Distract, Manage, Encourage, Reward: A Behavioural Intervention for a Primary School Pupil

Authors

  • Barry Morrissey

Keywords:

Challenging Behaviour, Fidgets, Token-Economy, Peer Groups

Abstract

Catering for children with challenging behaviour is an aspect of school-life that most teachers encounter over the course of their career. This paper reports on the results of a behavioural intervention, implemented with one boy in a mainstream Second Class, in the Irish context. He had acute behavioural problems which were putting his school placement at risk. A bespoke behaviour programme – Distract, Manage, Encourage, Reward (DMER) – was designed for him in order to improve his yard-based behaviour. The results of the intervention were positive. A reduction in violent outbursts and an increase in pro-social behaviour were recorded following the programme’s implementation. The results had a constructive impact on his school experience.

References

Albrecht, S., Mathur, S., Jones, R. and Alazemi, S. (2015) A School-wide Three-tiered Program of Social Skills Intervention: Results of a Three-year Cohort Study, Education and Treatment of Children, Vol. 38(4), pp. 565-586.

Anderson, S., Bucholz, J., Hazelkorn, M. and Cooper, M. (2016) Using Narrated Literacy Based Behavioural Interventions to Decrease Episodes of Physical Aggression in Elementary Students with Disabilities, Support for Learning, Vol. 31 (2), pp. 90-103.

Bell, S., Carr, V., Denno, D., Johnson, L. and Phillips, L. (2004) Challenging Behaviour in Early Childhood Setting, Baltimore: Brookes Publishing.

Bucholz, J. and Brady, M. (2008) Teaching Positive Work Behaviour with Literacy-Based Behavioural Interventions, Teaching Exceptional Children, Vol. 41 (2), pp. 50-55.

Bulotsky-Shearer, R., Bell, E., Romero, S. and Carter, T. (2012) Preschool Interactive Peer Play Mediates Problem Behaviour and Learning for Low-Income Children, Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology, Vol. 33 (1),

pp.53-65.

Carter, E., Hughes, C., Guth, C. and Copeland, S. (2005) Factors Infuencing Social Interaction Among High School Students with Intellectual Disabilities and Their General Education Peers, American Journal on Mental Retardation, Vol. 110 (5), pp. 366-377.

Chance, P. (2006) First Course in Applied Behaviour Analysis, Long Grove: Waveland Publishing.

Cohen, L., Manion, L. and Morrison, K. (2011) Research Methods in Education (7th ed.), London: Routledge.

Downloads

Published

2022-02-14

How to Cite

Morrissey, B. (2022). Distract, Manage, Encourage, Reward: A Behavioural Intervention for a Primary School Pupil. REACH: Journal of Inclusive Education in Ireland, 32(2), 84–100. Retrieved from https://reachjournal.ie/index.php/reach/article/view/10

Issue

Vol. 32 No. 2 (2019)

Section

Articles

License

Copyright (c) 2020 REACH: Journal of Inclusive Education in Ireland

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

Copyright Notice

Authors contributing to REACH: Journal of Inclusive Education in Ireland retain the copyright of their article and at the same time agree to publish their articles under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution- NonCommercial- NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) License allowing third parties to share, copy and redistribute the material in any medium or format under the following terms:  

  • Attribution (BY): You must give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. You may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
  • NonCommercial (NC): You may not use the material for commercial purposes.
  • NoDerivatives (ND): If you remix, transform, or build upon the material, you may not distribute the modified material.

Learn more about Creative Commons  licensing.