A Group Contingency to Increase Walking Speed At a Residential Summer Camp
A simple group timer chart cuts transition time at camp just like it does in class.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Seven boys at a two-week sleep-away camp walked too slowly between activities.
The counselor set a group goal: the whole cabin had to beat a timer. A big chart showed each walk. Green meant they beat the timer; red meant they did not.
The plan started, stopped, started again. This proved the chart caused the change.
What they found
When the chart was on, the boys walked faster every time. When it was off, they slowed back down.
Counselors liked the plan because it took no extra staff and kept the line moving.
How this fits with other research
Pinkston et al. (2024) got adults to walk faster by letting them hear music only when their speed was high. Both studies hit the same target—walking speed—but used different tools. The music trick is newer and gives instant sound feedback; the camp chart gives visual feedback to a group.
Finney et al. (1995) used the same group-contingency rules in preschool. They boosted talking between kids with autism. Bloomfield shows the rules still work when you swap the setting and the skill.
Koegel et al. (2019) ran a social-skills camp for kids with autism and hit IEP goals in two weeks. Bloomfield adds proof that camp staff can also shape simple motor skills like walking speed with almost no training.
Why it matters
You can run this tomorrow. Pick any group transition—lunch line, recess walk, or bus loading. Set a fair time goal, post a color chart, and let the kids check themselves. No tokens, no candy, just a timer and a marker. You save minutes every day and teach self-monitoring at the same time.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
AbstractGroups of children often transition between activity spaces in both academic and recreational settings. In schools, children may be asked to walk as a group between the classroom and spaces such as a cafeteria and playground whereas summer camps similarly use different spaces for separate activities throughout a scheduled day. Interdependent group contingencies have previously addressed school-based transitions (e.g., timely transitions game); however, limited research has applied similar interventions to recreational settings such as summer camps. An ABAB design was used to evaluate an interdependent group contingency with visual feedback to increase walking speed between activities across one group of seven 10- to 11-year-old boys at a residential summer camp. The results showed that the intervention was effective to increase the average speed walking, in feet per second, for the group of boys. Further, there were high rates of intervention fidelity, and acceptability among camp counselors.
Journal of Behavioral Education, 2023 · doi:10.1007/s10864-022-09467-4