Our Mystery Hero! A Group Contingency Intervention for Reducing Verbally Disrespectful Behaviors

Authors

  • Melissa Jones
  • Richard T. Boon
  • Cecil Fore III
  • William N. Bender

Abstract

 A reversal (ABAB) design was used to evaluate the effectiveness of a group contingency intervention on the verbally disrespectful behaviors of seven middle school students with specific learning disabilities and attention deficit disorders (ADHD) in a special education resource classroom setting for reading instruction. During the intervention phases (B1, B2), one of the 7 students was randomly and secretly designated as the Mystery Hero  at the start of each daily session and could earn the entire class a pre-selected reward (designated as the Mystery Surprise ) if his or her verbally disrespectful behavior counts were reduced from the previous day. Behavioral expectations were modeled by the teacher and role-played by the students at the beginning of the study, and then the Mystery Hero  group contingency intervention was implemented. Results of the study suggest that the intervention was effective in decreasing the frequency of the target behavior, as a significant reduction in verbally disrespectful behaviors was noted. Limitations of the study, implications for classroom teachers, and future research questions are discussed.

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Articles