinforcement for the desired behavior I have effectively put the interfering behavior on extinction. This means that the students need for attention is no longer being met by the interfering behavior, however, it is now being met through the more socially appropriate behavior. While there is typically an short increase in the interfering behavior, most students will quickly pick up on the fact that the old behavior is no longer filling the need, and will switch to the one that is. If a student is walking around the room, refusing to participating in work activities, and being hostile then a possible cause is the need for a decrease of stimulus through the behavior of escape/avoidance of task. If this is the case then it would be important to ensure that the reinforcement being provided to the student is of a high enough quality and often enough to keep them engaged. This could mean that for every answer the student provides (right or wrong, doesn't matter, reinforcement is for behavior not academics) they receive an m+m or that for every answer they receive a lego to complete a project, or a for every answer they get a token, and when the token board is full they get a playstation break. The reinforcement must be matched to the student, and switched often so that the student can does not become tired of it........there are so many m+ms one person can eat, right? If it is determined that the student does not have a problem with work, but rather with the teacher then positive reinforcement is even more important. The teacher would want to pair themselves with as much genuine positive reinforcement as possible. Play a game with the student, share their breaks, ask them about their weekends, remember what they tell you, have fun with them. Students with developmental disabilities and particularly autism live in a world that does not always recognize other people. These children need to see their teacher as the doorway to good things, fun, happiness and what they like, not the bringer of doom, gloom, and work. Unfortunately, there are times when the relationship is so damaged that it can not be repaired, in which case a change in placement or teacher should be considered. It should be noted that at no point throughout this explanation is it the child's fault, or is a child considered just a bad seed. Most children in my program have been taught that interfering behavior works. Screaming worked when I was a baby, why stop, it always got me what I wanted so why fix what isn't broken. It is only by being taught an alternative form of communication that is affective and created around the students individual ability that the interfering behavior will stop. 
 * 1. If a student was doing some minor annoyance like talking while you were talking, passing notes, littering. **
 * 2. If a student was performing an escalating thing like walking around the room talking to people, and ignoring you. **
 * 3. If a student chronically refused to do any class work, homework, etc. **
 * 4. If a student was constantly being disrespectful or hostile to you. **

The answer for this is much like the one above. Find the function of the behavior. However, as our students are never left alone, the likely hood of something like this actually happening is very rare. There have been incidents where two students will begin to disagree about something, and it is at this point that a teacher would step in to help mediate a resolution to the issue. A lot of modeling is done here is appropriate adult relationships, conflict resolution, and discussion. When an issue arises the students are walked through the steps of talking about what happened, how they feel, what they wished had happened, and what should happen now. We also utilize teaching tools like social stories, and scripts to provide appropriate language to students to help them deal with bullying, arguments, and aggressive thoughts. We focus on preemptive measures, and pre teaching opportunities.
 * 5. If two students got into a verbal argument. **
 * 6. If two students got into a physical fight. **
 * 7. If a student was bullying other kids around. **