Results Using the MotivAider - Project 2

We thank Trina Spencer from the Hawthorne Country School, Hawthorne, New York for offering to share these results with other educators. [e-mail Trina].

Prepared by Trina D. Spencer, MS, BCBA
ABA 2002 Poster Presentation
Hawthorne Country Day School
Hawthorne, New York

Project 2 - MotivAider Prompts Teacher to Prompt Student

An 11-year-old girl who was classified as mentally retarded had some difficulty following classroom rules. Jill had a history of leaving the classroom and assaulting peers. Before any classroom work could be accomplished, Jill had to learn to follow classroom rules.

A brief self-monitoring intervention was implemented in order to encourage Jill to observe her own behavior and evaluate her ability to follow classroom rules. Procedures included the lead teacher wearing the MotivAider and sitting with Jill as she performs a variety of preferred table-top activities. On the MotivAider's cue, the teacher asked Jill if she followed the classroom rules for the entire interval. They reviewed the rules together and Jill gave her answer. If she answered yes to all 3 rules, Jill colored the smiley face. If the answer was no, she put an X through the frowning face. Each session involved 6 back-to-back trials. If Jill earned at least 4 smiley faces in that session she was allowed to choose from a reinforcer menu. The next session began after few minutes of interacting with her choice.

When the intervention began, the MotivAider was set to vibrate on a fixed schedule of 30 seconds. Following 6 successful sessions at each interval schedule the intervals were systematically increased. After one week, the MotivAider vibrated on a variable schedule of 7 minutes and Jill was able to follow the rules continuously for almost one hour. At that point, classroom work was introduced slowly and the self-monitoring procedures were faded. Assaults and leaving the classroom were completely eliminated during the week-long intervention and the progress has been maintained for 5 months.