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Instructions for Using the Intervention Planning Form Step 1. Identify the problem situation in which the executive skill challenge presents itself. Describe what the behavior looks like and identify what task, situation, or directive is mostly like to elicit the problem behavior. Examples might be: failing to complete seatwork on time; gets in arguments with peers; hands in homework late
- r not at all; has meltdowns when the schedule changes without warning.
Step 2. Identify the executive skill or skills that might be contributing to the problem. For example, if a child gets in arguments with peers, the executive skill challenges may be emotional control or response inhibition, or both. Step 3. Determine the setting in which the behavior is most likely to occur. In other words, where, when, or under what circumstances does the behavior usually occur? To continue the example of the child who gets in arguments, they may occur in the halls between classes, in gym class, and in the cafeteria, but they’re most likely occur on the playground. Step 4. Decide what to address first. In other words, if you could select one setting or activity or change one small part of the student’s behavior that would lead you to say, “This is better,” what would that be? For example, you may decide to address arguments on the playground, since these pose a greater risk of escalating to fights. Step 5. Determine how the situation or task may be modified so the student has a greater likelihood of success. The planning form includes prompts to think about three kinds of environmental modifications that can increase the student’s likelihood of success in the problems situation. These are discussed in greater detail in chapter 5. Step 6. Identify a possible motivator that will make it easier for the child to work on changing the problem
- behavior. For instance, if the child in the argument example is able to go for five recesses in a row without arguing
in a raised voice, the class might earn an extra 15 minutes of recess on the fifth day. Other examples might include the chance to engage in a preferred activity, a daily report card home specifying accomplishments (with the possibility of earning a reward at home), or having the privilege of being a class leader for an activity.’’ Step 7. Determine the goal behavior. There are two parts to this. When we are trying to help students improve executive skills, we’re not only interested in achieving an outcome that resolves the problem, but we’re also interested in having students learn new ways of approaching the problem situation. In other words, we want to make sure that students are actively using a strategy to reach the goal behavior. Thus, we are looking to identify both a process goal and an outcome goal. With the arguing child example, the process goal might be: Student and teammates will use a dispute settlement procedure when disagreements arise during playground play. The
- utcome goal might be: Student will resolve disagreements on playground without raising voice.
Step 8. Here, you describe the step-by-step procedure that will be followed to implement the intervention. For instance, to solve the problem of the child arguing on the playground, the steps a teacher might follow are: 1) have a class discussion about how to resolve disputes on the playground (e.g., trying to resolve it amicably among themselves and if this is not possible, bringing in the playground aide to arbitrate); 2) role-play settling a dispute to practice the procedure; 3) check in with the child and his playmates just before they go out to recess to review how the game will be played and how disputes will be handled; and 4) debrief with the child right after recess to evaluate how it went; 5) have the child place a + on a desk calendar on successful days and a – on unsuccessful days; 6) review on Friday how the week went and have the child create a bar graph indicating the number of successful recess days. Step 9. Create a “visual” to show progress. This by itself can be a powerful motivator, but even when it’s paired with some other kind of tangible reward, we believe that visuals—a chart, a graph, behavior counts, daily behavior ratings (e.g., 5-point scales)—are indispensable. Behavior change is hard work and often feels amorphous or intangible to the child. Visuals make progress concrete. For the child who argues on the
