Response covariation. The relationship between correct academic responding and problem behavior.
Teaching kids to build spelling words letter-by-letter can wipe out escape-driven aggression while their academic scores soar.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Two boys with intellectual disability kept hitting or running when spelling work got hard.
The team taught them to build each word letter-by-letter while looking at a picture of the item. They used short discrete trials and praised every correct letter.
Sessions lasted a few minutes and were run in the special-ed room.
What they found
When the boys placed the correct letters in order, their spelling scores shot up.
At the same time, escape-motivated aggression almost disappeared. Correct spelling and calm behavior rose together.
How this fits with other research
Horner-Johnson et al. (2002) saw the same drop in problem behavior, but they matched the speed of the lesson to the child’s free-play response rate instead of using spelling. Both studies show that high academic response opportunities starve off escape behaviors.
Horner (1994) also slashed escape behaviors by starting with lots of social praise and slowly adding work. Kahng et al. (1999) reached the same calm by changing the task itself—making spelling easy and successful. Different doors, same room.
Morris et al. (1990) gave students choices and cut aggression. Choice and spelling success both give the learner control, so the results line up.
Why it matters
You do not need a separate behavior plan for every hit or run. Just make the academic response easy, clear, and fast to praise. Letter-by-letter spelling is one ready-made tool. Watch the data: when correct letters climb, problem behavior usually falls on the same curve. Use that covariation as your progress marker.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
This article examined the relationship between the accuracy of academic responding and aggression for two boys with mild mental retardation. Their teacher reported low rates of correct responding and high rates of aggressive behavior during spelling instruction. A functional analysis showed that aggression was escape maintained. Following the functional analysis, participants were tested on relations between printed, photographic, and dictated stimuli corresponding to their spelling words. On pretests, they were unable to match printed words to their photographs or to their dictated names; they could neither name the printed words nor spell the photographs or dictated words. High rates of aggression were observed during the pretests. The participants then were taught the letter-by-letter construction of the appropriate words when shown photographs. On posttests, the participants correctly matched printed words to their photographs and dictated names. In addition, they correctly named printed words and spelled dictated words orally. Data showed that rates of problem behavior negatively covaried with improvements in the participants' academic responding.
Behavior modification, 1999 · doi:10.1177/0145445599233001