Using Concurrent Operant Assessments to Inform Intervention for Elementary-Aged Children Who Engage in Escape-Maintained Behavior

Abstract

Concurrent operant assessments (COAs) have the potential to evaluate shifts in students’ preferences toward non-preferred activities when different instructional modifications and reinforcer dimensions are manipulated. Crowell et al. (in prep) conducted a recent review of the COA literature in which they identified the ways COAs have been used to inform intervention, the conditions evaluated, and in what settings and by whom the resulting interventions were implemented. They found that COAs were (1) commonly used to inform a reinforcement context of an initial intervention or evaluate the effectiveness of two or more interventions, (2) primarily used to evaluate dimensions of reinforcement, and (3) resulted in interventions that were rarely implemented in the student’s typical classroom setting or by their teacher. Even with their findings, we still do not have an understanding of COA’s utility to inform both the instructional and reinforcement contexts of an intervention and the contextual fit of the resulting COA-based interventions. In this study, I conducted COAs with two elementary-aged children with escape-maintained interfering behavior to evaluate their preferences for and the effectiveness of different instructional modifications and reinforcement dimensions selected by their teachers. I successfully identified instructional modification and reinforcement dimensions that resulted in students selecting and engaging in their non-preferred tasks or contexts for almost the entire session. Following the COA, I implemented and evaluated the COA-based intervention against a business-as-usual condition using an alternating treatments design (ATD) in the students’ classroom. I observed an intervention effect, so I transferred implementation responsibilities to their teacher. Both teachers readily implemented the intervention with fidelity. Following teacher implementation, I obtained feedback on the extent to which teachers perceived the intervention as contextually fit for their classroom and valid for their students. Both teachers had positive things to say about the components of the intervention and changes in their students’ behavior. However, neither reported that they were likely to continue using the intervention. I discuss these findings and how they inform future directions for research.