Author ORCID Identifier

https://orcid.org/0000-0001-7323-7250

Semester

Spring

Date of Graduation

2024

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Type

MS

College

Eberly College of Arts and Sciences

Department

Psychology

Committee Chair

Claire St. Peter

Committee Co-Chair

Kathryn Kestner

Committee Member

Kathleen Morrison

Abstract

When implemented well (with fidelity), behavior intervention plans (BIP) improve student outcomes. Teachers tend to implement BIPs with poor overall fidelity, but little is known about the specific errors occurring during BIP implementation or the subsequent impacts these errors have on student outcomes. One possibility is that teachers learn what strategies suppress challenging behavior and implement those strategies regardless of what is written in the formal BIP. These added intervention components, termed commission errors, have not yet been evaluated in the context of BIP implementation. The proposed studies will begin to address these gaps. During Study 1, we identified the prevalence and types of errors that three teachers made when implementing BIPs. A frequent commission error was selected for each student-teacher dyad to be assessed in Study 2. During Study 2, we manipulated the identified error to determine its impacts on student outcomes. To accomplish this aim, we compared rates of challenging behavior when the error was present or absent during implementation of the BIP by a behavior analyst, using a reversal design. Teacher’s engaged in frequent errors and one commission error enhanced efficacy of a student’s BIP.

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